davidwort

chaps, for the controller you need part number 191 959 875, good thing is this is the same part number for passats with front only electric windows, I'd guess that you could probably use the passat 4 door unit too 357 959 875 Will be hunting the scrappy's ASAP and will pick up more than one if I find some. Looking forward to having a one touch up/down :) David.

cheers very much for the info, I'm trying to build up some sketches of my wiring bit by bit and any more info would be great, I can't bring myself to investigate the fusebox area any more at the moment, I've already seen a few 'Scotch Locks' and it doesn't bode well! ta, David.

I'm trying to work all this out to put in the later 5 wire switches, but my only wiring diagram (Passat Haynes) is not even close. Anyone have any explanation for the six wire (soldered) versus 5 wire (VW) switches, so far all I'm totally sure about is the + and earth for the light in the switches. Also, I seem to have a second wire joined to the live feed for the switches in the door which doesn't seem to affect anything if disconnected and just goes straight back out of the door again :?: I've got to tidy all of this wiring up anyway as it's a bodge and a birds nest at the moment :roll: , would love to get hold of the correct wiring colours/diagram or a good description for the early C Windows and motors as this is really giving me brain ache! cheers, David.

As above really, I definitely wouldn't swap a worn KR head onto a reliable 9A block without rebuilding and porting and polishing it first though, otherwise you'll get no more gain than just swapping the KR's higher lift inlet cam in and you'll probably burn a lot more oil! A healthy 2.0 16v with standard KR cams should give 150bhp+ and a good flowed head can add up to about 15 bhp more at the top end. Wild cams will give more peak hp but at the expense of the low to mid range torque of the standard cams. I believe the 9A's cat is a little restrictive too and the emissions controls don't help either as you can't easily run the engine a bit richer to help it run with a bit more power at the top end as you can do with the 1.8's. David.

But why bother when the dealer will do it for free? Gotta ask myself that question! ;) Depends on whether you trust a dealer to take the dash out and re-fit it without buggering something else up in the process, personally I wouldn't trust them to change the oil. :roll: David.

That's interesting, I always thought my 'soldered to the switch' wires were part of a cheap aftermarket system as the window regulators were crap non VAG ones (without the lifting arms :shock: ) -which I've subsequently replaced with the proper ones (grazed knuckles to prove it :x ) As you say, the switches themselves appear less clicky and positive compared to others I've tried from passats of a similar age but look identical from the front, also my windows are permanently wired live :shock: :shock: which I think is a result of a not-so-clever alarm fitter as the Gemini alarm closes the windows when set. David.

VR6 is a very different beast, just make sure it's really what you want before ditching the valver, VR6's are much more costly to run and maintain as the 16v particularly the 1.8 is quite a simple engine and shares most of the mechanicals with mk2 golfs and passats of the same era. The VR6 will always be the powerful, grunty sounding performance car but the valver has it's good points and suits a lot of people and there are some very happy owners out there. One final point, later cars with all the minor changes and improvements are generally better but as all the C's are getting on a bit now it's general condition and care that are important. Sorry if I'm stating anything you know already, cheers, David.

drill it and carefully chisel it round , can't use the nuts more than once anyway. David.

they're pretty good actually, I had my car down at my Dad's garage last week and we put the MOT test oil probe in the sump, it read 106 degrees. I have two oil temp senders one on the head and one on the oil cooler/filter bracket, head read 108 degrees and the other 104 degrees on the MFA (swapping the wiring between the senders), makes sense that the oil temp at the head would be a bit hotter. I had been a bit concerned about the temps (I'm still on less than 1000 miles on a new engine) and this at least confirmed my senders are about right. next time I'm going to try the laser temperature probe, that's well cool, just point it at a part of the engine and it gives you a temp reading! David.

club gti have had some good threads on this subject, the VW vortex has some excellent pics of 16v heads cut up, one difference is some water channels in some of the later heads that make it a bit dodgy if you cut too much away when porting (between the inlet ports I think) Ported and polished there's nothing in it on any of the 16v's AFAIK but the KR and 9A heads do look a bit different on the inlet ports unmodified. David.

what do you mean by heavily modified 16v??? David.

Chris, It's more likely to be just the cam cover gasket leaking, but if the head has to come off and you're not considering gas-flowing etc.. then I'd at least have the valve's and guides checked for wear, last thing you wan't is to have to do it all over again in a few months time because you start to burn oil. Cams and tappets can be changed without removing the head at another time if necessary, rattling tappets are annoying but not a problem, it might even be possible to clean them in the right solution, but in practice most people just whack new ones in rather than piddle about. Again doesn't need the head off but a new cam chain is worth putting in as they are not expensive, but only if the old one is worn. When ever I hear of a 16v head having to come off I always think 'gasflow while it's out', but you would be looking at 500 quid plus I'd have thought for a proper job. David.

If you have standard 2.0 cams in your 16v at the moment the inlet is very flat, gives a good flat torque curve but really limits the top end. A higher lift inlet cam will make it feel much better at the top end (4000rpm upwards). You probably won't really notice it on the road but you will get a bit less torque at lower revs, it's a trade off but if you like to drive the car hard you'll like it. High lift cams always work best with a ported and polished head and the fuelling to match though. Stainless exhausts are almost always louder as the steel is harder, they can vary terrifically from one manufacturer to another though, my Janspeeed is bearable but loud. Jettex generally have had a good repuation AFAIK. David.

Yep, agreed. When I first got my Mk1 GTI (back in '92) I took it to BRMotorsport for a service. I asked Brian Ricketts about the benefits of putting Slick50 in - and got a decisive "do NOT put that in your engine" back. He said exactly what Kev said - it'll end up blocking oilways. yeah, but I'm sure it used to say on the box that it gave a 2.8 capri another 12bhp or something, got to be a good tuning mod :wink: joker: David.

top pic is the rears, David.

There's 2 on autotrader at the moment 8)

you won't significantly improve on the torque characteristics of the 16v engine, in fact the ABF is pretty much VW's last effort with this engine going back to the scirocco 16v. It doesn't help that the late passat estate is probably the heaviest car that this engine type was ever fitted to. Short of a slightly increased displacement(expensive and not as reliable) or engine transplant (vr6) there's not much you can do, I'd imagine the passat ABF already has flatter cams to help low end, and gas-flowing the head will only really affect top end. The one possible option is different gearing, as bigger VW's tend to be geared for the Autobahn rather than nipping round town. a close ratio box can transform a car that has been blighted by a long legged one, but I'm not sure what boxes would be suitable from the VW/Seat/Skoda range. VW did fit the G60 engine to passats (Canadian car I believe) and I'd imagine the strong torque characteristics of this engine worked fairly well in the passat. As the passat came with a 2.8 VR6 anyway in europe, I'd go for one of those as a new purchase rather than the effort of a transplant though. you could then put your ABF in a mk2 golf (which is really the best home for it IMO :) ) David.

That wire's for the extra oil pressure gauge sender, or the second connector on the two-pole sender. I've got it connected up on my 1.816v, it's just part of a standard loom, much the same as vw's without front fog lights often have the connector blocks and wiring for them, cheaper to make a standard loom. David.

check the block and cyl head earth straps, a dodgy earth can make oil temp figures go a bit wierd. The one on the top right cam cover bolt is notorious. David.

I agree but in even easier to understand language, how about: you need good torque over a wide rev range or area under the curve on the rr graph? David.

not to mention the trouble of getting it on and off your local garage ramp eh Bally! BTW, driveshafts don't last long without any grease around them joker: Must catch up with you soon, I'm nearly run-in, an oil change this weekend and I'll be off :twisted: David.

cheers, thanks, that's actually fairly good news, seeing as there are a lot more 88-92's around in scrap yards! David.

I think it's also supposed to be around a minimum of 2 bar at 3000 rpm or something close to that, My 5 bar gauge goes over to full when the oil's cold and then behaves as mentioned, around 1-1.5 bar at idle and rises to near max on the gauge as the revs rise to over 4000rpm. David.

Anyone know if the passat heater control unit (post '92 rotary knobs) is the same part as in the 1988-96 passat, they look very similar and I'm sure I remember a number of people saying they'd used them in Corrados. Just wanted to check as the part numbers are definitely different. cheers, David.

mark the surround and allen screw carefully so you have the factory set position and then IIRC turn about 1/8 of a turn anti-clockwise, going the other way you'll loose no-end of power with as little as 1/4 of a turn, so you'll soon see if you got it wrong. My CO at idle went up from 0.2 to 2.0 on the MOT gas analyser (3 or 3.5 is the max allowable I think ) with about 1/8 of a turn anti-clockwise, so only use very small movements! David.