Hey everyone, im Robb. im new to the lowered car thing but i flip cars on the side for cash and have had my share of stupid low cars. i grew up in North Georgia. if you've ever been to SOWO you probably saw my jeep there. yes 2014 i was the guy who blew up his rear driveshaft. currently i live on Whidbey island in Washington
you can follow the build on instagram
Golf: the_turdbo_diesel
personal: flexyjeeper
currently i have three cars
1994 Jeep YJ 4.0L 5spd (still in GA)
2009 F150 4x4 Mega Crew
but into the good stuff.
after flipping a good number of cars i had raised a significant amount of money. enough to buy something that would get good mileage. i was looking for something that got decent gas mileage, comfortable, and cool. so i was looking for 70's Mercedes. one day i did a filtered search for diesels under $4500 on Craigslist and i saw a few MKIV TDI. i had completely forgotten about them! after some research i was hooked and wanted one. i knew what i wanted and that was a MKIV TDI 5spd/2dr and ONLY a MKIV 5spd/2dr would suffice. there were a few that were in my area but they had always sold right before i contacted the seller. i looked everywhere from Vancouver to Portland. until one day i turned the filters off and just searched TDI, i found one in Tacoma that i hadn't seen before because under fuel it was marked as "gas" i texted the owner that night, called him the next morning, and picked it up that night.
the seller had said the motor and turbo had 4k on rebuild, 25k on clutch, TB/WP 25k, 15k on raceland coilovers. seats have been swapped out with leather heated seats (not hooked up yet) and GLI steering wheel.
i was a little on the edge because the rebuild was dont by his buddy on the side who was "An Audi Tech" but i shrugged it off because it was literally the only car that met my criteria, and i just wanted one. i know racelands are shit. one is already blown. thats on the list.
the day after i bought it:
its rough but i thought it had potential.
when i first got it it had a boost leak. the PO said it was just how they sould but i've owned turbo cars and i know what they are supposed to sound like, i knew it would be something simple so i tore it apart and found this
the factory ring has slid back and the hose from the pancake pipe to the inter cooler was loose. i kicked it and it literally fell off. the hose had a small pin hole so i replaced it and put some T clamps on it. all better.
im always looking for deals on cars i can flip so i was checking the local facebook pages and found a 2000 Jetta 1.8t with blown turbo for $800. it was being sold by a girl and the car was sitting on long beaches. they wernt in the best of shape but they were better then my steelies. i told her that for $800 it wouldn't really matter what wheels were on it and she agreed then i told her i would trade her my steelies p;us $75 for the long beaches. this was 10pm. i got to her apartment at 11pm and it took me an hour to swap out the wheels. the car was sitting in the back corner of this really sketchy apartment complex and she kept asking me "how much longer it would be?" every minutes and that "her husband would be home soon". what the fuck? right? this area has a bad Heroin problem so it would surprise me if she was a tweeker selling a car that wasnt hers. oh well its been 2 months and i haven't gotten arrested for possession of stolen wheels yet.
after the wheels and a good clean:
about a week and a half of ownership and about 2k miles later the "motor rebuilt by my buddy who is an Audi Tech" gave up. it was running flawlessly up until 5 minutes before it gave out. i was sitting at a red light and it was shaking and had a really muffled knock. kind of like the sound of someone punching a pillow. it was fine when i reved the motor some. i pulled over to investigate and as soon as i put a foot on the ground it died. motor was seized.
towed the car back to my place behind my truck and pulled the valve cover. the cam and one of the pieces under the cam that pushed the valves looked like they had been chewed on by a dog. it want the cause of the problem but it tells be it was a shitty rebuild as these parts should have never gone back into the motor. the timing was still good and we were able to get the crank freed. fired it up and there was a loud clanking. the "Audi Tech" must not have noticed one of the valves was cracked and reused it. or so we think. havent actually pulled the head off yet.
ALH motors are not cheap but i found one 2hrs north in Vancouver Canada for the equivalent of $650 USD. it was from a 2000 jetta 5spd with 190k the guy i bought it from had it for 3 years before it got rear ended he bought it back to fix it but then found out how hard of a process it was going to be to get it legal and decided to part it out. this motor has never been rebuilt and seems to have been maintained well, had 30k on timing belt and had the correct coolant in it. coming across the boarder i told them it was for a 87 rabbit because if the whole 25 years thing. they let me drive across no problem.
i was a little low on funds at this time so i had to park it and daily my truck until i could afford the install kits and all the TTY bolts that are one time used only. in the meantime i stored the motor in my golf. for about 2 weeks it was a 8 cylinder twin turbo. (kind of).
riding calli' with the extra weight:
finally money was saved and parts were ordered. thanks to cascade German for getting me my parts ultra fast (like next day). i had a box full of boxes with words i dont understand.
and then the day came. i used a tow bar to tow it behind my truck to a buddies shop. we started monday morning and finished tuesday night.
runs like a top now, no check engine light but there was a code that showed up on vagcom for the ASV not working. its probably wiring but i'll look into that on my next off day.
i left my grill at my buddies shop so im badgless and unfabulous. but here it is cleaned up as it sits now.
i want to get a good buffer and give it a good we tsand, buff, and wax. there's bad watermarks on the car i know i can get out with a buffer, you can kind of see them under the window.
sorry for the long first post. i swear there will be more pictures from now on!
you can follow the build on instagram
Golf: the_turdbo_diesel
personal: flexyjeeper
currently i have three cars
1994 Jeep YJ 4.0L 5spd (still in GA)
2009 F150 4x4 Mega Crew
but into the good stuff.
after flipping a good number of cars i had raised a significant amount of money. enough to buy something that would get good mileage. i was looking for something that got decent gas mileage, comfortable, and cool. so i was looking for 70's Mercedes. one day i did a filtered search for diesels under $4500 on Craigslist and i saw a few MKIV TDI. i had completely forgotten about them! after some research i was hooked and wanted one. i knew what i wanted and that was a MKIV TDI 5spd/2dr and ONLY a MKIV 5spd/2dr would suffice. there were a few that were in my area but they had always sold right before i contacted the seller. i looked everywhere from Vancouver to Portland. until one day i turned the filters off and just searched TDI, i found one in Tacoma that i hadn't seen before because under fuel it was marked as "gas" i texted the owner that night, called him the next morning, and picked it up that night.
the seller had said the motor and turbo had 4k on rebuild, 25k on clutch, TB/WP 25k, 15k on raceland coilovers. seats have been swapped out with leather heated seats (not hooked up yet) and GLI steering wheel.
i was a little on the edge because the rebuild was dont by his buddy on the side who was "An Audi Tech" but i shrugged it off because it was literally the only car that met my criteria, and i just wanted one. i know racelands are shit. one is already blown. thats on the list.
the day after i bought it:
its rough but i thought it had potential.
when i first got it it had a boost leak. the PO said it was just how they sould but i've owned turbo cars and i know what they are supposed to sound like, i knew it would be something simple so i tore it apart and found this
the factory ring has slid back and the hose from the pancake pipe to the inter cooler was loose. i kicked it and it literally fell off. the hose had a small pin hole so i replaced it and put some T clamps on it. all better.
im always looking for deals on cars i can flip so i was checking the local facebook pages and found a 2000 Jetta 1.8t with blown turbo for $800. it was being sold by a girl and the car was sitting on long beaches. they wernt in the best of shape but they were better then my steelies. i told her that for $800 it wouldn't really matter what wheels were on it and she agreed then i told her i would trade her my steelies p;us $75 for the long beaches. this was 10pm. i got to her apartment at 11pm and it took me an hour to swap out the wheels. the car was sitting in the back corner of this really sketchy apartment complex and she kept asking me "how much longer it would be?" every minutes and that "her husband would be home soon". what the fuck? right? this area has a bad Heroin problem so it would surprise me if she was a tweeker selling a car that wasnt hers. oh well its been 2 months and i haven't gotten arrested for possession of stolen wheels yet.
after the wheels and a good clean:
about a week and a half of ownership and about 2k miles later the "motor rebuilt by my buddy who is an Audi Tech" gave up. it was running flawlessly up until 5 minutes before it gave out. i was sitting at a red light and it was shaking and had a really muffled knock. kind of like the sound of someone punching a pillow. it was fine when i reved the motor some. i pulled over to investigate and as soon as i put a foot on the ground it died. motor was seized.
towed the car back to my place behind my truck and pulled the valve cover. the cam and one of the pieces under the cam that pushed the valves looked like they had been chewed on by a dog. it want the cause of the problem but it tells be it was a shitty rebuild as these parts should have never gone back into the motor. the timing was still good and we were able to get the crank freed. fired it up and there was a loud clanking. the "Audi Tech" must not have noticed one of the valves was cracked and reused it. or so we think. havent actually pulled the head off yet.
ALH motors are not cheap but i found one 2hrs north in Vancouver Canada for the equivalent of $650 USD. it was from a 2000 jetta 5spd with 190k the guy i bought it from had it for 3 years before it got rear ended he bought it back to fix it but then found out how hard of a process it was going to be to get it legal and decided to part it out. this motor has never been rebuilt and seems to have been maintained well, had 30k on timing belt and had the correct coolant in it. coming across the boarder i told them it was for a 87 rabbit because if the whole 25 years thing. they let me drive across no problem.
i was a little low on funds at this time so i had to park it and daily my truck until i could afford the install kits and all the TTY bolts that are one time used only. in the meantime i stored the motor in my golf. for about 2 weeks it was a 8 cylinder twin turbo. (kind of).
riding calli' with the extra weight:
finally money was saved and parts were ordered. thanks to cascade German for getting me my parts ultra fast (like next day). i had a box full of boxes with words i dont understand.
and then the day came. i used a tow bar to tow it behind my truck to a buddies shop. we started monday morning and finished tuesday night.
runs like a top now, no check engine light but there was a code that showed up on vagcom for the ASV not working. its probably wiring but i'll look into that on my next off day.
i left my grill at my buddies shop so im badgless and unfabulous. but here it is cleaned up as it sits now.
i want to get a good buffer and give it a good we tsand, buff, and wax. there's bad watermarks on the car i know i can get out with a buffer, you can kind of see them under the window.
sorry for the long first post. i swear there will be more pictures from now on!
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