2010 Jetta - teaching kids to drive

Our family had reached the stage in our lives when kids are growing and needs to be thought how to drive. As our daily drivers my and my wife are using out 2013 MB GL450 and 2010 MB ML350. As we all are aware prices for used cars and part went up significantly. On other hand teenagers (including us in our times) are not known to be very responsible drivers. We have decided that using our primary vehicles for learning would not be a good idea. 

This had started my search for the inexpensive small vehicle. A ton of chats, emails, lying sellers, unresponsive sellers, rude sellers.... Finally I got in touch with the seller in LA and ended up renting a u-haul dolly and drove to pick her up.

2010 Volkswagen Jetta with 90k miles and a blown head gasket.

Upon arrival I have checked the car and overall it was in a pretty good shape, despite being someone else's first car ;) Confirmed milkshake in the engine, took it for a short spin, loaded her up and brought her home.

Right after I got her home I started planning how to fix the engine and put her back onto the road.

I had few options:

1) Pull the head off, replace the head gasket and hope for the best. I am not aware of any machine shops nearby that can check the head for warp, resurface ets. At that time all I knew was that it has a 2.5 l 5 cylinder engine and that cylinder 1 has issues. I would need new gasket set, new head bolts, misc gaskets, coolant, tool to set up timing etc. Cost for all that was about $500

2) replace whole engine. I found an engine with supposedly 80k miles for $350. I would still need coolant and misc items but... no messing up with head removal and timing.

Upon considering my options I have decided to replace the whole engine.

Parked her in the garage and started the disassembly.

First "surprizes"

Spaces under the wheel well coverings were packed with leaves and dirt.

This is how she looked after few hours :)

On the weekend I borrowed a truck from a friend and went to pick up the engine.

What I bought was supposed to be an engine with 80k miles. What I got - not sure. Price was ok, so I checked the oil to make sure it did not have same issue and brought it home.

Few more hours and...

Replacement engine is in.

I am pretty sure that most of us, who work on cars have that itch inside that prompts us to complete the project as soon as we can :)

I took a day off to finish buttoning everything up.

Note to myself and others. If you end up needing to replace the engine in Jetta or a Golf or a Passat  - remove it together with the transmission. It will make project so much easier. Especially mating transmission to the engine. I used hot glue to temporarily attach the nut to a socket for installation. It is really easy to drop the nut into bell housing. Ask me how I know :)

It looked like all spark plugs and coils were replaced on the old engine and I have transferred them over to the replacement engine.

You know that feeling when you have everything connected and can turn the ignition key to start it for the first time after engine work... I turned the key, and... start for 1 second and stall.

Long story short - I have not connected fuel ramp to a correct port. It took hours of attempts, troubleshooting but finally it started and was revving up to 6k rpm and staying there. I have installed "old" intake manifold, "old" fuel injectors, "old" throttle body. Issue was still there. Asked a friend to help and we rolled it out to the driveway and left it there for a few hours. To my big surprise after it sat for a few hours it started as if nothing is wrong!!! Till this day I do not know what was the issue.

Finished putting her back together and took her for a first spin! It drove really good. I was happy with the progress.

Took it for an hour ride to set all emissions monitors into ready state. After the ride all, but O2, cat and EVAP were set. My daughter asked for her first ride lesson on a new car. One hour later - all monitors were "ready".

Next day it passed smog with flying colors!

Now it was time to address some issues.

1) AC and heater fan was working only at setting 4. It is a known issue and the fix is fairly simple - remove passenger foot well cover and replace the blower motor resistor 1K0959263A. It was also a good time to replace cabin air filter. Charged AC system with refrigerant and car got the AC back.

2) During installation motor got fresh oil Castrol 5w-40, new oil and air filter. I have also replaced the coolant expansion tank.

3) Replaced read brake pads. Decided on Duralast DG1456 ceramic.

I have discovered that VAG cars are little bit like lego - you can modify the car to your hearts desire. A lot of parts or systems from newer/better equipped cars can be retrofitted. I started making a list of "needed mods".

A) Replace radio with one that supports rear view camera

B) Replace simple steering wheel with multifunction one

C) Replace dash with MFA+

D) Additional keys, since car was bought with only one key

The first things I noticed it that your garage seems to have elegant cabinetry and wall to wall carpeting!  

Very nice.  

Looks like excellent material reuse.