davidwort

In theory, although I don't think its easy.

they do sieze on, I've known people mistakenly undo the crank bolt attempting to get them off, which shouldn't be done. I had to get heat on one once to break it free.

As the above pic sort of shows (if you can work out what you're looking at), we removed the six bolts that hold the subframe to the body, also the rear and gearbox engine mounts, then I removed the four bolts that hold the rack to the subframe and this allows the subframe to drop, not forgetting to suspend the engine from a hoist! The subframe will drop down only about 20cm or so, as the wishbones are still attached to it and in turn they're attached via the ball joints to the hubs. This basically gives you enough room to get onto the flats of the inner track rod to undo them from the rack ends. A bit of heat from a blow torch made the job easier, mainly because once you unbolt the rack from the subframe it just swings around as it's only supported by the UJ and PS hoses, a v-big pair of grips sufficed there. The main advantage was I didn't need to drop the rack and drain the PS fluid and all the mess that makes and the UJ stayed firmly fixed to the rack as the rack seemed in good nick and didn't need replacing.

At last, it works! :shock: After several hours of sub-frame and engine mount unbolting, last night I've finally cracked it, I'd replaced all the bushes on the suspension before now, wishbones, ball joints etc. but the bloomin' thing still had vagueness and slop in the steering, would wander and twitch esp. on hard acceleration on poor roads. The steering column has next to no play, surprising for a 17 yr old 150,000 miler, so the only thing left was rack, UJ and track rods. bought a 2nd hand VR rack to swap in if necessary, but no need... for me at least, it's all come down to the innner joint on the track rods and with a pair of new rods with new ends (about 35 quid for the pair from AVS - FEBI ones) the car steers soooo much better. When it came down to it the rack is in very good nick, with no signs of leaks etc, so we left well alone. Quick set up of the tracking and a rough 'yeah it looks about right' for the camber and it drives great on the road now. I should have done these a long time ago before even considering the rack, but I guess the result is you can't expect 17 year old track rods not to have any play in them. If anyone else wants to check, simply put the car on full lock and get someone to gently rock the steering wheel while you hold the tie rod, mine audibly and physically knocked on both sides doing this, should have checked this a long time ago :oops: all on a 16v BTW.

sounds like you have the later pulley setup that the 2L 16v has, the ps belt goes straight to the ps pump from the crank and not around the waterpump like the early 1.8 valvers, looks like the dealer gave you the wrong part... that would be a surprise. you should have a 630mm (part number: 027 903 137) belt not a 730 or 617mm

think it's the 'stick on flashing strip', roofing felt would need to be nailed on :lol: BTW, don't ever use this stuff for real building flashing, it shyite, lead flashing cut into the brickwork is far better, just don't attempt to use that for sound deadening :crazyeyes:

I can see where you're coming from, the mk2 slide mech must be much simpler, but I've seen a few mk3 golf frames that were in really good nick and only the roof lining and metal roof panel need to be swapped over. Bally had one a while back with the hope of using the mk3 glass roof, but it was way too curved for the C. I thought at the time the main mechanism was identical, even with a few minor redesigned parts and would have made a good spare, think he picked it up from an E38 show for about 40 quid. I have to say I probably use the tilt function far more, just to improve the airflow from the dash vents without the noise of opening a window. Air con and no roof at all would be my ideal though, never miss the sunroof on my mk4.

both times on mine I've removed the bonnet and lifted the engine and g-box straight up and out with a crane, needs a bit of care not to knock things but it means you can leave the rad and front cross-members in place. driveshft splines have never been a problem for me, just make sure the splined bolt heads are clean of crud before attempting to remove them.

Pretty much all of the gain on the valver heads is on the inlet side, so that sounds about right, expect 10-15bhp from a reasonable job, but that will be at the top end. I had my lower half of the inlet manifold done with the head too. It gets confusing power wise though, as a good set up of a standard car can gain quite a bit of power over a badly tuned one and often the drivetrain losses on a rolling road are on the high side, it's often the case that the new head and tune-up are done at the same time so it's difficult to say whether all of the gain is down to the head work. Rough guide is if it feels slightly better on the road it's probably gained over 5 bhp, if it really feels much better you've gained over 10bhp probably over 15. What you will notice is that from 4000 revs and above a flowed head makes the 16v feel really strong, a higher lift cam will also benefit from headwork although I find the standard KR a good compromise on low end torque and top end pull, which it does smoothly and strongly to the red line with the head work. If someone tells you that a standard 16v engine made over 25bhp from just a port and polish they're talking twaddle :lol: Other benefits to a port and polish are slightly better fuel economy and less prone to pinking.

a few people have swapped fixed columns instead of adjustable ones, there's only the two corrado parts across all cars AFAIK and the fixed one is lighter and more importantly has less moving parts and is less prone to play.

a standard VAG valver rad is pretty efficient as it has double the cores of an 8v golf equivalent, if your temps are too high then I'd suggest spending your money on a new rad, heat exchanger and water pump rather than a bigger fan. Of course checking the rad temp switch is operating OK on both temp settings/speeds is a good starting point. I've also seen a number of partially blocked old radiators. It is possible to fit a 16v rad designed for an air-con car and twin VW fans as the passats have fitted, could probably source a bigger rad and fans second hand for less than 50 quid, however on a modified 16v I've had no oil or water temp problems with new standard VW parts, even on a long rolling road tune-up with limited airflow.

GSF do a front mount for the corrado, they seem OK, unlike the rear ones they do which are pants, far too hard. I recommend you go for at least a FEBI one (AVS) and preferably VW for the rear but it's the fronts that suffer the most wear and it's usually those that fail, the engine will rock really badly if you put it in gear and lift the clutch slightly against the brakes. Of course your rattle could be a loose baffle inside an exhaust silencer?

slightly different stud and tensionner, early ones will be like the 1.8 KR engine, if you go to somewhere like GSF they should have both in stock, take your timing cover off first and take a good look and compare to the part if possible, either that or take the tensionner off and take it with you when you go to buy the part. VAG dealer will go buy chassis number/engine number or reg plate and should match it up for you without comparing parts.

I'd imagine, like the door locks, an ignition key can be re-tumbled. You'll either need the old barrel for parts or a set of brass 'tumblers' (???) from VW.

search for both and try to find the cleanest, best condition car you can, a wedge of receipts is always a good thing and look for replaced axle bushes, and suspension components in general, alternators, power steering pumps, starters etc all give trouble over 100,000 miles and there's the usual sunroof problems which are hassle to sort. Providing the base engine and charger is sound a G60 can be chipped/pulleyed to 200 bhp, however on any car of this age over stressing old components could get you in trouble. A 16v will be a little more economical on fuel but not a great deal more than a G60 or VR6. 2.0 16v's seem to have a little more trouble with the fuelling system than the other cars when they get old but in general the 16v is a cheap and fairly easy car mechanically to maintain. If you're wanting a reasonably quick car the G60's and VR6's were really the performance models and although the 16v handles nicely the 16v engine was never really suited to the heavier body of the Corrado over the mk2 golf, it goes OK but lacks the low end torque.

Passat manual pages not that detailed, but gives instructions for basic setting, the VW tools clamp over the gear lever parts and selector unit and allow for precise settings, all the engine mounts and wear on all the gearshift components make for a more notchy, vague and sometimes difficult change. If you fiddle with the bolts at the gearlever end you'll struggle top get it right again without the VW tools, generally you can make the adjustments you need from the two 13mm nuts holding the cables onto the selector unit at the gearbox end, just make sure it goes straight ahead into 3rd with no side force needed. part no. 19 is the circlip that can go AWOL and post 91 cars have a shift weight and slightly redesigned shift tower, basically the same system though.

it's not the spoiler supports that need lubricating it's the mechanism cables that drive it. to do that you need to remove spoiler itself, the rear tailgate panel, disconnect all the wiring and remove the spoiler unit and motor. You can then disassemble the drive tubes and cables and inspect for corrosion, once the cables get bad corrosion in them they're pretty shot and you'll need a whole new unit, so re-greasing is a good idea at least once in their lifetime. With the mechanisms out you will see that the main spoiler supports are lifted by a small lug on the side of the cables and not directly, it's a strange arrangement but aims to keep water that goes down past the spoiler supports away from the drive mechanism, it works but not completely! It's time consuming to do all this but good preventative maintenance.

built new copper ones for mine when I did the rear axle bushes as they were starting to get really scabby, don't know if the VAG ones would be copper or painted steel like the originals, personally copper seems like the best option, only took my dad a few minutes to make up the lines so it's not that much more work.

can't say you won't need a clutch, but doing the mount and bleeding the clutch circuit wont do any harm, it could be the slave cylinder itself, worth removing and looking at, it's just a couple of bolts and it slides out of the top of the box, you soon see if fluid is leaking out of it although it does have a rubber boot that you'll see when you remove it which might hide leaking a bit. good idea to check it out though, if it is shot a passat one will do the job, get one from a scrappy, tenner at most.

I went for the Merc injectors, although the ones that were already fitted to my KR were a mismatched set and the endcaps only fitted properly on 2 of the new injectors. So I fitted the new ones without the endcaps and they've been absolutely fine. Certainly felt a difference with the new set fitted. Ported throttle body next methinks... I think the 'top hats' are only a heat shield and I don't think anyone has had problems without them on valvers, certainly not on club GTI forum. The only thing that concerned me was they lose the second small 'o' ring, but I think mk 1 golfs were like this anyway and mercs obviously are too.

as blue95 says, plus these boxes are pretty rugged, they take a lot of punishment and it's usually only 2nd gear (synchro) that wears and gives changing problems. If the worst came to the worst and you needed a new g-box, a good 2nd hand one should be no more than 150 quid. I'd also put some new gearbox oil ino it, VW stuff from the dealer is only about 4 quid a litre at the moment of which you need two, and it's just 2 17mm drain plugs, very easy to do. bleeding the clutch slave cylinder is a good idea too, it uses the same fluid as the brakes, from the same reservoir, one bleed nipple just down from the reservoir and one near the slave cylinder on top of the gear box, same process as bleeding the brakes.

Got any more information on this mate? these ones i think careful though, these are suitable for the kr engined k-jet system, the 2.016v ones are different screw threads to the pipes and may have different opening pressure??? IIRC the 2L KE-jet system runs at different pressures to the plain k-jet you'll find a thread on club GTI about this somewhere

no point in looking for any other version of the k-jet injectors, the standard ones are perfectly capable of delivering 200bhp if the engine can breathe that well. If your old injectors have a dodgy spray pattern or leak then there are some mercedes ones (were available from e-bay) that are much cheaper than the VAG/GSF ones and basically identical, quite a few golf 16v owners have had success with them. you can clean old ones with an ultrasonic bath, but they would need to be run with a pump to open them too.

the switch is the same part number on all corrados 535 959 855 but get this, it's also used on the transporter ambulance for the stretcher lift :lol:

AFAIK the 1.8 KR injectors are basically the same as the 2L 16v ones apart from a different thread to connect them to the fuel lines, the manifold should make no difference. - although having just checked the part numbers the inserts are actually different part numbers. After about 1990 the 16v's, regardless of being 1.8 or 2L, have spring clips to help hold the injectors into the manifold, but these are only for extra security and not really needed. I've noticed the injector inserts on 1.8's have the grooves for the clips to sit into although most don't have the clips fitted. Not sure about your vacuum lines and the throttle body though, there are different part numbers for golf and corrado throttle bodies on the 1.8's but they look much the same, 2L has a different one too.