2/10 Updates: Well the front subframe finally showed up last Monday only it wasn't the front subframe but the rear. This was a huge disappointment as I had waited to long as it was for it's arrival only for it to turn out to be the wrong part.  On top of that to add insult to injury someone locally had picked one up for me, free I might add but expected me to pay him $175 for it!!  Chris had checked the one from the Passat out and thought he could fix it but this one was already on it's way at that time so I told him not bother. After the subframe mishap Chris took the old one with the bent feet to his shop where he tried to twist them back into shape, but the bolt holes begin to fold.  He ended up cutting the two bent feet off, re-bending them back into shape and welding them back on.  He then painted them black again and once I cleaned it up the whole thing looks like new!  Nice. With that out of the way the motor was finally ready to go in. 

This Saturday was one of the busiest and most productive days I've had in a long time (it was also one of the longest and involved not eating) Relative to the project or not I'll start from the beginning, got a fellow enthusiast in Florida who wanted to me to check out a 76 Rabbit that was For Sale locally so I wanted to go out photo the car and get back in time to meet the guy coming down from Seattle for the suspension swap so I headed over there around 9:00 AM photo'd the car came home uploaded the pictures then the guy from Seattle arrived so I spent the next few hours swapping out the suspension between the two cars.  The CL now sports Bilstein Sports with H&R sport springs front w/ HD rears and sport springs.  Once this was completed I spent a couple more hours prepping the motor for the install, including adding the dent in the frame rail for crank pulley clearance/belt changes.  I took some better photos of this than what was presently on A2-VR6.com but unfortunately I missed the target location by about two blows.  So I've added in some arrows of where the dent should start and end.  The dent is probably the only actual modification necessary to the engine bay to allow the VR6 to reside in it.  If you ever get a chance to see a VR6 Corrado engine bay, or Rallye Golf bay you will see the factory has added a similar notch into the frame rail for clearance issues (Rallye VR6 Golfs must have been in the pipeline).  I know some shops cut this section out and weld in a small box in the frame rail rather than pounding the dent in, I would not recommend this however.  The frame rails are treated with cosmoline a waxy spray-in treatment that keeps corrosion down.  If you cut into the frame rail and weld in any sort of box you just A. Weaken the structural support of the frame on the passenger side. and B. Set the car up for some rusting in the near future.  So the dent is the lesser of the two evils.  Or you could just to do nothing and have to remove the motor every time you needed to change the serpentine belt. (don't do this)  Be sure and have both subframes in place for pounding on the frame rail so as not to throw the right rail out of spec.

Once that was completed the two studs for the coolant bracket were added, at this point my theory is blown as to what cars have the coolant bracket bolted in, G60's don't, VR6 C's do, Passats don't, Jetta GLIs do... so there is no logic as to origin of the car and having the bracket spot welded in or bolted on.  Regardless the 89's coolant bracket was spot welded on and since in 1989 VW still used the square style reservoir it had to go.  I initially planned on using the Passat bracket which was also spot welded on, but opted to add studs and buy the Corrado VR6 bracket instead (only $10 from the dealer) So Chris came over with his little Lincoln welder and we lined up where the studs should be (just a little lower than the lower spot welds were) he handled the welding duties and went a little overboard trying to make the bolt heads disappear in the strut tower, but who am I to complain? I would have burnt the house down trying to weld and would probably be blind. See photos for the super stealth bolt/studs.  The next item to be welded on was for the hydraulic clutch line that runs between the master cylinder and the slave cylinder.  This bracket is to secure the line since the tranny is moving the master cylinder is not.  Without the bracket and a lot of motor rocking the line will eventually crack at the fitting and you would lose clutch pressure.  No fun, add the bracket be sure and remove it from the donor.  In this photo I haven't yet sealed the welds from corrosion but don't think I won't you won't be able to tell the bracket was added by the time I'm done with it.

So with the welding and dent out of the way the next step was for the motor itself to be installed.  I somehow managed to get through yet another install without a cherry picker and Chris and I used two jacks and the furniture creeper to install the motor.  It actually went really smooth, although I should just buy a damn cherry picker!! Only set-back was the furniture creeper got lodged between the oil pan and rear subframe which required some tricky jacking of the motor. My day finally ended at 10 PM all I had eaten was a grilled cheese sandwich.

Sunday was a much shorter day as I needed a break after Saturday so I spent a few hours hooking the engine compartment wiring back up, installing the new non-AC serpentine belt, and re-attaching some of the coolant hoses.  I also got the call to pick the Rabbit up so I had to tend to that as well.  Steve dropped the painted bumpers, mirrors, spoilers, and license plate beak by which was a nice bonus getting that stuff back.  I've been installing a couple pieces here and there since then (Wrote this on Tuesday) and will post pics if I ever leave work early enough to catch daylight.

2/24 Updates (posted 2/28)  I waited as long as I could for this update to try and have the car done like I said last week but it's just not going to happen.  More minor problems arised which set things back, typical of any project really. I didn't get much done during the week just minor stuff like mounting the ECU and running the new wiper harness, mounted the ABS control module which was fun. Also fabricated the power steering feed line.  The donor's all have this funky power steering fluid cooler that mounts in the bumper.  It's a funny looking thing that, well looks like a oil cooler, the fluid circulates through it to the pump then to the rack non-stop.  I've heard of someone using this in their swap a total of one time.  it's pretty much a waste of space and hard to fit into an A2 with a big bumper , and I don't know where you'd put it on a A2 with small bumper.  So you are left creating your own lower hose which is a easy task.  You need about 2" of heater hose 5/8 and a 3/4 double male plumbing connector.  Cut the existing hose after it's first bend near the battery (leaving the bend in place so the hose is aimed at the right side of the car) stick one end of the adapter onto the hose and clamp on then stick the end of the new hose on the other end and clamp on, route the hose over to the pump, trim to length clamp it on and it's done.   Saturday went something like this, got up went to U-Pull-It to get some non-project related stuff with Jono, this took about 1/2 the day.  I figured for sure once I got back the car would be running by nightfall, but this was not the case. Since the donor car was a Passat the upper radiator hose would not work since the inlet for the rad is not at an angle on  the Passat, I knew this was the case so I purchased the 95- on GTI VR6 hose which is a interesting piece and about $40 cheaper than the Corrado VR6 hose.  The GTI hose is comprised of six pieces four being hose two being plastic pieces.  The standard upper GTI hose would not normally work with a C radiator but this hose has the center section mated between two hoses and it's actually plastic with hose clamps holding it together!  You can unclamp the upper piece and twist into into the correct location, saving $40 in the process.  The lower hose from the Passat lines up the same but is just about 9" too long so I shortened it down, but didn't realize it was slightly flanged which made pushing the hose onto the lower radiator outlet quite the bitch.  Once on and the radiator back in place (had to force it on the work bench) it was still too long which caused the hose to kink, also after looking at the way it sat in the car vs. the Corrado line used on my own car I decided to just by the lower C hose, so that's reason number one the car is not running. Hose should be here Friday.  (Funny side note Friday night I was putting a case of Mountain Dew in the fridge and got a gnarly paper cut on my left fore finger.  When this happened I thought wow that's the first project related injury! Today as I type this all but two fingers sport fresh scabs. Gotta remember to knock on wood next time.)   Reason number two was the power steering pump; when we pulled the motor and put it on the furniture creeper it tipped forward and snapped the lower line off the pump, only at the time I didn't think the line busted off but rather slipped out (common) either way I had dealt with this before and knew the odds of actually getting it reseated would be 80/20 at best.  Once I realized the piece was broken this dropped down to about 1%, and naturally it did not work even with aviation sealer.  This was all pretty frustrating which led me to call it a day and not deal with any of the other tasks that needed to be done.  Working 40+ hours a week and then spending all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday working on the car and taking the Passat apart for the last three months has started to take it toll.  Sunday I didn't even plan on working on the car but it was a beautiful day out again and once the garage door was open I proceeded to do some odds and ends for a few hours, like installing the back window, taillights, three of the bumper/arch flares, test fitting the rear bumper and cleaning up the under carriage some more.

Next Page