[demented_irony]

Epilogue

I bought my 1991 B3 16v wagon (quickly named Clifford by a buddy) two years ago for $200. My original intention was to purchase it solely for parts, but upon seeing it and taking it for a short drive I realized that it was for from parts-only use. It had a rebuilt engine, new clutch, brakes, wheel bearings, etc. The body was in pretty damn good shape for a 19-year old car with 350,000km. It started on the first try, so I bought it on the spot without even bothering to haggle. Two days later several of us took it down to Pacific Waterland in Oregon. That was kinda sketchy, since I had no idea what kind of condition it was really in. Fortunately nothing went wrong, so I decided to keep it for a winter beater and sell it in the spring. Two years later I still own it and have never had any really problems or put any money into it - it's been too damned reliable. Up until about two months ago, I was into it for about $600, which included coils, some basic maintenance, and the purchase price.

That all changed recently.

The day I bought him - so stock!

Money starts getting spent

Having lowered Clifford with a set of Raceland coils last summer for $250, I decided that he needed some rims. After spending some time browsing the Internetz, I decided on a staggered set of Kerscher Carmonas, 16x7.5" and 16x9" wrapped in Falken 512 205/40/16 all around. That satisfied me for a while, but I wanted to do more to Clifford. By this time I had a 2003 Audi all road 2.7T 6MT as a daily, but it was just too much car for me, so I decided to sell it and put some of the money towards the B3. First thing I thought that it needed was some more "go", so I began researching several engine swaps. I didn't want to do a VR6/VRT, so I settled on a 1.8T.

I picked up a complete AEB from a '99 Passat with all accessories, manifolds, harness, etc. for an amazing price; and began tearing it down immediately.

Freshly pulled 1.8T, waiting to be torn down:

Tear down begins:

Tear down complete:

I began ordering parts for essentially a complete rebuild - all gaskets, seals, bearings, intake valves, rings, oil pump, pistons, every ABA coolant hose, water pump, etc. All the rebuild parts were OEM German.

I only took 3 or so pics during reassembly. I had almost all of the parts and assembled 95% of it in a day, and I didn't want to break my pace with stopping, cleaning up, and taking pics. I decided to go with Audi TT225 (AMU) intake and exhaust manifolds and K04-022 turbo for a bit more power than the stock, small AEB K03.

Cleaned and painted block waiting to be bored out:

Head cleaned, re-assembled and waiting to be installed:

ABA accessory bracket, accessories, and head bolted up:

Swap begins

With WaterWerks fast approaching, this past Friday I drained all the fluids, removed the front end, disconnected everything, and pulled the 16v.

Very dirty engine bay:

Good bye, faithful 16v - you've served me well. :heart:

After spending about 5 or so hours removing all the wax, scrubbing the engine bay clean, and painting some parts, the tranny was ready to be installed and the 1.8T put into the bay.

I was worried that there wouldn't be much room around the turbo, but it turned out that there was plenty of room.

For the next several days I played around with the coolant hoses and wiring, getting everything sorted as best as I could, and to my liking.

How the bay looks as of tonight:

The wiring is 95% done, I just need to extend, route, and wrap a few auxiliary wires. The charge piping will be done this coming week, and I should have it back Thursday evening.


Big thanks (in no real order) to:

Euro Wrench Werks for getting me the majority of the parts, all at fantastic prices, and my BFFs Cam, Sean, Dan, Wang, and Grace. :beer: :laugh:

There's still a lot more that I have planned for Clifford, namely different seats, black headliner, and some body work. All in due time, I suppose.

 

[demented_irony]

Why not rebuild and build up the 16v and turbo that??
You can get serious power and its origional.. but if you don't care for that then the 1.8t is a great motor to swap in.. would be my. Second motor choice

On a side note your "bffs" name is wang?

Eh, jut adding a turbo to the 16v would've been boring and not all that much of a change. How many 16v B3s do you see versus 1.8T B3s? Power was never a goal of the swap. Plus the AEB ECU is much more tuneable.

Wang is his nickname.

really good work man. youll be happy with that 1.8t. better than the old 16v.
throw in some more pics of the side of the car!

Why thanks! Here's two pics of his current stance, pre rear camber and flushness:

You need to roadtrip that thing to Edmonton on August 20th for the local End of Summer VW show.

:thumbup:

I totally would, but that's just a bit too far for me - Pacific Waterlands is the farthest I'm going this year. Perhaps next year!

 

[demented_irony]

so this is what my fogs will be going on? :laugh::beer:
car looks good, super clean!

Yessir! Just got them tonight, I thought you were going to clean them before mailing them?

have you installed the amber side repeatrers i sent yet?

Not yet, I need figure out how to keep them attached in the fender.

the wagon with headlightwashers is the biggest of them all. i think it is like 11lts of fluid ...

It's 9 litres - the're no difference between the wagon and sedan bottles.

lol.. that thing needs to go now!! epic washer fluid, never runs out!

I wanted to keep the 9 litre bottle - I love the headlamp washers.

Wow, beautiful wagon! Grr this makes me want a B3 even more now

Thanks man!

Thanks for all the compliments, people!

 

[demented_irony]

Ok so I didn't even know this was possible... what doesn't and doesnt bolt in from the original 16v? Are all the mounts the same? Does the exhaust bolt up?

It's pretty simple really. Pretty much any Volkswagen 4-cylinder will install into another Volkswagen, and the engines will bolt to any 4-cylinder transmission. I used the stock engine mounts. Obviously the exhaust is different due to the turbo - and why would you want to use the stock exhaust anyways. I made a custom 3" downpipe that goes to a 2.5" exhaust with nothing but a quiet, free flowing muffler at the back.

My particular setup is a mixture of 5 or so engines. AEB engine and management, AMU (TT225) manifolds and K04 turbo, ATW ignition system, ABA accessories and coolant hoses, 9A mounts, rad, oil pan and PCV system, and some misc pieces from others (TD oil filter flange).

 

[demented_irony]

FYI, the sedans with the headlight washers are 8L, the wagons are 9L and the non-headlight versions are just 5L

That's odd - both 9L bottles that I've pulled have come from sedans. I've never seen an 8L bottle.

 

[demented_irony]

Small update - got all the charge piping done and mounted the bumper. Luckily I didn't have to remove much, it fits pretty well as is.

Still need to figure out how to make the black grill fit though.

I must say, it's a lot of fun to drive as is, improperly tuned and such. It does start to splutter under 3/4 throttle whilst boosting. I assume it's flooding out due to the large TT225 injectors and CIS fuel pump. I need to get my Malone tune asap!

 

[demented_irony]

Looks great! What muffler did you end up going with? I need to re-do my exhaust on my 1.8t wagon and i need something whisper quiet :laugh:

I'm selling a Unitronics BT 440cc AEB ecu if you want to run some more booost

Still haven't found a muffler. It's currently a 2.5" turbo back with no cats or resonators to a VR6 rear muffler. It's super quiet, which I love. I'll get one installed in the spring.

I'm getting a custom C2 tune done this week, but thanks for the offer.

 

[demented_irony]

Small update - got the tune 98% perfect, just needs some minor tweaking. I installed a 3" MAF which made a huge difference in power and overall smoothness and fuel trims. I also just installed a new set of TSI coil packs. It idles way better and pulls incredibly hard at 20psi. I'm lovin' it.

Any updates? Im just about to pull the trigger on the new exhaust on mine and get my boost control on so I can get back up to 25psi

Still haven't decided on a muffler yet. I'll probably just get a Magnaflow or something. Too bad Milltek doesn't sell just mufflers.

one of the best B3 that i saw.

congrats man.

Thanks dude! :beer:

nice car and build!! :thumbup:

Thanks!

 

[demented_irony]

i have a 94 b3 swedan with a vr6 how hard is it to swap a 1.8t into it?

If you get a 4-cylinder trans it's pretty simple to swap one in. Almost drop in.

 

[demented_irony]

Love this car. Gas prices are making me think I want to swap my syncro from a VR to 1.8t.

Any updates on Clifford?

Yes there have been, I've been lacking with updates. In July I rebuilt and swapped in a syncro system from another Passat to help with first and second gear traction issues. Front Recaros are about to be recovered in black leather to match the rest of the interior, and I'm currently rebuilding a set of rare 80s rims for this upcoming season.

I'm also thinking about trying a different tune and getting some dyno time. 6-speed 02C is also in the works.

I'll post some more pics later today. Poor guy's been parked for a week as a ball around in my newly-acquired urS4.

 

[demented_irony]

Bit of a random update, kinda forgot about this thread.

After getting tired of having zero traction through third gear, I bought syncro waogn for an insane price, just for the syncro AWD system. Pulled it out:

All cleaned up and rebuilt, awaiting installation:

Installed!

Naturally with the front power take-off, prop-shaft, and different rear suspension the whole exhaust needed to be completely rebuilt. So a buddy tig-welded a 2.5" stainless steel turbo-back exhaust for me.

I then picked up some new wheels from another buddy. Porsche dealer option from the late 80s. 16x8.5" final et +6mm, 16x10" final et -14mm.

They needed to be refinished, so I had them mirror-polished and colour matched Tornado Red to the car.

There's still a bunch more I want to do, like finally recover the front Recaros in black leather to match the rest of the car, and repaint the whole front end.

 

[demented_irony]

Thanks guys! It's come a long ways since it was a $200 beater. Just drove from BC to Vegas for Wuste with zero issues.

 

[demented_irony]

wow what a beautiful wagon! what front lip is that?

Thanks! The front lip is from a SEAT Cordoba SX (coupe).

 

[demented_irony]

Sow how exactly did you get the electrics to work? Are you running the stock cluster? I'm looking at putting an AWP into my 93 VR6 and a lot of the info I find is contradicting, because there's so many ways to do different things.

Yup running the stock cluster. The 1.8Ts have digital tach outputs, and thankfully B3 clusters have digital tachs too. I simply cut the factory harness about 10" from the firewall and spliced in the 1.8T harness, it's only like 6 wires total. 3 12v, tach signal, coolant gauge, oil pressure switches. That's it.

And sorry for not keeping up on this thread, I just took on a new project that's consuming most of my time. But it's worth it. Super insanely clean '81 Rabbit S.