2002 VW GTI VR6 24V - my return to fun with cars

Yep - there's no weight on that jack.  It's back in!!

Made some good progress.  All (most) of the connectors are back in place, intake on, exhaust connected, subframe back in....

Progress was slow and steady, with life and business trips extending the time line.  Then this week my wife was gone for work so I had free nights with no commitments.  

I bled on it, therefore it's now mine

Got it "assembled enough" - subframe bolts not completely tight (one time stretch bolts, don't want to torque them until I know it runs), hood latch missing, axles not final torqued, battery not in the box just set in place, air intake not connected.  Fired over and at least three gears function!  Clutch still needs some more bleeding but it 80% works which is 84% more than when I picked it up.  Got a little heat into it to get coolant flowing and to burn off some of the residual Kroil and crud.

This was a huge milestone for me.  First time I pulled an engine.  I started to make a mental list of all of the small details left to finish up, plus time to mount tires, shake down, address the hatch latch, refresh the brakes, troubleshoot the brake lights.... and realized I'm going to run out of time.  And I'm ok with that.  My vision statement, from the title, is "have fun with cars."  Thrashing around commitments for the next couple of weeks isn't going to be fun.  I would have to roll it right off the trailer and into competition, and that leaves too many variables for a bad and expensive weekend.  I'll take a couple of weeks off, clean the shop again and reset to check off the final details and get it to where it can see sunlight again and put a couple miles on it.

Hopefully over the next year I'll be able to keep the budget under the $2k "cash in the envelope" cap, if not I'll compete in regular class.  I'll buy a new set of tires for this summer and fall and save the cheap Azenis in case I can still make the total budget work.

I hit another goal - the day before the Challenge the car drove under it's own power.  Just not very well.  The engine was fine but the clutch action wasn't right.  I figured there was more air in the system and it would take some more bleeding.  In hindsight I'm glad I waved off the Challenge this year.  There was no spare  time for complications.

I got some time today to set up to do a serious clutch bleed session - and immediately realized there was a leak at the clutch master cylinder.  Off to buy a part.

51 weeks in.  Yep, that's my working pace.  Yesterday was the milestone day.  To recap, I had it all "back together" V.1 three weeks before the challenge.  I realized that there was going to be too much thrashing and no room for error, so I made the painful decision to skip 2024.  Turned out to be a good thing.  Once I started to bleed the clutch I discovered that the clutch master cylinder under the dash was leaking.  Got the replacement, installed it ("back together" V.2) ----- and then it wouldn't start.  I chased figuring it had to be something I did since it ran fine, I touched it, and then it didn't run.  Turns out that the fuel pump died, so that got a new one.  Not helping to stay within the challenge budget when parts keep failing but I still have some space.

Yesterday was "Back together" V.3

Off the jack and in the doorway ready for a first drive

And it runs!!!  First time to make a 1-2 shift and get it above 5 mph.  Drove it up and down the driveway, got the coolant up to temp, let all the repair work crud burn off.

Gave the clutch about 0.5 miles of break in and then this

Granted they are nine year old Primewells but it was still pretty satisfying.

Now the detail work begins.  Getting the bumper back on, getting the lights connected, and starting on the long list of little things it needs.  I know it's no big deal to a lot of the talented folks here, but I went to sleep last night with a huge sense of accomplishment.

In reply to glueguy (Forum Supporter) :

Don't sell yourself short, this is a big deal! One of the hardest things I had to learn about this hobby was that little steps were ok, and that any progress at all is good, no matter how "insignificant"

Thats AWESOME. 

glad to see fun being had!

Sounds like excellent progress to me!  I love me some GTI, cool little car! 

Now that it is reliably functioning, it's time to start tackling the long list to get it finished.

Hatch and hood day - when I bought it the hatch handle was a pull loop.  I took some time to stare at the latch to see what I could come up with.  The rod was disconnected so I put that back in its slot, and then repositioned the cam to actuate the release.  It works!  $0 spent.  Maybe time will tell there is a reason that the handle actuator broke, but so far, so good.

Replaced the dead hatch struts but kept the old ones just in case I need the $10.96 in the budget.  I found a Golf at LKQ with decent struts and figured I could save a couple dollars.  Nope, they were more expensive than new Rock Auto units shipped.  Go figure.  

The plastic window was hazy, so I did a little work with the buffer.  Much better.  It still needs more but that's a way down the line item now.

When I put the front end back together, the hood didn't want to latch the second latch.  I fiddled with it and a little better but not quite.  I added some force and it latched.  Joke was on me when the release inside the car didn't and now I had a hood that wouldn't open.  Luckily the grille was still off so I could reach in and grab the cable and force it to pop.  I decided it wasn't going to win, so $9.66 later I have the finest Amazon generic hood pins.  Started the process and then ran out of time so we'll finish this up in the next session.

Days with visual progress are very appealing.  Bumper back in place!  Hood pins also done.  Starting to work through the list.  Making the headlights function again and troubleshooting the taillights to make sure we're ready to meet that requirement.