Aircooled VW South Africa

looks neat

So, we're getting there. I've taken tonnes of photo's but I've lost my freaking data cable so I'll add the pics at a later stage.

The radiator lines have been done as well as the fuel lines. I picked up my fuel filter and mounting bracket (180i Honda Civic, as it's small and looks neat and also attaches to my honda lines that I pulled off a Honda Civic a while back). Also picked up my radiator rubbers and top mounting bracket as well.

I'm just waiting on city used spares with my remapped and unlocked ECU and wiring harness that they are making up for me and as soon as that is done, I can get my fuel pump in and go and get my engine.

I've been asked to give a rundown on costs so far by a few guys so here goes.

1) Gilo adapter plate with flywheel for a 1.8 - R2260
2) Exhaust and branch - R1100
3) Civic VTEC dual core radiator with fan - R750
4) Various metal work for radiator cradle, engine bay mod - R120
5) Fuel filter, fuel lines, mounting bracket and radiator mounts - R340
6) 1.8 KOMBI clutch kit - R1300
7) Service kit for a 2.0 golf 8v - R350
cam belt and tensioner - R400
9) radiator lines (38mm exhaust pipe, 6m) - R1000
10) 2.0 8V golf motor - R5500
11) fibreglass cowling and metal intake - nothing, connections, normal price R800
12) Golf 1.4 velocity ECU and harness - R2500
R16320

A few smaller things may still yet be added, but I estimated this being under R15 000, so not too shabby.

Costing is really not bad. A hotted up aircooled motor will easily pass the R16k mark if done properly. Your time also must be taken into consideration, and judging by the work you have done, there are quite a few hours pumped into this conversion. Great work

DR WATSON wrote:Costing is really not bad. A hotted up aircooled motor will easily pass the R16k mark if done properly. Your time also must be taken into consideration, and judging by the work you have done, there are quite a few hours pumped into this conversion. Great work

My type 4 with all the toys would of hit around R30 000 once done. In all honesty, my time on this has been under 20 hours as I haven't had that much time to work on it. And all the time had been in the front with the radiator, (which is pretty much the part that takes the most effort to get right)

My main reason for doing this was always:

reliability
ease of obtaining service and repair parts and also someone to repair it if something big goes wrong
fuel economy
driveability

I can't wait till the engine is in so that I can start putting some miles on it and also get the rest of the car done as she's due for a respray soon as well.

very nice hope my pricing for the suby ej20 N/A looks similar just going to run spitronics management. wanted to run golf but will rather pay more to retain the boxer sound...looking good gary,gat juk seker om haar te ry?? ands with 85kw and 150 odd nm none the less...

flatfourfan wrote:So, we're getting there. I've taken tonnes of photo's but I've lost my freaking data cable so I'll add the pics at a later stage.

The radiator lines have been done as well as the fuel lines. I picked up my fuel filter and mounting bracket (180i Honda Civic, as it's small and looks neat and also attaches to my honda lines that I pulled off a Honda Civic a while back). Also picked up my radiator rubbers and top mounting bracket as well.

I'm just waiting on city used spares with my remapped and unlocked ECU and wiring harness that they are making up for me and as soon as that is done, I can get my fuel pump in and go and get my engine.

I've been asked to give a rundown on costs so far by a few guys so here goes.

1) Gilo adapter plate with flywheel for a 1.8 - R2260
2) Exhaust and branch - R1100
3) Civic VTEC dual core radiator with fan - R750
4) Various metal work for radiator cradle, engine bay mod - R120
5) Fuel filter, fuel lines, mounting bracket and radiator mounts - R340
6) 1.8 clutch kit - R1150
7) Service kit for a 2.0 golf 8v - R350
cam belt and tensioner - R400
9) radiator lines (38mm exhaust pipe, 6m) - R1200
10) 2.0 8V golf motor - R5500
11) fibreglass cowling and metal intake - R650
12) Golf 1.4 velocity ECU and harness - R2500
R16320

A few smaller things may still yet be added, but I estimated this being under R15 000, so not too shabby.

You need to add, fuel pump, a dyno setup, water bottle, air filter, bummer it all adds up.

dubster wrote:very nice hope my pricing for the suby ej20 N/A looks similar just going to run spitronics management. wanted to run golf but will rather pay more to retain the boxer sound...looking good gary,gat juk seker om haar te ry?? ands with 85kw and 150 odd nm none the less...

Cheers bud, yeah my arse is itching to drive her, it's been way too long since I've had a good drive in her.

I was considering the scooby, but general parts on those motors is what put me off, all service parts are agents only in South Africa and the clutch kit was about R7000-00. Would love to keep the sound, but at the end of the day, I'm in it for the long haul and I want something that is cheap to fix and also where I can get parts anywhere.

Yeah I'd dig that boxer sound, but the cost was too high. I heard an engine clip of a guy in the states that did his exhaust the same way that mine is done and it sounds hella throaty. I can live with that.

Rui, I had a 3 bar fuel pump from an old build so I didn't add that. my bad.

- fuel pump - Price new are R600 from goldwagen
- no dyno needed as I'm using a stock ecu, only need to have the CO's set and that's included in the price of the harness and ECU purchase.
- getting the water bottle with the engine
- airfilter is included in the service kit that I got from goldwagen. - Using a stock airbox, getting that with the engine as well.

Update 3. I basically have 3 days work left on her.

Day 1, finish up the fibreglass work on her as well as fit the 912 tach speedo and clock, water temp gauage under the dash.
Day 2, Mock up the ECU, fuel pump, mod the fuel tank as well as fit the flex radiator pipes
Day 3, fit the engine

Soooooooooooo close, I'm gonna try and do some work on her after work this week to get the day 2 stuff done so that hopefully next weekend I can get the motor fitted and then get this baby on the road for some testing and trouble shooting.

However this weekend I was finally able to find a bloke who bent me a killer set of radiator pipes for the speedster from 2 x 38mm 2mm exhaust pipe. I have really been struggling to get this done and also get it done to where I could finally call this job done. I went through noise boys who made a total cock up of it and wanted me to pay, to a so called specialist in jhb who said that I would have to get manderal bends done at a cost of R2000 per side. ouch.

I then went to a local place, how local? Well 2 blocks from my house and he swore that he has a great pipe bender guy who can do what I want in 2-3 hours. (lol, it took then more like 7 hours, but I was chuffed. Price?.......R500 per side.

Initial mock up as I wanted it to follow the floor pans lines as much as possible.
Final pipes in, I still have to go back to have the 3 metal tabs welded to the pipe that will in turn attached via rubber feet and bolts onto the pan of the car, At the moment it's rock solid, but I want it bullet proof and I want it done right.
The finish line is in sight with the conversion, but I have to admit that I'm taking my time with the jobs and I don't wnat to do them over further down the road, once it's done, I want to tweak and tune a bit and basically just want to be left with cosmetic stuff.

Bought the last of my list yesterday. Clutch kit. I can see where the issues come in with mating up the right kit to the flywheel. I first thought that it uses a 1.8 golf clutch kit, seems it's a 1.8 Kombi clutch kit. Price difference of about R400 extra.

I've made my dry glass panels to box in the radiator and they'll be fit this weekend and then I'm ready for the engine. I want it running by the end of June as I'd like to show her this year at cars in the park in August. She will be a serious work in progress when there, but I should have her revised lights, gauges, steering wheel, and all the extras that I've been making for her over the last few months, on the car and working. Another thing that I totally forgot was my VDO water temp gauge and sender unit. Add another R1200 for that.

By the way, I did a few sums again and honestly doing this build for the average Joe with no connections, you're looking at 20K.

We had a delay.............I was finishing off my new work bench, when I proceeded to pull an 8.5cm wood shaving through the palm of my hand.



I was admitted to hospital and and after a 6 hour wait..............1.5 hours after that they pulled this sucker from my hand. They had to wack me out as they said that there was no ways that they were able to pull it out without cutting my hand open. I also did some minor nerve damage, so I've been going to the physio a lot to get it working again.......I'm told I'll make a full recovery, but it'll take about 6 months.



The stitches have been out for a week now and I'm on the mend, but the downside was that I lost 4 weeks worktime on my car.

Expect a BIG update after this weekend. A lot of stuff is done, just waiting to put it together.

It sucks loosing time so close to the end Gary , but for the rest of your life you are gonna remember this build and that car when ya look at your hand so whats four weeks man !

cheers bud..........the worst part is that I had some time to walk around the car and critique the things that I don't like (this is me and this is how I roll). So before I finish her off, I'm going to sort them out.

I'm not happy with the radiator housing and I wanted to re-do the base as I need to intigrate the mounting feet to ensure that I won't have them breaking off.

So....I'm not just gonna re-do the base, I'm gonna re-do the whole thing. My steel arrived yesterday, so I'll sort it all out on Saterday morning and then I'm ready for the engine.

The target for the car is cars in the park and so far so good.

Yikes dude, that looks hardcore !!!

Dont worry you get use to with the left hand... Feels like someone else doing it for you....

Get well soon...

So I backtracked a bit this weekend and re-did the radiator frame again as I wasn't happy with the welds. My welding (albeit with an oil cooled stick welder) has really improved since the start of the build and I just knew that I wasn't going to be happy with the other one.

Bad cell pictures, but it's better than no pictures.









I've managed to use all of the stock Honda Civic mounting points as well as mounting rubbers to ensure that I won't have any reliability issues. I've also redone the frame, but will snap some pictures of that tonight. This new frame allows the radiator to sit about 1/2" lower and also the base of the frame is 5mm 40mm flat bad, so if it's takes a knock, then it's not just gonna sommer break off. The top will be notched to allow the upper support bar to be used properly.

The main reason behind this also was that my engine was sold off to another guy by accident, so unless I get another this weekend then I'm not going to make cars in the park. Will be getting my 90 degree mandrell bends on Friday and then I can call my water pipes a done job.