J.K.jr.bad. Posted June 3, 2012 Report Share Posted June 3, 2012 (edited) Hi!My name is Janis and I'm from Latvia. Although my name might sound like female one but here in Latvia it's boys' name for which equivalent English name would be John. I've been registered on this forum for almost six years but haven't been very active with posts but in these six years I have owned couple of Lupos. All this Lupo thing started for me with a trip to Croatia (Adriatic side). There I saw lot's of small cars and after returning back to homeland I decided to get one of such. As most of my driving is done alone and in the city there was no use to bring around lots of free "air" with me. So after some searching I decided to get me something from VAG cars as these were more familiar to me.My first Lupo was 2001 SDI. In blue color with great big air roof! Despite it's for grandma’s powered engine It was a great car. I was with this car for couple trips where one of those was to Austria to ski. We even managed to reach speed of 140km/h with fully loaded car. But that took a while till we reached that speed ... After some year my son born and on next morning I found out that somebody had crashed into my car... Somehow this was a sigh that probably I will need to get bigger car.. So for some years I was driving around with some other cars. But as I was still "in love" with Lupo while after while I was looking into local car adds for some interesting deal.And after some long while I'm again an honor owner of Lupo and this time this is GTI model!Actually I have been hunting for this particular GTI for some 4 or more years as this one is still the only one that's been registered in Latvia. Time after time this GTI was in car ads and last time I saw it had quite low price (2K Eur). I knew that it was in bad condition as when I saw it last time some years ago it had several problems which owned didn't want to fix. So now it should have even more of them. And I was quite right. List was and still is long with different "problems" but main was heavily smoking engine on high revs. But as my intentions was to throw GTI engine out and put in some powerful TDI engine it didn't bother me. After few days of owning GTI I understood the essence of GTI and no more stupid Ideas of putting in diesel or any other engines into this phenomenal chassis! So reconstruction works on my GTI begun! This is how GTI looked when I bought it. Some 215K km on speedo.This is what I wanted to get. No AC or other unneeded things. Just driving pleasureWith first snow engine bay was emptied and engine repair was started.As it turned out reason for heavy smoking was worn oil rings but since engine was out and it looked quite oil burn from inside I decided to not just repair engine but do as well some little improvements on it. Engine was passed to some guy that makes sport engines. Every part was cleaned with ultrasound. All parts that usually are supposed to be changed during such repair was changed.As engine block was looking as something big and rusty everything was cleaned and painted to give this engine additional 3BHP Intake and exhaust ports was aligned with manifolds as well some porting was done. (I'm not quite sure if I have written this correctly... )While putting everything back together I had some problems... But those were solved Plus/ minus everything togetherPutting engine back was quite easy as everything is small and you don't need any help from others.As repairing cars is not what I do for living it took some days to put back all togetherNow car is running and I can start to solve all other problems. Edited June 3, 2012 by J.K.jr.bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.K.jr.bad. Posted June 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2012 (edited) The next big repair was brakes. Actually there was no brakes at all. Metal to the metal! Rear brakes were still fine but....As I'm working for company which is dealer of EBC brakes I choose something from them. And of course this car has earned USR discs + Yellowstuff pads!It took a while to change everything as this had to be done correctly and without hurry.Now car has FANTASTIC brakes!!! Edited June 3, 2012 by J.K.jr.bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lupo-Joe Posted June 3, 2012 Report Share Posted June 3, 2012 Wow some amazing work. Shame about the blue one, however the red one is amazing!I look forward to see more Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wassuplupo786 Posted June 3, 2012 Report Share Posted June 3, 2012 wow awsome work going into the gti. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joti Posted June 4, 2012 Report Share Posted June 4, 2012 Great story, and I love your number plate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James827 Posted June 4, 2012 Report Share Posted June 4, 2012 Good job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver! Posted June 4, 2012 Report Share Posted June 4, 2012 Well rescued! keep us upto date on the progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.K.jr.bad. Posted June 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2012 Thanks guys!I believe that if not me then after a year this car would be scraped. btw I'm slowly searching for 6speed gear box... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koop Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 Great work, nice GTI & well done for hunting down the only one in the country! Keep us updated Your English is better than some of our English members btw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.K.jr.bad. Posted June 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2012 (edited) Yesterday put my "beast" to the track. Did some 40min sesion on local track called Biķernieki. This is the only real auto/moto track in Latvia. Developed in 1968. Contains two different tracks with some more driving configurations available.Due to wrong alloys I was forced to drive on winter tyres but till next track day session I will have Kumho KU15 on. They are much much suited for such driving. Edited June 15, 2012 by J.K.jr.bad. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joti Posted June 15, 2012 Report Share Posted June 15, 2012 "Like" button - done 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.K.jr.bad. Posted June 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 (edited) Yesterday was on track again. This time with proper tires: Kumho KU15. Alloy wheels for this car was fixed so they now have correct hole diameter to fit hub as well all wheels are straight. Alloys are MAS Mini Lite 15", 7" wide with ET30 offset. Car looks better with this offset but if you corner hard on track 195/50 tires are scrubbing plastics that are in wheel arches.Some pictures:For assurance about some important engine parameters I've put a 4 in 1 gauge from D1. Volts/Oil pressure/Oil temperature/Coolant temperature. Still haven't found a place to take coolant temperature but it will be sorted out soon.For oil pressure and oil temperature I used special adapter that has been installed between oil cooler and oil filter. Race Logic Performance Box. Nice gadget to see laptimes and after loging data have some more info on how well it went on track.Fuel consumption on track is quite high. Did some 75km on track and engine burned some 20L of fuel. Edited June 22, 2012 by J.K.jr.bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hakster Posted June 22, 2012 Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 Get some coilovers on it and it'll handle so much better, probably will get a lot of scrubbing with those tyres though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.K.jr.bad. Posted June 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 Thanks for advise but Lupo on track is just temporary solution while my sport car is not finished. Here in Latvia roads are not so good to ride on coilovers with comfort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joti Posted June 23, 2012 Report Share Posted June 23, 2012 Fuel consumption on track is quite high. Did some 75km on track and engine burned some 20L of fuel. That's not high.......... that's crazy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.K.jr.bad. Posted July 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 Question, can a Lupo "swalow" a whole sortiment of Red Line oils? Easy! Plus you will not be alone as there is still place for one full size passenger in front! More about Red Line oilshttp://www.redlineoil.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joti Posted July 20, 2012 Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 Bet you didn't get ALL those boxes in on one go though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.K.jr.bad. Posted July 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2012 (edited) All boxes were carried at once. When i first saw all this pile of boxes I didn't believe that I could take them all, but after starting to put them in to car they went in easly Edited July 20, 2012 by J.K.jr.bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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