Hi everyone, First post here, have spent all evening reading about everyones cars and its a great site!
This is my current project- its not quite finished yet but should be done in the next week or so. Heres a bit of background info . . . .
I got the B3 GT 2 years ago with 168k on the clock, its been my daily and its now on 193k on the original engine.
This is when I first got it and gave it a good clean:
It still pulls like a train (8 valve torque!!!) however, it smokes like a steam train as well, have been worried I was going to get pulled over on a few occasions! Stem seals were on their way out, I was wondering wether to rebuild the old lump or fit something a bit more fruity ;D
In the time ive had it, I found a mint GT interior with no wear on the drivers bolster, I replaced the heater matrix after it split and left me stuck at the side of the M25 for 4 hours, and fitted Koni suspension with PI -40mm springs. Ive had a good poke all around the thing, and the shell is 100% rust free, although theres a few parking dings hopefully ill get them all sorted next year. I also colour coded the GT side trims and put a B4 bumper on the front, Ive got a rear B4 bumper to go on it too but never got round to painting it black! I fitted door speaker pods with alpine components and I have a Phoenix gold 4 channel amp to go in, but havent got round to sorting the wiring. had a nice set of 16" borbets to go on it, but I sold them after a change of plans, as they were 4-stud, and the new plans meant going 5-stud. The change of plans happened when I found this:
which had this nestled in the front of it:
2.0 16v ABF, 150BHP and all the right bits to make it fit in a B3 Passat- same engine as in a mk3 golf GTi but the golf subframe wont fit in a passat as its too narrow. Also has the 288mm front brakes and a few other goodies
We picked it up for a very good price (the engine alone was worth twice what I paid for it!) as it had failed its MOT on a few things, but we drove it the 200miles home from Shrewsbury (on trade plates! 
) and it easily outpaced my old GT and got better MPG too!
A few weeks, and two very wet evenings in a scrapyard near peterborough later it looked like this:
A massive thanks to Dave AKA Turbotommy from clubgti forum for helping me out with his recovery lorry and forklift truck after I got let down by a mate and had to move it from where we had started stripping it.
Ive spent the last couple of bits stripping, cleaning, painting and rebuilding the engine and all the ancilliaries to go back in the B3. The engine spec is as follows:
totally rebuilt with new mains, big ends and rings
all oil seals replaced
new water pump
new cambelt, tensioner etc
new sachs clutch
metal headgasket
fully ported and polished cylinder head with deshrouded valves and 3-angle valve seats
New crank position sensor (should explain the previous MOT fail on emissions)
New-old-stock genuine VW exhaust with raceland decat pipe
don't know what the final power will be but hoping for over 170 once its been remapped
all new genuine belts and new water pump:
Of course, this meant the tired old PB lump had to come out of the GT, which is what I spent today doing!
When I fisrt got the engine out:
old lump:
I then cleaned the bay and repainted a few areas, took the shocks apart to fit my JOM lowering caps which combined with the slightly heavier 16v engine should help stop the nose-high stance it always appeared to have. The ones I got were actually the mk4 golf ones as the B4 PI lowering springs I have use the small 92mm top coil and ive got the later topmounts on it too with separate bearings. Looking at the lowering caps I should get about 10mm lower, but the spring is still located properly on the shock.
Not the best pic as its off my fone but heres the now-clean bay:
I also fitted the ARB back on to the new subframe with new ARB bushes, these were a proper pig to fit as they're such a snug fit in the subframe, ended up having to use a gear puller to get the bracket low enough to get the screw through!
I had to change the subframe as the ABF rear engine mount is different, and the block is 15mm taller so the later subframe allows the engine to sit slightly lower so theres no clearance issues with the bonnet or downpipe.
Old subframe, note rear engine mount:
new clean and painted subframe, think its the same as a VR6 subframe:
Next issue I had was the universal joint for the steering column where it attaaches to the steering rack, the new rack was the later TRW one which uses coarse splines, and my early one had fine splines. Easy solution was to split the lower shaft just above the UJ and bolt the new one on so the column matches the new rack
With that sorted I managed to get the subframe all bolted on, next job is wishbones and exhaust 8)
Today I changed all the radiator cowling over to the bigger 16v radiator, its about 3 inches taller than the 8v one, but they changed the radiator support/crossmember bit on the mk4 so the top of the radiator will still fit under the slam panel Also made a cold air feed for the airbox and got rid of the warm air valve, as well as renewed the rear engine mount, no pics though as it was too rainy!
This is my current project- its not quite finished yet but should be done in the next week or so. Heres a bit of background info . . . .
I got the B3 GT 2 years ago with 168k on the clock, its been my daily and its now on 193k on the original engine.
This is when I first got it and gave it a good clean:
It still pulls like a train (8 valve torque!!!) however, it smokes like a steam train as well, have been worried I was going to get pulled over on a few occasions! Stem seals were on their way out, I was wondering wether to rebuild the old lump or fit something a bit more fruity ;D
In the time ive had it, I found a mint GT interior with no wear on the drivers bolster, I replaced the heater matrix after it split and left me stuck at the side of the M25 for 4 hours, and fitted Koni suspension with PI -40mm springs. Ive had a good poke all around the thing, and the shell is 100% rust free, although theres a few parking dings hopefully ill get them all sorted next year. I also colour coded the GT side trims and put a B4 bumper on the front, Ive got a rear B4 bumper to go on it too but never got round to painting it black! I fitted door speaker pods with alpine components and I have a Phoenix gold 4 channel amp to go in, but havent got round to sorting the wiring. had a nice set of 16" borbets to go on it, but I sold them after a change of plans, as they were 4-stud, and the new plans meant going 5-stud. The change of plans happened when I found this:
which had this nestled in the front of it:
2.0 16v ABF, 150BHP and all the right bits to make it fit in a B3 Passat- same engine as in a mk3 golf GTi but the golf subframe wont fit in a passat as its too narrow. Also has the 288mm front brakes and a few other goodies
We picked it up for a very good price (the engine alone was worth twice what I paid for it!) as it had failed its MOT on a few things, but we drove it the 200miles home from Shrewsbury (on trade plates! 
) and it easily outpaced my old GT and got better MPG too!A few weeks, and two very wet evenings in a scrapyard near peterborough later it looked like this:
A massive thanks to Dave AKA Turbotommy from clubgti forum for helping me out with his recovery lorry and forklift truck after I got let down by a mate and had to move it from where we had started stripping it.
Ive spent the last couple of bits stripping, cleaning, painting and rebuilding the engine and all the ancilliaries to go back in the B3. The engine spec is as follows:
totally rebuilt with new mains, big ends and rings
all oil seals replaced
new water pump
new cambelt, tensioner etc
new sachs clutch
metal headgasket
fully ported and polished cylinder head with deshrouded valves and 3-angle valve seats
New crank position sensor (should explain the previous MOT fail on emissions)
New-old-stock genuine VW exhaust with raceland decat pipe
don't know what the final power will be but hoping for over 170 once its been remapped
all new genuine belts and new water pump:
Of course, this meant the tired old PB lump had to come out of the GT, which is what I spent today doing!
When I fisrt got the engine out:
old lump:
I then cleaned the bay and repainted a few areas, took the shocks apart to fit my JOM lowering caps which combined with the slightly heavier 16v engine should help stop the nose-high stance it always appeared to have. The ones I got were actually the mk4 golf ones as the B4 PI lowering springs I have use the small 92mm top coil and ive got the later topmounts on it too with separate bearings. Looking at the lowering caps I should get about 10mm lower, but the spring is still located properly on the shock.
Not the best pic as its off my fone but heres the now-clean bay:
I also fitted the ARB back on to the new subframe with new ARB bushes, these were a proper pig to fit as they're such a snug fit in the subframe, ended up having to use a gear puller to get the bracket low enough to get the screw through!
I had to change the subframe as the ABF rear engine mount is different, and the block is 15mm taller so the later subframe allows the engine to sit slightly lower so theres no clearance issues with the bonnet or downpipe.
Old subframe, note rear engine mount:
new clean and painted subframe, think its the same as a VR6 subframe:
Next issue I had was the universal joint for the steering column where it attaaches to the steering rack, the new rack was the later TRW one which uses coarse splines, and my early one had fine splines. Easy solution was to split the lower shaft just above the UJ and bolt the new one on so the column matches the new rack
With that sorted I managed to get the subframe all bolted on, next job is wishbones and exhaust 8)
Today I changed all the radiator cowling over to the bigger 16v radiator, its about 3 inches taller than the 8v one, but they changed the radiator support/crossmember bit on the mk4 so the top of the radiator will still fit under the slam panel
Also made a cold air feed for the airbox and got rid of the warm air valve, as well as renewed the rear engine mount, no pics though as it was too rainy!
but ive got the entire dashboard loom from the b4 so might just be easier to swap the whole lot.
