Purple Tom

To do a proper 5-stud conversion is quite involved and you will need the following from a Corrado VR6 or Mk3 Golf (8V or 16V) GTi/VR6: Front calipers and carriers (280mm or 288mm) and the relevant flexi hose. Front bearing housings and hubs Front ball joints Front wishbones Front driveshafts Front CV joints Front anti-roll bar Front anti roll bar links Front discs (5-stud 280mm or 288mm) Rear discs (5-stud) 20 wheel bolts Daves16V managed to do a 5-stud conversion on his car in a slightly different way but I know he had a bit of trouble working out the compatibility of the 4-stud/5-stud components so I've just listed all of the bits that will definitely work and fit your car. I'm converting my 8V to 5-stud while doing the TDi conversion as it made sense to do it at the same time. However my winter wheels for last winter were a set of 15x6 Bora steelies in 5-stud flavour and because I hadn't carried out the 5-stud conversion at that point I invested in a set of adaptors: Adaptors These basically bolt onto your 4-stud hubs and then allow you to bolt 5-stud wheels onto them. They're TUV approved and I didn't have any problems with them over the winter, however they need looking after and because they're made of aluminium you can't swing on the wheel bolts otherwise you risk stripping the threads out of them. They are a cheaper and easier of way of converting your Corrado to 5-stud but obviously doing the proper conversion is preferable. Incidentally the 5-stud VR6 Corrado's and Golfs had a 20mm wider track than the 4-stud cars so 20mm thick adaptors are ideal...it means the car will have the same track as a VR and therefore you can fit wheels of a similar offset without worrying about any arch rubbing etc. Hope that helps..think I covered everything. Cheers Tom

Thanks Ian :) Day 12-ish - got loads done today! I got up early and headed over to my Dads unit to borrow his hydraulic press. He bought it 5 years ago and so far I've used it about 7 times to press bearings in and out of things, other than that he hasn't used it at all :lol: Anyway, we pressed the drive flanges into the bearing housings and also the rear beam bushes into the beam itself - thanks to Mark who managed to get a special tool made at his work which made the rear beam bushes very easy to press in :) Here's a couple of pics of the finished items - the bearing housings and rear beam have both been blasted and powdercoated and the drive flanges have just been blasted to remove any loose material: They look brilliant and the powdercoating will last a lot longer than a standard wet-painted finish - thanks again to Mark and Dave who organised that for me. Here's my 99p eBay bargain heater matrix: Also my not-so-much-of-a-bargain-but-fits-perfectly FMIC: Once I got back from Dads I had to do a bit of gardening to help my Mum and then Mark came round so we cracked on with the rebuild. Mark concentrated on the rear end (which apparently is his area of expertise, I didn't ask :lol:) and got the fuel tank bolted on with its freshly powdercoated tank straps: He then fitted all of the remaining heatshielding back onto the car, using all new springy-washer things which means that the shields no longer rattle in an annoying way. He then refitted the rear beam and its brackets, and then between us we fitted the rear discs, bearings, ABS rotors and new handbrake cables and also got the freshly powdercoated rear carriers on. Dave has borrowed my piston wind-in tool so we'll be able to fit the pads etc tomorrow. It's beginning to look a bit more finished under there now although there's still the hard lines, flexi hoses etc to fit: While Mark concentrated on the rear suspension I was able to get on with the front end, so I got the rest of the brake pipes made up which was easier said than done. I've used a modified version of the Passat heatshielding which meant that routing the brake and clutch hydraulic pipes wasn't all that easy, particularly as I'm using the later-spec ABS system that the Corrado was never actually fitted with. I've just had to make the pipes and route them as best as I can...it's not 100% perfect but its very difficult to achieve uniform bends in the brake pipes and also its nigh-on possible to get it completely straight. However I tried and I think it looks ok: As well as fitting the brakes lines I got the reconditioned PAS pipes back into position, fitted the R32 wishbone bushes to the wishbones and bolted them into place. I also fitted the front flexi hoses. I've routed the wiring using all new clips and ties around the bulkhead so it's looking reasonably neat under there now. There's still the servo feed pipe to fit and the vacuum hoses for the engine but other than that the messy engine bay bit is done. It got to about 9pm and after a chinese takeaway to keep us going it was time to get the engine in...a bit of jiggery pokery and the engine was bolted into position where it will hopefully stay for at least a little while: I couldn't resist putting the engine cover on to see what it looks like :) Loads to do tomorrow, I'm going to get the carpet and heater box back in to begin with which will mean I can fit the coolant hoses etc. I've also got to slightly modify the downpipe to fit the newly made stainless exhaust adaptor (thanks again Mark and Dave!) and do plenty of other small time-consuming jobs but hopefully the update tomorrow night will maybe see it running again :) Cheers Tom

Oh they are clean compared to how they were! 14 years of accumulated crap had built up so it was just the first fix ;) A proper job will be done before the show when its running with a pressure washer, some tar remover and plenty of degreaser...that should do the trick :) As for tea bags, I'll get some in the morning :lol:

Day whatever-it-is-now... Had a bit of a crappy week to be honest, on Friday my Grandad was taken into hospital with breathing difficulties, on Saturday they diagnosed a chest infection and acute leukemia, on Sunday they did a blood transfusion and on Monday afternoon he passed away. Being on call with work meant I wasn't able to get down to see him to say goodbye so all a bit upsetting to be honest (the hospital was 40 miles away in Wolverhampton). However I work in the funeral business so I've been able to sort everything out and my company will be doing the funeral so it's nice to be able to carry out the last thing and know it'll be done properly. He came up to visit us about 2 weeks ago for a couple of days and I showed him the Corrado and the work I'd done and he was looking forward to seeing it done so while it sounds pretty cliche'd it'll definitely be nice to get this car finished in time for Stanford Hall, if for no-one else but him :) Anyway...enough with the emotional stuff and on to the car! Although this week wasn't all that productive I still managed to remove all of the chipped/broken underseal from the car and prep, prime and paint the affected areas to prevent the spread of rust. It's surprising just how easily water spreads underneath underseal as there were quite a few areas where it appeared to be fine but a bit of investigation revealed nasty black water underneath so they're all sorted now. I've also used Dinitrol Cavity Wax in all of the accessible cavities, including plenty around the fuel filler area (which I've cleaned and painted) so hopefully the dreaded brown stuff will be slowed down at least! I also managed to get the headlamp loom finished which took a bit longer than I thought - lots of soldering and heatshrinking there! However it's all done now and fitted. All 4 relays are mounted just above the standard fusebox and the fuses for the relays are accessible behind the fusebox so it's worked out pretty well - just got to pop the battery on and test it when the time comes. Today was my first day off since last weekend (although I'm still on call until 8am tomorrow morning!) so I hoped I'd get a lot done. I got the fusebox back into its proper place, mounted the ABS pump, installed the ABS loom and also the alarm and fan wiring looms. Mark came round again to help and we cracked on, getting quite a few jobs done. The engine bay is beginning to get there now, most of the wiring looms are in permanently in place now, as is the ABS pump, servo and clutch master cylinder. The front-rear brake pipes are installed, as is the gear selector and underbody heat shields. The front subframe and ARB are now in place permanently too (although we did that last weekend). Also we've fitted the steering rack and new steering arms/trackrod ends/steering rack boots. Here's a few piccies: Still an awful lot to do but getting there now. I've also had a total eBay bargain delivered this week. Every build that I do I have to get a 99p eBay purchase - with the Vauxhall conversion into my Mini I picked up a genuine GM concentric clutch slave cylinder, Vauxhall price £137, eBay price 99p :) With the Golf engine into my mk3 Polo I picked up a genuine VW water pump and cambelt kit for 99p and with this build I've got an OE-spec (Febi) heater matrix for the paltry sum of £5.99 delivered. It's brand new, never fitted and has saved me a good £50, so a good bargain there :) The intercooler has been delivered and I'm well on the way to sorting out the pipework and mounting arrangements for that. I've got a rebuild kit for the front calipers which I'll be popping in shortly (upgrading to 288's) and lots of other new parts to fit. Tomorrow I'm pressing the rear beam bushes into the beam, as well as the front bearings into the bearing carriers and hubs into the bearings. Once that's done then the aim for tomorrow is to get the rear beam fitted, brake pipes made and maybe get the engine in permanently. I've fitted the VR6 clutch to the engine and given the gearbox a clean so it's just a case of bolting the two together and dropping them in. I'll update more tomorrow evening if I get chance to, just thought I'd update and let you know how things are going :) Cheers Tom

To everyone who has asked questions above, I have none of those parts I'm afraid. Thanks Tom

I smell a reverse bidding war :lol: As Cazza said it might be worth typing the part number that you're after into eBay and click 'include description' - you're bound to find an exact match.

Just checked the part number on mine and its the same as Cazzas - 037 906 025 D. I think the difference is that yours is from engine code 2E and ours are from engine code ADY which was the last of the 8V's and fitted with Siemens management with a different throttle body (stepped motor for idle control rather than ISV). I couldn't say for sure whether ours would work on yours but I've got the same as Cazza - ECU, immobiliser module, key sensor ring and chip but I'll do it for £25 posted as its better that someone uses it than it sit in my garage gathering dust! Cheers Tom

I've got one, just removed from my 8V. No fault codes and ran really well. I'll check the part number tonight and get back to you. Cheers Tom

Day 8 (of proper work!)... Mark (Laser Mark) came round today and basically stripped the entire rear end of the car for me :) It worked out well for both of us as he got to learn how some of the bits that he hadn't dealt with before came off and I got to carry on with other stuff! As well as stripping the rear end, which included the rear bumper, rear brakes, rear suspension, rear beam, fuel tank, exhaust, exhaust shields, handbrake cables, exhaust hangers and fuel filter, Mark also spent some time cleaning up the rear arches which were caked in 15 years worth of mud, crap and grime. There's a few small areas of surface corrosion that I need to deal with before going any further but nothing major. Turns out a Dyson and stiff brush is quite a good way of doing it :lol: While Mark was doing all that I got on with doing some painting of components that needed paint (rear discs, front subframe) and also carried on with the modifications to the headlamp loom which I didn't get chance to do the other night as I got called out to work. Tomorrow I'm aiming to treat the underside surface rust before doing anything else, then finishing off the headlight loom and getting it fitted. I also picked up my wheels today, they look good :) Here's a few pics anyway, nothing exciting again but showing the progress nonetheless: Sorry for the short update, will be able to put more when I'm a bit more awake (got called out 3 times last night!) Cheers Tom

Is it movable? As in does it have wheels or will the buyer need to provide wheels to move it? I'd be interested in it if it was fairly easy to move... What I also mean is that I'm happy to bring a set of wheels with me if required :lol:

Good luck with the project - one of the nicest colours in my opinion. You might however want to edit the title of your thread ;)

These things happen and I guess in the circumstances it could be a lot worse! At least its not -10 degrees! The only thing I could say for not having it is that you won't benefit from the ever-so-slight extra cooling that the matrix provides. Even if the heater dial is turned to 'cold' water will still flow through the matrix and I firmly believe it helps with the cooling of the engine. But if the rest of the cooling system is up to the job you shouldn't notice any difference :) I hope it sounds a bit quieter with the rest of the exhaust on, as nice as it sounds without it!

At least you don't need the heater for a while! Good luck with it, the U-bend sound like it'll do the job perfectly :) I thought the youtube video was pretty rubbish to be honest, would have loved it to be better quality but it was done in a hurry on my phone :lol: I'll get a better one soon hopefully! Cheers Tom

Just been reading about your heater matrix woes! I will if you'll cover the cost of the flights ;)

Thanks for all of the positive comments everyone! Mikkijayne - I tested the fuel pump wiring by rigging up a test light to the fuel pump plug itself and running the engine. It primed as it should and then carried in receiving 12V once the engine was running. Really pleased with the way its worked out in that respect as I was thinking I'd have to wire in another relay to feed the fuel pump but no need, jobs a good'un :) smithy220 - the 80A fuse and thick red/white wire is the glowplug fuse and wiring which feeds straight from terminal Z1 on the fusebox. Good luck with your project dude, I'll hopefully be able to offer some advice once mine is done! Not much in the way of updates to report other than Mark and Dave have blasted and powdercoated a few more bits for me and I'm ready to fit everything back on now. I've soldered and wrapped the immobiliser wiring properly and fitted the headlight switch modification to prevent the notorious loom fire. I've ordered a load of wiring from VWP (Vehicle Wiring Products) and tonight I'm going to build my new headlamp loom with inbuilt uprated wiring. Looking forward to getting that done because then I can fit the wiring once and for all and get the interior back together! I've ordered a few more bits from VW which I'll pick up on Saturday and my wheels are also ready to collect - slowly but surely coming together now! I'll update again later or tomorrow once I've sorted the headlamp loom :) Cheers Tom

Jay - £6 posted for the sensor if you want it mate. thegrouch, Andy - PM'd James - I know exactly which part you're on about but it really isn't very expensive to get a brand new Mk4 item from VW, which is a direct fit to the 12V ABV engine and is a slight upgrade. Either way I don't have one but I'd recommend buying new for something like that - I did when I did the chains/tensioners on my VR. Cheers Tom

Andy - I have the brackets but don't have any usable bushes or support plates I'm afraid as they both sheared when removing them from the VR, plus the bushes were ruined. The support plates are still available new from VW as I just ordered some. Let me know if you want the brackets themselves. Jay - I have a sensor but no loom as I ended up using a bit of both from the Passat B4 donor and 8V when I redid the TDi engine loom. Let me know if the sensor is any use. Cheers Tom

Very nice, I'm bang in the middle of exactly the same conversion as we speak. Really enjoying doing it and I'm looking forward to seeing what it'll be like to drive :) Yours looks great though, well done :)

It might do yeah, would be a good idea to plug it in and see what comes up. If you do need a crank sensor then I actually have one that I've just removed from my 8V (I'm doing a TDi conversion so no need for it!). Hope Vagcom tells you what you need to know!

Sounds like it could possibly be the crank sensor, my 8V gave exactly the same symptoms when it had trouble with the same sensor, although mine was due to the wire chafing rather than the sensor itself being at fault. It cost me £140 new from VW - what engine code is yours, ADY or 2E (have a look on the logbook if you're not sure...the first few letters of the engine number).

Day 7 - what a day it's been today! I set out today with the specific intention of getting the engine in the car and having a general look at how it sits in the engine bay, paying particular attention to the exhaust downpipe clearance from the ARB and also the potential routing of some intercooler pipework. So, it all started off well, I got the powdercoated subframe on (ignore dirty steering rack, just there for clearance purposes) and bolted up, looks good: Then got the engine out from where it's been languishing, here's what it looks like: And dropped it into the car, all went in well and I got the front crossmember and powdercoated rad support bracket in place, again, all looks good: I then decided to fit the pedal box and the engine/headlight looms in order to run the engine. This is where I hit the first snag. A Passat B4 TDi pedal box does NOT fit a Corrado. The DBW module (seen sticking out of the top of the pedal box a few posts up) severely interferes with the scuttle panel. There's 2 solutions to this problem; one is to totally modify the linkage and pedal box in order to make it work without fouling the scuttle panel, and the second solution is to modify to the scuttle panel. I opted for the second approach as to be honest it's the easier option and it can easily be hidden as it's right up inside the scuttle near where the throttle cable would have gone in originally. No pictures I'm afraid but it took a good couple of hours to decide on a suitable approach and cut the necessary steelwork out. I've got a nice small grinder but even so access was tight and I didn't want any sparks to hit the windscreen, wiring or doorcards so I spent a while covering everything up. I eventually sorted it and got the pedal box in and securely mounted but I wasn't in the best of moods. I guess it must be that the B4 pedal box fits fine in LHD Corrado's as the dashboard is a totally different shape on that side from what I can see. Anyway, got the wiring looms back in and the engine wired up. Made sure the air filter assembly fitted (which it did) and I also fitted a temporary fuel tank into the O/S strut mounting hole :) Got the clocks, column and stalks fitted and plucked up the courage to connect the battery. There weren't any sparks or fire so all good :) I left the ignition on for a number of seconds but then started to smell petrol :S Turns out the fuel pump had primed even though I've removed the fuel pump relay and replaced it with the glow plug relay. No idea why this is, I need to have a look over the wiring diagrams! Once I'd unplugged the fuel pump from the tank end just to stop petrol going everywhere I thought I'd best have a go at starting it. A final check over and I turned the key....it burst straight into life and then immediately died....immobiliser problems :( I plugged in VagCom and it wouldn't communicate, although the immobiliser module was making lots of clicking so I knew it had power, just not a lot else. Checked over all of the K-line wiring and everything was as it should so I was pretty puzzled. I'd taken the immobiliser wiring out of the Passat exactly as it had been wired up, but the wiring was a little strange - the immobiliser module wasn't supplied with an earth in its 6-pin plug. It wasn't that it had been cut or ripped out, it just wasn't there. I tried various things to get it working and then decided as a last ditch attempt to try wiring in the Corrado 6-pin plug which has the 2 K-line feeds, a 12V ignition live and 2 earths. Wired that up and suddenly VagCom came to life and I was able to scan the ECU. It's really strange that it worked with the Corrado-type wiring but wouldn't function with it as its was originally in the Passat. Been as though I'd got VagCom online I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it another try on the starter, and this is the result: So it runs :) It sounds rough and loud as there's no exhaust other than the downpipe and there's no intercooler pipework or soundproofing of any description! But all the gauges work, the cluster works fine, the MFA works, the throttle works and there is loads of room between the downpipe and ARB so it's all good. I was so pleased to get it running even though it was approaching the evening before it sparked into life. If I hadn't I think I could easily have got a bit annoyed with it, but thats the nature of an engine conversion...nothing is ever simple! Thanks for reading so far anyway, more updates to come soon :) Tom

Bloody hell! Think I'd be buying a lottery ticket if that happened to me and I walked away...

Thanks for the comments guys - I plan on videoing the first start, I'll likely be on my own so it'll be on my phone but it'll do :) Right, day 6 - only had a few hours on it today for one reason and another but I got quite a bit done. Finally bit the bullet and got on with the immobiliser wiring. Not sure quite why I'd been putting it off but it was a piece of cake to be honest...I think part of the reason was that I'd always looked at it late in the evening when my brain was already pretty fried and I just couldn't get my head round it! However, consulting wiring diagrams, the fusebox schematics on http://www.a2resource.com and testing with the multimeter I soon got it sorted. I removed the existing Corrado immobiliser and wired the Passat one in its place. As well as doing that I relocated the K-Line distribution block to a colour coded block on top of the fusebox rather than on the centre tunnel and got the diagnostic socket mounted in its correct place on the centre tunnel. The K-Line for the diagnostic socket will now run above the top of the column down to the diagnostic socket rather than all round the houses via the centre tunnel, seat crossmember and O/S sill. Seems a lot more logical to do it that way, although I have made use of the existing 12V and earth supplies that were already in the existing wiring. In hindsight I could also have used the original K-line wire but I decided to reroute it. The ABS K-line also makes its way to the fusebox (don't forget I am upgrading the ABS to the newer type so its wiring is different) so it all falls nicely into that rerouted distribution block. Here's a picture of the interior now. I'm sure it still looks like a mess but it is actually all sorted, all that needs adding is the ABS wiring and that's the interior wiring sorted: Thought I'd get a picture of the rewrapped looms - nothing exciting but it gives you an idea of what I've been doing: ABS loom: TDi engine loom: Fan loom: I've also extracted the headlight loom as obviously I'm going to rewrap that but I'm also going to upgrade the lights at the same time. I'm going to essentially do what Kev has done (cheers for the diagram Kev!) but I'm going to include the uprated wiring inside the original wiring loom. The relays will be inside the car next to the fusebox and I'm going to draw power from a fused supply directly from the battery rather than from the Z1 wiring supply (main feed for glowplugs on my car). This is only because its easy for me to do that when the loom is all apart so it makes sense to do it that way. As well as getting the wiring sorted I managed to paint the engine bay in its final coat and have a general tidy up in the garage too. So the bay looked like this: It now looks like this (spot the new paint!): It still needs a decent coat of polish and wax to get the shine into it before installation begins properly, but I'm just going to pop the engine in and get it running first before worrying too much about that. Thats about it for tonight, I'm next in the garage on monday (last day off!) when I hope to get it up and running, so fingers crossed :) Thanks Tom

BUMP - more parts added including a free engine, a gearbox, ABS ECU and pedal box :)

Day 5 - Todays' been a day of doing lots of little small jobs that have been playing on my mind but needed doing. First things first I took my wheels down to http://www.thewheelspecialist.co.uk in Burton to book them in for their refurb. I was pretty impressed with the facilities to decided to leave them there for them to do over the space of a week or so, which got the price down slightly and has also free'd up some room for me in the garage! On the way back I called into TPS and picked up my order of parts. As usual they'd managed to lose some of the order and only gave me about 3/4 of what they wanted to charge me for; I'm used to it now though so I checked the order before I left. The guy went 'round the back' again and found the rest of it so all was good in the end. The price wasn't quite as scary as I thought it might be either so I was pleased. Once I got home I decided that I really needed to clean up the garage a bit. Its amazing how much room a car takes up when its in lots of different pieces and I'd got myself into a bit of a pickle with space. A couple of hours later and some dismantling of various parts and I'd made a usable workspace again! I was getting fed up with tripping over things or standing on potentially important parts so I think it was a job well done. While doing that work a courier came up the drive and delivered some stuff that I'd ordered from the aptly named http://www.rust.co.uk. The Corrado has a small amount of corrosion on the battery tray and a couple of small areas underneath where the underseal has broken so I thought now would be a good time to treat it. I've gone for some FE123 rust treatment and a couple of cans of wax, one for the cavities (rear arches!!) and one external spray wax for the underneath components once they're fitted. I was pleased because I only ordered it yesterday so I wasn't sure if it'd arrive, but it did which meant I could get on with cleaning the engine bay :) :) soon turned into :( once I realised quite how much cr@p there was, particularly on the chassis legs. However a couple of hours later, roughly 38 gallons of degreaser, 4 barrels of elbow grease and the bathroom cupboard a couple of towels lighter and I was left with a relatively sparkly engine bay. It's not concours but it'll do for the time being! Cleaning all the rubbish exposed the rust in all its glory around the battery tray so I set about treating that. The FE123 works really well and I'm hopeful that it'll do a better job than some of the other rust treatments on the market. We'll see I guess. While it was drying I thought it'd be a good time to have a look at the engine bay bulkhead insulation/heatshielding that I'd removed from the Passat. It sort of looked like it would fit the Corrado but once I offered it up I realised there was no way of it fitting with some serious modification. So it got seriously modified and while its now quite a bit smaller, it does actually fit the bulkhead and will do the job its intended for so that was good. The last job of the day was to examine and rewrap the fan and ABS wiring looms. They both checked out OK with no damage so I just removed the crappy old black insulation tape and rewrapped with the cloth rayon stuff. They look good and I hope they'll improve the look of the engine bay once fitted. Tomorrow I'm going to be tackling the immobiliser wiring as I completely ignored it today. There's only a couple of wires that I need to identify but I need to make sure its done properly otherwise its not going to be very good! I'm also going to prime the rusty areas in the engine bay ready for a quick blast over with some topcoat. I'm back at work on Tuesday and I'd really like to have it running by monday afternoon. When I say running I don't mean drivable or anything like that, but what I'd like to do is quickly drop the engine in, connect up just the wiring and at least make sure it runs. It won't need anything other than the electrics connected up for that, and it'll also mean that if there are problems with the immobiliser I can sort them out before getting too much further on with the wiring. No pictures I'm afraid, I was too busy, but I'll get some tomorrow. Sorry if that reads as a little boring but I'm just trying to keep a record of what's been done. Cheers Tom