Kevin Bacon

Lol, there's nothing like getting to know your car before modding it :lol: Check out Chris Harris's video on YouTube (/DRIVE channel) of a Stage 2 S4 vs RS4. Guess which wins :D

But people like that get an aneurysm if a bird takes a dump on it, whereas I'm happy for bird lime to fall off my paint in the fullness of time :lol: Exactly. Rubber and plastic parts still age, even if not used and cars need regular air flow over, under and through them, otherwise they get stale and can start rotting from the inside out. If people can live with stone chips (impossible to avoid), then motorway cars are the best and fittest examples to buy.

Because of the constant heat cycling and movement, Hasan. VAG never use solder on engine harnesses, only sealed crimps for their superior mechanical strength and low resistance. If I have to join wires together because there is no other way round the problem, I use these - http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp-butt-splice-terminals/7820753/ They are brilliant. Crimp the wires together, then heat with a heat gun until glue oozes out of both ends to seal the connection. It's exactly what VAG use :D

OEM bulbs are 60/55W iirc, but stock loom can't really do them any justice. Aren't 7000K xenons? Best thing to do is uprate the loom and run some Osram Night Breakers.

Welcome! I love it when foreign people apologise for their English, when in fact it is a LOT better than most ENGLISH people's English :D Good to see Corrado clubs the world over. I like the way the G60 airbox has been kept in the conversion, which makes it look original. I approve :D Keep up the good work!

Maf

Yep that is the pin extractor set I use as well. Solder shouldn't be used on engine looms really.

G13 is all you can get. The latest number always supersedes the old stuff and is definitely the stuff you should use.

Never heard of them! Most people just get OEM R32 bushes pressed into their original wishbones. Pattern rubber and steel parts are always of dubious quality in my experience.

Adjustable lower ball joints and slightly loose fitting strut bolts. I'd go with the R32 wishbone bushes. They are basically solid rubber and not voided like the Corrado ones. VW seem to save those kind of bushes for their flagship cars and they do make a big difference, especially under hard braking and acceleration.

I think some unmarked coppers try and goad people into flooring it, then stick the blues on. Next time, look carefully at what he's wearing before issuing the full steam ahead command down to the boiler room. You can usually see their bulky police gear and an extra aerial or two. Similar thing happened to me in 2010. I got impatient waiting for some dithering tool doing 40mph on the slip road, so I over took him on the chevrons and then proceeded to blast up the outside lane carriageway, grumping to myself about dithering zombies. And then I noticed some flashing blues behind. Arse! They were OK actually and joked that they gave up trying to keep up with me at 95mph :lol: They were in a Volvo T5R patrol car. They gave me a choice of a TS10 (white line offense) or an SP70 (IIRC, speeding offense), so I took the lesser of the two! Nice blokes. They were only interested in the corrado from a; "It's a tiny car, you want to be careful you don't drive under a truck in it" perspective, lol.

It's a fair price for a car in great condition, but agreed with Coullstar. It's not a car I feel any excitement towards. Syncro was hardly the last word in 4WD tech and it can't handle anywhere near as much grunt as Haldex, so it's not a good base for a VRT. And it's a MK3, the least popular Golf ever!

The coolant kind :D It's the latest blend to add more lubricants, following a spate of premature water pump failures in recent VAG engines.

Piston rings / ovalised bores is implied in "Engine rebuild" ;) When mine started smoking, 10W/50 reduced the consumption / smoke, but only a rebuild solved it completely.

Everyone else is being too kind / optimistic. We all know what blue smoke from a VR6 means. Start putting pennies away for an engine rebuild. Sorry chap. In the meantime, try a thicker oil as suggested, like 10W/50 or 10W/60. Both available on Opie Oils.

Nope. Different cam sensors and injectors. It could be made to work by swapping plugs etc, but better to stick with the loom the engine came with for an easy life! MK5 also uses a floor mounted pedal, which again uses an entirely different connector.

The C Pillar ones are on the interior side of the arches and wrapped in plastic bags.

No because it still has a 16 year old chassis and probably only done short journeys. All £13K buys you is fewer stone chips and a mint interior. If the car hasn't had regular air flow over, under and through it in 16 years, it stands just as good a chance of corroding, unless it's been stored in an temp / humidity controlled garage. I'm all for paying a premium for looked after cars, but that's just ridiculous. Not even Volkswizard are that expensive.

Cheers Kip. Agreed, black or Grey are the best colours :) Yeah the combined engine cover / airbox / MAF is a neat idea but it's a source of great anxiety among dealers and enthusiasts :D It's very easy to break when lifting it off the engine. The 4 rubber grommets grip onto the pegs on the engine like Barnacles. There is a knack to getting it off without snapping it, but it's a £300 bill apparently, if you do! My only reservation with it is the air filter sits directly above the turbo, so it's not great for air density in slow moving traffic. Yep, rust affects all MK5s. Probably a good idea to avoid the blending but you'll need to explain the door as the paint will be way thicker than 130 microns after repair. They paint depth check the whole car except the rear. Rather handily, the outer door skins unbolt on MK5s. No need to remove the door for painting. It does make DIY work slightly more interesting if you replace door lock modules and window regulators etc. There is nothing behind the door card but steel! Were you looking at an 8P S3? Beautifully made but not as nice to drive as a GTI imo. The suspension is a lot harder and the car never feels settled as a result. The GTI just glides from corner to corner, never flustered by bumps and lumps. The K04 engine's lack of torque below 2500ish rpm is even more pronounced in the S3 because of it's extra weight. The GTI is a lot more fun and just feels immediately right the moment the wheels start turning :D It happens to us all mate! GTI or ED30, but nice! If you like modding, I would get the ED30 because the GTI gets real expensive past 250ish hp as it has a weaker engine and smaller turbo.

I would save my money personally. You won't get a better quality loom than VAG's, so all you need to do is chop off the Motronic plugs and re-terminate with the DTA ones. As Kip says, if you've got the wiring diagrams for both, it's pretty straight forward. You do need a decent quality crimp tool for the tiny AMP connector pins though.

S40 can only do 4 cylinders sequentially. S80 is the minimum for R32s :D

I had the same problem on a MK2 Golf 16V years ago. Whacking the ISV with a blunt object seemed to sort it out :) In addition: Check for air leaks Retune the base CO. Get a 3mm allen key (a long one) and stick it in the little hole in the metering head between the rigid pipes and the rubber boot. Turn it back and forth in 1/4 turn increments until the idle is smooth. This sets the base CO to 2%, which valvers seem to love. All should be good. If not, suspect the thermo time switch and some other bits I've long forgotten since my valver days :)

£895 is about right. You need the STC box as well for the DBW, which is another £500. Might be worth hanging on until DTA release a newer ECU with it all built in.

Don't be fooled by the decent pictures. £13K for a Golf VR6. £11K for a MK2 8V. £11K for a Mini. :scratch: I reckon my ED30 would have cost £15K through them, but I paid £9K for it.

Getting the engine into the car, probably a 5 / 10, it's fairly straight forward. The wiring and mapping is where it gets interesting. If you just want to get in it and drive it come rain or shine, I would stick with the standard management and get Vince at Stealth Racing to map it for you. I would get him to convert the loom for you as well. The guy is a legend :D