1980 Rabbit AHU

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Been a member here for many moons, and I've had a slow thread going over on VWVortex, but this will be a photo dump essentially of my swap and 'resto' on my Rabbit. There's a little bit more work to be done but will keep this one updated as time progresses. Realistically just need to do exhaust from the downpipe back, find a new windshield and then put the dash in.

Quick background is I bought an '82 1.6D Rabbit with 97k miles but turned out to be pretty rusty, we started working on all the rust and then when trying to find new fenders I stumbled upon a rolling shell for less than a pair of Taiwanese fenders.

It is an AHU and 02A from a 98 Jetta. Quick "Mod" list below:

PP764 Nozzles
K03/K04
EGR delete
2" FMIC
TT Downpipe
Rocketchip Stage 3 ECU.




Bought the car with someone having hacked off the passenger side motor mount and welded it flush, and added some weird mount which I'm assuming was for a MK4 styled VR6 setup so I made a jig to get it in the right area.




Fast forward a little and had the bay painted, made up stainless steel brake lines (never again) and got it ready to basically have the engine/trans mated.



Pulled the rear beam, fresh bushings and paint as well as stainless lines. New drum hardware showed up the next day so that was eventually installed but no pics.

Shuffled some things around the garage and backed another one of my friends projects out to do this:




 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax


Crude brackets made to hold the FMIC to the rad support:



Final shot of the rad shroud, fan, wiring, etc.




Took it out for a drive after figuring out some snags stopped it from running, ended up being the ignition switch.



Got it back from paint



 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Thank you!

I am finally back from my little 2 week vacation (DE -> ME -> DE -> WV -> DE) ~2400mi of driving in the Colorado, still eeked out 29.5mpg with a peak avg of 35.2 :p

With that said, work on the Rabbit will commence this week. Hoping to have an appointment with the glass man to get the windshield installed and then it's a matter of putting the dash in and fab up a temporary exhaust.....that may or may not end up being permanent lol.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Looking pretty awesome, I love the color!
Thanks! I just realized I never gave the color name, but it's Regal Peacock Green Metallic found on the Chevy SS sedans. It was my 2nd color choice when I bought the SS and I figured I'd make the Rabbit that color. :p
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Spent a few hours working on the car yesterday while it poured the entire time.

Installed the windshield, sun visors, dash, ran the speedo cable and then setup the gauge cluster as well as the heater box cables which was a complete PITA. Oh and I did the MK3 wiper motor swap that I nabbed from my parts car prior to it being junked. Made sure all the lights on the dash worked as they should, and aside from a bulb out on the cluster (after everything was put in for the final time...)everything turned on and then turned off when it was supposed to.

Need to get a wiper arm, order a few dozen clips for the door cards and in order for me to complete the drivers side door I need the screws for the door latch mechanism and the window guide for the fixed vent windows.

After my friend gets off work this afternoon I'll head over to the garage to tidy up the interior some more and then we'll work on the exhaust.



 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Finished up a majority of the remaining dash install last night, got the radio tucked in and the controls for the hvac setup, as well as wired in the CEL as seen in the picture above.

Unfortunately have a bit of a head scratcher, wasn't able to scan w/ VCDS since my laptop was left in my Colorado which was dropped off for service, but turn the key to on and the GP light works as it should and it'll start with no problem but once you rev it to get the alt charging all of a sudden the GP light will flash, the coolant light is dimly lit and the CEL is on solid.

May try to use a friends computer tonight or tomorrow if he's free to nail it down with a code but figured it was a little odd. Anyone else know of other scenarios that need to be met in order for both the GP to flash and CEL to be on solid?
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Love it. Looks great!
Thank you!

Figured out what the code was, seems there were some stored codes after messing with battery cables but the only code that was lingering after they were cleared was the EGR Open circuit as there is no plug for it. Sucks that it is causing the MIL to light up so I may have to figure something out there.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Can the Rocketchip people help out with the code delete?
I sent them an email this morning, maybe I'll hear back from them soon enough. If it becomes too much of a hassle I'll just unplug the light I installed and replace the blank piece lol.

Another option I saw would be to place a resistor on the wire but the issue is I don't know if the other wire for the connector was a ground or if it went back to the ECU :p
 

JETaah

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Location
mi 48836
TDI
96 B4V, 1999.5 jettaIV,2005 BEW Beetle
Round eyed Rabbit.:cool: I miss my '78. It has been the most fun car that I've owned. Too bad it dissolved into rust as I plunked down the 36th payment.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
BTW....awesome work!!!
Thank you!
__________

Used the exhaust from my MK3 to work with the mk1, 2.5" is kinda tight fit in places but we made it work. Before I had to leave for work this afternoon we were getting ready to put the tail pipe section up for the final time to ensure the hangar did its job but heres how it sat last night. Also fixed the wiring for the license plate lights and put those on.





I was going to order the TT stainless 2.5 until I saw how much it was :D
 

damac

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2013
Location
bay area,ca
TDI
none
awesome. i just did a hack exhaust with flux wire for my mk2 golf and vbands and am rather mad at myself now that i didn't customize some kind of extra mounting points for the stock rubber vw type hangers. i kind of used the vband to hold some sections tight with their clamp and of course after my test fitting over the beam with car in the air, now have a rattle at idle on the ground that kind of goes away when i sit in the car.

just curious if you did the work of seam sealer on your rabbit? i have a 79 rabbit that was my first vw project i wanted to do all the paint work and have stalled for many months after taking the time to grind the rain gutter, door areas, etc. and tried to epoxy and lay down good 2 part seam sealer. it was a disaster because i tried to tape things off but the goop got all over even after using the cleaner they suggested to smooth final skin and get rid of extra while pulling up the tape. i wish it could have been smooth like what i took off the car, no clue how they did it!

so i went back to try and sand the supposedly sandable seam sealer back and thats a nightmare and exposed many bare metal areas that have surface rust now. im disgusted with the whole process. i just couldn't make any kind of tools to get into the hard to reach areas like under back windows and front door areas up top of the chasis.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
awesome. i just did a hack exhaust with flux wire for my mk2 golf and vbands and am rather mad at myself now that i didn't customize some kind of extra mounting points for the stock rubber vw type hangers. i kind of used the vband to hold some sections tight with their clamp and of course after my test fitting over the beam with car in the air, now have a rattle at idle on the ground that kind of goes away when i sit in the car.

just curious if you did the work of seam sealer on your rabbit? i have a 79 rabbit that was my first vw project i wanted to do all the paint work and have stalled for many months after taking the time to grind the rain gutter, door areas, etc. and tried to epoxy and lay down good 2 part seam sealer. it was a disaster because i tried to tape things off but the goop got all over even after using the cleaner they suggested to smooth final skin and get rid of extra while pulling up the tape. i wish it could have been smooth like what i took off the car, no clue how they did it!

so i went back to try and sand the supposedly sandable seam sealer back and thats a nightmare and exposed many bare metal areas that have surface rust now. im disgusted with the whole process. i just couldn't make any kind of tools to get into the hard to reach areas like under back windows and front door areas up top of the chasis.

I was hoping to utilize the original hanger location by the shifter and at the tail pipe but with the style of rubber isolators we ran into the issue of it sitting too low or hitting the exhaust.

As for the seam sealer, on the first rabbit (the silver car in the background on the original post) I used a wire wheel on a grinder to get it all off. Deemed it unnecessary on this shell judging by how long it's been in a garage and off the road.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax


Together enough to go and try to get it inspected tomorrow after work. Will probably have to get crafty on side markers if they fail me.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Mount magnetic side markers for the inspection then take them off afterward?
I was thinking that, but I'd have to find a set with LEDs in them since DE requires them to light up :rolleyes:

My plan is to swap the US bumpers back on and just put some trailer LEDs on the plastic end caps, only issue with that is I had to use the NA parking lamp housings in the euro bumpers since my euro turn signal setup was so cheap I couldn't add the right connector for running lamps.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax


Well it's tagged!

Theres a few codes that popped up after some driving, notably the IAT short to ground and MAP short to plus codes but I'll have to dig into them some more when I get a chance.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Unfortunately it's been raining out so I haven't been able to get any good outside pictures but the car is basically done, aside from noticing the seals on the turbo are shot so that will need to get remedied sooner rather than later. I've put about 160 miles on it already and it is an absolute blast!







My friends GTI
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Nice work, it turned out great!

Thanks!

Unfortunately I had a bit of boost creep or something, cause it to shoot up to 35lbs and I'm assuming the Febi-Bilstien headbolts did not like it so more than likely I'll be swapping it over to head studs and a(nother) fresh HG after the 14th which is a show in Philly.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Fixed the boost issue, well..found the vacuum line that goes off of the turbo housing no longer had its banjo bolt so once that was repaired I no longer see coolant pushing out of the radiator.

I'll give it some time before I call it fixed overall.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Found a picture of it from RADWood car show in Philly this past weekend.



Heres one that shows off the color a little:



May need to do some headstuds but I've got about 400 miles on the car since it got tagged.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Still chugging along like a champ, the IAT and MAP sensor codes are kind of interesting though, but I'm wondering if switching over to the mk4/3bar IAT/MAP combo would fix them. Codes are MAP short to positive, and IAT short to ground.
 

IdontownaVW

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2010
Location
Wilmington DE
TDI
MK1 AHU, Colorado Duramax
Running into some quirks.

Random oil leak, not sure where it's from, thought it was from the Crank Pos Sensor so I popped it out, checked the oring and gave it a small bead of silicone for some extra security but still finding oil coming down the filter/pan; maybe it's the pan gasket so come time for the oil change in spring I'll have to drop the pan.

Also on my way to a Toys4Tots event with some other local VW guys I noticed it was spraying coolant out of the cap again while just driving normally, noticed the ECU was reading coolant temp of 180-195 and when I got home I noticed the fan wasn't turning on and that was the hottest the car had ever gotten so I figured maybe the thermostat was too hot at the OEM temp of ~190* so I replaced it with a 180* and flushed all the wonderful pink VW goodness with new pink stuff. Only to then find out it wouldn't get up to temp while idling.

Maybe my cooling system is far too efficient on this little rabbit. lol

 
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