Ah, its time to relax.

Anyone who can tell me what 90's album starts off with that can have a prize!

We'll were mid October somwear, Nationals was just about a month ago. If I've learnt one thing a few times is its better to take a break rather than have to. Weather its because your burnt out, or mentally you cant stand the sport anymore. When I got home from Moncton I decided to take a few weeks holiday from training and enjoy some social time for a change.  What it turned into was three weeks of solid work, working on my car, other little projects and some more work.

As one may recal in the summer had a situation where on the island my car decided to be a miss pissy pants and had to do my best to get it home without paying a tow truck driver. It didnt take long after getting it home to fix most of it but it kept getting deeper. This is where most people would throw in the towel and buy a new car. Not me, I love this car, Ive bled in it, I brought it back from the grave. And its still cheaper than car payments on a newer one! So eat it! In the weeks leading into Nationals I started to notice that the engine was running a touch warmer than it usually did. I knew it ran cooler than it should but cars dont just all of a sudden run warm because they want too. The intital chapters were basicly the initial repairs and fixes needed to determin if it was somthing catistrophic like a bad head gasket, or if it was just somthing quick. This is the story of Jamie's break from training and racing 2012.

Chapter 1 "Choclate pudding with a hint of green"

An engine that doesn't come up to temperature means the inside of your car is always cold.  Not so bad in the summer, but in the winter its horrible. Last year I had a 30-40 minit commute to work, and an hour or more too and from the track in a car that produced no hot air unless I was stuck in traffic long enough. It also means you're not getting the fuel economy you could be. I assumed my thermostat or T stat as I call it for short was stuck open. When they fail, their suppost to fail open so you dont over heat your engine and destroy it. When the engine started to run hot I knew somthing bad could have happened. They dont just start to work again. The first night was the messiest by far. Lift the car a foot and a half off the floor, get a big ass drain pan, buy some powder dish detergent and 3 gallons of distilled water. Pop the lower rad hose and the result was a disgusting, smelly mess of runny choclate pudding, with a touch of green antifreeze in it. It was like a swamp. I popped the lower feed hose from the block into the pump and even more disgusting swampy mess poured out all over me, the pan and the floor. Estimated I must have run 40 gallons of water thru the engine and another 20 thru the rad to flush as much junk out as possible. While it was all apart I made my plan of attack for 2 days later to get at the T stat. With it all clean of junk I proceeded to refil everything only to add a cup of cascade into the water before sealing it up. I was told this would help clean the nasty mess out. Go for a quick drive, park for the night. Top up coolant bottle with more water next morning. Good Night!

Chapter 2. "I smell like a dishwasher"

With the car been driving around and sat for a few days with a brew of detergant and water in the cooling system it was now time to get to the worst of it. It would appear in my car that the location of the waterpump and T stat housing is in a great spot in the origional engine specifacation. But wait, its now the 90's! Lets put powersteering on the car too! Where shall we put it? How about right in the way of the T stat! The first task was to remove the power steering pump, It took me at least 30 extra minits to find a hidden bolt that goes thru the water pump bracket itself. This car came close to not having power steering ever again. Once I had the power steering pump slid off to the side it was time to find my thirsty friend the drain bucket and get ready to make a mess. Laying under a car isnt so bad. When its wet its less desirable, when you know your're about to get soaked its the worst. I popped the lower rad hose and made minimal mess. The water was not clean but not swamp dirt like before. Now on to the fun, 2 bolts hold the T stat housing in. 2 bolts come out with no issue but no fluid came out. Oh I see, the T stat is just stuck into the water pump housing. Just as I reach up to touch it to gently break it loose it drops strait into the bucket, and about 2 gallons of dish water smelling brown yuck poured out all over the floor, some in the bucket, and the majority on me. FML.
With it all apart I spent at least an hour with the hose flushing clean water thru the block, heatcore and rad to rinse any soap and debris out. This was starting to get old, real fast. I pulled my old T stat out of the messy water to see what the hell its problem was. Low and behold it had been stuck open before, but I could see it had been moving recently. So perhaps I wasnt over heating, just coming up to temp. Wierd eh? What pissed me off tho was the fact that some dummy at somepoint put the wrong one in the car. VW calls for a 92 degree T stat, this ensures cabin heat and engine temp. The old one, was an 80. With the new one and its o-ring re installed into the housing and all the hoses re connected at the bottom it was time to once again......can you guess?...... re fill it with water. "Rinse Cycle" as Gordon Reddy called it. Filled it, started it, burped it, went for a drive to really burp it and then parked it. The next day I did the same, drove it out and around and made sure the fan came on a couple of times to ensure the T stat was opening and flushing properly. Time to park it and not work deal with water for a day.

Chapter 3: "how the hell"

How the hell did my car have the origional O2 sensor in it still? A healthy O2 is vital to engine fueling and emissions. It was un real how plugged it was. So far its been the easiest repair yet. Buy a new one, put it in, throw old one out, road test. The car definatly has some more umph and idles a touch better but it still stumbles a bit intermetantly. Back to the brainstorm boards. Even after repairing a connection to the computers temperature sensor for the engine it was still not quite right.

Chapter 4: "blue stuff, not green"

In my research I discoverd I had made a mistake once in topping up my coolant years ago. But it was purly based on what coolant was already in the car. Digifant equipped VW engines were the first ones to spec and use G11 coolant witch isnt your regular prestone green stuff. G11 is designed to be compatible with several differant grades of aluminum, steel and plastic in use in one engine. When mixed with green stuff it starts to turn to pudding. Great, I found another bone heads mistake! Tonight I got to do what I was getting really good at, removing the lower rad hose and block outlett hose and then flush everything again and again untill it was clear as bottled water. This is now really old. The joy tonight was installed a brand new coolant expansion tank, one that I could see thru since the old one had been pudding-ed. Got it installed, hooked up. Hoses re conected at the bottom, Filled the rad with my 50/50 mix of G11 blue and more distilled water, filled the head and block, then topped up the resivoir. Squished all the hoses a bunch, started it up and let it idle with the cap off while it bled out a bit. Topped it off, capped it and went for a drove. And wouldnt you know it, by the end of the drive I had heat again, and the more the heat core bled air out, the more heat I got!  So much win!

Chapter 5: "Are serious? How Thanksgiving is that"

Thanksgiving was spent in White Rock at a family friends house. OK maybe they arent friends of the family technically to be they are family. Stayed over night as being a responsible person I decided to leave the car parked after a few Whiskeys. I drove hom Sunday, parked for 15 minits while I showerd and got ready for work. On my way back to the car I noticed a small puddle underneath. You have got to be kidding. Im leaking?!? This car never leaks! Get back from work, clean it all off, start it to get it hot and start looking. Yep, my water pump is leaking. If you had asked me before I spent days flushing, cleaning and renewing my cooling system if I had considered the water pump I would have told you yes. I know dam well that somtimes gunk and dirt is what's keeping things from leaking. But like I said earlier, I didnt want to jump and replace a ton of stuff only to find out the head gasket is shot, or I have a cracked block. Onwards and upwards. Tuesday morning I phoned my pals again at PG preformance to order a water pump. Being smarter than the average bear I knew 2 things. First if I get a pump with the housing its far easier to remove 4 bolts off the front of the engine, than it is to remove 9 on the side in a very tight place. I also knew that in changeing that I would probably spring a leak at the next weak point so I orderd both coolant flanges that mount to the head with fresh O rings. Today was a big day seperated in two chapters.

Chapter 6: "do it all again"

As the title states, do it all again. Lift car, remove powersteering pump, remove water pump belt, remove altenator and its belt, remove timing belt cover, find large thirsty drain pan, disconect T stat housing, get most of the coolant into drain pain. Hard work done, Undo 4 bolts that havent been touched in 21 years and presto! I have removed a bunk water pump. Next: remove hoses from coolant flanges, unplug sensors. Un do bolts, remove flanges, swap sensors and dummy plugs, loctite bolts and re install new flanges. Reinstall most the hoses, the rest will follow from experience. Clean surface of block for new pump. Reinstall T stat, O ring and T stat housing into water pump housing, re install new pump, with the pully swapped onto block and torque accordingly. Re conect lower rad hose, block circulation hose, coolant outlet from heat core and start filling. Re install altenator, belt, power steering pump now with the hidden, secret bolt that isnt so secret anymore, its belt, tension both accordingly, adjust tension of timing belt while Im there. Take a deep breath, a swig of coffee....... start filling system with new coolant again. Burp it manually, top up, start car, idle it to burp, jam screw drive in throttle to keep the revs up around 2000 untill fan comes on an off a few times. Shut off, check for leaks and let it sit untill we can open up the resivoir and top it up again.

Chapter 7: "Yes, STOP"

With the repairs for the day done it was time to do the first upgrade to the car in ages. Last fall I new it was time for brake pads. A man just knows. I drove over to Canadian tire and just bought pads and shoes to fit what I had. They didnt have the rotors I wanted so I was set to go somewear elese to get them in that week. Not long after my friend Doug said I should buy pads for vented rotors and then buy vented rotors in the same size. The stopping power would be the same but I would get less heat fade and the rotors would last longer. I liked this idea. Marie at work sudgested her boyfriend at the time could hook me up with what I needed, and basicly I would just sell the pads I bought, or stock em in my parts collection. A parts collection I call "useless parts on a rainy day". So that was that. In the two weeks it took to get the parts in I had to put pads in. It was metal on metal. Do or die. So they went in regardless of what I had on order. Eventually my stuff arrived. YAY! It was late in fall and I had no ambition of working outside in the cold so I put them in a box to wait untill I moved into a place with a warm garage. March rolls by, and I decided its time to put the new stuff on the car. Only to find out that the rotors I got were much bigger than actually fits the car. I was not  a happy camper! With a bit of reading and measuring I found out the pads he got me were right, but he had got me rotors for a Mk3 Jetta, not a Mk2. Dam. I was going to sell them, but then looked into doing a Mk3 10.1" brake swap and what it would take to do. Over the course of summer I collected the bits as I had time or they popped up for sale. Mk3 brakes wont fit a Mk2 steering assembly. Without being to tech about it they just wont fit, so I needed to find Mk3 steering knuckles. Found a used set complete with calipers, carriers, rotors and new bearings for $50. Score! The rotors and pads were junk so they met the dumpster. There was nothing wrong with the OE calipers on the knuckles but I wanted to up the cool factor a bit. I sold them off for $20 and traded bike work for a set of new Girling 54 calipers that fit onto the carriers that fit the knuckles. Bigger pistons mean you need a bigger master cylinder, otherwise the pedal goes further than it should. Mk3 Jetta's had ABS witch ment I couldnt just order a master cylinder to fit one of them, I eventually found that Mk2 GTI 16 valve cars and Passat 16valve cars had the bigger master I needed and would work with my non ABS brakes. PG Preformance got on in for me along with new brake hoses. The day I got my car rolling 2 weeks ago, pre leaking, now fixed I had PG get me new ball joints for the steering assembly and some good high preformance brake pads that wernt race specific. I also treated myself to a pressure bleeder to make life easier. NEW TOOLS ARE FUN OK! So once the new pump was one and cooling system done it was time to get some new brakes on!

One may assume its easy, undo a few bolts, put new stuff on, bleed and your done. Really it is that easy, but its time consuming. Espessialy with 21 year old bolts. First we had to loosen the bearing nut with the car on the ground. Lift it, yank the wheels off and start spraying penitrating lube on everything. While Doug pre assembled my new ball joints into my donor knuckles  I fully removed the bearing nut and keeper, undid the tie rod end witch wasnt easy today, removed the ball joint bolts from the lower control arm, removed both strut bolts and then hoped the brake hose on the hardline would break free without a fight. Once all that was done a massive chunk of old assembly slid off the car and into a corner of the garage. Slide the new assembly into the lower control arm, connect the tie rod end and get it tight, witch was also not an easy feat today, slide the axle back thru the hub, attach both strut bolts and get the bearing nut as tight as it would go by hand. Installed new brake hose with calipers already mounted, opened a bleeder and let it free flow thru another hose into a coffee grind jar to catch all the old fluid out of the master. Mount the rotor, The carrier, drop the pads in with some special anti bonding grease Doug had, then pop the caliper ontop. Couple bolts later its all on. Side A done, onto Side B witch was exactly the same. With the brakes on the car it was time for the pain in the ass part. The lines came off the stock master cylinder without a fight but for whatever reason it didnt want to come out of the booster without some serious fight. Once it was out Doug had the new bigger one already bench bled and ready to put in. Pop it in, fasten it down, get the line fitting finger tight, swap over my old resivoir and fill the thing to the top. The trick with a master is to only tighten the fittings in once they start to drip fluid. Once that was all done it was time to play with the new pressure bleeder.

In the old days you would lay under the car while somone pumped the pedal a bunch. They would hold it and you would quickly open a bleeder then shut it. You would do this untill no air came out. A pressure bleeder is in no way cleaner work but you fill it with your fluid, connect it to the resivoir, pump up the pressure and then go from wheel to wheel accordingly untill no air comes out. Man did it make quick work of it. It was still messy and I learnt how to better use it for next time. The point is it took 30 min to bleed a brake system that the front end of it was new and full of air. All while laying on my back too.

Pop the wheels back on, drop the car to the floor, fully tighten the wheel bearing nuts, then the wheel nuts, pop the cool center caps back on and its time to go for a road test and initial break in.

Its been 2 days, Not even fully broken in yet all I can say is DAM! Those are powerful brakes. So they should be, they came off a car that weighs 600lbs more. With only a little pressure they bring the car from 100kph to nothing in a very short distance indeed. There are no leaks in the cooling system now, and I have heat witch was nice as hell today as monsoon season started and it was cold out.

Chapter 8: "I think"

With some major issues fixed, a big upgrade project done Im still left with the fact that I have an intermitant stumble or mis fire at idle and in the range. While we were hovering over the engine while it burped air out of the cooling system Doug, who I should mention is a red seal mechanic and knows Audi/VW's really really well mentioned it almost sounds like its a drippy, or leaky injector. It would make sence since Ive fixed or checked all other suspects. In researching this I did find that a leaky injector will cause a mis at any RPM and also causes a higher than normal Co2 on a gas anylizer. I have both those. When I get a free moment I will be using some very old school carberator tuning  methods to "listen" to the the injectors while the car is running using a stethiscope. If I find one that sounds differant I know where the issue is. If the If the voltage and miliamperage to that injector checks out I know its had it. I have a sorce to get a used one to test the theroy out. If it solves it 4 new injectors will be promptly ordered from PG, installed and the car taken in to have the fueling calibrated to the proper CO2 readout. 

Considering 2 months ago I had no idea why my car wouldnt start in Victoria, and somehow made it start and run to get home and then no idea why it ran like hell after, And then a month ago I had pretty much decided it was time to put a differant engine in I'd say things are getting close to being happy snappy again.

After all that I  forgot to mention that inbetween days of filling and draining soapy water I installed a brand new shift linkage set. Instead of an OE one I bought a set from a friend that he ended up not keeping the car it was for. Missing LinkZ makes kits for people who swap VW diesel engines into their Suzuki Samari trucks. The stock VW linkage no doubt doesnt hold up to off roading very well so they produced a heavy duty kit using fully adjustable lenghs of doo dads and thingys. Instead of rod ends into soft rubber bushings they use heim joints. Instead of crap rubber bushings that facilitate alot of movment they use a heavy duty durlon ball. Instead of crappy plastic bushings they use very tough durlon. Its quite the set up. Once it was all installed the tool used to set the center position in the shifter lever itself was a cassette tape. Yes, the thickness of a cassette tape is what is used. Without being to techy about it, the one rod witch takes side to side input from the shifter has to be adjusted to the distance bwteen the reverse lock out saftey and the shifter arm itself is the thickness of a cassette tape. Kinda cool. I opted to install mine with the 30% reduction in shift throw, slowly I'm making minor adjustments to the linkage doo dads and thingys so that it shifts beauty at any RPM.  Gear boxes are so picky! Tisk tisk.

In conclusion its been asked why put so much effort and money into this car. Well, step back and look at the big picture. I haven't spent much money. PG Preformance has been really good to me, and when it comes to upgrades and projects I'm patient and wait for the right part at the right price to pop up. Hense why when I do somthing its done right. Not like a 12 year old did it. Non of the recent work has been done in a shop, just in my garage. I've probably saved $2000 in labour between the cooling system update and brake upgrade. The parts were not that expensive in the grand scheme of things. If we look at what was critical here, the cooling system update + O2 sensor+ specific coolant, the parts are probably under half of what most people pay a month for a car payment, lease or loan. In fact, I know its under half. There is no exageration there. The parts I bought for the brakes cost more money that the cooling system update but that was spread over at least 4 or 5 months. It was also a fun and practical upgrade for that car. Certainly alot more practical than lifting your non offroad pickup truck 4 feet in the air dont you think? You also have to look at the fact that really the only expensive repair I've had to deal with untill this point was a shot altenator and battery. Not bad for a car that the origional owner sold to me for the same price the scrapper was going to give her, then brought it back to life, again for almost no money. So all things considering I'd say fixing my car was a smarter financial decision than leasing a new one, wouldnt you say? I think alot of people forget that there are a few of us that are not afraid to get our hands dirty and fix things. There is also the fact that I really do like working on my cars as its not so much a burdon as its a hobby. Plus my car is way more fun to drive than yours.

Im tired, and Im ramble-typing. Someone should check to see if I just coined a new phrase by the way. I trained at the track today for the first time in a while. It was a good time off from training but its time to get back into it again. Sleep beckons, and I could care less about the spell checker.

G'nite all. Fahrvergnügen.