davidwort

rear dampers can be OK, but the spring rates, height and front damper rates will be all wrong compared to Corrado specific parts, the C is heavier by about 150kg than a golf, most at the front. Matched springs and dampers designed for a specific model will always provide the best ride and handling, at best standard golf suspension may be too underdamped and sloppy, at worst it could be a bit unpredicatable and possibly dangerous in some conditions. David.

vw cams are pretty robust, not like old vauxhalls etc..., it's rare to see really bad cam wear unless an engine has been seriously badly maintained. Most of the 8v GTI and 16v VW engines I've seen in scrappies have cams that look perfect, occasionally you'll see one with a bit of pitting starting on the hardened lobes. David.

Great idea. Let us know if there's anything I can provide flusted, I've had my valver since 1996 and a series of engine builds and modifications, I'm sure between a few of us we can provide a pretty good list of what works, what doesn't and the pros and cons of mods. Would be good to get a concise guide together, there's plenty of info about, especially on the Club GTI forum, just no combined tuning guide. As a start it would be good to include: 1.8's 1.9's 2.0's 2.1's headwork cams manifolds ignition/fuelling options exhausts air filters flywheels David.

exhaust cams are exactly the same part number 027 109 022 G David.

:? it's based on an old Nissan Micra it's only available as an automatic - 3 speed you can only get them in pastel shades it looks like an upside down old enamel bath

I think the 1.8 16v is the only one that doesn't work on???

there are two tools, one with two lugs to hold the tensionner still while you torque down the nut (don't really need it) and one that checks the belt tension. VAG garages sometimes insist on using the tensionning device but it's not needed. If you over-tighten the belt it will squeal horribly. It actually feels quite slack when correctly tensioned and sometimes you think it's OK and one run of the engine and it then feels too tight. I've found the best approach is to tighten until you can turn the belt to roughly 90 degrees mid way between the cam pulley and intermediate shaft pulley, run the engine and stop again, then slacken very slightly until it runs without squealing when you increase the revs. The only reason it's more important to get right on the 16v over the 8v is the 16v will bend valves if the belt jumps more than a tooth or two. David.

yep, but the charger hands over to the turbo at higher revs, bet that pipework is complex! not sure if the other examples of super and turbocharged engines work in that way. David.

or run-flats... now they're not cheap to replace. David.

Or just have to swap a back wheel for a front, then put the SS on the back. That'd be fun on the side of the M-way.

A good 2nd hand space saver with a tyre should cost you a tenner, or you're being ripped off. David.

Car's still going great, the more miles I put on, the looser the engine gets and the revvier it feels, around the 20,000 mile mark now. I do a few miles of the M1 each day and it's great for motorway driving now, it sits just at the bottom of the peak part of the torque band at 80 which means it pulls really strongly when you floor it. I've still yet to get it below 30mpg on a full tank of fuel, even with giving it some real stick, it seems to love Tesco 99. Had a very surprised BMW 630 convertible on a quiet early morning just after Christmas, came up behind him on the M1 so he started to accelerate away, just sat on his tail till 140+ on my speedo and he finally pulled over to let me past :) I've added the Stealth tune up plots from 2005 at the top.

no WUR on a 2.0 16v, the fuel control pressure is controlled by the ECU, it's possible to chip the 2.0 fuelling and timing maps but not sure if Stealth do it, would be more precise than tweaking the WUR on a 1.8 but much more expensive and in practice won't gain you much more than a couple of hp anyway. A thorough check over your plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm would be an idea, together with coolant and oil level checks, simple things like this including checking your tyre pressures and wheel alignment saves them time and you money. David.

good ones tend to come with a set of adaptors for different sized pistons and calipers. It's two grooves in the piston, slightly tapering towards the centre. I've wound them back with a pair of long nosed pliers before, but a wind back tool is much easier! David.

sensors are a few quid from German Swedish and French or Euro Car parts, I've got a bunch kicking around in my toolbox and they're pretty comon on loads of VW's. They just screw into the top of the oil filter housing, need a big spanner 24mm or something to undo them, an adjustable spanner will do, they're not tight. Each of the two oil pressure sensors, usually one black top one white top, have a single wire connector to them, on older cars this corrodes and the wire can break at the connector, that's the first thing to look at. changing them is a five minute job, if that, sometimes the senders themselves die and can leak oil. One sender activates a buzzer if pressure is too low at idle, the other will set of the buzzer at 2 or 3000 revs if pressure is not correct there. I wouldn't drive far until these are checked, it could be a genuine oil pressure problem which won't do the engine any good, it's worth asking a garage if they can check the oil pressure for you with a gauge. David.

the coolant red light is in the top part of the temp gauge, the oil light is in the central cluster of LEDs/coloured bulbs, never had a VW beep at me if the coolant light flashes either.

As Phil says, and if it's a false alarm it could just be corroded wiring at the oil pressure sensors or a duff sensor both happen. David.

your best bet is the Club GTi forum http://www.clubgti.com/forum/default.asp and a search for the title of your post here through their postings. also, find a late mk2 GTI or Driver/GL from a scrappy that has it fitted from the factory, then use it for all the bits as a doner car, it's perfectly do-able, but won't be a five minute job and will require dropping the sub frame. From memory I think you will need an additional pulley on the end of the crank, not just simply a longer belt for the ps pump that goes round the water pump and alternator, again best bet is take a look at a car in the scrappy to see where everything goes. Also, the 16v has a different rack to the 8v cars, but I think the GTI's, GL's, Drivers etc use the same PS rack. David.

gas-flowed head mated to a 2L block will get you 170bhp, it's not going to be cheap though, expect to pay 600 for the head and 100 upwards for a 2L block depending on age/mileage, then you've got to fit it all. High lift cams will add another 10bhp or so at the top end but they're not good for the road on the 1.8 due to the shift of torque up the rev band. David.

looks good! I like those things more and more as time go on. Now you just need to find a 2L bottom end for it :)

If you're quick you won't lose much coolant swapping in the new switch! Air locks aren't too bad on the 16v, but you might need to loosen the top rad hose clamp and wiggle the hose to help get the air out, drive a short way and then top up the header tank if the level drops as the engine cools. You can simply short the fan straight to the battery to make sure the motor is OK. Test the sender by checking the continuity as the water temp rises. Pins shouldn't be hard to figure out from the wiring, again check the loom connector with a multimeter to see which is which. David.

Isn't the point that standard 16v K-jet can deliver the air and fuel for 200+ bhp, with not much more than a tweak to the control pressure, which is great for us amateur engine builders, it's cheap and effective :) You can't dispute this Alex. So that makes it pretty pointless going to the expense and effort of changing to another system unless you want to get every last bit of power from a heavily modified engine. I believe the 16v head has the flow potential for 250bhp in NA form, but I don't think the K-jet air flap and inlet will deliver this. Forced induction probably would. As far as the VR goes, it's a terrible head, the inlet runners are different lengths for gods sake! why do you think VW went to the 24V head, basically everyone else was getting closer to 240 bhp from their V6's and the original VR6 design just didn't cut it, the only big power Vr6's are forced induction which as we all know is cheating :wink: anyway, back to the point, not much dosh = stick with K-jet on a modded 16v money to burn = throttle bodies and mappable ECU :wink: :) aquire whole ABF with loom etc = have a go with the VW system, but re-mapping won't be cheap, probably pay for your flowed head! David.

Ta, thought so. What about the Master Cyl / Servo - VR has 23mm ? What did the others have? Cheers All 229mm or 9" AFAIK.

I know it's got completely different characteristics but 140bhp ATW isn't far off VR6 peak power and with 154lb/ft It goes very well! - thanks to Stealth for the last 8 or 9bhp :) Last few tankfuls of fuel (33mpg) and it's only 3 or 4 mpg off my 1.6 mk4 golf!

been reading this thread and can't hold back any longer! I too have a 6A block (brand new VAG part not re-conned, it was surplus stock bought from VAG MK warehouse in 1992), before that I had a 'balanced' TSR 2L conversion. Now the VW block is just as smooth as the old TSR one with exactly the same head, cams etc. despite not having the balanced rods and crank. I understand that on the old Slick 50 race cars anything up to 20 or more ponies could be freed up by blueprinting but as chrismc says balancing alone doesn't affect the power. When it comes to torque and power it's about capacity and head flow characteristics/cams respectively, one inlet system over another, e.g K-jet over digifant etc... doesn't make a massive amount of difference unless it's massively restrictive, except perhaps prevent leaning out at certain rpms loads etc.. I've got 180 brake from a home built engine with no blueprinting and standard VAG parts apart from the headwork, just a good RR setup when it was run-in. What I'd say makes the power on a vw 16v (in fact any modern NA 4cyl engine) is revs and the head and cams to develop the power at those revs. Even with Variable valve timing and lift engines with cray-like processing power in the ECU's, there's little difference in the torque from any fairly modern NA 16v head given the same CC's. You only have to look at the Torque from V-tecs to see this. I just think that for price v performance, throttle bodies, stand alone ECU's and the like are a huge waste of cash, if you wan't a torque monster go for a V6, 1.8T or an oil burner. Perhaps it's just my requirements, but for a road car, particularly the weight of a C (more than a golf or rocco) K-jet, standard 2L bottom end, headwork, KR cams and a bit of RR time and I have a smooth, reliable, torquey, revvy, fuel efficient and quick motor that hasn't cost me the earth :) David.