davidwort

there's no doubt you'll change the torque characteristics with a 4 branch, maybe not in the desired way, I personally have found a flowed/polished standard 16v cast iron manifold and standard downpipe is excellent, and you are definitely not going to get any problems with noise, cracks, heat issues etc, but in the quest for peak power everyone seems prepared to ditch the oem bits, and new 4 branches are shiny of course :)

this is what I was wondering, do 4 branches clear the rack/subframe/bulkhead when fitted to the taller ABF block, if not then I'd heard of people modding the mounts to drop the engine a little to compensate.

well seeing as an ecotek is nothing more than a manifold air leak and the mfa on a valver calculates mpg from manifold vacuum I'm not surprised you get dodgy figures.

the 2L engine will go straight in, but use the 1.8 fuel system and injectors, far easier to take the whole lump out with box attached and swap the box over to the new engine before refitting, you can 'crane in' an engine and box if you remove the bonnet but It's probably easier to remove the front bumper and panels.

I think they're used for nuts they really don't want to come undone, hub nuts are the same, there must be a proper engineering reason for them though :lol:

I'd probably go for a mk3 16v box, more suited to the 16v rev range than a G60 one, but slightly longer legged than the 1.8 or 2L corrado 16v boxes (2.0L Corrado one is slightly longer legged than the 2.016v Corrado one too). The Excel spreadsheet here in the wiki is useful for example 1.8 16v box: agc-o2a-16v-gearspeeds.pdf[/attachment:8ghfih55]

I guess so, VW put a bigger pulley on the 1.8 16v alternator for this reason (7200rpm red line), the 2.0 16v and 8v cars which redline lower, have smaller pulleys. Perhaps it's better to put slightly larger pulleys on the ancilliaries than smaller ones on the crank??? - I wouldn't want to underdrive my waterpump for instance.

my real point is that you don't get much of a reduction in rotational mass from pulleys, they're just too small in diameter to start with, every gram makes a difference on a race car but it's not going to be noticable on a (rarely revved to) 6,000 rpm road car.

The plastic plates, mounted at 90 deg on the leading edge of the wishbones. Just wondering if these are worth fitting to a Corrado. Passats and Polos using the same sort of wishbones seem to often have them. Anyone know what they actually do?

I don't think the revs you're likely to achive on a VR lump and/or the slight reduction in mass of the relatively small pulleys (compared to wheels, brake disks and flywheels) make the risk of using dubious quality/strength aftermarket pulleys worthwhile. They might look shiny and colourful though :)

leave the disks etc as they are, it's also a lot easier if someone helps you with supporting the beam when you remove the mounting bolts though, I wouldn't want to do it on my own

4 axle stands isn't safe, you really need two ramps and two axle stands. the rear seat bases just lift out if you press them at the front at the same time, squeeze the foam and try to peer underneath, you should see where they clip in.

just watching the box and a renault ad for the new megane came on, now as if it wasn't an ugly enough car (they obviously haven't learnt from dismal sales of the new laguna) they seem to think it's a good idea to remind people that they may have sworn never to buy a renault in the past :cuckoo: do they really think that's a top marketing ploy :scratch:

one thing I keep thinking about (driving in the dark these winter evenings) is illuminated air vents/controls, my dads A6 has lovely subtle red glows to the open/shut indicator whereas the Corrado just has the printed white marks, even a very small LED to mark the open and shut end points would be good, or one built into the wheel?

I see Mr Clarkson put it up high on the cool wall, on a not so positive note, a local blue one to me went down the road the other morning, to come back an hour later on an AA relay truck, no damage, perhaps they dropped their keys down a drain :shrug:

100W main beam H4's with standard 60W spots H3's (relayed up) is plenty bright enough for me, 130W is just going to make far too much heat and road signs/cones etc will give you far too much reflection I reckon.

a two and a half yr old TDI would have been around 10 grand retail in 2003, if not more, that's a hell of a lot of damage, cost, wise, to have it written off by insurance, although I guess it would have been a grand or two below that value for the insurance company to say it wasn't worth them paying to repair. Most VW plastic parts have date stamps on them so have a good look around the car to try to work out what bits are later than 2001. I'd imagine the insurance company would still have records but getting the info from them (if you can find who it was) might cost you even if they are prepared to do that, possibly some data protection issues too??

pinking?

yeah, easy really, just 3 screws (once the wheel is off) hold the two stalks to the column, there's a couple of multiplugs either side to remove from the back of each stalk. the problem with the wiper stalk is a small multi contact square shaped piece that moves away from it's correct 'rest' position as a lug on the stalk wears, this means the contacts can make connections with very little movement of the stalks, as toad found out, sometimes a bit of a bump and they make contact. It is actually possible to repair them quite easily, but 2nd hand ones are pretty easy to come by and passat/golf ones are identical apart from the length of the MFA button connection wire, which can be lengthened pretty easily as it's only about 4 small thin wires.

the rears have a rubber, specially shaped packing piece on the top plates

some pretty wierd things can happen when the stalks get old and very worn, you need to check which contacts are being made at the multi-switch/contact parts at the base of the wiper stalk.

unless you've got a broken spring I can't see a late rear spring sagging enough to make it shorter than an early one, even if they are the best part of 20 years old, the bushings and top spring packing on the rear are another matter though, new vs old. Of course if the previous owner was a paving slab delivery man...

Is it holding pressure in the fuel system? try turning the key on and off a few times before turning it all the way to engage the starter, that way the fuel pump will prime the system up well first. If that helps then I guess the pressure accumulator may be dodgy. Otherwise, the injectors may be leaking fuel into the cylinders if they are very old and worn out.

one other thing with the spring top caps, I think the passat and corrado (with early style top mounts) have a spring top plate that lowers the car slightly compared to mk2 golf items, I've heard of some people using passat/corrado plates to lower a golf at the front a little (10mm ish) rather than buying aftermarket lowering caps designed for the mk2. So it's not as simple as passats have longer springs than golfs, passat spring top plates are slightly different to compensate too.

just a thought, wouldn't one relay for main beam be stretching the wiring/relays a bit? If you wanted to fit 100W H3's (centre spots) and H4's(main bulb) that's 400W which is going to draw a hefty current is it not? I can see it's safer (failure wise) to have one each for dip left/right, but it's the main beam that needs separate relays for left/right power wise.