pete_griff

hey philmo - don't want to sound patronising but chazrad is talking about his 288mm brake conversion - not 288 degree cams - that would be truly wild with forced induction!

basically i think my head gasket has gone - i'm badly down on power - like the engine is missing - checked all leads are secure etc. i have been losing water, but there is no sign of leakage (water wise) from anywhere on the outside of the engine other than the most minute leak from the head gasket near the aux belt tensioner, but its so miniscule that i wouldn't be losing water like i have been - i havent been losing loads, but it definitely would have shown some sign of itself if it was anywhere on the outside of the block/thermo housing. thankfully i'm getting no mayonaise anywhere, so the only thing that i can think of is that water is getting into one of the chambers somewhere. plus the car has been sat in the cold for approx 3 months without moving (even though it did have anti-freeze in it), also i ran some coolant flush through it yesterday which is likely to have finished off whatever crap was left sealing up the cylinder... can hopefully confirm 100% when i get the plugs out - hopefully in the next day or two as i need to get hold of a plug lead removal tool i just wanted to open this up to the forum to see if anyone has any other ideas/thoughts on what it could be... i'm happy to admit that until i got my vr6 a few months ago, i was a vr6 virgin; so my knowledge overall of the engine is not expert - but i've rebuilt several engines in the past...

i'm pretty certain its the gasket after inspection as the car has been losing water now for a little while - not been much, but been slowly getting worse - it's been off the road now for near enough 3 months in the cold, so even though it did have antifreeze in it, that was probably enough to push it over the edge. also i put some coolant flush in yesterday and it's gone today, so chances are that the flush dislodged whatever was left of the gasket :( on the plus side after i got the car back from having it tracked, it felt pretty good - stock feel to the ride, sharper turn in etc, but can't give a full review as yet as i only drove it steadily and only for about 2 miles, owing to the gasket failure.

i took my C to get the geometry all sorted this morning and on the way there it developed a misfire, which on closer inspection lead me to believe my head gasket has gone pop! :( :( :( :( :( :( :( i will confirm whether it has or not tonight (can't at the mo as the car is still getting the tracking squared away), but if it has i shall be unbelievably gutted - it has spent 3 months off the road waiting for parts or for me to have the time to put into it, then the second day its back on the road again - someone up there doesn't like me at the moment! if it has indeed gone pop then i will try and sort myself out with another engine so i have got transport in the mean time while i sort my original engine out... i will tell you how it feels on the road once it's all sorted though....

haha, cheers :) the other bushes (labelled 1) in the above link i have replaced with standard VW rubber, however when you actually look at the design of the wishbones and they way they sit on the car, its the ones labelled number 2 that do all the work anyway, so i'm hoping for a ride comparable to somewhere near that of the standard bushes, but with a bit more bite on turn-in... - we shall see! managed to get the subframe and rear beam all back on and bolted up today - just gotta put the brakes back on now and change the water pump tomorrow and i'm done - so hoping to be mobile again after tomorrow - we will see what the good lord has in store for me! hopefully be reporting back for you soon...

actually i thought "mel" was a bloke but anyway - like i said the offer is there and the number is as above....

here ya go buddy - the bushes i'm on about are the ones labelled number 2 on the diagram... follow the link below and you will see what i mean... http://www.nexternal.com/powerflex/images/corrado.gif

hey there buddy i'm a fellow shireling and would be more than happy to have a quick look at it sometime if your about. my name's Pete (shockingly!) and my number is 07888701877 - gimme a buzz sometime if ya like...

hey there buddy, i don't have the part number i'm afraid, but if you go into to an audi dealer and ask for the front wishbones bushes for a TT they will ask you if it's after a certain year or chassis number (can't remember which) and go for the later (and i think more expensive ones) as they are the solid rubber ones without the cut-outs in. i think these chappies are for the 3.2 TT which is obviously heavier and needs more support up front

stealth racing: 01926 812259

i'm honestly not sure about whether the driveshafts off your 4 stud will fit into the 5 stud hubs - i don't see why not in all honesty, but i'm really not sure - best person to ask is probably vince @ stealth. also i'm pretty sure that you can fit the brakes off a g60 onto your 4 stud hubs - i have a friend with a scirocco who has just carried out a full g60 brake conversion. these should in theory work as well as the standard vr6 brakes as they are the same size and use either identical, or very similar calipers.

quick update - was gonna get my car back on the road last weekend, but demon thieves sent me the wrong fecking bushes for my rear beam. consequently i'm now hoping to get the car sorted this weekend, provided that the correct bits arrive - so i will report back for you. just a reminder, i'm gonna be running tt bushes on the front wishbones and powerflex on the rear beam (as suggested by vince)...

yes the uprated TT bushes will press straight in, in place of the old ones - would recommend getting a garage or someone with a press to sort you out with this though, just to make sure they do a proper job - also i'm unsure about cost as my friend is sorting me out for free, but the front bush in the lower arms doesn't have a metal sleeve - the rubber is just forced into place, so you will probably struggle with this unless you have the right kit

hey there just to let you know that i'm not getting a complete set of powerflex now - much to my frustration the friend who was supposed to me sorting me out a deal so i could get some really cheap hasn't bothered his arse for over two months, so i f*cked him off and spoke to uncle vince at stealth to order some myself. after speaking to vince, he's not a fan of the "crashy" ride that the powerflex produced and would only recommend them for the rear if you want to go poly. consequently im now getting some uprated bushes for the front from a TT, powerflex for the rear beam and replacing all the others (anti-roll-bar, steering rack etc) with new standard jobbies. in theory the whole lot should be with me before next weekend, so all being well, the car may well move again next weekend - will no doubt have to wait until the weekend after to get it tracked up-due to the opening hours of the geometry place, but i'm really hoping to be driving it down the road again (FINALLY) next weekend so i will report back with my findings. if you are still unsure after listening to everyone else's ramblings (my own included), then give uncie vince a shout at stealth - have spoken with him a couple of times over some issues now and not only is he stupidly switched on, but he's really helpful - a pleasure to deal with :)

the bushes themselves aren't noisy its just that they transfer more vibrations etc through to the car than the OE ones. therefore this makes not only the ride feel a little harsher, but it also causes the car to "rattle" around a bit more - i.e you will notice any loose trim etc more than you would with OE equipment...

its called a brake bias valve and does exactly what it says on the tin - it is used to control bias of braking power to the front/rear of the car. if you have a load of kit etc in the boot then it will make the car sit lower on the suspension at the rear. the bias valve is connected to the rear beam via that pivoting arm, but mounted rigidly on the chassis. therefore when the ream beam moves up (i.e when you hit a big bump or have loads of stuff in the boot) the bias valve will allow more braking force to go to the rear than it would if the car was unladen. its not like it suddenly does all the cars braking at the rear, it just allows more braking force to be used there when necessary. if its broken then your braking forces will be all over the place. also something to note is that if you are lowering a car, you might be as well to take it to an MOT test station afterwards and just get them to check out the braking forces before and after, as lowering a car will probably effect the braking bias. this will hopefully not be too much of a drama though, as if you look at the picture above, the poistion that the spring bolts into the valve is adjustable, allowing you to get the bias somehwere near where it should be.

thats also useful - cheers again kev i have got hold of the new metal clamps and bolts that hold the bushes in so hopefully they wont be too bad - also as im such a fan of copper grease i always have loads of the stuff kicking around as well so all should hopefully go "smoothly"! cheers again

i think you lot are being very harsh towards poly bushes - i have used powerflex in the past and found them to be very good - they WILL last longer than standard ones as they are tougher and never rot - there's simply no way that they cant last longer! as for vibrations, i was privilaged enough to get a ride in chazrads supercharged vr6 with kw variant 1's fitted a while ago and the ride felt almost stock - i was very impressed with the compliance of the ride - as i will happily admit that on some, probably most cars - powerflex etc make the ride noticably more harsh it may be just to the quality of the kw's, but i thought the poly bushes were very good when fitted to his car i have also had good experiences with them in the past when using them on cars for the track i will also have my car back on the road hopefully in max 2 weeks time - fitted with powerflex, so i will report back to you nearer the time...

i agree - getting a new one is defnitely the way forward however you will most likely have lots of fun getting the old one off - i have just renewed my brake bias valve and spring - the valve was very much seized on due to the gay, craply designed bolts that hold it on. they have small allen-key heads and are countersunk into the side of the valve, so you cant get on them with vise-grips. naturally even after lots and lots of plus-gas they still rounded. i cut up through the side of the valve itself with a 4.5" angle grinder to just cut through the bolts enough so that the heads would come off. you would have thought that the valve would then just slide off, but oh no - that was far too simple the ally had corroded all white and galled as ally gets meaning that the valve would not budge at all, even when trying to hammer a thin wedge in between it and the car. in the end i borrowed a 9" grinder off a friend and cut the whole valve off, leaving just a very thin slice left on the car. i then set about it again with the wedge and hammer and it finally gave way, leaving just the ends of the bolts which i had fun removing with vise-grips - mine was a sod though, so if you aren't particulaly mechanically adept i would get a friend who is to give you a hand just i case you have as much fun as me. also be prepared for the original solid brake lines going into the valve to be swines to undo as well - plus-gas is the order of the day. if you can do it, then renewing the lines with shiny new lines is the way forward, but again you have to have the correct tools etc to do this - so you may want to ask someone if you're not confident and dont have the correct kit... i will post some more pics up in my running gear refurb thread before long and it shows how many pieces i got the old valve off in!

with my rear beam, arb, lower arms and subframe i have unfortunately been forced to refurbish them the hard way using a belt sander/angle grinder to remove all the rust and then clean them up and spray them after that. there is nowhere near to me that i'm aware of that could cope with shot-blasting & powder coating objects of such large size :( i got my calipers, carriers, hubs, hub carriers and abs rings all done by biggred - but not powder coated - done in their polymer coating which is similar, but better - you can pour brake fluid on it and it won't strip it! unfortunately as i said above biggred can only do things up to approx 1.5 foot square (ish - you would have to ring them) as for the price of blasting/coating you've been quoted, yeah that does sound pretty good, certainly as far as i'm aware anyway...

it may be that the existing rotor on the car has become too rusted up and is affecting the sensor, or it could be that the rotor has become bent somehow (e.g. just the right sized stone somehow finding its way between the rotor and the hub... :? ) also if the sensors have been fitted recently just make sure that the face of the sensor itself is nice and clean - if it has dirt/grease etc covering it then that could affect it - but from what you've said it sounds more likely to be the rotor. the bad news is that if it is the rotor and you want to remove it to straighten it out etc then to do a proper job you will have to get a new wheel bearing - you could straighten and clean it with it still on the car, but if you want a lasting job then the way forward is to remove it from the hub and give it a damn good clean - see my pics below download/file.php?id=47915&mode=view download/file.php?id=47904&mode=view (you'll also notice in the pic just of my rotor that one of mine was slightly bent when i had them shot-blasted and i hav had to straighten this out) hope this helps :)

thats exactly the answer that i was looking for as that was one of the things i didn't photograph when it came off the car - like i said, im sure i would have found out the hard way - same as kev did. saved me a bit of effort there :thumbleft: thanks very much once again - most appreciated

yeah you can stick with the standard corrado abs rings - the abs actuating system works independently of the calipers themselves. also you can only get the rings cleaned up when you are changing the wheel bearings as the hubs need to come out of the hub carriers to get the rings off - see my pics - the abs ring screws to the back of the hub before it is pressed into the bearing in the hub carrier also i wouldn't give up - unless you are as anal as me - you are doing a pretty good job of those calipers so far - it would be much easier to get them clean if you just took them to someone who could shot-blast them for you, then all you would need to do is paint them and put them back together... hope that helps

bump - anyone got a pic plleeeeeeeeeeeaaase

Hey there everyone - i will shortly be putting my car back together, but in the abscence of having another corrado nearby to look at, i've forgotten which way round the front anti-roll bar goes. it's obviously designed to go on a specific way round and i'm sure i could work it out by measuring it up to the car on the subframe however to save me the effort of fitting it to the subframe and then lifting the frame into position on the car - if anyone has got a picture of their STANDARD anti-roll bar on the car and could post it just to save me a bit of effort that would be much appreciated. thanks again