Pearl white coupe revival

[ottawa coupe]

Been slowly working on the port for the water temp sensor. Slow because the crossover pipe is 20 years old and where i welded the port was a little crusty. The initial weld around the added port actually looked pretty good if i say so myself. Unfortunately, it turned into a giant glob because the welds would make the scabby stuff juuuuuust porous enough where it wouldn't pass a pressure test. Welding on an m14 port resulted in at least a 50mm diameter weld.

There will be no pictures of it lol.

i'll have the car back together this weekend and hopefully aiming a bit straighter. I think the next step will be to try and get most of the interior in and see what the next chunk of money tradition will get from me is as a result lol.

[ottawa coupe]

I now have 3/4 of a functioning instrument cluster. I answered my own question about pin 37 of the ecu. It DOES ouptut a suitable tach signal for the instrument cluster. A nice 850rpm idle indicated and corroborated in vcds. I got the oil pressure light to turn off by putting the v6 sensor in instead. The last things i need to do is get the temp guage working correctly by putting in the mfts. That is going to be less than quick as i need to put an m14 bung in the crossover pipe. I also need to wire up the vss correctly. I read the description of it too quickly on ultra performance's website and neglected to add a 12v source to the connector .

Of course, it is a HUGE pita to get that in and out with the engine installed....

I think i am gonna attempt a rough alignment next in order to get it to drive a bit less crappy. I have a seatbelt in it too now.

Lotsa little things to tackle before i break on it and get serious about the final colour.

[ottawa coupe]

Got a few things tied up this morning and went for a toot without hearing protection this time. Didn't get past 3rd gear but hot damn this thing will get out of its own way and sounds incredible!!! I think i should work on seatbelts now lol.

Going to figure out the solution for the tach and temp guage (i need to reinstall the old mfts) as well as correct the wiring for the oil pressure light on the dash. With luck, in a few weeks all but ac is sorted. A friend has suggested simple-ish solutions for that as well as offering some tig welding help.

Goal is to have everything sorted in the next couple months and deal with paint in the fall. I am slowly resigning myself to a pro job.....with a pro bill....

[ottawa coupe]

Got the exhaust connected. Will not show my work as it just welded terribly lol. Out of practice????

Anyways....the sound..... i am beginning to understand why those boomer redneck dun luv their V8s. Soooooooo deep. Deeper than those 14" subs you stuffed in the hatch of your base model golf back in the 90s lol.

Small fuel leak to sort and a wiring issue to deal with while i'm underneath and i'll be able to go for another drive. Without hearing protection this time lol

[ottawa coupe]

Got a few mins this evening to hang the cac exhaust and see where i stand. It's nice having the hoist i must say!

The cac goes from 2-1/2" to 2-1/4 where it is cut. My downpipes are 2-1/4. The plan is to make my merge out of my existing 2-1/4 tubing and bends and weld that to where the midpipe expands to 2-1/2. I am gonna get an oe style band clamp in 2-1/2 and cut the mid pipe in order to attempt to make things servicable. That said i am pretty sure undoing the propshaft will be absolute hell. I may have to put more thought into it.

20260427_165556.jpg

Also, the exhaust tips contact the bumper surround. I think i have the right hangars but even then it gets awfully close to the rear cv so not sure i wanna drop it. Wondering if the surround is sitting right? Seems like a pretty sizable gap between surround and bumper...

20260427_165439.jpg thoughts?

[ottawa coupe]

Thanks, it'll sound better when i get the exhaust sorted. I've put this aside while i clean up the yard for the spring that has finally arrived. Probably another week till i get back on this. Exhaust and a few wiring fixes should complete the big issues. I need to make a fan shroud, get a second fan and deal with the ac plumbing.

I found some aftermarket black leather/cloth houndstooth seat covers for a not terrible price thinking about pulling that trigger. Part of me wants to get the quattro script fabric from tradition but i have a feeling a professional retrim is far outside any budget i would be comfortable with.

[rxl]

congradulations on your fist drive. sounds amazing

[ottawa coupe]

maybe someone here knows me 7.1.1 well.... trying to get the tach working. one of the documents i started with a while back was nollywood's pinout of an ART engine on here. mine is an AYS. however they are both 7.1.1 and i found it to be 99% the same as the wiring diagrams i got from erwin. one thing that is different though is that in his ART pinout, pin 37 is supposedly a tach output. on mine, pin 37 is empty. i took this to mean that the tach signal goes thru canbus as the s8 cluster is a canbus connected module.

are all me7.1.1 ecu pinouts the same? am i able to connect pin 37 from my ecu to the tach and all is good? am i being naive?

[ottawa coupe]

i'll just leave this here....

https://youtube.com/shorts/BTnMR33ND7Y?feature=share

[ottawa coupe]

So, axle arrived a day early so now it's on the ground and i THINK ready to test drive....

20260416_211838.jpg

Not gonna lie, tomorrow is the first nice day of spring here, mid teens and sunny. I am having quite a moral dilemma about calling in sick tomorrow morning lol

[ottawa coupe]

Add another idiosyncrasy to the list... adjusted the car such that the rear is a few inches higher than the front. Tried it, got a few bubbles out but still not a full pedal. Walked away for a couole hours. Just tried it again as i was passing by it. Full clutch travel and feel. I probably need to bleed it a wee bit but at least i've got a clutch now. So i just need the axle from ebay and it looks like i've got a driver... if only to the end of the street....

[ottawa coupe]

Right, so today's progress wasn't very big. Replaced the throttle pot, got the e brakes working and dealt with a fuel leak on the return line. I will have others to deal with later as the issue is i didn't flare the hard lines where they meet the rubber as i didn't have a tool for 8mm line. I do now. There are a few weeping ever so slightly.

The biggest frustration is i STILL don't have a full clutch. I replaced the master and put a remote bleed on the slave (which took FOREVER to fit and crushed my hand doing so lol) and still only half a pedal. I'll keep working on it i guess but i should be able to get down the road this weekend.... maybe....

I have ordered a new slave but there is ZERO chance at replacing it with the engine in the car and i am NOT taking it out till after i drive it lol.

At this point all i need to do is tuck wires outta the way of the pedals, build the 4th axle when it gets here friday and keep bleeding the snot outta the clutch. Maybe get it to 3/4?????

[ottawa coupe]

so, 1 thing fixed. i now have a throttle pedal. luckily in my credit card exercising in the fall, i purchased 2 throttle pots. of course the one i put in the car was a dud....

now if i can get the clutch sorted i have half a chance at it being a driver next weekend.

And now that it has a functioning throttle, it idles nice n low. Holy hell does it sound beastly with open pipes. I have to wear headphones.....

[simons2]

Brilliant

[Tractor Dave]

Sounds sweet