davidwort

From what I've read the best 2L engines to take out to 2.1 are the ABF/ACE mk3 16v ones, they have a longer block, same capacity and crank throw, just longer rods making the engine better for revving high on a 2.1 build. If you bore out a 9A to 2.1 the revs generally have to be limited to about 6500rpm.

you can buy samco lengths of hose by the metre to most bore sizes and elbows and reducers ar available too, if you spent enough time tracking the bits down you could do just about all the hoses and make them look pretty much spot on I reckon..

in the samco set there's a long straight pipe and a long but 180 degree bent pipe that don't fit. just found the pic! samcos.jpg[/attachment:15ivornn]

no the VT ones have some give, I've seen a fair few mk2's snap their front mount brackets when totally solid metal mounts are used, great gearchange as zero engine movement, but somethings gonna snap eventually!

nope, they never had a manual rack on the C, the reason you can drive your car I guess is there is no fluid, if it was full of fluid you'd be trying to force the fluid through the valves in the rack with your own strength as well as moving the wheels. golf's without PS are pretty heavy to drive even the 1.3's, but the corrado has heavier bodywork up front and was always sold as a more expensive luxury car compared to the golf, I don't think leaving off PAS would ever really have been a sensible option. My dad's old passat estate had no power steering, heavy old car that was, but it also had a steering wheel the size of a truck :lol:

you can use a polo saloon 16v one apparently (not sure they even did thatbin the UK), but the Seat ibiza or toledo up to about 2001 for the ibiza and 1997 for the toledo, if they use the 16v engine in 1.8 or 2.0L form use the same rack, in fact the Golf mk3 GTI 16v and VR6 use the same one, it's just the 5 stud cars like the mk3's and corrado vr6 have the longer tie rods, no problem just swap in which ever tie rods you need, in fact with the correct early UJ from column to rack you should be able to fit a golf2 16v or corrado 1.8 16v/pre 92 G60 rack in there too, same basic rack just a 36 spline input shaft needing the early UJ.

yes, you could, but it's the same rack they use on the caddy so it'll be the 'non-sport' version or lower ratio version, slightly more turning lock to lock I think.

This is going to be a long-un, but the gist of it is replacing the bushings and lever guide to improve feel of the gearshift. I've also been looking at golf/passat parts in comparison as some are different and some the same as the Corrado. Firstly I need to thank in advance Steveo29, the links he gave me to dieselgeek in particular I recommend reading this install procedure and some other info from Canadian corrado club, in particular here and a few other places. It's possible to remove the necessary shifter parts from inside the car with a slight 'modification' to the lip of the hole in the centre tunnel the shifter sits in. It's not the correct way to do it, but it beats removing the exhaust and going under the car to remove everything as far as I'm concerned. the Dieselgeek site has a good how-to on this. Corrado conversion V2 (3).pdfshifter-overview.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] the selector housing and pivot stud are key to everything, the 'mod' to the lip is needed to extract the pivot stud and the selector housing can then be removed to change the bushes. Book1.pdfpivot-stud-removal.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] stromlaufplan_gamma4.pdfpivot-stud-removed.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] once the stud is out the selector housing is pretty easy to remove by removing the small circlip that holds the shift lever guide (535 711 055D - about 4 quid from VW) in place, slide the guide off the selector housing and it just lifts out. this was where I compared the Corrado parts to some passat ones, after careful checking I found the following: ETKA Corrado.pdfparts1.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] and this diagram from the Canadian Corrado Club helps: stromlaufplan_gamma4.pdfShifterAssembly.gif[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] So the Golf g60, Passat and golf mk3 use the same parts, the corrado has a lower gearlever so they're adjusted the pivot point to make about the same throw. This got me thinking, perhaps i could use a combination of passat parts and Corrado parts to make a short-shift. I think it is possible, with less work than the Canadian Club member went through, all I think needs to be modified is the passat selector housing to retain the same position of the bottom ball that operates the side-to-side cable. I actually fitted the passat parts in my car and the front-rear throw is reduced by a subtle 3cm from about 13cm to 10cm which I think will make it feel slicker without getting too notchy or hard to shift, or putting excessive extra forces on the bushings etc. (a bit more force will be needed as the pivot position moves towards the gearknob) Corrado92.pdfcorrado-plate-shift-throw.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] passat throw: passat climatronic wiring diags.pdfpassat-plate-shift-throw.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] finally the selector housings side-by-side: climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfIMG_3934.JPG[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] Passat on left, Corrado parts on right Now I've changed the bushings and the lever guide the gearchange feel is much better, it obviously doesn't change the condition of the gearbox, but it's well worth doing on a high-miler, in total the 3 bushes and the lever guide cost me £5.12 with a trader discount of about 10% or so, so the bits are peanuts. [strike:1jlpxhfg]One[/strike:1jlpxhfg] Two other things, I 'm also using one of steveo29's prototype nylon cable end bushes at the gearbox end of the shift cable, that works well with these replacement parts too and I also slightly filed a groove in the edge of the lever part of the selector housing to make the centering spring (torsion spring in the diagram) fit tightly on both sides, this removes any 'wobble' play in neutral, which makes the whole thing feel even more solid. the screwdriver is pointing to the rest position of the top part of the torsion spring, I simply filed a few mm off this rest/lever part to make the ends of the spring touch either side of the lever in the netral position of the gearstick. 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfcentering-spring-rest.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] Oh, one more! the later shifters use a better circlip to hold the lever guide in place (the ones that can pop off making reverse hard to get), not sure if late corrados have this type, but the passat circlip actually has a locking tab stopping it coming off, and is slightly sprung against the lever guide, helping to reduce side-to-side play. If you have the type on the left of the pic below, the type on the right is better, but better still would be the passat type, not shown, that has the locking tab in the middle, only problem is that it requires a selector housing with a pivot machined to accept the locking tab and I'm not sure if the corrados ever got this type. locking-washers.jpg[/attachment:1jlpxhfg] Phew, any questions? - it's pretty easy all-in-all, took me an evening, but I faffed about with trying passat bits and taking lots of photos! - part numbers are: shift lever guide - 535 711 055D - IRO 3-4 quid bushes - 357 711 590B 357 711 124A 357 711 590C the 3 of them only add up to about £2

a pretty ropey looking front vibratechnics mount went for over 80 quid on e-bay the other day, don't think you'll have much trouble selling them on I'm intending to get a front vibratechnics one for the C as the front cross-member is better isolated from the rest of the body anyway and it's the front mount that really takes the strain, I've also seen a fair few others with them on 4 cylinder cars with no complaint on the front, but for the rears I'm sticking to standard, renewed recently. Beware of GSF ones though, only go for FEBI ones or genuine VAG, the pattern one GSF sold me was like a solid mount and it vibrated terribly at idle, they took it back for a full refund though. Someone else told me they used a GSF one for a track car as it was as solid as a Vibratechnics one but only 40 quid!

could just be the price you pay for a firmer mount, I had a stiffer-than-OEM main rear engine mount in for a week, it was terrible, the subframe is bolted up right underneath you so any extra vibration gets transmitted straight into the cabin, particularly noticeable on 4 cylinder cars. Most of the movement under heavy load is the lifting of the front of the engine so the rears don't help much to reduce engine movement anyway.

all 4 cyl corrados have tank: 1H0 121 407A this is the same part for virtually all 4 cylinder golf 3's, passats and 1991-94 polos post 1991 seems best as the plastic seemed to change at that point (no change in part number) and they tend to stay whiter, the late tanks also have the level fill marks painted in black, the 1988-91 tanks just have the marks moulded into the tank and not actually painted black.

I was down at a scrappy near me at the weekend and they had loads of golf mk3's with genuine VAG header tanks and most looked pretty clean, they only wanted a couple of quid for one. What I did with mine (ages ago) was fill it with vinegar, shake it about and leave it overnight, shake it about again and wash out, cleaned mine up a treat, still see the level fine and it's 17 years old! Alternatively a kettle descaler product would probably do the job quicker but I'm a cheapskate :) a few people seem to have had problems with GSF pattern tanks not being moulded quite right, so check them out carefully before accepting one, but for my money If I couldn't clean the old one out and it was still discoloured badly I'd probably get a second hand genuine mk3 one that looked fairly clean and do the vinegar trick on that.

no mate, the 1.8 downpipe is too long as it never had a cat, you need a 2.016v downpipe to match to that you need (1) below, plus de-cat pipe, rather than (1a) that you have at the moment

I'm not so sure of a few of these bits of info guys, the 16v golf mk2 (KR) and 1.8 (KR) corrado have very similar gearing and an almost identical top speed, about 129 and 131 respectively, the corrado with a slightly higher top speed as it's more aerodynamic. as for the power output, surely an engine has the same peak power regardless of the flywheel you bolt to it, the flywheel is just an energy store after all?, you don't lose power in the flywheel, there's no frictional losses. On the K-series engines I'd always understood the problem with headgaskets was mainly due to the fact that the efficient design of the engine meant a small coolant capacity, so as soon as you get a bit of water loss the engine can overheat very quickly as there's little margin for error (compared to the 6.5 litres of a VW 16v) so they often blow their gaskets rather than just overheating (edit: sorry Dave ,just re-read your comment about the minimal water system) I also really don't buy this idea that the 16v has more low down torque than the 8v (1.8 engines) I've had several and the 8v's in different cars (Passats and audis too), they were all more punchy low down, if anything they are probably about the same but the gearing and cams on the 8v's tend to make them better at lower revs even accounting for the 16v's 4000rpm pickup which makes them 'feel' sluggish before they come on cam. But as Dave says, with the C and MK2 it's really all down to weight, when it came out the Corrado was nearly as heavy as a passat saloon.

if the car's ,that low you'll be hitting the sump on things too! They don't usually hang that low so I'd check the engine mounts to make sure there's not something else wrong. The front silencer is part of the downpipe and the ways to replace it would be a 2.0 16v downpipe and de-cat pipe or an all in one manifold and downpipe (four-branch).

never heard of any problems with the GSF ones, I wouldn't pay for a VAG one either, unless it was second hand. They're not under that much heat and pressure anyway, I'd be more worried about old rubber coolant hoses than a pattern expansion tank TBH. Not everything that's non VAG is rubbish, that seems to be a recently aquired myth with VW's. I've run on loads of pattern parts since I bought my first dub in 1989 and the only problem I've ever really had was a slightly weak beam pattern on a mexican made pattern mk1 headlight.

They're basically identical bar the final drive IIRC (check out the forum knowledge-base/WIKI for all the ratios) never stripped one right out though so no idea if it's possible to just swap the FD over.

you'll find it easier when the engine's warm and the rubber o-ring seals softer.

I've found a Sykes Pickavant one great for the more complex stuff and a cheapo analogue maplin one for under a tenner useful for basic continuity tests etc. This is a pretty high up the range one, bit expensive tho: http://www.shacktools.com/sykespickavan ... -5587.html

Generally 1.8's are talked of as early I think, so that's anything on an F,G,H or J plate Although really early would be an F or 1989 G I guess Never seen vinyl backed seats at all but the F, G and most H plate cars only came with leccy windows as a dealer fit bodge (permanently live wired aftermarket motors, not VW bits) and had a cable drive speedo from the gearbox with analogue mileometer Early 16v's also had a fixed height steering column and no sunroof although quite a few had them as options,especially the roof. Late H and J plate valvers had the digital mileometer and from what I've seen the factory fitted electric windows with one touch operation. My November 1990 H plate has an analogue dash, cable speedo drive, did have dealer fitted rubbish electric windows, but a factory roof and adj steering column.

I'd have thought there would be a break in them somewhere, have another closer look, you used to be able to get silver paint from motor factors for fixing the broken points and making a circuit again not sure they were ever a great solution though. here you go: e-bay

AFAIK it was only pre 89 VW racks that used ATF fluid, although bizarrely the 1.8 16v Corrados use the old mk2 fluid reservoir which actually has a red cap and ATF marked on it yet they weren't filled with ATF from the factory, parts bin raid I think. The green LHM type stuff is basically Citroen hydraulic suspension fluid and I've never had any trouble running the FEBI stuff for 8 years with a brand new pump and the original rack. That's another recon rack to add to the list that have only lasted a short time though.

do you reckon you could get a glass from another car cut to shape for the Corrado?, really fancy a tinted and blind spot curve on the outer edge

that little polo held up really well! not sure how good the Ka's are generally in accidents but every one I see in my dad's garage has rot in it, I wouldn't want to be in one over a couple of years old

well, the convex gives a wider field of view but distances can be distorted as a result, it's a shame they don't do a flat glass with the outside edge convex to catch the blind spot, I find that much safer on the mk4 golf I have and those stick on blind spot things just look ugly.