5-19-12
T-Minus 12 days to car show
Pulling the 2.0 out went smoothly.
Then, we ran into another obstacle:
the clutch master cylinder didn't fit into the pedal! Turns out, passat master cylinders are different than the mk3 ones. Cue a hurried trip down to the local junkyard.
While the junkyard team went down to see if they could find a mk3 VR and pull the clutch master out of it, me and the rest of my buddies noticed another problem: unlike what our friend said, the passat's rad support & radiator would
not fit the mk3 crossmember.
On top of that, to run the 5-lug hubs from the passat, we needed to have a mk3 VR subframe + control arms. However, this wasn't too bad of a problem: you can make hybrid axles that bolt up to the VR6 transmission and also have the splines for the 4-lug hubs. A bit of a shame, because 5x100 has better wheel selection than 4x100...but hey, she'll be a sleeper, since everyone will think she's a 2.0 until you hear that rumble.
And then...more bad news: the junkyard closed before our buddies could pull the master cylinder.
We had no choice: she wouldn't drive today. Called it a day, got some rest so we could tackle the project head-on the next day.
5-20-12
T-Minus 11 days to car show
I got up at 7:30am and headed down to the junkyard to see the car for myself and see if I couldn't get the clutch master out.
A friend met me down there and we checked the car out: it was a gold mine. mk3 Jetta VR6, motor and tranny still in it, all the interior and everything still in.
We got to work: pulled the accelerator cable (which was different between all 3 cars, passat vr6, mk3 2.0, and mk3 vr6), pulled the clutch master and slave, verified that the pedal clusters were the same between the mk3 2.0 and mk3 vr6's, pulled good fuel lines (the passat's fuel lines were shot and leaking fuel).
Got a call from another buddy who had a rad for us for cheap, so we decided to not worry about the one at the junkyard.
While we were about to leave, the secondary water pump* caught my eye, so I five-finger-discounted it and saved $100 on buying a new one.
We got the parts to my friend's house, cleaned up the garage, and are now going to take a bit of a break, rest, let me catch up on some work stuff, and tackle the car at 6pm when this summer weather isn't beating down on us.
With a little luck, she might just drive out of that garage tonight.
* = VR6's have a secondary, electric-powered waterpump in addition to the main, belt-powered water pump. It circulates coolant through the engine block after you shut the car off, so that the block cools down evenly, preventing warped heads. The one on the passat wasn't working, which isn't
really a big deal, but it's nice to tie up loose ends whenever possible.