Yandards

Standard 1.8 16v AGC box with a CTN (Passat diesel) 5th gear on this car and a standard G60 box on that car.

Right then, spent some time over the weekend banging some miles on the car, I also cleaned up all of the major earth/live contacts on the car and carried out the basic setting procedure again. It all feels ok, no major problems along the way and with just under 300 miles now done I have had something close to WOT and run it around to 4.5krpm. Now the bad stuff, it's slow. Not just slow but slower than my G60 according to my bum dyno. Now I know the 16vG60 is going to feel different and I also know that the engine is running really rich through the warm up phase (which would also mean over-fuelling on open loop, of lambda during WOT). But, I was expecting the generic chip that is coded for a 16vG60 to be a little closer to the mark and the car to just be quicker than my very stock (aside from BBM boost pipework, an exhaust and a chargecooler) G60. I am lucky enough to have been in a very well sorted and mature 16vG60 in a Corrado with a not too far away spec from my own and it was a hell of a lot quicker than a stock G60 or even a VR. I think this is where a lot of folks run into a wall, a lot of time, effort and usually money has been expended so far and the initial impression is that it's slower than they would like. I also know that 225bhp should be easily achievable with my engine package so that only leaves one thing - the ECU map. I could spend the money getting a proper custom Digi map for the car or I could decide to go aftermarket, given my dislike of the consistancy of Digifant on my daily G60 I have decided to go aftermarket management. This gives me the flex to add and adjust the ECU map as well as run a more modern form of engine management. So, yes I am a little hacked off but I am comforted by the fact that I know there is a lot more to come with a bit more work.

Was that camber, caster as well as toe or did they just do toe? Most camber and caster places will give you a print out of before and after so you can see how shocking it was. If you are still using the same set of tyres then if it was badly set-up before you might have worn the tyres unevenly, this can cause vibrations and pulling, try swaping the front and back tyres over.

Nice one Jim, good to see you finally getting stuck in and dirty. Must have been the weather as the seats came out of my G60 for a damn good hoover and wash on Sunday too. As for trim clips etc, I finally reached a point a couple of years ago where I got fed up of not being able to do odd jobs when the weather was good because I was lacking some trim clips. I ended up buying about 30 of each of the major ones (rear door cards, boot quarter turn ones and the serated ones that hold the boot trim surround, upper A pillar etc). I now have a large selection of Corrado grommits, covers, bolts etc and it usually means that if I want to take something off I can safely stick it back on with new clips and no rattles! Oh and some self adhesive black felt is another useful thing to have too.

Going to lock this up as it has been covered before..

No not really :) There are various things you need to do to ensure the rear beam bushes are fitted correctly, they need to have the wedge shape facing forwardsm pushing them in and out is a pain without the right tools and you also need to pre-load the bushes laterally when refitting the beam.

Cool, just ordered 2. Should be able to wedge one into the bottom radiator grille with ease.

What the hell is an Adaptronic ECU? Never even heard of that.. Linky is here Aussie company but this is there flagship ECU and gives me all I want from an aftermarket set-up. The E420 would do the job but I love the extras on the E1280, socket for headphones to detect knock, oscillascope output for all engine functions, retention of knock detection etc. Yeah squirt can do all of that but this way I get a more polished product to work with.

More running in miles today, trying not to bang too many on at once so I can monitor any oil consumption etc. On my run home from work on Wednesday night I was alarmed by the very yellow lights and lack of battery volts on the gauge, with the main beam on I was only getting a rubbish 10.4V which is useless. So I went for the main earth strap to the engine and gave it a good file to get all the crud off it, lo and behold my battery volts are now working as expected (initial 13V+ and gradually coming down to 12.2Vs during running. As an added bonus my coolant gauge is now reading correctly so the coolant temperature problem I though I had is not there. Again on runs I am seeing around 80 degrees of coolant temp and this now matches the oil temp within a few degrees C as you would expect. Only downside is the basic setting procedure needs re-doing given the ECU etc were probably under volts when I did the last set-up, at least a minor fix has sorted the problem with ease. Driving today it feels really good, still keeping it under 4k and only using the smaller throttle butterfly, but it pulls strongly through the gears and I am loving the induction noise starting to build from 3k up. Brakes are still pretty nasty but gradually improving. I will be ordering the E1280s Adaptronic ECU shortly as I have had the quote back from the UK distributor, I will report back on how that progresses over time.

I had a great idea for this when I was out doing some running in miles earlier. Simply approach the speedwatchers area in 1st gear at 30mph, it will sound like you are going really fast and there is a level of childish amusement to be had from a car running at 4k+ RPM doing 30mph just to upset the speedwatch chimps.

Or if you have access to ETKA then there is a specific electronics catalgoue that last every plug and crimp VW have every made along with all the boots, clips and brackets. If you find the part number on your existing plug and then feed that into the electronics catalogue there is a page where it shows male/female plugs and if you double click the plug and then click the box that looks like a screen in the additional info area it shows you all the crimps that fit in that plug.

Yep annoying rubbish but as already mentioned the old bill let the didders do it for a few days so people get used to it and then they turn up on day 3 and book everyone.

Kev the turbo and supercharger have an overlap period in the RPM range but the screwcharger is basically on an air con electromagnetic pulley. As for initial charger running it still uses a boost bypass flap to prevent overboost under load. I do agree the turbo on the stock engine is a little too small, that's one of the reasons why the torque curve drops off so dramatically towards the higher revs, it just does not breathe enough air. You should be able to fit a larger screwcharger too so the potential to get some silly numbers with a nice flat torque curve from a 1.4l block is there.

First of all thanks for all the great comments, it's nice to see it (nearly) finished finally. Just looking at a run to BVF this year, no plans to do any other shows or trips as yet. Been doing some running in mileage and so far so good, coolant temps seem to be creeping down with more miles and the oil temp is showing 76 degrees on longer runs at 60mph. Had the revs up to 4k and I don't plan on going past there for now, up until 3k rpm the engine is quiet and then from 3k-4k is starts to build some serious induction noise. I have unfortunately run into classic Digipants management where it can't decide if you want to accelerate of decelerate so I have decided to go aftermarket management. I figure I would be spending £300-£400 on mapping Digi and I would rather spend that on a management system that works consistantly. Looking at an Adaptronic ECU as it allows me to keep the ISV and knock sensors etc and is designed to support FI. As for longer term stuff, I consider this engine to be the development block, I want to refine the design over the next couple of years and then build another core block with silly internals and higher compression ratios.

And flat after it aswell... torque falls 131nm from 2500 to 6700rpm, with a tiny flash of inspiration at 4000. This is why I'm not a fan of the modern VAG diesels and petrol turbos. The fun is over almost as quickly as it arrived and with their torque strategy based mapping, the power delivery can be truly awful at times..... like our ME7.5 1.8T for example.....if for a moment the ECU suspects the wheels are going to spin, it cuts all turbo boost and closes the throttle, which if you're trying to join a motorway off a short slip road is fappin dangerous! I do like the idea of a little 1.4 turbo in a corrado though. Small engine, high boost is looking like it's the way forward now because off boost economy can be diesel like......but...... is it what a Corrado is all about? Corrados to me are all about the 80s/90s sustained lunge to the red line. I'm 80s all the way. It's why I still have orange indicators and green interior lighting :D I don't think Corrados need these modern engines. Why do all Corrado owners who put 24Vs and 1.8Ts into them sell them a week later? You gotta wonder! I get annoyed trying to find gauges that provide green lighting or head units, no-one seems to make them anymore. Although as neon and other 80s stuff appears to be back in then maybe green illumination will come back in too. There is no character in modern engines thanks to mapping, most folks don't ever drive them hard so manufacturers code the ECU to produce peak power and torque below 5k; makes for a boring engine but if as that is what the masses want then the rest of us have to suffer. I am very interested to see what can be had out of the twin charger set-up though, it has always had a level of appeal with me.

Your not going to be able to get new headlights for pre-facelift cars as they don't sell them anymore.

New financial year so they tend to put prices up slightly. If it's a nearly standard VR6 then just pump it into confused.com and see what you get, you can declare the wheels so the numbers should be correct.

You poke them in the front of the plug and push the cable loom into the plug from the back, this should unlock the little tabs that hold the wiring into the plug and then you can pull the loom complete with crimp from the plug housing. They can be a right fidely pain to work with but the ability to fit and remove wiring from plugs to re-wrap looms etc makes it worthwhile.

If thats the torque from a standard 1.4 then i'm amazed!! Corrado 1.4?!?! :camp: :lol: Stock 1.4 twin charger produces 125kW at 6k rpm and 240Nm of torque from 1750 to 4500 rpm.

There are no pattern bodywork panels for the Corrado. Matt great to here it's all coming back together nicely.

Looks like a nice torque plot above 2500rpm but pretty flat below that. I'm not going to comment on the engine type as I have forwarded something to Henny that gives the game away. As for blue printing etc, I don't know what sort of gains you will get from that level of work on a modern block. If you look at the VR6 (first of the modern engines) then a full blue print etc usually produces very little power gain for a lot of work. I know you will be doing all of it bar the balancing yourself and I am interested to see how much you do manage.

MOT results are: Advisorys for: Brake pipe corrosion in engine bay on bulkhead O/S/R wheel bearing has slight play N/S/R wheel bearing has slight play All brake discs corroded on inside and a pass Taxing it today then I need to get the running in period done and dusted, I suspect the knock sensor mounting location is pulling the timing back as it felt a little flat on the way back from the MOT. I do have a plan to sort that though..

Final MOT pre-checks finished this morning, re-set the basic engine settings so it now finally advances probably when cold and the CO2 is on the money at 0.7% according to my gas annalyser. Bonnet release cable is finally working ok again, cut the extra bit that comes with the new battery clamps and fitted that and checked both the radiator fan run-on circuit and BTS operating temperature were working ok. Coolant temperature is still high, I had 105 degrees indicated during the basic engine setting phase, I am not sure if the gauge temp sender is working within limits as the radiator fan switch is kicking in at 95 degrees like it should and turning off again. I would not expect a variation of 10 degrees + between the gauge sender and the radiator. Throttle cable is resolved, seems the VR6 cable has a slight moulding ridge at the base of the bullet moulding at the pedal end, this was getting stuck on the edge of the plastic tube that travels through the bulkhead. A little bit of light fileing and it now slides in and out without sticking. I seem to get the same sort of pedal feel that I was getting with this cable in other VR6s, comparing my new G60 throttle cable I need to fit the G60 bullet is smooth - both the G60 and VR one are/were brand new VAG items. Everything else feels pretty good aside from the brake pedal, if I am going to get a fail it will be on the brakes but I will be making some heavy use of the pedal on the way to the testing station.

It's a new VR6 cable so should be ok, I need to have a look at the pedal end but it may just be that as both the TB and pedal have not been used in a while they need a spot of lube, same with the bonnet release cable/latches. Checked the BTS, engine air temp sensor and earth points yesterday, they are all within the limits so I will re-run the initial set-up tomorrow to try to sort the cold start idle out. ISV seems a little dodgy so I am going to swap that over with a new spare one just to confirm correct operation prior to the set-up. Will have an MOT pass or fail by this time on Wednesday and getting a little nervous now. Assuming an MOT pass I still need to fabricate the fuel rail wiring loom holder, ISV bracket, get a male/female plug for the radiator fan and a selection of various clips to hold pipes and cables in the OEM way. Oh and run it in :D

A few pictures from last night..