New to the forum and some questions

[e90330]

Hello,
to make a long story short, in '92 my grandfahter bought a Polo 1.0. After all these years and him passing away a few years ago, the Polo came in my possesion. I already spent a decent amount of money on it, but it's still is not running ok. So I decided to go the other route and put a G40 engine in it. This will never be a daily runner, it's just a side project for fun and sentimental reasons. So, yes, it's not a real G40, but I hope it will be close enough.
So I bought a G40 engine, gearbox, wiringloom and motormanagement cpu (which the guy is not sure if it still works) and off we go. G lader I still have to source.
My question is though, what are the suspension differences vs Polo 1.0 86C and where is the best place to buy those parts, Europe or UK? I'm planning to not only upgrade the engine, but all suspension, brakes components too.
All suggetions and pointer as to the engine swap are very appreciated

[samg40]

If you are handy with the spanners it should be pretty easy. Its nigh on impossible to get stock suspension these days. I'd personally go with the tried and tested Koni/eibach setup  or maybe a bilstein kit but it depends on what you want from it. Also the rear beam from a GT/G40 has an arb built into it but I wouldn't worry too much if you cant get one. You could at least do with the vented discs on the front so get hold of some vw11 callipers. The bottom arms are rose jointed too rather than rubber bushes on the base models. I'm not actually too sure whether these are still available tbh. A few other bits and bobs but that's the basics, have a good search and chuck some pictures up. Good luck.

[e90330]

Thanks for the pointers. It seems there are not a lot of suspension differences. I'm planning to go with Bilstein B12 setup. As to brakes, I read that that Wilwood has/had a setup which fits ?
As to wheels, I'm looking at some Golf mk1 BBS wheels, 6j ET45. From waht I understand, they should fit with 175 or 185 wide tires?

[hey pauley]

You'll also need the fuel pumps, it's it a 4 speed being a 1 litre? then you'll need a 5 speed ARB.

[steveo3002]

all later cars had 5 speed arb regardless

[e90330]

Right... so while buying the G40 engine and gearbox, I also bought an G40  almost standard, some stupid modification which can be rectified easily. Some small things to be fixed, nothing major. No rust at all. Freshly rebuilt supercharger. Soooo, plans changed a bit. First, I want to bring the G40 back to original state. Then, I would like to put some performance upgrades on it.
- According to the owner, the car already has G60 injectors. Does it mean that with a G60 lader, small poulie and software I can get some 160-170 reliable horses?
- which is a good G40 sports exhaust? I don't need noise, but more flow. Can I just remove the cat with no consequences?
- brakes: Wilwood had some, but no longer for sale. Is there a way to put 4 pot bbk on it (maybe with 14" golf wheels). Or some better brakes from another model?
- anyone experience with KW coilovers? Or TA-Technix, which are half the price?

Thanks a lot in advance

[hayesey]

good stuff! any pictures of it?

G60 injectors will just be matched to the ECU chip in it. Not really anything to do with fitting a g60 g-lader. It is possible to fit a g60 but it's not a small job fair a fair bit of custom work needed (bracketry, pullies, belts, boost piping, intercooler etc...). The biggest issue will be reliability though, the g60 blower has a bad enough reputation for reliability on a golf or corrado tall block. On a small block, fast revving engine they are even worse. If your target is 160-170bhp this is achievable with a g40 g-lader and will be more reliable. You will probably need a ported head and bigger exhaust valves.

As for the brakes, wilwood still make midilite 4-pot calipers but it does seem that rally design dont list the 256mm mk1 golf conversion kit anymore which is what also fitted on g40s. I've had these brakes on mine for years and whilst they are great I think they are overkill for a road car with 160-170bhp. I would say just stick with the 239mm brakes but use some decent pads (everyone has their own opinions on pads I always liked ferodo ds2500s on the 239mm), decent new discs, braided hoses, new decent quality brake fluid. Replace/refurbish all the components of the drums on the rear, the rear brakes do very little on such a light FWD car like a g40 but if they are in bad condition they will affect the whole braking performance, pedal travel etc... Using a bigger master cylinder will reduce pedal travel but mean you need to press the pedal harder, it's a personal preference thing which you prefer. If you do want some bigger discs then get hold of the audi 256mm caliper carriers, various posts on here somewhere about using those with the 256mm discs and correct calipers.

For suspension, I would either go for a decent quality set of coilovers (which is definitely not ta-technix) or for a lot less money, decent quality shocks & springs kit.

[e90330]

Wow, lots of info, thx!
Yeah, I hear you, regarding the brakes. But nice calipers do look good. I found a website which sells 4-pots for 13" wheels, hi-tec calipers. Any good? They also seem to have a set for the rear, as I would like to convert to disc on the rear. They are not fast when it comes to answering mails though

Could you recommend some online business which is selling G40 parts? I can't find anything, but I will go looking for items like the red bumper and grille stripes, G40 logo's for boot and front, roof antenna etc. New to this world

Also, I ready that Golf GTI mk1 wheels, I belive 6.5 do fit on the Polo, but I read different things about the offset. I believe it should be ET43?

Thanks for the input

[e90330]

Hello again. A bit more info and few more questions on my G40 story. Car sat for 2 years in a garage, due to other life things like birth of my son, it all went to the background. But now, it came out again.
So, as I thought the G40 had some minor floor pan and sills rust, boy was I wrong. I found a bodyshop, far far away, who agreed to do the work. Local ones were or not interested, or quoted me astronomical prices. As I originate from that far, far away country and visit it frequently, I found a shop there. Ok, brought the G40 to the shop and a nightmare scenario was brought to me. Car is really in a bad shape, was poorly painted (guy was peeling off paint with his fingernail), lot's of rust in places I could not even see it. In any case, as the car was already there, I decided to do it properly. Car has been stripped, sandblasted, all rust repaired, and meanwhile it's been painted back to original color. Engine went to a mechanic for an overhaul. Some pics of the progress.

What I did see, is that the car has a bigger intercooler. How to tell if the ecu has been programmed? Only by reading it out? About the injectors, if there a way to tell if thery're from G40 or G60?
And a question about the looks of the engine: I saw online some engines where the bottom block is painted black, while the cyinderhead is silver. Is that how it was originally? Or was it originally just all in silver/chrome?

As for suspension, I decided to go with Bilstein B12 Pro kit, but it's almost impossible to find it. Would an other combination be similar. Eg Bilstein B6 with Eibach or other brand springs?
And again regarding the brakes: I saw posted above to look out for vw11 calipers. From what model do these originate? Will I need some custom brackets? Does it take same size brake disc?

Progress was slow till now as it's a side job for the bodyshop, but I'll update this thread when I have updates myself.

[hayesey]

are the photos before or after it's been repaired? looks quite clean there (dusty obviously ...).

To tell if the ECU is standard or not, open it up and look at the chip. Four torx head screws and then slide the board out, remove the metal clip from the RF shield and pull that off. Standard chip should have a silver sticker on it with a partcode. Otherwise, post a photo of what you find. Highly likely it's been changed if someone had gone to the lengths of changing the intercooler.

The injectors will have a part code on them, check against this table:

https://www.polog40.co.uk/article_injector_table.php

VWII calipers came on loads of VWs from 80s and 90s, pretty much anything with 239mm discs. MK2 golf etc... but the caliper carriers will be different, you can get away with using the VWI carriers, they'll fit but are different. Or find carriers from mk1 golf, mk1/2 scirocco etc... or from a polo where someone is upgrading brakes.

If you're going for modified though I'd get some 256mm discs and suitable calipers, off an audi of some sort, there'll be threads in the braking section on here somewhere, put some wanted ads up too, check facebook groups if you're on there (much more active than the forum nowadays sadly).

[e90330]

Thanks for your response. Useful info.

I see that the forum is quite dead, I don't have facebook so do you have any recommendations as to where to find info on G40 Polo's?

Thanks

[hayesey]

Facebook, it's the only place that people are posting on now. People rarely bother with the forum.