Been busy the past week and a half. Ran into lots of little issues along the way, thankfully my landlords let me borrow one of their TDIs for emergency parts runs.
G60 single mass flywheel and clutch
Rebuilt outer CV joints, replaced inners as the inner race/spiders were scored
Power Plus 520 nozzles and injectors StageIII with modified pilot injection (Drive by Wire hotswap)
NewSouth EGT and boost gauges in the dual coulumn pod (think I'll make something better later)
Turbo oil feed and drain lines (snapped the feedline trying to loosen the fitting)
IdParts 2.5" downpipe with cat
Eurosport 2.5" catback exhaust (if you are considering this, be aware that the inlet is 2")
Fremax high carbon rotors with IdParts ceramic pads (had to repair a stripped front caliper slide pin thread)
Cleaned the intake
Installed rear towing springs (I'll be dragging a 1978 Serro Scotty travel trailer around the country for the next month)
Brake fluid flush
New G70 gear oil in the transmission
DieselGeek Sigma5 short shifter
DieselGeek Panzer skid
CCV breather tube
New vacuum lines
Oil change, engine and cabin air filter, diesel filter
Probably forgetting a couple of the smaller things. Felt good to be working on the car again. Spent the last four years in school for engineering and had no time (or money) for anything other than basic maintenance.
So many little things needed fixing along the way, drug the project out longer than it needed to go. The mechanic at the shop I bought the car from damaged the threads on one of the caliper slide pins, which stripped out the threads in the knuckle. I was contemplating replacing the knuckle at first, but a helicoil fixed it since the pin pretty much only sees shearing forces.
Lost half a day looking for the stupid stainless ferrule for the EGT pyrometer fitting. Nobody was home so I couldn't even go looking for a replacement.
I thought I was going to get away with just replacing CV boots since they were just stiff from age, but there was galling at the center of the inner races, so I had to replace the inner joints.
Now I just need to replace the front driver's side wheel bearing, lower ball joints, get some new tires, an alignment, and get the injection quantity settled once VCDS finishes updating so I can get on the road. I'll have to wait a week or two before I can get the car tuned (Malone stage III custom with modified EGR and cold idle) since Mark is on vacation.
Driving the car with the nozzles and exhaust (well, downpipe. Waiting for a coupling so I can cut the 2" section off the exhaust to connect it to the 2.5" downpipe) even without any adjustments is amazing. The power is there right off idle. I haven't really gotten on it yet since the clutch needs to break in. With just the downpipe, hearing the turbo spool up and down is pretty awesome, although the volume will get old shortly.
The pedal pressure on the new clutch is nothing. It almost feels like I messed something up flushing the brake/clutch fluid, but the pressure is amazingly light. Will be nice in traffic. Glad to have more than 3/4" of pedal throw once the clutch starts engaging. The old clutch was pretty worn.
Still amazed at how many single use bolts there are on this car.
