1983 VW Rabbit GTI "Daily Driver"
(Stephen Jones)		  
I purchased a 1983 VW Rabbit GTI from someone in the Burlington area who had just purchased from Oregon. My intention was to make the car a daily driver (pump fuel, comfortable ride, smooth acceleration, intact interior) instead of pumping my pay check into my Dodge Durango. Good plan to save money in the long run. I checked the engine and it had low compression across the board. I decided to do a valve job and replace the piston rings. After I removed and completely dismantled the head I brought it down to Motion Machine in South Burlington, VT (mainly because it is right next to where I work so it is easy to drop off and pick up). I asked them to check the head out before doing any work because I didn't know any history of the head. Good call.... the head was warped. Worse, the top of the head was warped and the bottom was not which tells me the previous owner from Oregon tried to rebuild the engine after it over-heated. I threw that head away and grabbed another solid lifter 8-valve head off the shelf, checked it myself this time, and then brought it down to Motion Machine.

Work Done to the Head: A very simple decking of 30/1000th, new valve guides/seals, and all new valves. I used a stock cam sprocket and a very stock cam shaft. I plan on adding a performance oriented Techtonics Tuning (TT) cam shaft over the 2003-2004 winter to give the car more top end.

While the head was at the shop I went to work on the lower end with the piston ring replacement. Doh! The cylinder walls were trashed. It looks like this engine had a prior tenure with someone who either didn't care about the car or didn't know anything about cars. Either way, the block was trashed. Enter another 1.8 liter GTI engine from Chris & Frog (Project Naughty Bunny). Since they were swapping out their stock 1.8 with a 1.8 20-valve turbo they had no use for the engine.

Believe it or not, this is the engine that was going into the Rabbit... not the one I took out. The block was actually in good shape, albeit is was very dirty with caked on oil and surface rust. But I could see past that. I called Techtonics Tuning (which I highly recommend as the source for performance Volkswagen parts) and ordered a set of 1.9 liter (1897cc) high compression (10:1) pistons. Motion Machine bored the block to accept the larger pistons and then the engine was assembled with all new seals and bearings. Essentially, I now have a new engine with more horsepower and torque than the stock 1.8 liter while still remaining true to a stock apperance.
Finished 1.9 engine and 4K transmission (which was also rebuilt). As always, I pick a unique valve cover paint color to help identify each engine I build. For example, Ford Green is the 1.6 liter with Dellorto carbs, Chevy Blue is the 1.9 liter with 10:1, Chevy Orange is the 1.9 liter with 12:1 and the Hot Rod Green (this engine) is the 1.9 liter with 10:1.

The rest of the car: Okay, after the trials and tribulations with the engine I decided to pay close attention to the rest of the car. I knew the struts and shocks were blown, which was fine with me since I wanted to install non-adjustable Bilstein struts/stocks. I have used this setup in my Rabbits over the years and absolutely love the feel of the Bilstein Sport. The Sports allow for a stiffer ride, a very solid construction (I have them on the 702 Rabbit also), and allow for the car to be lowered. A more mild, yet still performance oriented, setup would be the Bilstein HD (heavy duty), but these were not designed to lower a vehicle and will not last very long if you do. After removing the original struts/shocks/springs this is when I noticed that the original owner from Oregon cut the springs to lower the vehicle. Is there no end to this guy's stupidity!??!?! Doesn't matter, I had intended to install my old Hor Technologies Sport springs (lowers the car about 1.5 inches and offers a stiffer more responsive ride). With the Bilstein Sports and Hor springs installed the car handles very well (even with stock front and rear anti-sway bars).

And this is all that I have done to this car to date. Future plans are to get a TT 2" cat-back exhaust system (I already have a 2+" stainless steal 'dairy pipe' down pipe and performance cat.), a better cam shaft and open the air box to increase flow. I want to have the car remain very stock looking while being fun to drive. Check out the pictures of the car, thus far, in the pictures section (within the 'Daily Driver' projects).
"The Vermont Racing Connection"