85 Mk1 Full ABA swap Build Thread by Exton_Dubs

8 minute(s) of a 25 minute read

A glimpse into the future. Cleaning the valves today while they are out, then re-seating everything and hoping Santa brought me my 270 cam.

January 07, 2011

I have been on vacation so not much progress. Came home to some parts though so I need to get painting and reassembling this weekend. Still need to get a cam and finish pulling apart the exhaust manifold, then I am ready to start putting everything back together.

Updates to come shortly and Happy New Year! 

January 10, 2011

So the block is finally painted and believe it or not reassembly has begun. Painted all the pulleys and the adjustable cam gear yesterday. Today installed the oil pump, water pump, thermostat, VR6 water pump pulley, and the lightweight underdrive pulley. Just need to start ordering parts and button the motor up. Then the real fun begins as the actual swap takes place...

Here are two photo's from today, check out the flickr for more.

January 12, 2011

January 17, 2011

Making several large purchases this week to finish out this build. Keep an eye out because next weekend will be an all out wrench-a-thon...

January 28, 2011

Quite a bit of progress lately. The parts have been rolling in but have just not had enough time to both put them on, and update this thread. So I got all new gasket sets for the top and bottom and refreshed the motor. New valve stem seals, front and rear main seals, intermediate shaft, etc, etc.

Rebuilt the head a second time with some heavy duty high lift springs, just waiting on my 270 cam to get here from NGP to finish that. Just got done bolting down the head to the block and putting on some of the aux parts. Still have a box of stuff in the basement I am going to start tackling tonight, and a bunch more on the way.

Here are some pics of where I am at right now:

January 30, 2011

I ordered a fresh ABA lower hose, and I still have the old JH motor with the metal housing so one way or another I will get it hooked up, but good looking out anyways. Spent some time today redoing the lower main seals and related gaskets, getting the oil pan back on, modifying the new BFI valve cover and painting a few things. It actually looks like a motor now!

February 02, 2011

Installed the new TT cam last night and the adjustable cam gear. Put the new valve coveron and buttoned up everything. Just waiting to get my carb intake manifold fabricated and sort out a few more miscellaneous parts.

Swap is going down the first weekend of march if anyone is interested.

The breather block off is if you are intending to run CIS or ditch fuel injection all together. If you do the hybrid ABA/JH swap and keep CIS you need the block off plate since that is where the warm up unit mounts. The breather on the block is part of the PVC/evap system and is only required for a full swap using an ABA fuel injection sysetem and ECU. Since I am going with carbs I decided to block off the breather and go with a catch can system with an integrated breather. That kills 2 birds with one stone since I also deleted the PCV system from the valve cover.

The BFI valve cover has 2 outlets that will run to the oil catch can can and breath through that system instead.

I am putting 4 40MM R1 Yamaha race bike carbs on a custom fabricated intake. My friend has it on his MK1 Jetta ABA swap and it is cheap easy big power. All the electrical stays in tact so no need to re wire or swap cluster/ECU/fuseblock.making it essentially a plug and play swap.

I need to move over the oil pressure and temp sensors which are the same on both engines, and then splice in the ABA temperature sensor into the MK1 wires. In theory all the stock gauges should work as they did originally, and the engine will just do its own thing after some tuning with the wide band O2 setup.

March 21, 2011

Intake manifold is back from the fabricator, ABF alternator bracket came in from the UK, got my 170 jets from the Yamaha dealer. Just waiting for a few free days and this puppy is going in the Cabby.

April 02, 2011

last of my carb parts arrived this morning. Going to try and find time next week to put them together. Today I need to ride down to WV and pick up new wheels. Anyone have some conical lugs laying around? 

April 13, 2011

This weekend may be sketchy unless I sell these tires today. Right now I am broke as a joke. Need to stop over the brothel and pick up my left over parts, do the external assembly of the carbs. Think when we do the engine swap I am going to pull the front end off again and realign it properly. Passenger side is fine, but I was rushing at 3AM and its a bit wonky. How is next weekend looking? I will be getting paid then and should have sold some more parts at that point. Need to stop by coovers as well and get some new drivers side seals for the top. It is fine when we get a little rain, but when we have several days of consecutive downpours my seat gets soaked.

new fenders and hood installed, new wheels, euro bumpers w/smoked turns, quad round conversion, and grill spoiler.

April 25, 2011

Before:

During:

After:

Still need to finish this, but we are close. Just need another day or two... 

May 08, 2011

May 15, 2011

Figured out what was wrong with the charging system over the weekend. Installed a mechanical water temp gauge and ordered the ultra low temp thermostat. Going to get a custom exhaust made on Friday and it will be ugly, but ready for daily driving duty. Will post pics soon.

June 08, 2011

Giving it a bath this afternoon and will finally take some pics now that the swap is 100% done. Check back later today for more updates!

Sorry I kind of flaked out on this build thread

June 14, 2011

I started taking more pictures, but the camera died. Will continue to upload later