Builds Moonshine - A Build Thread (5 Viewers)

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Johnny that accident looks pretty serious .. at least at pics judging from DS doors damage .. sick she had no mayor injuries which is fantastic .. sure ..
 
Sucks about the Jetta, but glad Laura is OK

Johnny that accident looks pretty serious .. at least at pics judging from DS doors damage .. sick she had no mayor injuries which is fantastic .. sure ..

Thanks guys. There was a ~2500# car trailer that became detached from the towing vehicle, which came across traffic and hit the Jetta. I'm grateful that she's OK, but she was in a solid little car :D We'll be buying another, newer, Jetta to replace this one.

The HAM radio set up looks nice and clean.

Thank you sir! It certainly works well.
 
solid indeed .. those door bars held like champs ..

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Wow very glad laura is ok.
 
solid indeed .. those door bars held like champs

Yes sir they did. Amazing how a 3000# car can stand up like that to a ~2500# trailer.

Wow very glad laura is ok.

Me too brother.

Glad to hear she is ok :) hope all is well

Everything certainly is, thank you :D Laura's elbow is healing up and we've got a new Jetta already! Now that this is behind us (save insurance claim) I hope to get some maintenance done on Moonshine. She's been rode hard and put away wet!

2003 Jetta 1.8t (gas) 5-speed. Wanted one with low(er) miles, so I couldn't afford a TDI. All MKIV TDIs are selling in this area for $7-8k below 180k miles. The $4-5k TDIs have somewhere north of 250k miles. I picked this car up with 163k miles (138k on the motor) for $3600.

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Thanks to Ramon (mtweller on IH8MUD) for letting me borrow his truck and trailer to pick this beauty up!!
 
Thanks to Ramon (mtweller on IH8MUD) for letting me borrow his truck and trailer to pick this beauty up!!

just curious .. why you don't drive it ..?
 
just curious .. why you don't drive it ..?

So the car was 1.5 hours away from my house and I had to be out there in the middle of the day, so I didn't want to ask someone to ride out with me in one car, then drive the Jetta back.

I drove the Jetta to work today and will drive around a bit more to get a feel for her before I hand the key over to Laura :D I just filled her up with fuel and she's ready to rock! ~60 miles on the trip odometer already.
 
Looks like a good TDI swap candidate :p

And the wheels begin turning (pun intended) :D

I've told myself I'm going to leave this car alone. We'll see how that goes ;)
 
And the wheels begin turning (pun intended) :D

I've told myself I'm going to leave this car alone. We'll see how that goes ;)

I have the body style that came after yours, the 2.0T. Make sure you replace the ignition coils, they are known to fail and ruin the catalytic converter. I'm doing mine right now.
 
Here what was causing cylinder number 4 to misfire in my VW.

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Just replaced the coils and the spark plugs with some Denso products. Just make sure to check it, it's an easy fix.

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TDI swap fixes that issue ;p

That is true, I love my diesel land cruiser, but I also love the speed of my vw and once that bug bites Johnny, he'll love it too.
 
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I have the body style that came after yours, the 2.0T. Make sure you replace the ignition coils, they are known to fail and ruin the catalytic converter. I'm doing mine right now.

Here what was causing cylinder number 4 to misfire in my VW.

Just replaced the coils and the spark plugs with some Denso products. Just make sure to check it, it's an easy fix.

Thanks for the heads up brother! The check is just to pull them out and see if the boot is split?

TDI swap fixes that issue ;p

That is true, I love my diesel land cruiser, but I also love the speed of my vw and once that bug bites Johnny, he'll love it too.

The thing is that this Jetta is Laura's car. She loves how fast it is, but I bet that a slightly turned up TDI would move that car just as fast as this 1.8T, don't you think?

I can buy a 1.9 TDI from GEX and have just about the entire motor assembly I need:

http://www.gex.com/vw-jetta-engines.htm


Gosh, that Jetta doesn't have a sunroof does it?

Yes sir it does :grinpimp:
 
Sorry to hear about Laura. On the other hand, killer rig. Nice work, cool transmission setup ;) . Havent been here in a while and WHAT a change to this 60.


dan
 
Sorry to hear about Laura. On the other hand, killer rig. Nice work, cool transmission setup ;) . Havent been here in a while and WHAT a change to this 60.


dan

Hey Dan, you found it!!

There was a ton of discussion on what I was gonna select for a transmission. Make sure to let me know if you have any other questions about your new setup :D
 
After doing a bunch of research, I decided to pick up a different turbo. Steve (threetowcow on 4BTSwaps) has had a really good experience with a Borg Warner S2E variant on his 4BT, so I found a used, but supposedly good, one for $300 shipped off of ebay. A short week later it was on my workbench.

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So I pulled it apart to take a look. Found no evidence of turbine or compressor wheel impact and a bit more axial play than I was expecting, but I reindexed the turbo and put it together.

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Then I pulled apart the truck to get my HX30w off. If you've been following closely, this HX30w has a 12cm2 housing, which is a little big for this motor, causing boost lag. This S2E should be much better.

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Got the turbo on:

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Idled her in the driveway for a couple of minutes and found no leaks, so took her up to the gas station to put air in a tire that was a little low and test out the turbo. Well, got around the corner, then rolled into the throttle, saw boost come up to 8 or so, then a loud screeching sound and boost stopped completely. :mad: No more spool-up from the turbo, just zero boost. :mad: Stopped to check for leaks and found none, so I went to turn around. When I turned around, the damn low tire decided it didn't want to be part of the team anymore and did this. :mad:

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I changed out the tire and parked her in the driveway. I was too pissed to do anything else.

Game plan is as follows:

1. Take off intake and see if turbo still spins freely.
2. If above is a yes, then pull the oil feed line and put it in a bottle to see if oil supply is still good. Don't see why it wouldn't be since the HX was just fine, but it's something to check.
3. If above are both yes, then pull the crossover tube off of the turbo and idle the motor for a while to verify that there is oil going through the turbo.
4. If all above are yes and check out, go for a spin and see if the turbo works. If not, call up ebay dick and get a refund, then reinstall my HX.
 
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