Henny

OK, so I'm not even able to make a single typo anymore?!? :oops: :roll: As it happens I didn't have any booze last night Rodders, and I've just popped in on the Forum until the rain stops outside so I can carry on work on my car, hence the rush...

I don't know about the VR6, but on the 4 cylinder engines, there's 2 mild steel water pipes (one from the water pump and one over the gearbox) that tend to cause the brown-ness in the water... Over time these start to corrode (even with coolant changes as specified!) and will cause the brown-ness to appear... The walls of these pipes are pretty thick so they don't rot through unless the coolant's never been changed, so don't worry about it unless you start getting water leaks from either of these pipes, then change 'em both ASAP... On a G60, one's £44.93 and the other is £18.45 from VAG... funnily enough, it's the short one that's the expensive one... :roll:

yuck... why 18s?!? All they do is muck up the handling, look silly and cost a fortune... :? (all in my humble opinion, apart from the handling part which is fact!) :-P Go for a set of 16s or 17s and a decent suspension set up and you'll be laughing... ;) If you've got the 3.5K to play with you can build yourself a seriously fast, superb handling car around the 1.8 16V you now own... Work out what it is you want the car to do, where you want to do it, and how you want the car to be, then set your budget and go for it... 8) For 3.5K I'd be tempted by a 20VT conversion, or maybe to do something interesting based around a 2.0 16v with a turbo... ;)

'cos it's not just water... :roll: The antifreeze (G10 or G11+) are also coolants which raise the boiling point to around 140 degrees (IIRC) when the system is pressurised normally... 8)

Yup, for the 1.8 KR engine you could get a golf or a passat (88-91) manual which will have all the details you need for the engine in it... I've still got the passat one from when I built my MKI 16V which was really useful when I had my 16V Corrado too... 8) VAG's also good enough that most of the wiring colours don't change from model to model either... so a blue wire with a grey tracer always is dash board lighting etc... 8)

IIRC the Passat also used the same 2.0 16V engine... simply go out and buy a passat haynes manual. That's got all the info in it for the 2.0 16V engine and will have all the wiring diagrams you need to get the engine running... 8) You need a 91-96 passat one... 8)

The bentley manual DOES only cover the g60 and american VR6 engined cars... :? IIRC the passat also used the 2.0 16V engine so try and get hold of a haynes for a Passat (91 to 96 IIRC) which should detail the full rebuild of a 2.0 16V engine in it... My pink passat manual was invaluable when I put a KR 16v into a MKI golf... 8)

humm, well at the moment my engine bay looks like this... but I'll post a pic up a week on monday so you can see if you can spot the differences then... ;) 8) :lol: *Edit * - Added a photo of what my engine used to look like... ;)

Cool, 15s are supposed to be better for the handling than 16s or 17s, with 16s just being a nice compromise... 8) A decent set of the same tyres on each wheel with improve things (Jims16V will testify to this at the moment! ;) ) and your man to speak to about suspenson and ARBs etc, is Kevhaywire who's had all that kinda stuff done to his VR6 at Stealth... 8) Hope this helps... 8)

Yeah, fair point... 8) I suppose it all depends on how much oil this engine is using... :wink:

Yeah, that was the aim... subtle but yet effective, and well documented too... ;) 8) I'm in two minds now as to what to do with the front bumper... I've discovered that I could use an original front bumper with the intercooler I've got, so I don't know whether to use the RS4 style one I bought or just use an original one... :? mmm, decisions decisions... :roll: :oops: :lol:

If you've warped the rear disks, you've REALLY over done something at sometime! :shock: Much more likely to be the front disks that are causing the braking vibrations... :? The front brakes do most of the braking anyway (around 80% IIRC) so it's these that are the ones that you need to think about upgrading if you want to go down that route... 8) The standard rears are more than capable of locking up the tyres if you adjust the compensator valve (which is what it's there to prevent! ;) ) Most people who upgrade the rear brakes only do it for visual impact... anyone who says otherwise either likes to be able to throw the rear end out while it's locked up, or doesn't really know what they're on about. ;) :lol:

how much oil over how many miles? 'nana man's correct that all 8V 1.8s GTIs/G60s should have the aluminium cover and deflector plate, but even if yours hasn't, this shouldn't cause oil loss unless it's coming out of the rocker cover seal, or the oil filler cap! ;) On a G60 there tends to be 3 major places that oil consumption can occur. 1) Valve guides and seals - these get an extra hammering due to the forced induction 2) Supercharger seals - If you don't know the history of the supercharger, get it rebuilt ASAP! 3) Piston Rings - with the added pressure from the forced induction, these can wear, but this only tends to be on thrashed engines. Of course, there are still the normal points to look at such as the oil cooler/heat exchanger, rocker cover gasket and other things such as a dodgy oil filter seal or head gasket... Good luck! 8)

Smith-Knight-Fay in Stockport tend to give me between 10 and 15% discount 'cos I pull the Club GTI and CCGB cards and 'cos I now know them all by name.... :wink: :roll: Gilbert Lawson in Trafford (Manchester) have been rubbish with discounts the couple of times I've used 'em, but are a VERY new franchise, so they may well get their act together soon... :roll: :wink: Gilbert Lawson in Macclesfield however, are superb... 8) I just got a full trade discount on a load of parts I needed to complete my project just 'cos I knew the part numbers and emailed them the request over... 8) They'll be getting most of my trade from now on... 8) :D

Hummm, yes well... :roll: Where do I start? Welcome to Earth?!? :wink: :-P For the extra torque lower down the rev range that this inlet manifold gives, I'd happily pay out this kinda money if I had a VR6... 8) In 0-60 figures and top speed numbers, this manifold may not seem to justify it's cost to the "max power" generation, but having seen the comparative torque curves of the 2.9 VR6 with and without this manifold, it doesn't take a genius to work out that a Shrick manifold equipped VR will leave a non shrick VR in it's dust in real world driving... :wink: 8) I'm not sure why you are comparing a VR6 with a 20VT, they are 2 completely different animals... The VR6 will ALWAYS be soooo much a smoother engine than the 20VT will be just from it's design and inherant nature, coupled with the fact that the VR6 was designed to be in the Corrado and, at the end of the day, any 20VT in a Corrado will always be a conversion with certain compromises involved... :roll: As for your point about re-sale costs, that's not why most people here are buying the manifolds, and, even if they were concerned about the aftermarket implications, they could always take the manifold off the car and put it back to normal and then selll the Shrick on Ebay for around what they paid for it.... :roll: P.S. To anyone with 20VT conversions, I'm not having a dig at you, I love the 20VT conversions and have been mega impressed with the ones I've seen, I'm just pointing out some facts about engine swaps that needed to be highlighted to illustrate my point... 8)

dump your 17 inch wheels (if you've got 'em) and get 16s instead?!? ;) :lol: Seriously though, what is it you are asking here? The only things I can think of are strut braces or seam welding that will improve handling without touching the suspension at all :roll: If you just mean not touching the shocks/springs, then that's totally different.... Change ALL the bushes and engine mounts for a quality set of uprated items such as powerflex. Change the antiroll bars for some good quaity uprated ones. Make sure your suspension is correctly set for tracking and camber. These 3 should make your car handle a lot better, but for even better results, do the above, then scrap the original shock/spring assemblies and get some good coilovers, then get the car corner-weighted to ensure perfect balance within the suspension... If you get all of the above done, you'll have a bloody good car handling wise... 8)

Hear Hear Kev... I made the stupid mistake of skimping on the suspension when I first got my G60, and although it looked nice with it's 35mm drop, it's ride quality was reduced to that of an old cart and the handling to that of a skip... :oops: :roll: :( I've since put a set of supersport coilovers on and am soooo happy with 'em.... 8) The moral is, don't think that a cheap option will do you for the short term... it's better to wait a little while longer and get some quality kit than to just go for the cheapest option and then have to change it a few months later... :? If I were you, I'd live with what you've got until you have saved enough to get a quality kit of both shocks and springs which you'll be happy with... 8)

Plan was to have the car running on Monday so that I could drop it in for the paint work next weekend and have it back in 2weeks and back on the road... This has been put back slightly by the head bolts that I was supplied being the wrong ones.. :roll: However, the next week or so should see her being a fully running and complete car again, all-be-it with some wrong coloured/scratched body panels... ;) 8) I didn't intend for this to take this long, but I also didn't quite plan on doing as much as I have to her... :roll: :oops: I kinda got a bit bored and a bit carried away so it's evolved into this final spec from just being a straight rebuild... 8)

I think that the 6 pipes that the car's failed on are the steel ones, not the rubber flexi hoses... :? Is that correct Sanjay? If it is, then the pipe and ends can be bought from most good motorfactors and a tool for making the flanges on the end of the pipes to hold the ends on isn't expensive either... Be warned though, they can be a pig to do and to get looking nice and straight as the metal pipe comes in a roll... 8) Also, you can now get a non-steel pipe which means that once you've replaced it, that's it, you never have to do it again 'cos it won't corrode... 8) I've been out working in Liverpool since 4:30 am... sorry to have let you down! ;)

Yup, it can...On my valver, I took the metal grille off the plastic frame, padded it up a bit with some black cardboard and then glued the grille back onto the frame around the sides... It meant that the grille sat a bit proud of the dash, but not so much as to look silly, and it then cleared the tweaters on my JBL speakers I had in there... 8)

Check the gaskets on the throttle body and the inlet manifold. Also check that they're all bolted on tighly too... I've seen 16Vs where the throttle body has come loose after a head rebuild and this causes a really nasty air leak... ....also worth checking that the injectors are fully in their seats... if not seated correctly, they can let air pass by and screw up the mixture... :roll: The only other things I can think of are split air hoses (the big ones between the metering head and the throttle body) and missing/damaged/porus vacuum hoses :?

...it's only when you get to the stage that my MKI golf's in that you should really be worried... I'm the 19th owner in 21 years! :shock: (and I've owned it 8 years!) That's when you know that there's something odd going on with it! ;)

yup.... when you take the front struts off to fit the new ones your suspension setup will be a mile out when you bolt the new stuff on. Get it in and set up ASAP so you won't knacker you tyres, make sure that the place you take it to can do camber, and can deal with a car as low as yours to save a wasted trip... ;)

PMSL! :lol:

So, this mornings efforts proves a couple of interesting things... 1) These Plastic Reiger RS bumpers are a really nice fit... (see pic) 2) It's sodding cold out there! 3) The Golf G60 intercooler fits PERFECTLY onto the original radiator mount panel with the radiator on it's original locating lugs, and there are lugs in EXACTLY the correct places for the intercooler to mount onto as it should... 8) 4) It's sodding cold out there! 5) The head bolts on a 1H block ARE different to the head bolts for a PG block... 6) It's sodding cold out there! :roll: ;) Unfortunatly my local dealer has supplied me with PG head bolts and won't be able to get 1H bolts in until tuesday... so another deadline for getting the car running will go whizzing past... :( I'll still fit the engine and all of the rest of the stuff while I've got the time off work, I'll just have to fit the head while the engine's in the car :D ...oh, and my alloys won't be ready until next saturday either due to the sandblaster breaking at the refurbishers... :roll: :evil: So, the plan is to get the engine running IN the car, with the car on wheels again next Sunday... 8)