85 Jetta Coupe ALH Swap, prob going to be a build thread

So here's the story. I have an 85 Jetta coupe that I have been obsessing over for a while. I traded a caddy for another caddy, this jetta coupe, and 800. I sold the caddy for 1500 and only had 1300 in the original caddy so I'm looking at a basically free diesel coupe. It had sat in a barn for a year or two and was dirty as can be when i got it. The p/o used it as a work truck and was nasty inside. The guy before him swapped big bumpers and some other stuff onto it.

pic as i got it after pressure washing it:




I drove it around for a bit but it was loud and not in the good way and normal diesel slow so I was looking for something to put into it. I happened to pick up a 98 jetta tdi with 193k mi on it. It has a rebuilt IP, vr6 clutch, Timing belt done 2k mi ago, new N75 and vacuum lines, plus tons of other stuff i have the paperwork for.
My original plan was just to flip it and make 1500 on it. but while waiting for the title to come back the idea keeps popping in to my head to swap it into the coupe, sell my NA engine, part the shell and ride off into glory...

Its the red mk3 facing us


I started cutting the rear pans out to fix them and i have to replace the windshield and fix the bottom flange because it is rusted badly.

I put an AHU into my 85- I used a mechanical inj pump- worked like a charm. Bolted right in, no electronics needed.

A while back i traded some gti sport seats for a Kamei body kit and rear wing so i thought i might use the side skirts on the coupe. The kit is for small bumpers, but I don't think it looks too bad with the big bumpers



Time will tell, i have a set of 92 gti flares and side skirts i may use, or a set of pebble guards too.


Like any good swap there is plenty of homework to do and parts to scavenge. I was reading up on the swap faq and found a checklist for everything you need for the swap to make it nice and easy. The only thing I didn't have was a corrado front crossmember and shift box. I have a mk3 one that i could mod, but luck struck me.

I found a guy on louisvillevw.org parting out a vr6 corrado and went down to his house to buy some parts. I got all of this stuff for $214. There was more that i may get, but that's all the cash i had on me at the time.







Corrado dash and speedo, column, pedal cluster, wiring harness, abs mc, slave cylinder, front crossmember, steering wheel adapter, shift box, front strut bar, rear strut bar, seats, center console, brand new catch can, bov, turbo piping, intercooler, butane lighter, oil cooler, a piller 2 pod cluster with boost and egt gauges, and a bunch of other stuff. Not a bad haul at all.

I have a set of grey recaros for the car, 2 perfect dashes, black carpet and trim pieces, big brakes, its sitting on 2 inch drop springs now. almost new snowflakes, gli wing, single and quad round headlight setups, and a ton of other stuff. My plan is to do a bigger turbo, nozzles and flash it. Nothing too wild. just a fun car that looks good. I may do a corrado dash swap and 5 lug swap eventually though.

Step 1, fix rust and body work
Step 2, CE2 swap
Step 3, swap engine and get it running
Step 4, interior work maybe the corrado dash
Step 5, rule the world

Sounds like a plan!

Got the rear floor pans cut out and patch panels out of my 92 gti cut out and trimmed to fit. Hopefully I'll get em welded in this weekend if work is light. Got 2 e30's to work on and an e36.

I'm trying to get this whole project in under $1500 or so. Sounds crazy maybe, but I'm that good sometimes .

I've got nothing in the car with a good running engine. Nothing in the Kamei body kit, Traded some seats for it out of a parts car. I have 2200 in the Jetta, but i figure i can get 700 or so out of it in parts and then another 300 for the shell. If i can get 700 out of my 1v engine and tranny that will bring my grand total down even farther. I have 10.1" brakes and rear disc laying around to throw on and it has neuspeed springs on it already. The recaros i have about nothing in. I'm not cheap, well kind of, but resourceful. Plus my wife doesn't mind project cars if they don't break the bank. The cheaper I am, the more fun I can have. I have a mk1 jetta coupe too that I will start on after this. Not sure what I will do to it. It is diesel too. may stick with it or go with a cammed 16v that i have in my Helios.

Good luck on the project. Can't wait to get back to my mk2 TDI project.

I also picked up an 85 jetta coupe that I might end up doing something gasser with. But who knows, that is a few years off.

Hey, im also thegimpster off lvw. I read your build page on the vortex, got some inspiration off of it. You need to get back to it so I can bum answers off you when i run into problems .

Bout got the floor pans finished up. Got the fronts about stripped of the black tar of doom, and going to seal then paint them. Got another e30 to work on for a guy over the weekend. In the deal I got a 12a Mazda rotary engine and tranny, and a 16v vw engine with most of the cis crap, and a set of Honda CBR 900RR carbs to go with the engine. I think after i finish up the mk2 coupe I'll build my mk1 coupe up with the 16v on carbs, corrado leathers i have, custom door panels, euro bumpers and front, coilovers, and call it good. It will look nice and pretty. Its flat black right now, so i'll prob change it. I've got a perfect set of snowflakes i may throw on it or some e30 bbs'es.

not a super huge update, but its something. Front floor pans are done too. I got a 5 lug swap off of a vr6 mk3 gti that i am going to throw on it. I have nothing in it so that doesn't add anything to the overall price. I've been driving the donor tdi for a while and almost hate rip the engine out of it, almost. going to start modding the engine while it is in the donor car so i know all the upgrades work well before I rip everything apart.

I also got an 89 Jetta parts car off of a buddy of mine for the ce2 swap. So as soon as that gets here I plan on starting that part. I will prob start pulling the engine tomorrow since I have it off for New Years Day.

The speedo isn't working in the mk3 tdi so i took it out and swapped boards from a 2.0 and swapped the eprom over. Didn't fix anything so i had to swap the board back. I thought the circuit boards were the same minus the eprom. Guess I was wrong and need to find a good mk3 cluster if I plan to use it.

Got the engine pulled today. Going to start working on the pedal cluster now and clutch slave cylinder setup. Not exactally the order i said earlier. but have that stuff right now and not the ce2 stuff.

I need a mk4 dbw pedal if anyone has one laying around.

Well I had a good stroke of luck this week. I was scouring craigslist like I do when I have some down time and ran across a mk2 Jetta about 100 miles from we with a tdi already in it, but it had a bad head. So I promptly text him to find out all about it. We were going over the history of it and he says 'I don't know if I put it in the ad or not but we converted it to an mTDI.' My heart skipped a beat...

I had an 88 Thunderbird turbo that I got in another craigslist trade and had about $550 in and we made a deal on trading the TC for his Jetta. Friday I loaded up the truck and the Tbird and headed south. We got there and my buddy told me he liked the Tbird a little more than he cared to admit. I told him he would have to grow a mullet if he wanted to keep it.

After talking to the guy and waiting 30 mins on his brother to show up to check the car out we finally got it loaded up and hit the road about 10:30pm. We stopped by the house of a guy that works for me and picked up a vr6 block and the stuff to swap the 5 lug setup off of his car so i could have it for the coupe and headed home. It was about 2:30 when we got back. We also stopped for some late night Taco Bell, bad idea in a pickup crammed with 3 people.

The car already has a passat pedal cluster modified for the mk2 and the break and clutch slaver setup on it for the hydraulic clutch. Should be able just to swap all of it over. cut a few holes for the pedal cluster and slave cylinder, bold on a head and go. Assuming there are no hiccups... crap.

Now for the pics

Cool projects man, but the rust on that deck puts a fear in me. How long did they leave the head off of that thing like that?

2 months is what he said. I found a head for it off a guy here on the forum. I'm probably going to take the engine apart and rebuild it. Depends on what i find when I get it pulled. Haven't got alot of time on it yet. Making money > Making fun.

I should have everything major now to do the swap minus some piping for the intercooler, which isn't a big deal. Next few weeks should lead to some good progress though. Buying the mtdi car really cut out alot of the hard work for me in building the coupe. I can now just swap the pedal cluster and brake stuff now and throw my 5 lug swap on it. The red mk3 I've been working on because it skipped timing a bit and will just drive it now, or sell and make some cash.

Not a super big update but some progress is being made. Got everything but the exhaust pulled off of the donor car. Bought a new welder last night. Have someone coming to get my diesel engine out of the coupe to drop into a Suzuki samurai and i'll prob buy a better plasma cutter with that money because i don't like the little 110v unit I have. Its nice, but has a hard time even cutting through body panels clean.

plans for this week and prob next is to get the 5 lug swap done and cut and fill the holes for the hydraulic pedal cluster and get that stuff mounted after I get the bay cleaned up.

long time, no update.

I had a baby a few weeks ago so progress has been slow. I have been fixing my windshield flange rust and that has been kind of a pain in the butt. I traded my cylinder head off for a complete 86 diesel coupe. Sold the block out of that and made all of my money back. Then bought another 86 coupe... gas this time. The guy had another one that was a 89 so i bought that too... I now have 4 coupes, none of them driving right now. But the bodies in the last two i bought were good. Plan to have the windshield done soon and the rest of the body work done too.

Looking for another good ahu cylinder head if anyone has one.