# Yep... another mk 2 1.8t swap...but naturally aspirated?



## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

Here goes nothing... Hey guys! :wave: I thought i'd start a forum on my project cause after reading a couple other forums, I plan on doing some things a little differently. I am new on vortex, and I don't claim to be an expert but this is all about just sharing ideas and hopefully someone can learn something (I know I'm learning!)

I know there is a ton of these mk2 - 1.8 swap forums out there, but I will do my best to cut to the chase. I am a little ways into the project, but I didn't want to post this until now cause i'm slow! LOL  I hope to have a new post every month to keep anyone whose interested updated. The car is nothing special, 89 jetta, 1.8 digifant, auto, air, power steering, cruise. 









For those who don't want to read for months and months just to wait and see how I did it all, here's a general idea of how i'd like to run it... if you see something you want more info on, then tune in when I get there! otherwise I don't want to bog you guys down with TMI!!

-mk 2 cluster
-mk 2 steering column and rack
-DBC with mk 2 gas and brake pedals but a mk 4 clutch pedal - (ya, that's kinda interesting... stay tuned for that one if u want)
-mk 3 cable style shifter box
-standalone ecu
-no a/c, no p/s
-mk 3 axles and steering knuckles. - I think that covers most of the basics...

And yes, I'm going to try to run this thing naturally aspirated  just for s** n giggles LOL! Please don't judge too much lol! I know N/A i.8t's are available in Europe I think... I just like things simple. you know, a clean engine bay with no boost ducting, etc. This car is my daily driver and I don't really care about going too fast, and hopefully I don't have to worry about blowing anything up with boost levels... knock on wood.:facepalm: I just want it to breathe a bit better, in a straight line if I can. Simple. Air goes in, air goes out… have a nice day lol. Also, this is for guys who want to do their project on a bit of a budget. I am hoping to only spend 5 or 6 grand, I know... good luck with that :what: (I did get a few things for free) Also, I have to start with a HUGE shout out and thanks to David from EAA, I swear you are the bestest! And to all the guys at SEM motorsports in Toronto, you're awesome! I also have a stupid question, since I'm new on vortex: Um, I don't want to clog up the forums and this is mostly just so my friends who aren't on vortex can keep updated on my project, so If you think I should rather just do a blog style on my profile just let me know, and I can delete this and do that.


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

I started My project with the transmission. It's an EHA code out of like an 03 GTI. I've never taken one apart before, so luckily I got my hands on a 2 litre tranny that my buddy Kev at work was scrapping. (Thanks man!) So For sure I took that one apart first to practise! I needed a few parts from it anyway, like the 100mm axle flanges, etc. Even though I'm not going for big HP I still wanted an LSD (Hope it helps in the snow) I went with a quaife QDF10R and the ARP bolt kit for it. Overall, It wasn't too hard to take apart and install. My old man works at a vw dealer so he printed me off the service procedure which was a big help. and if you can get your hands on another tranny that someone's scrapping, I would totally recommend that! As far as special tools, I just used a 2 jaw puller to pull 5th gear off and the diff bearings. Also I used a press for the dumb rivets that hold the ring gear on the diff. For those, I found a pretty sweet way to remove them rather than drilling and drilling :thumbup:. I wish I had taken more pics but basically I took a grinder with a cutoff disk and cut the heads off the rivets on the back side (opposite ring gear) (cause it wont matter that you cut a bit into the diff as you're replacing it anyway!) Then I put it in the press and pressed them all out one at a time with a 10mm bolt with a pointy tip to push on them, and 2 sockets underneath to support the ring gear. I wish I took more pics but you'll see what I mean - like I say a scrap one to practise on is primo! :thumbup: 









Assembling the LSD is pretty easy. After you tap the studs in place, just warm up the bearings and Rin gear in the oven and they’ll tap on the diff no problem. (o ya – be sure to mark which side of the ring gear faces the diff!) As for the tranny mount bracket, I just called the dealer and ordered a new one (part # 357 199 353A) - Big thanks to all the guys on the other forums who figured that one out for me!:thumbup:And just to beef it up, I found a piece of steel at work that was a foot pedal that we never use for one of our stands. It looked kind of close, so I just drilled a few holes and bent it, etc. and made my own extra support bracket on the side.


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## rstolz (Jun 16, 2009)

you're fine posting here, 

but why not just use a 2.0 motor, something designed for NA? you'll end up with a lot fewer things to do, and probably be happier with the result. 

Some of thsoe 1.8T's with a turbo only push 130hp, an NA motor may not crack 100.


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## bonesaw (Aug 8, 2004)

i love the idea of this project. my fun car is a high compression ITBd NA 20v. My two cents is really evaluate what you want the car for and what are your goals. It will definitely be less common, but running it relatively stock will most likely end up with same power as say a 16v but cost you alot more money.


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

Ya, It doesn't have to have much HP but those 2 litres are only 8 valves though, and I like the 20 valves just to help breathe! :thumbup: And bonesaw, that's Awesome! Thanks for the encouragement, and im sure your car's awesome! my original dream was to put ITB's on this thing too but I thought it was going to be too expensive, so I just figured I'd cheap out and just throw a stock intake on it with a MAF housing and a cone filter and away you go - but then I found an intake from SEM made for passats. I liked it cause the air goes in a more straight line so I bought that - $ - but then sourcing out an 80 mm DBC TB after the fact was also huge $, so you get it, one thing led to another and in the end I probabally should have gone ITB's :facepalm: anyway, live and learn. 

And I was also thinking of going high compression too but that was gonna be kinda $ - and most of the kits I found for the 1.8's lower the compression for the turbo... also, since its an interference engine I figured that the valves and pistons were close enough so I just slapped it together w/ stock internals. So I do have a few regrets, but this is kind of a "good enough for the girls I go with" project lol Thanks guys!


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## bonesaw (Aug 8, 2004)

Be glad to see another all motor 20v. Let me know if you have any more questions. Wossner makes 12.3:1 pistons for both 2.0 and 1.8. you could easily have some 10:1 or 11:1 pistons made.


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

Next up was to get going on the engine, so I drove out to Toronto to visit Michael and all the guys at the source (VW graveyard in Toronto) for an AWP engine. They had one stripped down that had no manifolds etc. and a bit of water got in one of the intake ports and down the cylinder. They gave me a good deal on it, and I figured it was good enough for the girls I go with so we threw it into the trunk of my vw and I nursed it home! That was kinda fun lol. I’m glad the old engine hauled the new one home without breaking down!









So I cleaned off the engine and yanked the head and took the valves out and shipped it out to my man Steve Ruston – here’s his link for more info - http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...able-cylinder-head-porting-W0QQAdIdZ454221282
I’d definatley recommend him to anyone as he did a great job and kept me posted with emails and pictures as he went.


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

I built a pretty sweet wooden platform and threw some casters on it to put the engine/trans on so I could wheel it around. you can kinda see it in the pics... it works great! 

Next I went to drain the oil and… a whole bunch of water came gushing out... O no!!! That was the one thing they warned me about when I bought the engine cause that car was in an accident and the intake cracked and some water got down the cylinders (mostly #1) You can see in this picture the water rusted that one piston pretty bad but it cleaned up good.








That definatley concerns me, I hope I don't have a problem when its all back together.
This was kinda the deciding point to do like a complete overhaul… it was pretty tempting but I’m cheap lol so I just cleaned it up as best I could and continued on. So I flipped it upside down and yanked the pan. The crank and Rods all looked ok. Thank goodness. I threw a new oil pump pickup tube on, and a pan from a 2 litre to eliminate the turbo return line. 








Then I flipped the engine back upright.
Next was bolting up the clutch. I got most of my parts from Auto Camping and went with their SACHS one piece flywheel upgrade kit. Yes, here again I probally should have gotten a performance one from like 034 or eurospec or whatever but hopefully the sachs one will stand up to the HP of that N/A powerplant! (Not) Lol… This is definatley a budget build… meh.
For the secondary Air block off I actually used the upper flange from the turbo oil return line and welded it shut lol. I had to elongate the holes though.








Then I bolted up the tranny and the starter motor. Ok: As for the front mount bracket here’s what I did: (not sure of the part # for that bracket but i’m sure its out of a mk 2/3 car with a manual trans. – my automatic one was completley different). I wanted to use 12mm bolts instead of 10mm, but I didn’t really want to drill the threads out of the engine block… that just wouldn’t feel right. So I ordered 2 starter bolts for an 06 jetta 2.5 manual trans, cause they are longer. Then you just basically bolt up the starter to the mk 4 1.8 engine like normal, and then you take the mount bracket and shave the two captive nuts off it and drill out the holes to fit the bigger bolts… then I just slid it over the long starter bolts protruding out the other side and put 2 nuts on the back side to hold it on! Kinda hard to explain but hope the pics help. That seemed to work pretty good for me. We'll see how it holds up and maybe its a good idea for someone else to use too  You can see in the pic that I welded extra 10mm nuts to the bracket where that extra hole on the tranny sticks out so I could put another bolt for extra support.


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

To eliminate the power steering, I bought a delete loop from EAA Engineering.








Since the waterpump is driven by the timing belt internally, and with no A/C, All you need is an alternator! This is where you shouldn’t do what I did. I miguivered my own alt. Adjusting brackets… do yourself a favour and log onto http://www.eaaengineering.com/serpentine-belt-conversion-kits-pulleys/ and just order David’s wicked Denso alt. setup. Mine lines up pretty good but it was just so much work that it’s well worth the extra $ to buy that Denso one.








I got my head back from Steve and worked on cleaning it all, lapping all the valves, tapping in the new valve seals, and assembling the springs/keepers. It was a bit tedious, but once you get rolling its not so bad. Then I poured varsol in the ports and thank goodness it looks like they’re all sealing. Hope there’s no problems when I fire it up knock on wood again…
Then onto installing the head, lifters, cams (just stock cams) and threw the timing belt and valve cover on. (I feel like an idiot cause I forgot to check if the little oil screen was plugged for the variable valve timing solenoid) crap… o well, its all together now. Just don’t make my mistake! It feels pretty good to have the engine together, but there’s still so much more work to do.








Onto yanking out the old engine and tranny


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## jbdubn (Feb 3, 2009)

Looks good! Nice unique project. :thumbup:


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

Sooo... then I cleaned all the grime from the engine bay and got lazy and only painted the rusty spots. (Yes I should have painted the whole bay)








Next was on to yanking out the dash so I would have more room to work on the clutch pedal. While I was at it I converted my old huge heaterbox with air conditioning to one w/out a/c... it's way smaller! like a breath of fresh air 








Apparently it’s easier to install a hydraulic clutch pedal assy. From a passat, but they’re kind of hard to find, so I wanted to try rigging up a mk 4 clutch pedal into my mk 2! So off to the scrapyard I went and I yanked a pedal assembly from a mk 4. Well, when I got home and first held it up to the brake pedal, it stuck way further out! It looked pretty goofy, so back to brainstorming… I got an idea to move the pedal pivot further forward in it’s bracket and re-locate the Master cylinder on the outside of the firewall. (mk 4 is inside firewall) You’ll see on the pedal bracket another existing hole in front of the original pivot hole. That’s what I used as the new pivot point, you just have to drill it out so that the 8mm bolt fits.








Next just hold the pedal up to the brake pedal and eyeball where you want everything to sit and make your marks on the firewall for the 3 holes and the hole for the master cyl. I didn’t have a hole saw so I just used a 1 +1/4 spade bit for boring wood  – It actually drilled through the firewall pretty good lol! And 1+1/4 is perfect for the master to slide into.








I had to trim the bottom piece of the bracket so that the pedal could bottom more to push the push rod further.








Then after you bolt it up, It’s just a matter of getting the spacing right for the master cylinder. You’ll see what I mean… as long as it bottom’s you’re good. Just clip the rod into the pedal and have a helper push the pedal all the way to the floor and hold it. Then while you stand on the outside of the firewall, push the master till it bottoms and eyeball what spacers you’ll need. It’s really just trial and error. It is annoying having to keep clipping and unclipping the rod from the pedal while you try out different spacers. Then I welded the bolts to the bracket so they will be studs sticking through the firewall. I also cut this part of the bracket off:








O ya, I also had to grind down some of the plastic from the pedal up top so It would clear the bracket:








Then I just hooked up a spring that felt like it had the right tension like this: (I know it’s not set up like an over centering spring, but hopefully it does the trick and the pedal doesn’t feel funny)








You'll see in that above picture how I welded the bolts to the bracket so that they're studs. Also you can see the one collar I used as a spacer for the two bolts that go through the master. (Ovcourse the master goes in between the collar and nut, further away from the firewall)... And there you have it. I hope this all makes sense... It’s kinda hard to explain, but that’s the jist of it. Hope the pictures help. So I would recommend just try to find the passat one, but this seemed to work out ok for me. It still doesn’t line up perfectly with the brake pedal, so If I could do it again I would probably drill the pivot hole a little further forward and just shave down the back of the plastic pedal so it bottoms out more. It was basically trial and error but at least Ive shown it is possible to use a mk 4 one in a mk 2 with some mickey mouse fabricating  Ha ha I was also a hack and just used a cutoff wheel to trim the big automatic brake pedal and had a smaller cover for it


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

I put together the front suspension... nothing special just the mk3 2-litre brake upgrade and some KONI strt. shocks (yes I cut one coil off my stock springs and painted them lol) They seem to sit in the bottom perch ok-ish lol... wel see how low it sits when im done. I don't want to go very low.








Then I worked on taking my time to go through the mk 2 wiring and identify what wires were what and I was able to cut out a lot of unnecessary ones for air conditioning, etc
Then I was able to get my hands on a used wiring harness from a 1.8t so I worked on removing anything unnecessary from it since Im not running a turbo, mechanical speedometer etc. The VEMS computer arrived too








I bought an intake from SEM motorsports in Toronto for a Passat because I liked how the air went in a straighter line and I was able to find a huge Mopar 80mm throttle body which was really expensive but im an idiot cause its made by bbk so I should have just gotten it through them. So I worked on making up the wiring harness for the engine.





















then I installed the engine and tranny. Because the intake sits up so high I decided to go with the hockey puck front mount with two hockey pucks so it lowers the front down a bit... please don't judge lol. Another thing that helped me get some space up front is I realised that the back engine mount bracket was longer from a mk2 automatic. so thank goodness I happened to have a manual one so I used that. It gave me at least another inch that the engine sat back a bit further. that was awesome cuz I just kinda stumbled on it by chance and held them up to eachother and was like oh that's AWESOME!







I had to make a couple of changes that I should tell about just because some earlier pictures show certain parts I had to remove. I am not running an oil cooler anymore because the two hockey pucks drop the front down so the filter wont fit lol. Also instead of using a green ECT I used a black one from a mk3 2 .0 ABA I do believe. Another thing was I had to go with mk2 axles because the mk3 ones are a little longer. So I am getting there slowly but surely.


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## zaskar (Jan 17, 2000)

Where are you going to put the front rad & fans, it's gonna be neer to imposible with the intake/tb config, talking of tb, It's way too big. folowing !!!


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## Barney_ZA (Jul 21, 2012)

awesome build sir

love the pedal assembly


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## bonesaw (Aug 8, 2004)

I used cxracing 3 Row for a civic del sol


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## platinumdub-18t (Jul 1, 2008)

sorry if i missed it in the thread, but you should consider buying a european 1.8NA camshaft set --- they run a 20v 1.8 over there (no turblow) and the cams are a proper NA set. You will find that this will likely feel like a sluggish aba engine with the stock turbo cams. it will work just fine all day long for years, but for the price of a used set of cams, it would be a nice-to-have thing for sure.

PS that intake manifold is pretty boss. odd choice, but it will certainly look the part! is a surprising amount of space for manifolds in a 1.8t mk2 -- i have a full-length AEB 1.8t intake manifold with a massive driver's-side-exit plenum and there is still a few inches left in front of it to the rad supports.


RE: no oil cooler.... you mad. just get an ebay oil filter relocation kit ($80). Will let you mount your cooler, plus put your filter in an easy to reach location  oh and it might be better for your bearings too


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

Hey guys I know its been a while since I posted... the last few months have been kinda crazy lol. And thanks for even reading this u guys are awesome. its really not that good of a build haha honestly its becoming such a learning experience for me. I have a few regrets already like there was just soooo many things i would do, and then a few days later someone would say why didn't u do it this way... or hey my supplier has that part for half the price etc etc. But yes the pedals did turn out pretty good that's one thing I am happy about.









About the cams I think I might get a pair down the road, and the rad yes you guys are totally right. I should have used a civic rad but I had already bought a new mk2 one so I literally made brackets and miguivered it in on an anlge :facepalmmg its so bad. the whole front area where the rad support, rad, and throttle body are is soooo tight they just barely fit. It's just I spent so much money on that intake and TB I'm so stubborn to make them fit... oh lordy its terrible. honestly when the engine flexes somethings gonna rub for sure. - wel see how it goes if the thing ever runs. right now Im dealing with no spark. (Im running a VEMS but am clueless what pins to hook up the coil triggers to... its getting frustrating) And yes the oil cooler is gone, I'm old school and the old mk2's didn't have them and they seemed just fine so I dunno. I probabally should get that relocate kit down the road. right now its crunch time to get it running and finish the bodywork so I can send it for paint.

ok so I think where I left off was next to install the engine and tranny. bolted the mounts down and the only trouble I had was the front mount didn't want to line up perfect so I just used a hammer and bent it a bit lol
then I hooked up the shifter cables. my shifterbox is a mk3 cable style and the bracket bolted on the tranny no problem its just the one rod didn't line up so I had to cut it and weld in a piece like this








it still doesn't line up perfect but its very close. then I hooked up the hydraulic clutch line and my old man helped me bleed it out so shes all good. the pedal feels a little stiff so eventually when my leg gets tired im sure I will change the spring I used to a smaller one lol. I ended up using a mk4 brake reservoir (it fit on the mk2 master cylinder no problem:thumbup so now I have the hose feeding the clutch.









Ok so since i'm trying to run my mk2 dash what I did is the mk4 plastic speed sensor I unthreaded the sensor off the top and luckily it's the same thread as my mk2 automatic speedo cable end. All I did is cut the cable that sticks out shorter until it penetrated enough and threaded on... and all I did was jam some silicone on the cable and hopefully it is enough to drive the cable lol. hopefully it even works and we'll see how accurate it is:sly: So I threw the axles in and that's the tranny all hooked up.

I think I will just knock off some quick things and next time post about the intake and exhaust etc. Fuel lines are hooked up and I pumped in some fresh gas









For the PCV I used a k&n 1" air filter and it fit perfect over the stock mk4 breather pipe if you chop it short (take plastic piece off the end) and I have the valve cover end properly hhoked up to the intake with a valve in line.









vacuum hose for brake booster with small hose going to VEMS









As for the coolant hoses, I know guys like to have part numbers of what ones fit perfect but honestly my project turned out to be a hack anyway so I literally just went through my hose bin at work and found random ones that fit ok and cut them :facepalm:


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## Kevin Tebay (Jul 29, 2012)

Hey! Ok its been a while again... just been so busy lol. First i should say that i kinda got fed up with the VEMS (i cant figure out why i dont have spark and it was getting frustrating) So i temporarily gave up on it and what i ended up doing was scrapping a 2.0 AEG bug and you'll laugh cuz I swiped the wiring harness, ECM, dash cluster, (w key in there so the immobiliser wouldnt act up)-- and I literally dangled it all in the passengers floor and stuffed the wiring harness through the firewall and just laid it over my existing harness and bolted the coil on the valve cover, hooked up power n ground etc etc--- and she fired right up no problem yeah i know its not pretty but hey at least it runs so they dont have to push it around at the bodyshop right. This projects taking forever but I am getting there.:facepalm: like after the bodyworks done it can go for the cat-back exhaust and then i will give the car to the guy who sold me the VEMS and just say here please u figure it out and i will just pay him whatever it costs, right. No worries:thumbup:i try to stay positive








Then I dont think i mentioned my exhaust at all yet. I worked on making my own headers LOL. Got the head flange and collector pipes from 034 Motorsport, and just got 1.5" 45degree steel bends from a plumbing supply store and took my time and welded it all up and got a ceramic coating done on it. Oh Lordy :facepalm: I hope it doesnt crack...








For an air filter i made two set-ups, the main one for everyday driving is a silicone hose 90degree elbow that turns into a 3" pipe with another bit of a bend in it and a K&N cone filter jammed on it. I built a little sheet metal shield for it too (rain splash protection lol) so it sits behind the RF headlight. The air filter thats just for fun i made out of a cavalier airbox:what: i chopped it up-- its really bad actually and it plugs on the TB flat right behind the grille so the air goes straight  its hilarious.







So im still plugging away, next ive gotta start going hardcore with the bodywork if I hope to have this car back on the road by spring:thumbup:


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