oneohtwo

Apologies! I know the feeling... Unfortunately the question and answer thing on Amazon is only answered by other customers (as far as I am aware) so we could post the question but I doubt we'd ever get an answer. It's not an independent seller either, so there isn't one to contact. The upshot of it being sold by Amazon themselves is they'd have a no quibble return policy if it isn't a genuine product. Having a look at their website Dasis specialise in cooling applications so should know what they're doing, and they manufacture in the EU, so I would have thought it's fine.

I saw the Hella sticker as well - the Hella ones were made by AKG so perhaps they were making identical ones for Nissens as well? It's sold by Amazon themselves so you'd hope they wouldn't be misrepresenting a listing. You're right the Dasis core is listed as 34mm on Autodoc - but then they also have the core dimensions as 630x310x24 which threw me. Don't suppose you have it to hand to do a quick measurement out of interest?

This thread peaked my interest from my rad search a couple of years back, and I thought I'd have a look around what with the Hellas now unavailable. Stumbled on these Nissens rads, on Amazon of all places! Nissens 65286 Radiator, engine cooling: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike Not sure how they are in stock on Amazon but not on Autodoc, etc... but it is the correct Nissens part number for the rado. Might be an option if the Dasis doesn't work out chap. I read on some other forum that Nissens may have made some OEM rads (Edit: Just noticed Bruno mentioned this on this thread as well), not sure about that but they seem similar to Hella in quality as far as I can tell. In fact the picture on the Amazon listing is actually a Hella/AKG. They both seem to have a thicker core than the other pattern rads - 35mm instead of 25. You can see on pg1 of my build thread the difference in thickness between the Hella and a cheapo GSF pattern part. The Dasis you have looks to have the thinner core, but the fin design and quality looks more like the Hella, so hopefully it's a good one. Bad luck about that ally one though...

Missed this one before, this is great stuff. Amazing how the time slips by. Redoing the underside looks like a horrendously unpleasant task! Great to know it is all in perfect condition. I like the idea of hiding the wiring so will be interested to see how that turns out - I've no idea how some people seem to be able to hide all the wiring, pipe work and ancillaries! How are you planning on getting the wiring out of the chassis legs out of interest? You're right about the custom exhausts droning. I have one, from Infinity, and whilst they have done a superb job with the look of it it does drone at, unfortunately, motorway cruising speed. Rest of the time it sounds quite good. Can you buy the Militek parts separately? Wondering whether I can just buy the back box and maybe keep the rest of the system as is. Also is that the plastic cam cover you have?

Thanks all! The gearbox was certainly many tedious hours spent on the floor with a variety of wire wheels... worth it in the end though. Block and head were largely Stealth's work. Had some help from the gf guiding it over the crossmember, but then she had to continue working so I was wrestling with it by myself to get it on the mounts. It seems you need a precise alignment of the crane, leveller, planets etc... to get it in. And then a bit of brute force. Few bits of paint scrapped off here and there which is annoying, but I think should be fixable in-situ. Shame to spoil the hard work! Knocked up a little stainless steel bracket to support the belt pulley splashguard as well: Wasn't going to bother as initially I thought it'd be too much hassle, but then seeing how close the guard is to the pulleys I thought best not to have it flapping around, and it was fairly straightforward in the end. Of course, had to make some adjustments after it was attached to get it around the crossmember. Turns out the cut out on the original is there for a reason! The rad support itself is noticeably a lot less stiff than the steel original once on the car. A little annoying in that I was following professional advice, but if I'd known a bit more I may have made it a thicker. Although having said that, it is only the front lip where it clips to the bumper that has a lot of flex and once it is all clipped in should be stiff enough. It definitely seems strong enough with the cross member bolted on. Took my weight OK on the engine mount in a not very scientific test, without any deflection though, and I am probably not too far off the load on that front mount. I think the engine all in weighs about 200 kg, hard to know the distribution but I suspect at least half is on the front mount, and I am 85kg or so. I think I will use one of the failed attempts as a test bed and do some load testing if I get a chance, just to see what ball park we are in.

Momentous day today... after a a year and a month on the stand the engine is back in the bay! My word, you realise it is a tight fit in the bay when you try and get it in. Was a job and a half, a good 2 hours or so of wrestling it in. Getting it over the cross member wasn't too bad, but for an absolute age I couldn't align it on the mounts. The exhaust downpipes hanging down get in the way nicely as well. Will have to assess the damage in the morning, but big relief to get that back in before the end of the year. Getting the gearbox on went fairly smoothly: Anyway, can sit back and enjoy Christmas now, the fun part of bolting things back on can begin in the new year!

Plinth looks good. Has it still got all the lugs on the back?! Was that a special plastic paint you used? Was thinking of doing the front grill.

Yup. if it's the one thing I have learnt more than any other throughout this build... Anyway, the thing won't undo now, oddly. I can't get it back out so there's not much to be done. Hopefully I'll never have to remove the engine mounts again so I can just forget about it.

There's always bloody something isn't there! One of bolts for the transmission mount where it attaches to the subframe has stripped it's thread. I can't get in there drill out the hole, so all I can think is to get a longer bolt and add another nut on the end...

Yeah, It's quite difficult with carbon fibre because strength and stiffness all depends on the thread direction. For instance the stiffness is similar to steel, but really that is just the carbon fibres themselves, when you add in the resin being 40% or so of it, it drops to about half, and then if half the fibres are running the other direction (with the twill weave) it may half again. From the checks I have done it should be fine, but I will keep the engine propped, which I would have done anyway with the original. Thanks! I didn't pull the alternator apart so I couldn't tell you I'm afraid! I sent it off to a company to do the refurb and they did all the internals. They sandblasted the cage back to clean metal - when I got it back I just masked off all the holes to paint it.

The were the Febi ones, rubber as a straight replacement for the originals. got them from Murray's Direct on ebay- Keyo has recommended him before, and does seem to get a fair bit of decent quality Corrado bits in.

Ta, problem was I didn't have a socket big enough to fit over the hole - otherwise that method looks a lot simpler! Managed to rig something up with some offcuts of wood lying around: Which is a bit Heath Robinson, but it did the job with a bit of wrestling.

If anyone has done this with the original rubber ones (or any!) how did you get them in?! All I read about it is that it's an absolute arse - been trying to compress them, or pull them with a bolt in but no luck. It either slips to one side and so won't go in, or, if it is lined up straight, because the tapered end is bigger than the hole it just sits around the outside getting bigger the more it compresses. Plenty silicon lubricant applied but still nothing.

Yes indeed! Hopefully can crack on with the rebuild now! Shame they got rid of the autoclave - that does sound the best way of doing it, with prepreg carbon . I did it with a vacuum infusion method as surprisingly I don't have an autoclave in my garage! Just making steering wheels seems very niche? What does the rest of the company produce? I made a mistake when I said the carbon has similar strength and stiffness to steel. Its a bit more complex than that as they behave differently. Ultimately tensile (and so bending) strength should be higher. Shear strength is less (as lot is the resin component of this), and stiffness is also less. I made the fixing areas at the sides thicker than the steel original so that should be fine, and most of the stiffness is derived from the shape of the section, apart from the lower lip.

Thanks everyone! I did make it yep! I found a company called Easy Composites who do some very good tutorial videos and supply everything, which made it all look quite straightforward (because they're experts! 🤔) so thought I could give it ago. Turns out it's extremely unforgiving and mistakes were made. When I initially budgeted things I thought it was reasonably affordable (not cheap by any means but not unattainable), but that didn't factor in the mistakes and having to buy extra materials, and a lot of consumables, so I don't think it's something to do on a budget. This one was my third attempt, and my second mould so it did rack up a bit. Fortunately I am lucky enough to have the resources so that I could carry on, but for a while I did wonder if I was just throwing good money after bad. Thanks! I don't think you need any particular skills or talent to do it, just a lot of patience and perseverance, plus a bit of technical knowledge. I started doing this last Feb... and as mentioned had to do two moulds, and three attempts at the final part so it was extremely trying at times. I do now have a mould and when I started I partly had in mind that I could make some for others if it went well. However, given how stressful the whole thing was I am less keen 😂. I'm also in the process of moving house as well as trying to finish my rebuild so certainly not for a while. It's not just making the part, but positioning all the holes that is difficult, I've already missed a few a bit and had to enlarge them, tweak them here and there to get to fit - properly you'd make a template/jig, but I don't really have the facilities to do this. So I don't know. I may revisit this in future. I did give this a lot of thought before setting out, and I came to the conclusion that it's not really part of the crash structure - as Sean says it's quite lightweight and only really supports the rad. The bumper member is I believe the main crash structure. It is a large rectangular section so will carry far more load than the rad support and spans between the chassis legs - that will be taking the majority of load in a crash and transferring it to the monocoque. The actual engine cross member supporting the engine is much beefier as well, so will do more, although I have a feeling that in a major accident the bolts securing onto the chassis legs may well shear so that it drops down. The bumper is locked into the chassis if this happens, so again seems to be doing most of the work - that said having looked at my bumper, it's pretty rotten, with some sizable holes in it... 😬 The carbon fibre piece should be about equivalent in strength and stiffness to the steel original, as they two materials have similar properties, give or take, and the recommendation is to make the carbon piece a similar thickness to the original part. It is actually possible to flex the steel piece by hand in places even though it feels weighty. Only area of concern is when the bumper bolts are removed and the crossmember is fixed to the rad support only via the single middle M8 bolt - I have done a rough calc based on the weight of the engine and some known properties of carbon fibre at the more conservative end of the scale (structural engineer by trade), and I see no reason why it shouldn't do the job like the steel one. However, that doesn't account for the vagaries of the production process, and I can't really test it to destruction to make sure - so just to be on the safe side I have had a couple of steel brackets fabricated to sit under the carbon fibre which should provide some additional support. Will always prop the engine anyway so should be fine.

True. Think I'm going to give the helicoil a go first. Anyway, I have finally finished the other project I have been working on, as mentioned above. It's taken 8 months, a lot of heartache, swearing and expense but it's done! A full carbon fibre rad support! Mine old one was rotten on the inside (I think I've got a picture of the section I had to remove) and was only going to get worse. I couldn't source a replacement, so this seemed the only option left. One upshot it's a hell of a lot lighter - about ~0.5kg compared to ~6 kg for the original. Not a massive difference but reduces a bit of the weight hung over the end of the car. I've now drilled all the holes for the splitter bracket, oil cooler and slam panel. Also added some stainless inserts where the splitter bracket clips on to improve wear and add a bit of strength. It's been holding up my rebuild since about May so I'm hugely relieved to have got that done. Shouldn't be any hold up now, but I guess with these cars you never know... Anyway, it's not absolutely perfect but I am pretty chuffed!

Hmmm, maybe I'd have been OK instead of trying to a specific torque. Anyway, nearly £300.00 for OEM replacements so I guess it's the Helicoil fix or try one of the weird brands...

How tight do you usually do the pins?

Hmmm, yes just come across a few threads of that nature on their forums when googling. I suppose the 288 carrier is also a cast piece so could suffer the same fate, especially if a bit old. A few of them seem to use Helicoil as a repair. Not sure it's worth the time and expense if new ones aren't a lot.

I've had a double check and it's the carrier annoyingly. One is pretty loose in there now and won't tighten at all. It's on both carriers oddly - when the first stripped I swapped the other calliper in, tried to tighten them 20Nm and it stripped as well. I have since found somewhere online that says they should be 25 Nm for the Passat ( which these are) so not sure why it's happened on all guide pins? 20 Nm isn't particularly high... bottom setting on my torque wrench! They were second hand so maybe been overtightened previously? Or perhaps the threads just rusted away a bit. Not sure if OEM are still available, had a quick look online and only seem to be unknown brands which I'd rather avoid.

It's actually between the calliper and the wheel spokes! It's a little bit tight... Cheers both! Just annoying I'll have to get the calliper back off to sort out the guide pins. It's probably alright with the threadlock but I don't really want to take chances where the brakes are concerned...

Been a bit quiet on here for a few months as I've been working on something a bit different, which has held up getting the engine back in the car. Hopefully should have an update on that soon so watch this space! In the meantime I did finally get around to fitting the 288 brake upgrade and B12s on one side: (it was dark by the time I finished! Will try and get a better pic in the daylight) A couple of things: 1) The clearance between the caliper and the wheel spokes is cigarette paper thin! But I guess if it clears, it clears. 2) The caliper guide pins on the 288s do not tighten very much. First time tightening with my bigger ratchet they jumped the threads when I got so tight, so I switched to the smaller one added a bit of thread lock and tightened as much as I could. Anyone else had this? Or know how tight they should be? Obviously they're not clamping anything so shouldn't need big torque, but not something you want coming undone mid-motorway run. - edit to add something isn't right here, just watched a vid of someone doing these on a passat and he tightened the guide pins to 20 ft-lbs (about 27 Nm), when I got nowhere near 20 Nm before they jumped the thread. Guess I am going to have to try and re-tap the thread or get new carriers? 3) The disks seem to foul the splash guard where there is the tab that squeezes between the disk and the ABS ring. Disks don't look particularly thicker, and I thought the 288s were a straight swap. Anything I have missed here?

And another! K reg, Midnight Blue I think, literally in the next street over to me. Aftermarket alloys of some sort and looked like it was used fairly regularly. Must be some sort of record for density of Corrados!

To be fair it only took one email from me, with some links from the forum, for them to sort it - I didn't have to deal with Eibach, so wasn't too much hassle - but yes shouldn't have to in the first place! Here's a link to the spring plates: https://www.vwspares.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=4723

I ordered from Extreme Carstyling and found them very good - they are based in the Netherlands but that posed no issue. Were generally quick to answer emails, mostly about the rear springs, which they sourced from eibach (and dealt with after eibach claimed not to know) and sent free of charge. They initially didn't know about the rear spring issue but now should be aware after I went through it with them (sourced a few forum posts) so if you have the same issue should hopefully be straightforward. The only place I could find the spring plates was AVS parts after a lot of searching. Mostly could only find the later plates on eBay. I can dig out the link later if you are struggling to find any.