Hi all,

 

New to the Polo scene but have had my Lupo 'Lester' for 2 years now and fancied a change.

 

A mk2f breadie popped up on Facebook about a week back and when I went to view it I decided I wanted it. 

 

Here she is

 

Anyway she's been off the road for a year, in a damp garage with a mattress leaning up her and is in need of a bit of love.

 

Engine knocks like there's no tomorrow but sills and arches are solid with no major bodywork issues. 

 

If anyone has any advice regarding the AAU motors (and what other engines fit in place of one), it would be much appreciated. 

 

Thanks, Tom :)

 

 

 

Looks clean enough in that picture. Hopefully it doesn't cause you too many issues.

 

The AAU engine are pretty bullet proof in these, but if yours has had it then replacements are easy to come by for not much money. Swapping to a 1.3 AAV would be a straight swap, literally bolt in, plug and play. 

You could always do a slightly more drastic GT or G40 engine swap, again pretty much bolt in, plug and play. But with both of those the wiring in the engine bay would need to be swapped over. Not a hard task but can get a bit complicated if you are not sure what you're doing.

Thanks, it is in pretty good nick for the age to be fair to it.

 

Going to have the sump off and take a look at the crank, if it's worth changing the big end bearings in situ I will, but if the crank is dead it'll be a new engine.

 

The AAV is tempting, will that mate up to my 4 speed box? 

Yup will bolt on to the 4 speed gearbox just fine. 

Managed to get the big end bearings changed in this last night. This of course also meant a full oil change & new filter for the car.

 

Here are the old bearings;

They've worn down right to the bronze on two cylinders, but was confused as to how this level of wear could cause such bad knocking!

 

The crank was no worse, and can't feel any scoring with a fingertip on either the bearings or the journals. I was expecting far worse than this from the noise it was making. 

 

Anyhow, the knocking has gone and she actually runs pretty damn sweet now. Very tappety, but even that went quiet for five minutes while she was running in the shop. Amazing what fresh oil can do....

 

Next jobs are CV gaiter nsl, needs new arb bushes as they are pretty far gone, and the interior was damp when i got it. I've dried it out but need to see if there is a way water is getting in, or if it was just because the windows were left open in a damp garage. May try the smoke machine trick Edd China used on a DB7.

 

After that, think an MOT is worth a shot! Even if just to find out what else is wrong with it 

 

-Tom

might be worth putting a oil pressure gauge on it to see whats going on ?    was there sludge in the sump to suggest neglect?    guesiing you cleaned the oil pick up strainer too?

Pressure light was on before, isn't now, so i'm pretty happy that it's building up good pressure, but if I was going to drive it lots I would probably fit a gauge.

 

And there was sludge, but it was such a tiny amount (a fine layer on the bottom of the sump). I cleaned it off so nothing can get into the nice fresh oil.

 

Caught it just in time to save it I think. (I hope)

Looks lovely!  Sounds like you have sorted loads!

Looks like a good solid base to work on! Im too looking into an engine swap but pretty clueless at the moment 

Thanks for the positive comments! Had her valeted yesterday and got all the stickers off. It's sooo clean inside, the dash is black instead of mould coloured! (The valets were not impressed).

 

Edd China's smoke machine trick worked a treat - door seals are great and there are no places for water to get in, so it was just damp from the garage. It's all dry now so i'm hoping the smell will go away.

 

Managed to free the brakes off and amazingly she stops well (only managed to try from about 10mph though in a private yard). Brake reservoir cap is gorilla glued as that had snapped.

 

Got an MOT booked Tuesday, lets see what she fails on. I reckon she'll fail on arb bushes, cv gaiter, and for some reason the hazard switch only works on the left side (unless I also put the right indicator on, which works fine?). Little things though in the grand scheme of it all.

 

Not going to sort it before it goes in though, it could come back with a very long list of more important things. Fingers crossed though...

Pre-MOT went better than I was expecting. 

 

Tiny bit of welding on the rear sill, can't get a panel so will have to fabricate one. Had a try last night but the guys at work had left ally wire in the welder, stumping both dad and myself! (I am enlisting his welding skills)

 

It needs some rear flexi hoses for the brakes.

 

And the handbrake cable over the rear axle hangs down when it's off for some reason? Not sure if this is normal, but it doesn't look it. I've attached a photo if anyone has any advice. I can't see anything for it to feed through either.

 

One of the rear brake adjusters seems to be sticking, but after faffing around with it for a while I think it's freed off. Fingers crossed.

 

Also needs 3 new tyres, but the steels that were on it are actually Vauxhall ones, much to my annoyance when I tried to take them off and had to use a hammer as the centers on VW wheels are a fraction larger diameter.

 

Front shocks are in need of replacement, but after fitting my Lupo's banded steels as a 'temporary' replacement for the dodgy Vauxhall ones, I kinda want to lower the front and leave the wheels on. If anyone in Brum has cheap front springs&shocks, or coilies, PM me and i'll probably have them off you 

 

The engine's rattle has come back, but fortunately a lad in Telford was selling his 1.0l bare, plus a gearbox (and clutch!) for 20 quid, as he had swapped it out for a 1.4. Bargain! Hopefully will find time to fit it before I have to go back to uni in Brighton on the 25th. 

 

And then theres the ARB bushes i'm going to replace because I reckon they'll fall out completely in the next 100 miles or so, plus the CV boot that needs doing.

 

So it's a nice long list for me to be getting on with. Welding, Hoses, Handbrake Cable, Shocks, Bushes, CV Boot and a whole Engine and Gearbox to go in. All in a week?

 

Cheers, Tom.

 

Hi all, just a short update (I hope)

 

My old man has welded up the rear sill for me while i'm at uni (he says I owe him cause he burned himself doing it :P)

I'll get this painted properly in due course.

 

Fuel tank decided it wanted to leave puddles in the workshop so that has been replaced too.

 

Managed to sort the handbrake cable - just wanted some adjustment on the nut by the handbrake lever.

 

Rear flexi hoses are fitted, along with some new sections of fixed pipe as the unions were buggered.

 

And I have managed to sort the existing engine out, saving the cost of fitting the replacement (gaskets etc are not cheap). Swapped the cam and tappets out for the ones in the replacement engine. You can see that the original tappets were absolutely shagged. Cam was fine though, but I still fitted the newish one so they all match up. Runs sweet! I now have a spare engine, albeit with rattly tappets in it.

The tappet on the left is obviously an old one..

 

Plan is to get it MOTd this week, so wish her luck!

 

Cheers, Tom.