davidwort

cheers Alex, the oil burning issue meant I was about to take the head off this spring, but it's forced my hand now! No water in the oil at all, so I'm just hoping it's head gasket and not piston probs. TSR fitted the head last time, due to the fact that the first bottom end they supplied me lasted only 2000 miles before it became so noisy that I took the head off to have a look, the bore on no.1 cylinder was all scored and they reckoned it was 'incorrectly manufactured pistons' that was the problem??? I guess they just used a standard 2.0 gasket last time, which gasket/part no is the metal one then? ta, David.

no don't think it is the same as any others, although some of the bits may be similar, I got left and right mechs from autojumble at GTI international a couple of years ago for 45 quid for both! I'd say look for second hand comple corrado items. David.

oops, might be a little different for a later trim style car, mainly speaker grill cover bit.

one under speaker grille cover, two on side of trim facing hinges at the top, two under door handle cover and two on side of trim on door lock edge I think, handle grip pulls off, with a squeeze, speaker grille needs carefull gentle levering with a flat screwdriver in the two slots in the leading edge to release the lugs from the door pocket plastic surround. Panel lifts off upwards off of the supporting plastic clips at the bottom and the door glass trim piece at the top un screw the door lock knob you need to un-plug the connectors to the window switches and mirror switch as you lift the card off. door pull leverslides forward and then lifts off door, unhook metal rod Don't think I've missed much off, David.

I'm now running on 2 cylinders I think :( Bit of background: engine block rebuilt a few years ago, head a year or two before that, so block was an 'as new' engine and now has about 20,000 miles on it. The KR engine always used a litle bit of oil, but that was to be expected. after the conversion to 2.0 litres everything was fine, ran it in carefully and has consistently produced over 165bhp on various rolling roads. About a year ago (about 18,000 miles on the new engine) it started to consume more and more oil, not on the overrun or starting but seemed to be under load. Hoped it wasn't an oil scraper ring gone, as the compression was still good and the engine very strong but it was using loads of oil (wasn't leaking out anywhere!). Culminated in using about 1L of oil every 300 miles a few weeks back. Other day my wife used the car and it went really rough with little power, ran it myself for a few secs to check and it doesn't seem to be running on cylinders 3 and 4 at all. Picture of condition of plugs attached. looking down cylinder 4 you can see a small amount of oily black deposits on the top of the piston, 3 is not nearly as oily and 1 and 2 look fine, plugs show the same story. plug 4 looked oily when removed but seemed to dry just very black and sooty.I have an oil pressure gauge fitted and it has been reading spot on at appropriate temps and engine temp and oil temp have been fine too. I know the head has to come off now, Question is, is it likely to be the head gasket blown between 3 and 4 or what, anyone hazzard a guess? (looks like I'll be busy a few evenings and weekends now!) cheers, David.

Hi there, do you still have those wierd Hella leads on your car, I'm sure they're not Golf/Corrado 16v ones, never had any problem with OEM type leads no matter how many times I've plugged and un-plugged them, seem to last about 6 years before deteriorating beyond their resistance limits, although the coil lead goes well before the others. David.

I've noticed some cars (1.8's made after a certain date) and all 2.0 16v's seem to have an alternative pulley and belt arrangement, where the idler pulley is replaced by a fixed one and the PS belt goes around that instead of the alternator belt (thinks that's the arrangement) I wonder if it would be better to change to the 2.0 16v arrangement and buy several new pulleys to do it, rather than keeping the (flawed) original arrangement, VW obviously decided the original (golf 2 16v) layout was a problem. David.

not sure of the part number on my 1990 16v but it's not the variable intermittent type, I think this was an update to VW models around 1991. Be handy if they were a direct swap though. I know my dad tried a variable intermittent relay on his Audi 80 and it didn't work although the pin arrangement looked the same. David.

best engine to go for is the corrado 2L bottom end (9A engine) these were also fitted to Audi 80 sports (2.0 16v) and the passat (mainly 91 and 92 cars). This engine is known as the 'bubble block' and is basically the 1.8 engine but with a slightly bulkier casting and has a big 2.0 on the back of it instead of the 1.8 of the KR 16v engine. Some 2.0L 8v engines may be suitable too(if they have the extra oil squirters of the 16v blocks), but will have a drive for the distributor off of the half shaft that needs blanking off. boring a 1.8 engine to the same spec is totally reliable but new pistons, crank etc costs in the region of 800 quid which makes it a very expensive option. There aren't many good second hand 2.0 (9A) engines around these days as most are at least 10 years old though, and don't expect a tired bottom end to last long on a high revving 16v especially if you don't know it's history and then do things like gas flow the head and put higher lift cams in it ;) David.

worth taking to bits and having a look (useful to have a little multimeter handy), passat and polo switches are similar but have the dash light dimming part above instead of to the left. If you can't fix the old C switch by popping moving bits back into place, then you might be able to repair it with bits from the passat switch (should be loads of these at scrapyards) David.

you'll get near on 170bhp from a 1.8 KR engine by simply fitting a 1984cc 9A bottom end from a 2.0 passat corrado or audi 80 and having your cylinder head and manifolds ported and polished properly. Saves a load of hassle with electrics, ECU's etc... I'm sure the mk3 16v engine may have slightly better characteristics as it's a major redevelopment of the vw 16v engine but not worth the hassle of fitting IMO. David.

disagree there, my golf, polo and corrado all suffered water leaks into the carpets from damaged/unsealed membranes, when you wash the car or it rains heavily water gets inside the door (thats why there are drain holes at the bottom!) and the membrane prevents water from finding it's way into the car. If you look at where the bottom edge of the membrane is sealed to the door there are small drain points back into the base of the door so water collecting between the metal frame and the adhesive strip can escape rather than sit in a groove waiting for an opportunity to break through the seal. Try taking off the membrane and pouring a jug of water against the outside of the door glass, water almost always splashes in through the holes in the inner door skin. The foam on the back of the door panel and the card itself are pretty good sound and heat insulators I would have thought. David.

Bally, you can use Ur-Quattro caliper carriers(second hand) I believe, to space the 16v calipers out enough, or various people like TSR make spacer brackets. If you use the 16v calipers though, you may need to file down pads to fit the thicker 280mm disks. David. Hey Gav Would the 280's work with 16v calipers? or would I have to upgrade to G60 calipers?

It's been run on solely quantum semi-synthetic since the new bottom end, I did run magnatec a few years back but that was on the old 1.8 block. It's rapidly deteriorated in the last couple of months from a pretty constant 1/4 litre per thousand miles to last weeks 3/4 of a litre in 200 miles, doesn't blow smoke when blipping the throttle, it seems to be when you hold the revs (with car parked up), but it's not clouds. David.

Breather doesn't seem to be dumping much oil into the inlet, only non standard items on my induction system are removal of snorkel and a Jetex panel filter. But I guess the breather hoses are getting pretty old. The strength of the engine on the road leads me to think it can only be stem seals/valve guides. apparently a cap full of brake fluid in the engine oil will soften the seals a bit and might point me to them if it lowers consumption a bit :?: :?: :?: I have a VDO oil pressure gauge too and that is behaving exactly as ever before on cold start, warm up and full temp running. water temp and oil temp behave fine as well. It'll be the fourth time I've taken the head off, so I'm getting quite efficient at doing it now! Give me something to do at the weekends next year anyway :) cheers, David. I sincerely hope your TSR lump isn't in that state but it's worth checking. Also check the breather hose isn't crimping under hard acceleration, as this has the same effect as putting your finger over the end of a garden hose. All this is assuming you're still using the factory breather setup, that is! If none of the above, has to be guides. Kev

bottom end is a new TSR 2.0L conversion, about 15,000 miles on it now, hope it's not a broken oil scraper ring or something, seems more lik ethe head, but I'm darned if I ever see any smoke from it, have to get someone to follow me down the road I guess. David.

Looks like my 16v cylinder head might be due for a rebuild :( It had a rebuild about 5 yrs and 30,000 miles ago, mainly for porting and polishing, but I don't think the valve guides were replaced. I seem to be using about half a litre of oil every couple of hundred miles. Wierd thing is, no oil in the coolant, no leaks from cam cover, head gasket etc.. and very little blue smoke, I'm guessing it's stem seals and possibly guides, but I'd have expected plumes of smoke for this much oil use. So where is it all going? cheers, David.

I thought this was what the G60 Aktiv stereo was all about, wasn't that standard fit initially on the G60's. My Alpine head unit senses interior noise levels in the car instead, so you get more volume if you open the sunroof or drive on a noisy road surface, works pretty well too. David.

yep I'll be there too :D :D :D David.

yep, mk3 ones are a direct swap and the handbrake release mechanism is much better. Have them on my 1990 16v. David.

Halfords do some black silicone sealant, or get some transparent stuff from B&q etc.. Just make sure you give it plenty of time to set, tape it down if necessary. David.

Do you know if removing the front downpipe with it's integral silencer/resonator and fitting a cat bypass would reduce low end torque on a 16v, don't some engines need a certain amount of back pressure to work most efficently? Probably nothing to do with it but i remember my jetta lost most of it's power when the exhaust fell off! :D :shock: :D David.

I've always understood that the standard 16v manifold and downpipe is perfectly good and simply internally 'cleaning up' the cast iron exhaust manifold is all you really need to do. All in one manifold and downpipes are great for cars like the mk1 and 2 8v GTI's but do have a tendancy to crack. If you look at the standard manifold and downpipe it has quite a bit of flexibilty built in. IMO, not worth the money on a 16v. David.

a late mk 2 boss will fit a 91 corrado, in fact if you look at the steering column the late splines are simply added by an adaptor ring, so if you can remove this from your C you have the early style splines to use for an early style boss. David. so a late mk2 boss wont fit a 91' corrado??

I'm quite keen on the A3/A4 style audi handles, seen these on a c before. David.