Got into Polo's after buying one as a cheap temporary daily runner, that was four years ago 
, been through a few since.
Bought this clean low mileage 1990 1300 SPI Loon about a year ago, bought cheap as it had running issues the last owner could'nt resolve, had removed the side trims and wheel trims by the time i took this pic.
Has the original dealer reg plates and sticker on the windscreen (Guilders Sheffield) which i always think are a nice thing to have on an old car.
Nice original interior, removed the centre console (prefer the legroom), fitted a GT wheel, clocks and a rare radio blanking plate.
Thought the running issue would be a simple fix but spent months mincing about with it changing coils, leads, dizzys, fuel pump (even the in tank one), lambda's, temp sensors, ECU, AFM, throttle body, checking timing, hunting for air leaks, blocked Cat etc, etc, all resulting in no joy, still running curse word, then in a state of desperation/madness bought this rotten GT to strip for bits.
The GT had 160,000 miles on the clock, the loon has 64,000 so i made the drastic decision to use the complete GT top end, head, cam, loom, ECU etc, converting the Loon from SPI to MPI and keeping the low mileage bottom end.
Incredibly it was still running curse word after all this
, spent ages trying to solve it, still don't know what the problem was, guessing the original motor was ran low on oil at some point causing pressure problems and the problem was the bottom end all along
Was close to setting fire to/fragging it
, but thought it was worth persevering as MK3 Loons are relatively rare (only made for two years) and it was otherwise a very solid, clean example.
Anyhow made the hard decision to break my other Polo coupe for spares which which was running great and had a known good 90,000 mile GT engine.
R.I.P
, bit of a shame, faithfull friend for three years, the only real thing wrong with it was a bit of rot around the fuel door, the leaking sunroof was starting to do my head in though.
Complete GT motor in the Loon which is now running superb
End result after all the ballache, lowered 60/40, wheels are 7x13 Borbet Atiwee's with 195/45/13 Continentals, 5mm spacers on the front, 30mm spacers on the rear.
Just needs some clear or smoked side flashers and it's pretty much done for now
, been through a few since.Bought this clean low mileage 1990 1300 SPI Loon about a year ago, bought cheap as it had running issues the last owner could'nt resolve, had removed the side trims and wheel trims by the time i took this pic.
Has the original dealer reg plates and sticker on the windscreen (Guilders Sheffield) which i always think are a nice thing to have on an old car.
Nice original interior, removed the centre console (prefer the legroom), fitted a GT wheel, clocks and a rare radio blanking plate.
Thought the running issue would be a simple fix but spent months mincing about with it changing coils, leads, dizzys, fuel pump (even the in tank one), lambda's, temp sensors, ECU, AFM, throttle body, checking timing, hunting for air leaks, blocked Cat etc, etc, all resulting in no joy, still running curse word, then in a state of desperation/madness bought this rotten GT to strip for bits.
The GT had 160,000 miles on the clock, the loon has 64,000 so i made the drastic decision to use the complete GT top end, head, cam, loom, ECU etc, converting the Loon from SPI to MPI and keeping the low mileage bottom end.
Incredibly it was still running curse word after all this
, spent ages trying to solve it, still don't know what the problem was, guessing the original motor was ran low on oil at some point causing pressure problems and the problem was the bottom end all along Was close to setting fire to/fragging it
, but thought it was worth persevering as MK3 Loons are relatively rare (only made for two years) and it was otherwise a very solid, clean example. Anyhow made the hard decision to break my other Polo coupe for spares which which was running great and had a known good 90,000 mile GT engine.
R.I.P
, bit of a shame, faithfull friend for three years, the only real thing wrong with it was a bit of rot around the fuel door, the leaking sunroof was starting to do my head in though. Complete GT motor in the Loon which is now running superb
End result after all the ballache, lowered 60/40, wheels are 7x13 Borbet Atiwee's with 195/45/13 Continentals, 5mm spacers on the front, 30mm spacers on the rear.
Just needs some clear or smoked side flashers and it's pretty much done for now
