Posted on November 22, 2019December 22, 2019 by Sal Robertson

Mk1 02a 02j Mk3 and MK4 Motor Swap Tips

I made a couple hardware overviews for our trans mounts, and engine swap kits, and I still have a few questions that I either didn’t address in one video or a tip I forgot, I am going to add a couple more videos soon, but this may make finding the info you’re looking for a little easier, if you have questions before during or after install please feel free to email me! Sal@s-pautomotive.com

General install Tips:

Press your bushings in before you mount the brackets onto the motor or chassis
If you have an 02j trans the upper trans mount holes are threaded, you need to drill them out to use the hardware provided
Grease the inner speedo cable with a silicone grease before installing!
I find it easier to set the radiator in the core support before I install the motor – but not bolt it down
For a cleaner install on a motor if you’re not using the AC/PS systems, (external WP motors ABA, HU, AEB cant be cut as much due to the waterpump) cut the bracket off just below the alternator mounting points to the block. (ALHs you will cut the PS off the top)
Always start all the bolts in a bracket, manifold,cover etc before tightening any of them down
If you are using the mk1 fuel lines, the best place to cut them I have found is just before the cross behind the steering knuckle, you can carefully hand bend them up toward the passenger strut tower and trim again to your desired length
Work the exhaust system from front to back, hang everything loose in the clamps and work each section into final placement front to back as well
If you’re using one of our harnesses the “Trigger” needs to have power in both the key positions START and RUN – this is often the problem for a no start, someone didn’t check that the wire they chose had power during the crank key cycle. A good source for this is your former coil power wire on gasoline cars, on diesels the injection pump power wire works well.

Posted on November 22, 2019November 26, 2019 by Sal Robertson

Mk1 Vr6 Hardware Videos and Install Tips

I made a couple hardware overviews for our MK1 Vr6 kits, and I still have a few questions that I either didn’t address in one video or a tip I forgot, I am going to add a couple more videos soon, but this may make finding the info you’re looking for a little easier, if you have questions before during or after install please feel free to email me! Sal@s-pautomotive.com

General install Tips:

Press your bushings in before you mount the brackets onto the motor or chassis
If you have an 02j trans the upper trans mount holes are threaded, you need to drill them out to use the hardware provided
Grease the inner speedo cable with a silicone grease before installing!
I find it easier to set the radiator in the core support before I install the motor – but not bolt it down
For a cleaner install on a AAA motor if you’re not using the AC/PS systems cut the bracket off just below the alternator mounting points to the block.
Always start all the bolts in a bracket, manifold,cover etc before tightening any of them down
If you are using the mk1 fuel lines, the best place to cut them I have found is just before the cross behind the steering knuckle, you can carefully hand bend them up toward the passenger strut tower and trim again to your desired length
Work the exhaust system from front to back, hang everything loose in the clamps and work each section into final placement front to back as well
If you’re using one of our harnesses the “Trigger” needs to have power in both the key positions START and RUN – this is often the problem for a no start, someone didn’t check that the wire they chose had power during the crank key cycle. A good source for this is your former coil power wire on gasoline cars, on diesels the injection pump power wire works well.

Posted on November 13, 2019November 14, 2019 by Sal Robertson

Wiring Harness Questions and Mailing Instructions

Planning on sending us your harness or ECU? Take a quick glance over this page, making sure that you have everything sent to us at the same time, to help expedite your order.

Please fill out our Mail In Request Form. Mail the package with the form inside, to the address listed on the form..

What type of harness do I have?

Most pre 1999.5 engines

Engine Control Unit (ECU). (Most mk3)
Harness from Engine to ECU.
Accelerator Pedal connector with at least 10 cm of wire. (TDI ONLY)
(Left: Mk3; Right Mk4)
If you want to convert to a mk4 style pedal for your mk3 TDI just let us know, its easier to get replacement pedals, and we have a bolt in bracket from your MK4 to MK1 accelerator pedal.

Engine Control Unit Engine harness Accelerator pedal plug (MK3 style)

If you are missing some of these items, no problem! We usually can supply them to you at a reasonable cost.

Most post 1999.5 engines

Engine Control Unit (ECU)
Large connector ECU Harness, has 4 or 5 colored plugs to rain tray plenum, (or under the beetle dash cap)
Small connector ECU Harness has the majority of the connections to the engine.
Glow Plug Relay (TDI Swaps only) with it’s base and at least 6″ of wire. (pictured is an 02-up, pre-02 is under the dash)
Accelerator Pedal connector with at least 6″ of wire. (pictured on the left is the mk3 connector, Right is the mk4 connector)

If you are missing some of these items, no problem! We usually can supply them to you at a reasonable cost.

Other parts you will need You will need these parts to complete your installation. However, we don’t need them to work on your wire harness, so please don’t send these parts to us, unless you just enjoy paying for shipping costs..

Accelerator pedal (mk4 on the right, mk3 on the left)
Turbo control valve (N75) (gas 1.8t on left, TDI on right)
EGR control valve (N18) *
Intake Manifold Flap Valve *
Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor
Intercooler
Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor *

* To make your installation process simpler for you, we can delete these items from your harness. However check local laws before doing so as you may not be able to pass certain emission tests.

How to remove your harness –

How to correctly send us your wire harness

The fastest and cheapest way to send a wire harness is with the Post Office. If you live outside of the USA, you will more than likely have to fill out a customs declaration form, this process is quite simple! An important note: you are not selling us these parts, rather you are sending them for repair and to be returned! So when filling out the form simply write: Automotive wire harness sent for repair, no commercial value. In the value field, put one dollar. In the insurance field, insure it for whatever amount you feel comfortable with.

To help us plan our time around the arrival of your harness please forward the tracking information to our email.

If you insist on sending with a courier such as UPS / FedEx you will be 100% responsible for all fees incurred.

What happens when the harness gets here?

Before starting the harness we will email you to ensure both parties are on the same page. If there are any missing parts or concerns that we may have with the harness, this will be discussed before any work commences. The harness will be sent back and labeled as a “repaired automotive wire harness.” Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know!

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Sal Robertson

Davids 81 Scirocco

David called and said his 16v was making some “extra” noise, which he believed to be a rod bearing that took an unscheduled leave of absence.. David is from the great white north and had the car shipped down to us to look it over and try to come up with a game plan for his best options moving forward. We weighed rebuilding the 16v, adding modern fuel management, even forced induction. After several conversations about options he actually decided that a VR6 would be a nice mid ground to having a NA car, with modern injection control, and a fun to drive powerband.

So I got to work:

Ok, so I had to take advantage of the fact there were 3 red roccos here at the same time..

Now I really got to work…

With the old 16v out, the bay had a few issues from previous owners, while I do not sell myself as a paint and body shop, I will make repairs and spray an engine bay for a customer.

Back side of the repairs seam sealed and ready for service.
With the holes fixed, the bay was ready to paint.

A new coat of paint goes a long way in an old engine bay.

Onto getting the new driveline ready, I had an 04 touareg motor with under 80k on it. With a touareg motor into a tranverse chassis there are a few pieces you need to swap from either a 2.8 BDF or mk4 r32 motor. Oil filter housing, oil pump and pan, exhaust manifolds, accessory bracket (if you want to keep AC, otherwise you can use the treg bracket and accessories) lower timing cover needs to be ground down to clear the trans.

As a rule I always replace service or wear items on a motor before I install it, so this motor got chains, guides, rear main seal, plugs, coil packs, waterpump, water transfer pipe, thermostat housing, thermostat, valve cover and manifold gaskets.

With all of that done, I was ready to fit the motor.

As you can see the radiator is in before I fit the motor, I cover this in our install videos but this gets overlooked more often than I’d like to hear about. I am using one of the S&P Mk1 Vr6 radiators with a single fan and a 70c fan switch.

David insisted that we find an Audi intake manifold to dress the motor up a bit over the boring Touareg manifold, good call on his part, looks great on top of the VR lump.

I knocked out a hidden MAF intake, a remote fill bottle for the coolant system which finished off the plumbing to the radiator and heater core. These along with the valve cover and upper strut brace got a wrinkle black powder coated finish from TopNotchCustoms located here in town.

Onto wiring, as with many of these cars the wiring had been touched by alot of people, and they all left their mark..

I removed a lot of the old management wiring, some was even left from the 81 motor that was long gone, there were abandon relays, multiple wire taps for radios or accessories at some point. All of it needed to go and start with just what was needed for the current setup in the car.

With the interior wiring in a better place, I moved onto the battery which was moved to the back, using an S&P Battery Box I mounted the Optima Red Top into place with a main breaker mounted on the box itself, this prevents having a 2ga torch running the length of the car if you have a short between the battery and the fusebox/starter/alternator junction point.

The original headlights were tired, I installed some LED low beams and h4 high beams with a pair of Hella relays to keep the load off the switch, this also gave me time to put the face back on the ‘rocco.

Time to get under the car and install the exhaust system. Using a 2.5″ stainless kit from TT with a Borla muffler gets the VR notes out in the perfect way without getting that drone while cruising the highway.

Onto suspension brakes and bearings, I installed a set of Mk1 Solowerks Coilovers along with new bearings into the ‘rocco spindles, the car was already setup for 10.1″ 16v brakes so just a hardware refresh was needed there.

The seatbelt retracts were sticky, and unresponsive so we sent them out to Safety Restore and had them install some red belts for a bit of color on the inside, David once again was right, it looks great without being LOUD.

With all the safety issues covered it was ready for some road tests.

With all the safety issues covered it was ready for some road tests.

Exhaust Video

Driving Video

I was able to take it to a local show before it had to be loaded up and head home to the Great White North.

This has been one of my personal favorites, its not overstated, its not slammed beyond function, its a ton of fun to drive (yes even in the corners thanks to sway bars and reasonable ride height), it sounds great, it looks good enough to be brought to any GTG or show, but doesn’t have brand new don’t touch me with anything but a diaper paint. Overall a well sorted car, I hope David gets many years of enjoyment out of it.

Parts available from S&P

Mk1 Vr6 Hardware Kit – Base

Cable Clutch Kit

S&P Radiator – Vr6 Mk1

Vr6 AAA Based coolant hoses

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Sal Robertson

Bruce’s Black 84 GTI

Bruce wasn’t a euro guy, that was until he happened across an 84 GTI that needed some love. Unfortunately some shady people took advantage of Bruce’s good nature and after starting on a 1.8t swap, his car sat and alot of the parts were “missing” .

He brought it to me and after assessing the missing parts, and the general state of the car he decided that he would rather start over with a different driveline and settled on a 12v VR6 that I serviced up with new chains, guides, ignition wires, plugs, new gaskets, fresh clutch and then bolted the S&P Vr6 hardware kit to the VR lump and set it into the mk1 shell.

The car also got a fresh set of 9.4″ gti brakes, a full set of Solowerks Mk1 coilovers and strut mounts. We cleaned up some chassis wiring issues and sent it home with Bruce, he says he enjoys the look on mustang drivers faces when they cant shake the little mk1 econobox..

A few pics of the install below..

S&P Parts Used On The MK1 VR6 Build

MK1 VR6 Bolt in Conversion Kit

Mk1 VR6 Radiator

SoloWerks Mk1 Coilovers

Mk1 Mk2 MK3 VR6 Hidden MAF Intake Pipe and Filter

VR6 Flywheel and Clutch Kits Stock to Stage 4

Mk1 12v Vr6 Downpipe

Mk1 Mk2 02A 02J CABLE CLUTCH CONVERSION Kit

MK1 SHIFT LINKAGE KIT

Posted on November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 by Sal Robertson

Black Friday Sales!

BLACK FRIDAY SALES SCHEDULE

Sitewide we are having a 10 percent off sale, when you go to checkout, use the code turkeycoma – any current sales will still be active and your discount will be off your CART total, not off one specific product or category. (shipping is obviously not part of your cart total, nor are applicable taxes for TN residents)

Solowerks is offering a MAIL IN rebate on top of our discount, starting the 21st of November through the month of December (our discount sale only goes until the 1st of DEC, if you want the discount and the rebate you need to order before our sale ends) Once you purchase and receive your coilovers, print your receipt and mail it in with a form included in your shipping box to Solowerks and they will cut you a check for 50.00 (25 on caddy kits)

Malone Tuning is offering 10 percent off all tunes during our promotion!

Tower shifters and cables are included in this sale!! Powdercoating will take a few extra days with the holidays so keep that in mind!

Check out the products!

Posted on April 17, 2018June 3, 2022 by Sal Robertson

Install Videos !!

We have needed to do this since the first day we said, “Why don’t we ship out parts for everyone to put a tdi into their mk1” …

Well almost 10 years later, and we have a good start on a video library for using and installing our parts..

4cly Motor/Trans Parts Overview :

Hydro Clutch Kit

Mk1 DBW Pedal Install

Mk1 02a/ 02j Linkage Install

Mk1 Vr6 Hardware Overview:

Mk1 VR6 Harware Install 1&2:

Wiring Harness Removal Videos –

Mk4

Mk3

Recaro Seat Frame Install

Installing one of our “Standalone” style harnesses into a mk1 (this is a 24v but all of the connections to the car will be the same as any of our swap harnesses)

A shorter more concise version is here

MK1 02j Shift Box Install

Posted on November 12, 2017April 27, 2018 by Sal Robertson

1980 Caddy TDI Swap

We are building a tdi swap for a customer, he sent us his 1980 caddy, an ALH out of a 00 beetle, and instruction to make it a functional truck, and a great daily driver.

Alh TDI swap
New brakes with rear disc
Working Ac
New heater system
020 trans w/LSD

Onto the evidence :

Getting the truck and motor ready for a steam cleaning, 250 degree pressure washer will cut right through the old grease.

Prepping the motor for mk1 install:

Remove power steering, trim bracket off
Clock Turbo oulet
Remove Egr
Remove small idler

Trimming the cover for the motor mount:

Cut along the ridge of the timing cover, then straight down through the relief for the lower roller bearing
reinstall and check the fit with the S&P Mk1 – Mk4 bracket

Clock the turbo by removing the bracket and VNT vacuum pod from the exhaust side,
Then loosen the 6 bolts on the charge side and rotate the housing so that it is pointed up instead of down.

We installed our 020 clutch kit, the transmission, hung the rebuilt alternator and the new starter. Waiting on the intake cleaning, and we are almost ready to set a motor in the car.

Motor is IN!

Last thing to do is get the pedal mounted for the DBW ALH ecu..

For this to fit the way you want, you will need to trim the floor vent on the factory airbox.. its hard to see in a picture but once you hold the pedal up there you will see exactly what we mean.

Truck is outside for final fluid checks and setting the timing on the pump, hopefully we will have some driving videos from the owner soon!

Posted on July 4, 2017July 25, 2017 by Sal Robertson

VR-lequin

S&P’s take on a VR6 Harlequin.

Almost everyone has seen one, whether or not they knew it was a purpose built car and not an accident, who knows…

In 1996 Volkswagen built a small batch of cars for a promotional purpose. They were built on a 4 door Golf GL chassis, the only real interior difference was the seat upholstery, it was the same fabric used in the “joker” trim on European models of the same era. The outside is where the “magic” happened, VW took panels from 4 base color cars (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow) and swapped the removable panels between the other base color cars, leaving you with a very loud exterior.

Fast forward to 2015, and I have an opportunity to buy a very sad, yellow base harlequin locally. It had been resprayed at some point to be all yellow, but the colored panels were peeking through the worn paint. The driveline was tired, the interior was beyond tired, it was time for either a restoration, or euthanasia…

I sent the car off in pieces to my local painter, he began smoothing out life’s abuses and owners neglect, fixing shopping cart dings, and poorly placed jack stands. We needed a new hatch, or at least a tub that wouldn’t fall out every time you closed the hatch or went over a bump.

I found someone parting a 4 door golf, that had a lot of Euro market parts, hatch, bumpers, core supports, rebars, etc. We took it all.

Next on the list was the interior, after looking and not finding anyone wanting to sell their limited edition seats, I spoke with Kip at Loves Trim Shop and worked out a plan for some new threads. Mk2 Recaros on mk3 bases, leather wrapped, suede inlays and stitching to match the colors outside, without making the interior too loud to enjoy driving it.

That left me to get started on the driveline, the stock ABA was no different in the harlequin cars than it was in a standard Golf GL.

I had a 2.8 24v from a GTI that was wrecked, I had the machine shop go through the block, hone and a ring job, new bearings, new chains, guides, gaskets etc.

I couldn’t help myself, since I had it all in pieces I painted each section of the motor in the matching colors of the car, engine block, head, upper timing cover, lower timing cover, valve cover, intake, accessories, brackets…
I was seeing spots from all of the painting and planning.

Now that the car had been painted back to its original colors, engine painted and assembled and interior back from Love’s, it was time to make it a whole car again.
This is always the fun part, assembly is very gratifying.

Since the interior itself wasn’t very “loud”, Brandon Rosensteel at EuroGlow made an overlay for me.

Once the car was fully assembled, we could enjoy the best part of a vr6 swap – DRIVING!

During this build, a lady had contacted me about wanting to purchase the car when it was done. That is another story all together and arguably better than the one I just told you.
She and “Polly” now are in the Knoxville area, so if you see them, say hello!

Posted on March 18, 2017May 29, 2017 by Sal Robertson

Matts 1981 VRirocco

Matt wanted to be able to jump in his Scirocco and drive it everyday, without worrying about the failing CIS system leaving him on the side of the road. To overhaul the 1.8 and rebuild the CIS system was a realistic option, however after looking at the cost of the rebuild he realized he was well on his way to a later model motor swap. Even better. Better mileage from an 02 controlled fuel system, more power, easier to find parts. Win-win!

On to the evidence!!

Slightly better after a washing!

Ready to Paint!

Our MK1 VR6 motor mounts ready to go!

Motor hanging!

Integrated Cable Boss on our mk1 02a mounts, we also offer a smooth version for our mk1 hydro kit

Its ready to go home!

Mk1 Vr6 Scirocco conversion, stainless shift rod kit, full 2.5″ stainless exhaust, silicone coolant lines, hidden 3″ maf intake pipe, 2.25″ tucked radiator with fan and shroud. everything you need to have a fun in your mk1!

Interested in installing one into your own mk1? Interested in having us install one into your mk1?

Check the kit out here !! Contact us anytime : info@s-pautomotive.com