I'll definitely keep this in mind, the factory brakes are working well right now, and I don't have too many complaints now that they're working properly. I have to re-do the rear control arms and the clutch before i start thinking about fancy brakes

 

The Archaic ones will eliminate my headlight washers, and have a lot of extra wiring to set up. Dunno. I am starting to consider a good used one. New facelift unit is $1100+, and the wrong one, so it will not match the other....

 

Yes they do delete the washers, I pulled the fuse. It's not an easy decision, the best choice is two new units but for me $2200 is just too much to spend on a car that I personally got for $3500. Especially when a $500 a set of lights that outperform stock considerably is available so easily. Its also not easy to repair the old lights in a way that would make them "good" again. If you only have a faded lens it is probably pretty easy to make it happen. For me with damaged wiring, faded lenses, and 2 decades of built up road debris that found it's way inside the light, mine are really close to a lost cause. For you, if you only have one light that's in really bad shape, I might suggest one new OEM light and then try to clean up the other side. You'd be surprised at how nice they can look when buffed up right.

The extra wiring is not bad at all, took me all of 30 mins. The turn signals wire into the lights on the side scuttles, a few zip ties and that's over in no time. The DRLs require a wire ran to an internal fuse, I pushed it through the grommet on the right of the brake booster and ran the passenger side wire under the hood insulation. Honestly I spent more time removing the old lights because of rusty hardware lol.

 

I am thinking of possible other uses for the tank and pump. Being in Azirona, evaporation works REALLY WELL for cooling, so an external intercooler spray is being considered if the headlight washers are going away. I thought the $450 or so I paid several years ago for the one replacement was bad. Now you can't even get a match for it, and a mismatched one is nearly $1200. That dog won't hunt....

I had a faded lens, and used a spray that was supposed to clear and resurface the lens and restore it to a new-like state. Nasty stuff, even with good ventilation. It instead made the lens blurry and differently cloudy. Not sure it's fixable at this point. 😐

Yeah, 20 year old stuff, especially up in the northeast with all of that messy "winter" stuff happening annually, is going to get messed up....

I am less confident in my buffing skills than you are. One light is only 3-4 years old. The bad one is 21, as it came off a 2004. If the pre-facelift was available, I would consider biting the bullet and getting one, but to spend $1200 to end up with mismatched stock lights is beyond silly, and to spend twice that on a car that's worth less than the headlights would cost, just to end up with the facelift lights I'd rather not have, is even sillier.

I'm torn on the look. I have been working for over a decade on alleviating the "cute" factor in my car's appearance and improve desert compatability (vented bonnet, oversized shaker scoop for intercooler, etc.), and these look like something out of Pixar's "Cars" (which leans "cute" perty strongly), or maybe Little Orphan Annie.

If going this route, I already have the main relay broken out under the bonnet to trigger a relay for my water pump, so I'd probably put the DRL on that line if I get them. Forgot about the side lights being blinkers. That's a bit less daunting than running wires to the front bumper. I'd consider losing the little round lights in the bumper in this case, as running lights and blinkers would be handled by these, and I'd like enough room in that space for a couple repro Mopar "Roadrunner" horns, which are a bit bigger than the stock or usual suspect replacement horns.

Hmmm.... 🤔 Maybe I could sell the right side one that's only several years old at a profit and come out even on the replacements....

 

Welp it was bound to happen eventually!

My super cheap $100 header has developed a leak, time to replace it. Torn between spending the money for a nice scorpion header with a cat ($1000) or taking a risk on a chinese 4-2-1 header with a cat ($500)

the scorpion is a known quantity, but its really pricy. The Chinese one is literally half the price, but comes with the risk of it being junk and a longer delivery time. I have inspection due by the end of November, exhaust leaks will cause me to fail so I have a little time to decide but need to make the choice this weekend.

China special
Scorpion

Hmmmm....

 

SO more research...

The China 421 is $568 after tax, tariff, and shipping. The header itself is $250, so I really need to think of it as a $250 header and understand that's the quality I'm going to get but i have to pay $570~ for it.

The scorpion catless 421 is available form Orranje for ~$775 shipped from the UK, and that's $610 for the header itself and $175 for shipping. So in that case I'm paying $775 for a $610 header. That's a much higher quality part, comes with a warranty, made out of thick stainless steel, well designed with a flex that won't just crack.

Its $200 more for the Scorpion over the China header, its a no brainer to just spend a little extra to get that better part, I have an inquiry in with Orranje to see how much they want for shipping to the USA. I'm confident they will ship this product to the US because it is available from their eBay store with USA shipping. The only reason I'm not just ordering right off eBay is because i know eBay charges a fee, so I suspect I could get a slightly better price by ordering directly.

To note: Since my car is older than 15 years, I'm fully emissions exempt in my state, so there's no inspection related headache by going catless, I don't really like running without a cat but I do like saving $300. I still have my OEM cat and in the long term I will weld it back into the exhaust to kill the smell.

 

I bought camberplates from Orranje, shipped to the States, and they came pretty quick. That was early last year through.

 

good to hear!

im mostly concerned about if they’ll want to ship me the catless version, scorpion specifically doesn’t sell it in the USA.


if they don’t I’ll have to think a bit more about the best choice

 

Keep up the good work

 

Not sure if this was factored into your post above, but I recently got an email from Orranje that says they are doing a 20% off Scorpion exhausts from 11/1 to 12/1

 

A number of outlets in the US also sell that Scorpion 4-4-2-1 header. IIRC, I got mine from ECS. They're happy to sell you the catless version. You can bolt either cat or catless bypass pipe on, so you can get their cat later if you decide to. I have the cat, so I paid a few hundred dollars more, but theoretically, since I live in Pinal County and don't commute into Maricopa County for work (I commute to the corner of the kitchen, as I work 100% remote), I could get the cat bypass pipe. I like the way the 4-2-1 trades some of the screaming redline power for some extra grunt in the middle RPMs, which is a nice boost when accelerating from, say, 65 to 90, to pass on the freeway. Much more fun to drive, and still pulls decently hard at redline....

Scorpion also provides a second O2 bung pre-cat, so your wideband O2 gauge is ready to go without a trip to visit your favorite welder....

 

oh this is interesting! I’ll have to contact ECS directly, they only list the catted version on the website. I’ve bought stuff from them a bunch of times and I’ve always been happy. I just placed a decently sized order for stuff to refresh the rear end from there too.

 

thanks for the tip! I’ll make sure to ask about that when they get back to me

 

Having difficulty finding the non-cat one now. I know I saw it when I was searching for headers 5 or so months ago. Hmmm....

This place has the catted version at a considerably better price than I paid months ago. No idea on shipping cost, tho, as it is calculated in the checkout process. Finally spotted a clue to their location - also in England.... De-cat version also on sale, tho....

Dunno. Maybe it was on a British site that I saw the de-cat one. Sorry about that, chief!

 

Order placed with Orranje, with Fedex shipping and VAT removed it came out to £496.67 ($651.56). Theres a %10 tarriff on the UK (Much better than the %100 on the Chinese header). So I expect to pay $65 tarriff and $40 MA sales tax when it hits the port. Bringing the total to ~$755.

And then this wont have to be replaced again I'm really curious how it will sound, I've heard the 4-2-1 design gives it a nice tone.

 

I enjoy mine. Nice, throaty growl when you get on it. Can only get better when it's ported BVH/cam time....

 

I'm pretty excited, this is the first "nice" part I'll be putting on this car, to date I've been going with budget parts because there's just been so many things needing to be done. BVH and cam would be great one day, I did see some pitting on the valve seats when I used the borescope so I think its only a matter of time for that.

 

Enjoy it! Right there with ya. New rear calipers very soon. Right rear inside pad unclipped itself one too many times. I am letting my mechanic do them this time, as his hands aren't suffering the aftermath of changing an ungrateful girlfriend's water pump in 9° windy weather a few dozen years ago, like mine are.

New EBC slotted rotors, too, as the right rear rotor is done. Bluestuff pads.

Getting matching new front parts to put on for myself at home. Fronts are easy. Can save the pads as emergency backups.

Also replacing the fuel filter housing, as it's leaking. He's got a secret ninja trick to use an R56 one and have the fuel gauge work correctly (instead of backwards). R53 unit is stooooopid expensive, R56, much more reasonably priced....

BVH/cam is a fun ride. Do it! 😀

Can't wait to get one back on mine. I had the TPR2 and 405 cam, with the 8000 rpm valve spring upgrade. The springs live on in the new crate engine. I have the head and valves sitting here. It's cracked, and the cam ruined by all the glitter from the spun main bearings, but the valves are in good shape....

 

Update:
I've pulled the manifold, the exhaust, and rear heat shielding. I've detached the rear struts, rear trailing arm bushings, parking brake cables, rear brake lines, wheel speed sensors/wear sensor, and battery positive cable. Right now the only thing holding the rear subframe up are the mounting bolts. I'm planning to let it down tomorrow night after work. Need to figure out how to handle the gas tank straps, worried the tank is gonna fall when those are released.

The driver side parking rake cable was so seized, I had no option but to cut it. I really tried to keep it, heat, PB blaster, a chisel and a mini sledge. Nothing, after seeing that a new OE part is only $30 I just cut it.

The subframe is very rusty, but doesn't appear to have any holes or compromised structure. I think now is the time to take care of this, I'll be having it sand blasted and then painted with epoxy paint. This should keep it in once piece for another two decades :D If I let this go I wouldn't be surprised if it failed within the next 2-3 years, the rust is progressing fast.

 

I'm thinking about painting it a fun color, black is the obvious choice, but I've also considered red, white, maybe green? I think any color is going to show dirt but that doesn't bother me too much lol. I've used a can of VHT spray epoxy paint before and found it to be extremely durable and ideal for undercarriage parts. That comes in white and black. I guess I'll be doing white lol

 

it’s a bit like working on the titanic back here, the front subframe was so oily it never rusted lol.

Rusty

Crusty

Seized solid

This side came out

Parking cables and battery cable out


Bolt soup (evaporust)

New shielded spherical bearing rear control arms

 

Wow, you've been busy!

I do not even one tiny, miniscule bit, miss the east coast rust. I briefly owned a '72 Super Beetle from Boston. Got it for $200, despite having a strong, fresh engine, because it had "a dead transmission". Pulled both rear hubcaps, put it in first gear, and, indeed, it did not move. Put on the hand brake, got out, with it idling in first gear, and looked at both axle bolts. Right side was turning. Paid them, then I came back with a pipe, a breaker bar and socket, and a new brake drum, jacked it up right there and swapped the drum, tightened the axle nut as much as I could with the pipe and breaker bar (spec is like 233 lb-ft, IIRC), and put everything back together, and drove it away. Man, that car was super rusty, tho. Not much was holding the front suspension together....

 

hey that’s a nice deal though! Not every day that you get a winner like that!


and yeah it’s nasty, the rust is relentless. Modern cars are much better at resisting it but this mini isn’t so lucky. The body isn’t half bad but the suspension really took a beating

 

Header arrived, put it in the same day. I used the second spare O2 bung at the collector for an EGT probe. Will definitely help with tuning.

I had to bend the lower heat shield under the manifold above the coolant and power steering lines. Just a little bit, nothing crazy. The ports are nicely made and match up perfectly to the gasket, u like the Chinese one from before that was not even matched to the head let alone the gasket. That alone should make more power.


they included a haribo candy which was very delicious 😋







Cyl 4

Cyl 3

Cyl 2

Cyl 1

Decat pipe and hardware.

 

Nice!