mk2 GTI back from the dead

Not been on here for a while.
Though some of you might be interested. Was writing this as I go along but not had the chance to upload it 'till now.


Saw this jetta gti advertised locally and as the daily bug is getting to the point it needs resto so I am planning to take it off the road and weld/paint it hopefully this winter. Always regret selling mk mk1 1.6 gti year ago and wanted a mk2 gti project as a cheap daily for a while so went and had a look.

It’s an ’88 jetta gti 8v that’s been off the road for the past 10 years. 71k on the clock and very original – even has original dealer plates, tax disc holder and jetta script mudflaps. P.O. had replaced all the flexi brake pipes and a few copper pipes, 2/3 of the exhaust and the lifter pump in the tank. Wasn’t running due to a dead external fuel pump but turned over so engine not seized. Under the green moss and the soggy carpets the bodywork was in very good condition. P.O. had done a tiny bit of welding on the d/s/r door shut/ top of sill and it needs a tiny bit on the same bit on p/s/r but other than that there’s only a couple of small rusty paint chips here and there. Quick call to the insurance revealed £30 fully comp to add an additional car to my policy so that plus the bodywork was in such good nick though it was worth a go. With a loan of some p slots from my mate Jon picked it up and dragged it home.
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A quick wash get rid of the green slime later and it looks pretty presentable for a 22 year old car
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First job was strip the interior out to find where the water was getting in. Must have sat outside for a while at some point as there was a tide mark 3 inches up inside the floor tubs – luckily the ecu’s not under the carpet. One everything was out there was surprisingly no rust to be found. Luckily it hammered it down that w/e so I sat in it watching where the rain came in. Usual mk2 leak points were the culprits: shrunk door vapour barriers, perished seal around the fan intake in the scuttle and the bonnet release gromit had pulled out too. New vapour barriers made from some dust sheeting and refitting and resealing various seals and gromits and it’s all ok now. The drivers seat bolster was down to the metal so that was replaced with a mint 2/h one found online. That was it for a about a month whilst a t25 roof and a bug framehead got in the way.

Next job was to get it running. A 2/h external pump and a new oil plugs rotor arm, cap were added. Cleaned up all the earths in the engine bay and it fired up straight away and ran quite nicely apart from a blowing exhaust manifold to head gasket.

Electrics next. NEC w/e so the van was over there giving me some space in the garage. The damp had knackered the earthing points so replaced all the connectors on those & a dead brake light switch. Headlights only worked on one side, side lights on the other and only 1 rear. Wipers would only work if you held it tight and whilst the indicators were fine the beam/dip kept sticking.

Luckily my mates golf gti is in for resto at a mates unit so with his permission I borrowed some rear lights, some switches and the column stalks to help test things as his were all known good. Bit of testing revealed dead stalks, headlight switch & fog switch. With all the electrics now working as they should next job was the manifold gasket.

Thankfully managed to get it in the garage to do this bit as it was freezing but it turned into a bit of a mission. You can’t get the exhaust manifold off without taking the inlet off so tried that first – 2 of the middle allen key head bolts rounded off - arse. The manifolds are on the back of the engine against the bulkhead so access is very limited – not enough to swing a ½ inch ratchet. After a bit of encouragement from Jon (I’d never taken a head off before) we decided easiest way would be to take the head off to get better access to the bolts. Jon popped into gsf on his lunchbreak and got the necessary bits then came round on Wednesday and showed me how it was all done. It all went well & pretty soon the head was off – cheers mate! Biggest surprise was that no important bolts of nuts sheared as they were all looking a bit rusty. Lower auxillary belt pulley allen bolts rounded so that’s been left in place ‘till the heads back on so as not to disturb the timing.

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Valves all seem ok & no cracks in the head but clewlsvdubz is dropping off at his mates engineers to get it checked in case it needs a skim & we’re going to replace the valve stem oil seals just to be on the safe side. Only thing it did throw up was the cam & cam followers were badly pitted and pretty much knackered from sitting for so long. Luckily managed to find a complete pb code 8v engine locally for £50 with good cam and followers, so fitted those

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Stripped down the rest of the head. Managed to get the inlet bolts out by whacking an oversize bit in and some mole grips.

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The offending allen bolt ^

Exhaust manifold ones were pretty bad. Ended up hammering on a slightly smaller socket to get them off so they’ll be getting replaced too. Thankfully no cracks in the manifold.

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Got the head back the next day only needing a tiny skim and replaced the valve stem oil seals and lapped the valves after a tutorial from Jon.

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Manifolds on last night with new nuts and new head gasket in place ready for the head to go on. A lot of the gaskets were in similar condition to the manifold-downpipe one below
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This is pretty much what I’d got up to before things got manic @ work.
Got the head back on ok, new water pipe o rings, oil & coolant. Went to do the cambelt and couldn’t get the water pump pulley off to get the lower markings. So whilst I was in bed with the norovirus another mate Jamie chopped off the old nuts put on the new belt and tensioner and set the timing. New water pump was added the next day and fired it up. Idle was really high for a couple of mins from cold – found a broken pipe on the back of the manifold.

Brakes next – p.o. had replaced some flexis and hard lines so just needed to clean up the discs, free up the callipers and replace a pipe clip. Changed the fluid & bled them too.

MOT on 22nd December – Passed first time for the first time in 10 years which I was pretty surprised about. However, the revs were all over the place at idle and it cut out once if started from hot. Replaced the idle stabilisation valve and that seems to have sorted it (fingers crossed). Quick go with the meguires brought up the bodywork & a bit of back to black on the trim and it looked a lot more presentable.

Done about 300 miles in it now and all seems ok so far apart from a sticky starter which has since been replaced.

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good find and good work!

As above, cracking job

What are the future plans?

Tell me more top mota buddy

At the moment I'm just enjoying driving it. A mate and I recently got a golf gti for spares (he's got an A reg golf gti he's getting restored) so I've now got the bits of missing trim and some spares. Could do with finding a boot carpet & giving it a full tune up. Trouble is for a supposed budget daily I can see myself going down the same route as dirtydubber at some point in the future once I've got some other unfinished projects out of the way.

Dooooooooo it! you know you want to! Lovely work pal nice one.

As Dirtydubber says, doooo it lol. I am working on mine as a daily but I keep seeing bits I want to improve/ clean up etc feels like I'm going to end up with a new car. Great work so far mate

You lot are trying to get me into trouble

I have a 91 jetta GLI. Do you still have all the mud flaps??? What condition are they in and how much would want for them??? Thanks Xshuey