Rabbit v2.0

The engine swap was a complete success thanks to the help of some great friends.  It took the full weekend to make sure everything was tightened down per spec but I was able to drive it home Sunday evening.  I've been driving it for 3 days now and I have more power, better acceleration, it starts better than it ever has, it runs smoother... the list goes on.

I'm in the process of downloading the pictures I took and when I get that done, I'll load some onto the blog.

Getting Anxious

I took another trip to Autozone to pick up some more parts (AutoZone and autoanything.com are where I've bought all of my parts for the engine swap) but they lost my order.  I now have to drive to Donnie's and get the receipt as I already dropped those parts off at his place.  No biggie as AutoZone has treated me very well the past couple of years, just a bit frustrating.

Only 7 more days until 'Bugs 2.0'!

Purchasing my Parts

I’m in the process of purchasing the parts I will need in order to make this engine swap possible.  A lot of gaskets and hoses with a few pumps and other goodies thrown in.  The rabbit decided to stop starting in my garage but I’m lucky enough to have great friends that let me borrow their unnecessary vehicles in order to get to work.  I didn’t realize how much fuel I go through to get to work!!  I’ve already bought $32 in gas this week and I’m probably going to have to fill up again tomorrow.  I can go a good 3 weeks (around 1,000-1,400 miles) without buying fuel for the rabbit.  I now remember why I started this journey in the first place.

Getting Excited

My engine was completed yesterday and will be shipped out on Monday. I'm starting to round up all of the tools I'll need and will start getting them to the barn where the rebuild will happen.

I'm praying that the swap goes as smooth as I hope it will. I'm getting extremely excited especially at the prospect of having a reliable vehicle that performs well!!

The fix to my problems?

After finally performing a compression test I've decided to replace my engine with a rebuilt one. Chances are my piston rings are shot and a couple of local shops quoted me at least $3000 to rebuild my current engine. I found a place on the internet (http://www.vwdieselparts.com/index.html) that rebuilds my engine (1.6L) and will ship it cheaper than I can get it rebuilt. I have some friends lined up to help me swap the engine which I only expect to take a couple of days.

I have no reason to believe that running alternative fuels is what caused the damage. Looking back on the purchase of the vehicle I'm not convinced that the engine was rebuilt as I was told it was. Knowing what I know now I would've asked a lot more questions about the vehicle.