My 1991 Golf Build Thread

Frostheater kit I won at TDIFest 2013. Thanks again Terry Frost






AWIC Kit from siliconeintakes.com

This is their "350 HP kit". I opted for the same side intercooler and didn't go for their installation kit, tank, or their ice box. It's all NPT fittings, so I will just get those and hoses locally.

I will be using an extra VW coolant bubble I have for a fill point. DIY ice box could be in the future if I track the car. The kit came with a Rule baitwell pump (worth $50, FOR SALE ), which I will not be using. They offered a Bosch "Cobra" pump for an extra $70. This pump seems to be a common one in use on a OEM AWIC applications. Ford lightning, Range Rover, Mercedes, I'm sure there are more.

I have an extra "secondary coolant pump" from a MK3 VR6 gasser that I will try to run before I spend more money on a pump. Will be getting out a 5 gal bucket and a stopwatch this weekend to find out the flow.

AWIC core




Rad with fan

bassman5066 said:

AWIC Kit from siliconeintakes.com

This is their "350 HP kit". I opted for the same side intercooler and didn't go for their installation kit, tank, or their ice box. It's all NPT fittings, so I will just get those and hoses locally.

I have an extra "secondary coolant pump" from a MK3 VR6 gasser that I will try to run before I spend more money on a pump. Will be getting out a 5 gal bucket and a stopwatch this weekend to find out the flow.

AWIC core

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I ended up getting my A/W intercooler this week. I was surprised as to how heavy it is. It was also my plan to use the VR6 electric pumps which I have 2 of. I have a suggestion for your test. Run the pump with water being pushed through the radiator and intercooler. This will give more meaningful results as to how it will perform. I look forward to seeing how it does.

To simplify the install, I have been considering linking the stock bubble and coolant for the intercooler. It would be a separate circuit but attached. This is similar to how the new VW are made.

Houpty GT said:

I ended up getting my A/W intercooler this week. I was surprised as to how heavy it is. It was also my plan to use the VR6 electric pumps which I have 2 of. I have a suggestion for your test. Run the pump with water being pushed through the radiator and intercooler. This will give more meaningful results as to how it will perform. I look forward to seeing how it does.

To simplify the install, I have been considering linking the stock bubble and coolant for the intercooler. It would be a separate circuit but attached. This is similar to how the new VW are made.

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It certainly is a little on the heavy side. Looks very well built too. I was actually surprised how small it was, for some reason I was imagining it would be larger. I will be mounting it at the top of the engine bay right in front of the master cylinder with the inlet/outlet facing the motor. Shooting for less than 4ft of charge piping. Still gotta brainstorm how I'm gonna make brackets to mount it up sort of "floating" above the shift linkage.

I wanted to get one of their larger rads (possibly even the one from the 1000 HP kit, but the 350HP kit was such a good deal and I decided to go with a smaller rad because I'm planning on running A/C on this car in the future.

Great suggestion on the testing, I didn't even think about that. I'll test with or without a load and compare the results. I hope my pump still works, it's been sitting in a box for a few years since I tore apart my VR.

bassman5066 said:

I will be using an extra VW coolant bubble I have for a fill point. DIY ice box could be in the future if I track the car.

Click to expand...

I guess you didn't catch that one . Great minds think alike I suppose?

I'm gonna mount the bubble on the strut tower right next to my coolant one so that part of the system looks a little stock. If I do decide to add an ice box I'll get a couple ball valves and quick disconnects with lines to the pass footwell for a cooler that can easily be hooked up or removed.

What do you think about coolant to run? I was just gonna use G12 50/50 with water to avoid freezing.

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bassman5066 said:

I guess you didn't catch that one . Great minds think alike I suppose?

I'm gonna mount the bubble on the strut tower right next to my coolant one so that part of the system looks a little stock. If I do decide to add an ice box I'll get a couple ball valves and quick disconnects with lines to the pass footwell for a cooler that can easily be hooked up or removed.

What do you think about coolant to run? I was just gonna use G12 50/50 with water to avoid freezing.

Click to expand...

I was saying to use a single bubble for both the A/W and engine coolant. The best thing to run in the summer is just water wetter (to fight corrosion) or a light coolant mix, maybe 5-10%. The best choice for winter is normal coolant mix. The removable icebox is neat but I would think only useful for autocross or drag racing. Dyno cheater??? You could also become good friends with every gas station that sells ice if you use it around town.

Have you polished yours up yet?

Houpty GT said:

I was saying to use a single bubble for both the A/W and engine coolant. The best thing to run in the summer is just water wetter (to fight corrosion) or a light coolant mix, maybe 5-10%. The best choice for winter is normal coolant mix. The removable icebox is neat but I would think only useful for autocross or drag racing. Dyno cheater??? You could also become good friends with every gas station that sells ice if you use it around town.

Have you polished yours up yet?

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Ah now I see what you meant. That would be cool to have one fill point, but I wouldn't want a shared system. I guess you could make it somewhat separate, but I have 2 coolant bubbles laying around so I figured why not.

The ice box would be for track or dyno or even if I just wanted to cool it down and have some fun. That's why I would have a 3 valve bypass system (sort of like a water softener bypads) that would allow me to flow all, some, or none of the coolant to the ice box.

That VR looks awesome. No I havn't gotten around to polishing anything up yet. I'm not sure what I wanna do yet aesthetically in the bay. I was leaning toward a more industrial diesel look, with lots of paint.

Now that it's getting warmer and i'm temporarily out of cash for parts I'm gonna pull the cover off the car and start working on cleaning up the bay and harness. I plan on making my own tucked harness. Ill at least power wash and maybe throw a coat of paint on matching the color of the car. Engine and trans are definitely getting paint before it goes back in. Still debating on colors though.

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Finally, updates. Been accumulating lots of parts for this thing, now it's time to put them all in.

Full 5 lug conversion, including VR6 axles, front brakes, rack, and sway bar. Also got the rear beam which included the rear disk brake conversion I needed. This will be going in this week with all new ball joints, tie rods, and sway bar end links. This subframe and rear beam will make for either an inch or 2 total wider track on the tires. Hopefully I can find thinner 5x100 Porsche adapters for my wheels.

02J (from new beetle) shift box and tower conversion. I'll throw this in this week as well.

Power steering and AC components. Still looking for a set of MK3 PS lines in decent shape, I just need the 2 that go to the rack.

Got a mk4 battery power distribution box for under hood. Also picked up an under hood magnetic extendable light from a GM at the junk yard.

Also accumulating some of the cash I need for machine shop costs. I'm beyond excited.

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Pulled the cover off and aired it out.



Prepared the rear beam to go in. Installed BFI rear beam bushing insert and TT stainless brake lines.

installed new inserts in old bushings? tsk tsk!

GTiTDi said:

installed new inserts in old bushings? tsk tsk!

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That's what the inserts are for

If I felt like removing the bushings, I'd have replaced them with polys entirely lol. I had those inserts laying around because they never made it into my old MK3 so it didn't cost me any new parts. Also had the SS lines laying around.

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No offense but you have the beam on the ground, install new bushings while you have the easy opportunity. They only get older and more difficult once the car is back together.

I speak from experience on this one

G60ING said:

No offense but you have the beam on the ground, install new bushings while you have the easy opportunity. They only get older and more difficult once the car is back together.

I speak from experience on this one

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Yea, I hear that. I actually wasn't going to mess with the bushings at all (still in decent shape actually) but then remembered I had the inserts burried in one of my parts boxes so just threw them in. Another factor was time, I had a guy coming to buy my rims and didn't have any other 4x100s to put on in the meantime so I had him help me swap the beam when he came by to get the rims. The neighbors don't tend to like cars sitting on stands...

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Just curious, what are everyone's thoughts on brake proportioning valves? I've done 3 drum to disk conversion and I've had both bypassed (2 unions where the proportioning valve used to be) and with the proper disk one. I cannot tell a difference one way or the other just by feeling the car. I know I gotta get the drum proportioning valve out, so just looking for other opinions. I know I could get a manual adjustable one, but I'm not getting into racing anytime soon and don't have the extra money to spend on that anyway.

90% of the time you won't care, but what about the 1 or 2 times a year when there is that extreme panic stop?

G60ING said:

90% of the time you won't care, but what about the 1 or 2 times a year when there is that extreme panic stop?

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Got ya. I'll be buying one of those then... the old ones are always fun to get out. Sawzaw is always needed.

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Got to work on stripping down my extra ABA harness to recycle for use extending my TDI harness. Will also use the circular modular connectors for motor and front clip quick disconnects.





Got ECU portion of the TDI harness tucked in the rain tray. Extended wiring for glow plug controller and N75 boost control valve. Now all that's left for that section is extending the MAF harness and cleaning up with fresh tape. Also have to solder the MAP sensor wiring into the ECU and tie that into the existing harness. All vacuum and boost lines will be hidden in the rain tray as much as possible.







Next step once this is completed is to pull the light/front clip harness (already tucked in frame rail by previous owner) and combine it with the engine harness (pictured below) and tuck the whole thing in the frame rail and add my modular quick disconnect connectors.





Also received my brake line flare tool to run all new lines.




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I would use VW electrical tape. It would make swap out look a lot better. It would give better wire protection. Keep up the good work.

MonsterTDI09 said:

I would use VW electrical tape. It would make swap out look a lot better. It would give better wire protection. Keep up the good work.

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Got a part number? I was wondering if there was a VW tape as I was doing this yesterday. I will definitely be adding loom to any sections on the motor itself.

I was originally thinking about deleting the large circular (20 pin?) connector on the trans side of the head and run a single modular connector for the entire engine. After digging around for options on multi pin wire to wire terminations, my options are either hard to find or expensive so I'm going a different route. I will be extending the entire engine harness to be run through the drivers frame rail, along the front cross member, and up the front motor mount. Will be keeping the large circular connector on the head, and I am harvesting the circular multi pin connector (both male and female ends) from my ABA harness for the rest of the required engine wiring.

The idea is to be able to pull the front clip with one electrical connector, and pull the motor with as few as possible (so far, its looking like I will have 2 modular connectors for the motor, the one on the head, and one towards the bottom for starter, oil pressure switch/gauge, a.c. clutch, etc.). So the only thing that would require tools to unplug is the starter/alternator/battery power and ground. I'm thinking about fixing that with some forklift charger connectors though.

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Speed read the pages about capacitors and "i remember when" but the hino turbo, pd150 parts and the car are awesome! subbed

what ever happened?

The4ork said:

what ever happened?

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Oh my how things have changed lol. I now have two children and no longer own my 2011, finally got the car (back) on the road full time after my turbo decided to unbolt itself at the turbine housing after a few heat cycles. Ended up going with a GT2052 and drove it with that as a daily driver for about 25k miles over 18 months, and then right after COVID hit I ended up tearing it apart for a head gasket and clutch failure and found a cracked piston in #1 and #3 had a nice little score mark. Putting it all together now with lots of supporting upgrades and painting everything so it will be nice. Also installing air conditioning with all new components. Maybe I will update the thread soon, I have plenty of pics to post.

Edit: Here's a bit of a teaser. This was before the recent teardown as it was when I was daily driving it.


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