dr_mat

Cavalier/Calibra turbos had the same engine as the VX220 turbo. Good engines - immensely wide torque curve, not in the slightest bit peaky. Of course in the notoriously poor gripping FWD cavalier chassis they HAD to have 4x4. The VX220 just drives it straight through the rear wheels anyway.. :)

Perhaps he's an anvil salesman - eight of the things in the boot, didn't you notice the slight upward slant and lowness of the rear suspension? ;) Plus you got a tow... ;)

No, it blows it all out...

Yes - the warning light doesn't indicate over-temperature, just low fluid level. You're supposed to notice the overtemp by looking at the gauge!

Dirty brown. ;)

I'm beginning to suspect that Kev has an undue influence on your car, Jedi.. First the Koni/H&R setup, then the Schrick, then the VT mount, and now a Mocal? ;) :lol:

Every time I read "1.8T" and "dump valve" in the same sentence I also read "20 bhp less". Now I know nothing about the technicalities of this, so this could be completely rubbish, but anything that puts your check engine light on can't be good, no?

Dunno what comes in the GSF kit, but the genuine VW bits are only about £20/side and from what I've heard it's worth the difference in price.

Never heard of it. Sounds like yet more snake oil to me though...

I see Kev is in ebulliant mood once more. Had a couple of beers?? ;) Yep, agreed. But if it's not making a noise, that's a *good* sign. Well my upper tensioner *was* worn down so far that the chain was riding on the rivet, and it was rattling, and it had been doing that for 15k miles..! I'll bet there's TONS of VR6 engines out there with 100k+ miles on that have never had the chains touched, and that have NOT had major failures. (Of course, it'll happen eventually, but please don't assume the worst.) Well that IS interesting, a whole VR6 engine for £1750+VAT? Almost makes it pointless paying AMD (or VW come to think of it) £1000+VAT to replace the timing chains, doesn't it? Last I heard VW wanted over £3k for a new VR6 engine - what's going on? They getting generous in their old age?? :)

They VERY rarely snap. They do skip teeth, but only when the tensioners are badly worn. Don't worry about it if you can't hear anything. If in doubt, get someone to take a look at the state of the top tensioner pad. If it's worn, replace them.

Mine's a daily driver too. Which is the best thing for cars, IMHO. Leaving them standing isn't so good. Not sure what to do next year though - work is moving nearer to home (much nearer) and I'm not sure whether it's a good idea to be firing up a VR6 for five minutes twice a day.. Maybe I'll just have to move house! :lol:

They seem to last okay unless they're flapping around - and they only flap around if the tensioners are gone. If there's no noises at that side of the engine, don't worry about them. If you find yourself having to replace the clutch, do the chains at the same time - since the clutch has to come off to do the chains it makes sense to hit both at the same time.

At this point I should probably point out that I never said VR6s were more powerful than tuned G60s... Just better, for other reasons.. ;) Never mind the width, feel the quality.. ;)

Do they fit a chip holder in the ECU? If so, that sounds like a good plan - cos then as you say it's just a case of using a chip puller to switch EPROMs. Maybe I need to talk to the man who knows about all this, Vince... Now, on another subject - where's the best place to get the VR6 steering rack from? Preferably genuine, and preferably not refurbed... :(

Hmmm. The "new eprom" seems to be advertised at £350 a shot. I know as well as you do it's an easy job to flash a chip, but getting someone to do it is the hard bit... What I'm looking for is the ability to put the car back to standard - i.e. standard manifold, standard chip. What would be ideal was a new EPROM that works well with the Schrick *and* works equally well with the standard manifold. I doubt such thing exists... :) And running rich, even for a few weeks, sounds like bad news for the CAT....

Agreed. :)

Hmm. Is the unichip actually mapped to the car at all? The more I hear the more I think the "better" solution is a EPROM remap, albeit with the obvious hassle of having to have it recooked each time a change is made.. So if I were to have the unichip fitted, Vince would modify the map for free with each future modification? How does that aspect work? What about having a remap EPROM on a second EPROM - would it be possible to plug/unplug in the existing ECU if I went back to standard at a future date?

corradostorm: Don't you think that those that work using the RR day to day just reverse the "customer uplift"? I think so. I'm sure Vince at Stealth knows their road is up on reality, but he knows how much it's over by, so he can compensate in his head... Your 145bhp at the wheels is down on standard, as is my 151bhp. Funny how we both have reported "@crank" figures well over the book "standard" figure tho.. Also funny your torque figure is no less than 15lbft over the book figure!!

Hi guys, Thinking of getting Stealth to remap the VR later next month, to try and combat the pinking I've had since the hot weather got to the Schrick.. :( They offer two services - remap the existing EPROM or fit a unichip. Which is better? What are the pros/cons of each? The unichip is dearer (slightly) and I know it's a reversable mod, but is it better than a remap (or even as good)? Cheers, M.

What's the point of changing the wheels just for a rolling road? If that's not how the car is when it's actually used on the road, it's a meaningless figure! IMHO. Anyway, the only way to get a figure for what the engine is capable of is to stick it on an engine dyno.

Yeah, power = revs* torque / 5225 rpm. (I think.) The roller actually just measures it's rotational speed, not acceleration force (torque) or power. The acceleration force applied by the wheels (which can be translated directly into torque) is calculated by plotting the CHANGE in roller speed, and using the known mass and drag of the rollers themselves. The power plot is then a simple case of applying the above formula to the torque plot. The ATW figure is as accurate as the calibration that was done on the road. Since it's only a simple "roller speed" measuring tool, all the clever scaling should remain pretty constant and it shouldn't really drift out of calibration much.

Personally I would assume that a) your water temp gauge is over-reading by around 5 degrees (85-100 is normal). b) your oil temp is reading high too. When idling in traffic for extended periods your oil temp should match the water temp. Around 100-104 absolute maximum. (The engine isn't generating enough heat to make the oil hotter than the water, but there's not enough air flow to pull the water temps down from 100 much.)

The suggested figures I've seen are around 10% of engine power + 10bhp fixed losses (this is for a normal front wheel drive manual boxed car). So for a completely standard VR6, 190 bhp less 10 % (19), less 10 bhp gives 161 bhp at the wheels. I suppose the air con pump (if it's running) might cost another 2-3 bhp...

Probably the best bet for now, Emax. I wouldn't even nurse it around either, drive it like normal (just avoiding the pinking if you get some more), and if the head gasket goes, well that's how it was fated to be, and at least then you'll know for sure that's what it is! Just don't let it start overheating or stuff like that! :(