Model: 1990 Mk2 Coupe (s)

Engine: 83k 1272cc 2G unit Fully rebuilt 1391cc ABD, balanced bottom end, CR raised, ported and polised head, Kent Cams cam, 2G inlet, Weber DMTL carburettor, K&N rudebox, Facet fuel pump, 8P gearbox

Suspension: PhilJ 40/40 lowering kit, G-laderseite Nylon anti-roll bar bushings PPS subframe and Wishbone Conversion SUBFRAME IS NOW SOLD, Koni Adjustable Dampers, Eibach 40mm Springs, supersport lowering top caps

Brakes: VWII calipers, 239 brembo MAX disks, pagid TQ? pads Vauxhall 256mm Brake Conversion

Wheels and Tyres: MK2 Golf 14" steels with paint, 185 55 14 Firestones 13" GT Steels, 175/60 R13 Firestones BMW Bottletop 14x6 ET36, 185 50 R14 Continental Contisports

Exterior Styling: front grille badge painted alpine white, red-stripe grille, PPS sticker

Interior Styling: Coupe S door cards, Gt seats split folding rear bench, colour coded glovebox and clock surround, Coupe S wheel black carpets, G40 wheel.

ICE: Alpine 9870 headunit, Apple 30GB video ipod, some speakers?

Security: no-alarm, Functional door locks, a loving owner

Comments: after owning 2 1043 mk2 breadvans i thought it was time to get something worth owning, it might be old, it might be slow but i love it. would like to thank Nick0323 for selling me the car!! Quinny for sorting my a load of shit out, PhilJ for the springs and caps, PeteG40 for the calipers, this list will probably grow as i spend more cash.

bit confused over what spec the car rolled out of the factory, sticker in the boot says CL, V5 says coupe S, old V5 just says coupe, car didnt originally come with any normal coupe S bits, no rev counter, no bolstered seats, no S badge, only the steering wheel, hockenheims, adjustable mirrors, sliding roof, bit of a mystery i guess, i'm 90% of the way to making it a coupe S but its not the same.

OLD Plans for the car

• 3F engine and box to run on the DMTL. 3F? ABD
• port matched GK inlet manifold
• bit of weight loss (me and the car)
• get the car rolling roaded to sort the fuelling
• 14" golf driver steels/mk3 equivalent
• Weber DCOE 40's + 4 Branch exhaust manifold (money?)
• 60/40 HnR kit OR PPS coilovers and Koni Adjustable front shocks (money?)
• colour coded wing mirrors
• GT/G40 rear beam with integral anti roll bar OR droplinked ARB
• lose some of the Horrible dents that have accumulated over the past 18 years

as i bought the car

nice sunny day

front needs to be lower i think

Weber goodness

old brakes

new brakes, by the way, it didnt take me all day to do as the light shows, this was taken at a later date :-D

will keep updated with pictures and random adventures with the car

Enjoy

Edited 2 April, 201214 yr by polopete

got the car booked in for a rolling road session on friday, a few jetting issues to iron out on the carb.

first tank of fuel was gobbled away at an average of 22mpg halfway through the second i changed the primary jet from 120-F30-170 to a 115-F22-175 which has leaned it right off, engine runs alot sweeter, doesnt bogg down at all and raised the fue consumption to 28mpg. i'm hoping on a full tank with fair driving and the bare minimum choke usage i can make 35mpg, petrol prices are ridiculous no?

also went for a "fair drive" on sunday

PhilJ Shocks are very stiff (very, very).

At a later date, get something more upmarket and it'll be much better.

Also pleased to see standard lights back on

Yay! I'd swap my Lupo Sport for it any day. :-D

Not really but I'd probably kill you for one last drive.

It was a well functioning car for its age to be honest with a young...well, re-built engine.

It rolled out as a Polo Coupe Parade although Dan's one had a glass sunroof (hate). Difference between the Parade and the S was that the S had a rev counter and GT seats I think. I threw in the rev counter without ruining the original mileage, some nice rear seats and you've got GT seats at the front I presume now so it is technically an S.

I hope you keep up your efforts in looking after it. Where did that chrome strip on the front bumper go?

-Nick-

Looking good, nice spec list.

And Dannys right about the PhilJ shocks lol I've put up with it for almost a year tho its not so good over speed bumps

the ride quality is definately an aquired taste, i've got used to it a bit now, understeers like a pig in the wet tho.

nick that bumper never really sat straight, i straightened the rear one ok, but couldnt work out what was bent on the front one, i swapped it with the one off my breadvan, its still not perfect but a little better. also i wasn't loving the chrome strip too much. i found the key for the alarm the other day in that webcon box, shame the alarm got ripped out months ago.

had the car set up on a rolling road today, pretty pleased with the result considering the only the carburettor has been changed

The thicker black line is how i left the building, grey line is how it was after the basic idle mixture adjustment.

summary:

Maximum power speed 5498rpm (68mph in 3rd)

Power at flywheel (corrected) 67.7Bhp

Power at flywheel (pwr wheels+power loss) 66Bhp

Power at wheels 55Bhp

Power loss calculated 11bhp

Maximum torque speed 3881rpm (48mph in 3rd)

Maximum engine torque (corrected) 76 lb/ft

Maximum road speed reached in test 74mph

Maximum engine speed reached in test 5983rpm

ambient temprature?? 22 degrees C

Barometric pressure?? 990 mb

the figures were obtained without the airbox, with the airbox it dropped by about 3bhp! the guy also changed the jets in the carb to the figures below and stuck about 2-3degrees of advance on the dizzy along with adjusting the idle mixture and speed. money well spent in my opinion.

Primary

idle: 45

Main: 115

emulsion: F22

Air: 170

Secondary

Idle: 70

main 115

emulsion: F30

Air 185

where the car used to bogg down because of how rich the jets were it now runs alot sweeter and hopefully a damsight more economical. maybe i should invest in some better tyres, :biggrin:

Edited 14 November, 200817 yr by polopete

Nice result! DMTL's are definitely better than DMTR's at the top of the rev range - it's apparent on many cars by now, like narrow lane's for example.

I wonder if there's much to give on mine with a rolling road tune. Too late now, DCOE's are nearly go.

whatever you do its definately worth having some one that knows what they are doing on hand to get the best out of the carb(s). theres a noticeable difference in the way the car drives after the guy advanced my timing, feels alot perkier. still keeping my eyes peeled for a GK manifold.

is now doing 33mpg, and that is the same tank of fuel that it was rolling roaded on. before the rolling road it was doing 22-25. pretty horrendous.

with better weather and sensible driving 35mpg seems approachable.

not alot happens in 3 months, i say not alot, nothing significant.

first of all i did this

threw away these

replaced these

bought one of these

and

and

pulled some strings for one of these

3 angles dont you know

did a bit of this

sold my BBS, got given these, smaller tyres to come, dog piss weather.

at the moment the is engine totally stripped and having surgery to its crankshaft, flywheel, pistons+rods and block, its a 1391 abd, theres a kent cams camshaft in the post, engine will have a complete rebuild of all gaskets and bearings, the head has been extensively worked, along with the GK manifold and will run on my dmtl carb. going on narrow lane's example and the word of my engineer i'm hoping to see it make 95bhp+

there will be a PPS subframe at somestage along with some smaller tyres, undecided on whether to move away from the dmtl and dig out the twin 40's my dad has been hiding from me. i'm hoping to be re assembling the engine by the end of this month and fitting the bastard by early to mid august.

good things come to those who wait apparently.

Edited 14 November, 200817 yr by polopete

What have you done to my ex g/f!? You stripped her to bits!

95bhp in a car that you can pick up with two fingers will give you a very nice power to weight ratio.

Guess I need a remap otherwise I won't be keeping up with you!

in the last 2 months engine wise bugger all has happened really which is quite disappointing, the guy that is supposed to be grinding me a camshaft must be the busiest man alive. the blocks been painted, sumps been painted, rocker cover has been powdercoated, acquired a few more bits here and there. painted the steel wheels, got smaller tyres, coated the car in shit, steamed it off, oh and fitted a PPS wishbone conversion ready for the new engine.

the worst part is cleaning afterwards

underneath too

in the powder coating oven

modifed escort arms

ally rocker cover and other bits

i'm not going to go on about why i bought PPS one as opposed to a PPP one, the simple factor was money! and from my perspective the service was significantly better anyway, i went to see the guy at beginning of the month to get my name down on the list, went back on monday 8th for a trial fit of the frame before it was powder coated, the necessary alterations were made, and we fitted it to the car this morning, had i not had the option to have a trial fit of the frame, i would have had problems, mainly down to the shape of my car and the big exhaust box right after the downpipe. today however it went on in 2 hours from driving onto his ramp to driving off with tracking and castor adjustments. the frame is made from CDS and every nut, bolt and washer is stainless, plated or painted and provided in the price.

worth every penny in my opinion.

quick question for those with subframes at the moment, whats your wheelbase? haynes book of lies says 2335 as standard, mines now 2350 and lowered 40mm giving a bit more than standard, i'll play around with it to see if theres a noticeable difference, just wanted some other number.

Edited 26 December, 200817 yr by polopete

look what santa bought me,

that isnt strictly true, i bought it about 6months ago and between me and my brother we have done the work.

this is the old one

that came out without much sweat

filthy engine bay, was steam cleaned, forgot to take picture afterwards

also steamed and degreased the gearbox, again no after pictures

new engine meets car

engine in

new ones of these

only the fuel pump to wire in, odds and sods to tidy up, then the timing and rolling road in early Jan. Very happy

Spec is as follows

50k ABD engine, rebuilt with new main bearings, big end bearings, big end bolts, all bottom end gaskets and seals, we left the original thrusts.

Balanced crank, rods, pistons, flywheel, heck even the clutch diaphragm got balanced, flywheel had the back machined to make it lighter.

Pistons and block have been decked by 45 thou, with pockets put in the pistons, to raise the compression ratio.

Head has been ported+polished, 3 angle valve seats cut into the head, then the head was skimmed to remove any drop in the CR.

Camshaft has been reprofiled by Kent Cams, exact specs i dont know, was a bit of an experiment, if its no good i'll go for a cam ground from a billet, Kent Cams valve springs and Vernier pulley too.

until the funds allow it'll stay with the standard exhaust manifold, and a DMTL/GK manifold combination. eventually a 4branch and DCOE 40's will make the most of the headwork. using a Facet 4-4.5psi fuel pump, that will be wired in tomorrow, run through a swirl pot with a return.

all going well, i'll be at the RR day in January and making 95+bhp.

a few at it stands.

Good stuff mate, It'll be worth a visit to aldon just to see what sort of numbers you get. :)

looking good mate

you mention stainless fastners on the subframe...i thought that was a bad move as they're not high tensile?

the bolts them selves are just galvanised then painted, the only stainless bits are the spacers for the rod ends and the washers, the rod ends are hard chrome plated. booking the rolling road for ext week sometime, got to rack up a few more miles yet, 393 so far, then a fresh oil and filter.

hows the engine feel so far? massive gains or nothing special?

i've been on strict orders not to go above 4000rpm or the 2nd choke of the weber. just taking it easy and keeping it sweet, while the rings bed in. even with that you notice the lighter flywheel and longer stroke, throttle response is pretty sharp. considering i'm running on the jets i had in the 1272 and with some "fairly accurate" timing its going pretty well. i dont know why they didn't use the ABD in the first place.

One of the best mk2's on here, saw your last gallery post but never got round to posting. All business underneath without all that bling or ratty scene tax that always seems to get all the long threads.

I've only really done a G40 brake upgrade to mine along with weber.

I'm hoping to get a GK for my DMTR and something more breathable in the exhaust department. Would love to do to do the rolling road too (get correct jets in there). Respect for all the other extra porting etc.

How's it going now with a few miles on those rings?

today was judgement day, went to the same rolling road as last time as the guy there knows his Weber carbs better than he knows his children. there isnt going to be any chance for tuning at Aldon later this month, so i got it tuned before hand.

overall i'm happy with how then engines come out, the torque is much better than previous and the light flywheel makes for a responsive nippy little car. there is a little more to come in terms of figures as the addition of a 4branch and sidedraught carbs are on the cards, but as it is i'm happy. underneath the car is good, on top is a slightly different story, bodywork isnt special.

Here's the graphs from the rolling road

these two show the difference between a GK manifold and an MH, 3bhp and a loss of 7lb/ft

common belief is that bigger is better, well in this case its not. the darker lines are the MH inlet WITH a hedgehog, look at where the torque with the MH drops below the GK plot. its about 5300rpm, how often am i above that? rarely. with wilder cams, that bring the power band up higher, the GK will be better, cams of 260degrees like this one make a better engine on the road. sacrificing the 3bhp to gain 7lb/ft is a sensible option IMO. similarly this is half the reason why i haven't make a final decision on what carbs i'll use, i think twin 40's even choked down to 30mm will still be a bit big for a 1.4. the air velocity going past the venturi's is what gives the engine its torque. if i go bike carbs it'll be carbs from a 400cc bike with venturi's hopefully around 27-30mm. what i'm saying seems to go against whats generally concieved as correct, the same goes for exhausts too, large bore will up the power but kill the torque unless its paired to a suitable camshaft.

in terms of jetting for the DMTL we kept the same as last time it was rolling roaded, it was a little rich last time, just right now.

this weather plays havoc with keeping the car clean

good stuff would ahve thaught you would have gaind more power(bhp than that)

still bet itsa nippy little car though

hi dude did u use the original polo brake hose when you put them calipers on ?

yep, original carriers too.

its still a 27% increase in power, with only a 9% increase in CC compared to the MH, with the same intake and exhaust setup. i'll admit i'd rather be the other side of 90bhp tho. lots of power and keeping the car reliable and driveable dont really go hand in hand, especially with carbs. a wilder cam and the GK inlet will give it more power but reduce the low down driveability torque. theres no substitute for CC.

my theories on torque and power balance will be settled come the rolling road day, comparing different setups and figures. atleast i know what to expect.

Hows this going?