As Tim said, don't waste your time w/ the motor as a race engine. It's a 1.7, and you'd have to put it in an ITB car.

As far as the ignition problem. A1 VWs are notorious for water leaks that will soak the fuse box. These cars are mostly 20 - 25 years old, and I don't know of one that doesn't have some water issues in the fuse box. There are a couple of areas that cause this.

1) the drains in the rain tray (one on either side) get clogged up and the water just sits in the rain tray. The sealent around the air inlet starts to crack and the puddled water leaks in.

2) the windshield seal leaks, and the water gets in behind the windshield and runs down behind the dash.

3) the antenna seal leaks, and the water travels down the antenna cable, through the firewall, and onto the fuse box.

The big problem w/ the water is that it gets into the relays attached to the fuse block. They plug in from the underside, and some are not sealed (just metal or plastic covers) and the water will seep into the relay and puddle there. I've actually poured water out of relays that I've taken out of cars. If you pull the cover off, you'll see some serious corrosion in there. I saw one that was so bad, the contact arm had actually rusted off.

For some reason, it seems that the main relays affected by this problem are the fuel pump and the wipers. I've also had blinker relays and headlight relays go, but the wiper and fuel pump relays are on the R/H side (at least in '83-'84 GTIs), which seems to be where the water ends up.

You will see corrosion on the fuse terminals as well, and will get some shorting across the fuses. I've seen fuses that just disintigrate in your hand when you try to remove them.

Hope this helps.

------------------
MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI
SCCA 279608