oneohtwo

Right, so it's out! Found a fair amount of debris in the sump including a couple of bits of plastic. No idea where they've come from... So will probably open up the oil pump and just make sure everything is all ok. Have started tidying up the engine bay, gonna re-wrap all the wiring, give everything a solid clean and repaint the battery tray. Only downside is I managed to break the lower timing chain cover... just the bit in the corner. It was stuck on a rusted peg and wouldn't budge, gave it a bit of brute force and it snapped around the edge. It's a tiny bit just around the edge, but pretty annoying having to replace bits unnecessarily. Anyway, taking it up to Stealth on Monday. Quite excited!

Good thinking. I do have the Bentley manual so could probably find out from there, but I have tried to avoid delving into the wiring diagrams so far.

Hmmm, no. To be honest it might be alright, and I may have to live with it if there's not a viable new one. The insulating material has cracked off where the wire goes in, so the connector plate is free and the wire has pulled out a bit. Thinking about it I could potentially glue the plate back into place with epoxy resin, then cover the bare wire with electrical tape.

Right, eventually got an answer from VW about the part... and no surprises that it is obsolete, came as part of the whole ABS pump unit apparently. The question now though is, does anyone know anywhere a replacement might be found?! It seems a pretty obscure part so searching is tricky!

No, no BMWs! I think I should be able to borrow a car to run them up in so that should sort that. Seems preferable to go there in person whilst they inspect the bits... it's almost a pilgrimage!

Spoke to Vince and he didn't seem overly concerned with the damage to the head as long as there is a seal around it. He says they've come across it plenty of times, and was generally caused by a combination of the old G11 coolant/anti-freeze and the quality of alloy used in the head not getting along. Reckoned they'd be able to refurb that fine. Also said if the honing had worn the only real solution would be re-boring, which is as suspected, and that just re-honing in their experience wasn't worth the trouble. Also reckoned it was unlikely to cause issues further down the line, and they've never experienced issues with re-bored engines. So all in all, I think I'll go down that route. Keeps the original engine in the bay which is a major plus for me. Money I wasn't really expecting to spend, but there we go... but worth doing it right. Just have to sort a way to get it up to Stealth now!

Thanks for the advice all. The Cabmasters are old Ford stock apparently, spoke to the guy yesterday, intended for the Galaxy/Sharan - not sure what code they are. Price is also now £1k which is a bit less palatable than the £700-800 that I am sure it was when Jim got his. With the need to strip it down and give it a once over as well, I think I may rule out that option unless all else fails. Don't like the sound of putting a "Ford" engine in the Corrado either! Agree, some expert advice is needed, think I will give Vince a call. Sadly I am nowhere near Stealth (London) so difficult to take it along in person, but hopefully he'll be able to give a steer from the photos. This is the same for me as well, so would be my preferred option if it is practical!

Right, after further inspection I noticed the top of piston 6 was damaged: God f**king knows how that happened. I guess some debris got in whilst changing spark plugs or something. Anyway, that is less good, and there naturally is corresponding damage to the cylinder head. So that is at least 1 new piston... presumably I'd have to get all 6. I have therefore resolved that the block will have to come out whatever happens. The coolant jacket also needs a proper clean as it's pretty gunged up and I wouldn't want to do everything else and leave that as is. As I see it I have 3 basic options: 1) Get existing head and block refurbished Pros: - Possibly cheaper option depending on how much work is needed - was quoted £250-£350 for the head rebuild - I will know what has been done and can select who will do the work - Original engine stays with car (not really a major issue) Cons: - Fairly sure block will need reboring, weaking/making the block more prone to overheating or future damage. I've not measured the bores, but not sure it is even worth buying the equipment to do that - Will need full set enlarged pistons for the new bores. - Head already been repaired/skimmed after previous head gasket blow. A second repair seems like it's never going to be as good as the first, which wasn't as good as brand new etc - Seems less likely to last 2) Buy already refurbished parts, like this head https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RECONDITIONED-CYLINDER-HEAD-VW-FORD-MERCEDES-2-8-12V-VR6-1992-1998-021103373C/163400027184?hash=item260b668c30:g:R4oAAOSwH3haLT-G Pros: - Head cost about the same as refurbing existing - Already fully rebuilt with new parts and no prior damage/failures, so hopefully tougher - If a block can be sourced can avoid overboring cylinders - Can keep existing cylinders (except damaged one - may make no difference if have to buy a full set of 6) Cons: - Don't necessarily know history of parts - Might be hard to source a new block in good condition. May end up needing same work done to it making it more expensive. 3) Buy one of the new old stock Cabmasters engines, that I think Jim Bowen had Pros - As new, everything should be solid for many miles (This is the big one really!!) - Price was around £700 so if still that then not likely to be any more expensive than other options - Can plug straight in, no rebuilding necessary Cons - Have already bought some parts for existing engine, but could sell on - AAA not ABV so originality not quite there (I slightly like the uniqueness of the 2.9 and feel the Corrado should have it, but it's not a big one really) - Dizzy, but presumably can swap my chain cover to keep the coil pack? Need to check the price of the Cabmasters engine, but otherwise leaning towards 2 or 3. More I think about it 1 doesn't seem worth it...

Yeah that's worrying. Gasket looked in OK condition and the damage to the head was next to cylinder 5 not 1. I always got this as well. A new PCV was the first thing I installed after I bought the car, as it was either missing or falling apart when I bought it, can't remember which. After that still got all the oil on the outside of the hose and dripping onto the exhaust heat shield. I always just assumed it was due to excessive blowby from worn piston rings or a bad seal on the hose - turns out that suspicion might have been right looking at the bores... Is that from the Corrado FB group? Thanks, yeah that could be a good shout. Seems like a decent price... I would have thought refurbishing my old one would be near that price anyway.

I don't really know what caused it originally, it happened not too long after I bought it. It has always been topped up with antifreeze since I've had it. The top of the block is absolutely fine and looks in pretty good nick to be honest, the only concern there is the bores. I think you might be right about dealing with the head... apart from being a weak point I'll always know it's there. and this sounds like it could get pricey so looking to source a replacement might be as cost effective. Couldn't agree more! Looks like the bank balance will be taking more of a hit than first thought... the best laid plans! First things first I think I'll get the bores measured, then look to start sourcing a new head, or take the old one to someone who does that sort of thing for a living and see what they say. Thanks for the second opinion both.

Good tip, thanks, and now having got the head off certainly will be having to do that either way! Not quite as good as I hoped, cylinders 2 and 4 are polished to a mirror finish, not even a trace of honing left. 3 and 5 still had some honing intact, but not a lot: Head off: Cylinder 4: Didn't have time to check if there was any lipping at the top of the cylinder. Other things, lots of deposits in the coolant which isn't tremendous so will need a good clean out , and not sure why cylinder 1 looks is that much different in terms of deposits than the others? Burning better? Then the other not so great looking news, found an area of pitting on the head gasket: Now, it is locally isolated and there is a full seal around it, there's no path to a cylinder which I would have expected had the head gasket gone and exhaust gasses were leaking. So what I think this might be is old damage from when the head gasket blew previously. The head gasket was skimmed at the time, so I am wondering if they just took enough material off get a full seal around the cylinder but not all the way down to completely remove the damage as that may have been too much. That's all I can really think. Unfortunately don't have any pictures to confirm if it is the same area of pitting. So it does beg the question of whether it's OK to leave it as is or do something about it? Would appreciate some thoughts on that. Also, deposits on the valves don't look great so maybe the plan of leaving the head as it is, isn't viable. So I guess now I have to think what to do about the bores and head... I guess first thing is to get some bore measurements and see how badly they've worn and go from there. Any advice from experienced hands out there would be appreciated!

Good plan, it is certainly peace of mind getting Stealth to do it. I had got to the stage where I was paranoid it was going to fail at any moment (and in fairness I wasn't too wrong) so didn't feel comfortable driving it anywhere and I am a fair way from Stealth! Plus I wanted to tidy the whole engine bay whilst I was there. I don't think I'll rebuild the head as that was only done... I was going to say recently but it's nearly 10 years ago, **** time goes. Anyway they re seated the valves, did a skim, replaced the seals and it hasn't done mega mileage since. About 30 000 miles in 10 years which doesn't seem too heavy. Anyway, Have got this far... Actually, a little bit further. Got the cams out and have commenced cleaning the wing. New 263 cams are on the way and have the replacement chain tensioner kit from Stealth. Next is to get the head off to have a look about and give it a clean. I think the cylinders should be OK as they were compression tested a couple of years ago and the readings were OK (170-180). I plan to take the sump off to give it a clean out and a general inspection as well, and replace the gasket, as there always seems to be an oil leak from somewhere, but it's so dirty I can never trace it. Just wondering whether I may as well pop the pistons out and change the rings whilst I am there. As you can see from the pictures a fair bit of oil in the inlet manifold so might be worth it...

Ta, that might be enough to go to VW with! Yeah, I've pulled the bracket off before to inspect it (I believe I found it hanging off sometime ago, which is probably why the connection is knackered). At the moment there is just a small thread of wire connecting it at the top...

Just a quick one: Anyone know what this part is called or number? It is hanging on by a thread so in need of replacing but no idea what to take to the dealership or search for! The electrical bit stamped with the VW/Audi logo at the front. Ta!

Thought I could hear the timing chains sounding a bit rough, and yep sure enough it seems I've caught the timing tensioner just in time: A bit longer and that could have been game over... So time for the new tensioner, and I guess I should do the chains as well, which is a big old job. Whilst I'm there I think I'll look to do a couple of other bits as well as refresh the engine bay and smarten it up. Initially I'm thinking: New (or cleaned) injectors Autotech 262 cams (remap after perhaps) Replace crack pipe and thermostat (had these bits from a few years back anyway) And then fit the 288 brakes I've got hanging around, plus get the Bilstein B12s I've been hankering after for ages as will need to get the drive train off. Lots to do! If that all goes smoothly I think I'll look at the OBD2 conversion, if I can source the parts. I'm just considering whether it is worthwhile taking the 'head off while I am here just to have a general look at things. If the cylinders are a bit knackered then it doesn't seem a lot of point doing the rest....

Hi Mate, yeah these were sod a while back unfortunately.

From memory (As I had this issue a while back, the sill had been damaged next to the wheel arch and repaired badly. It was just shot) the rear most part of the sill is integral with the whole rear quarter panel so it becomes pricey and a bit wasteful to buy new. I don't know if anyone made just the sill, but you could try scrapyards see if they have any Corrados available from which you could remove the sill. In the end I had a body shop cut it out and replace, they did an OK job but it isn't perfect. Have to be looking directly at it to notice the profile isn't quite right.

Came up with a bit of a solution to the old propping the engine when removing the front bumper conundrum - I've always felt that the middle bolt must be designed to carry the full weight of the engine, it just doesn't make sense otherwise (Obviously just when static) but never fully felt comfortable with it not propped. Anyway, realised today you can easily disconnect the bumper brackets from the bumper, stick them back in the chassis legs and bolt the cross-member back on with the main big 17mm bolts. Et voila no need to mess around with propping, which is useful if you're jacking the car up and down a lot, or want to move it again with the bumper off (obviously don't drive it!). Not sure why I didn't notice this until now... I'm sure people have figured this out before, but I thought I'd share as a tip!

Good stuff. I'll find out how much postage will be tomorrow and PM you the details.

Yep still available, Culshaw I think has dropped his interest. Yours if you want them.

They are a straight fit to the spindles, but may take a fair bit of fine tuning to set them up so they don't hit the A pillar or the plastic trim at the bottom, although that depends largely how much play is in your linkage I think... mine was all over the shop so there is a quite narrow sweet spot. The stock wiper blades don't fit as I'm sure you know; I use Bosch A928S as a replacement I think (do double check this!) with the shorter wiper on the drivers side. You likely will need to sand down a corner of the plastic trim just by the passenger spindle as well. The wiper tends to hit this as it gets to the top of its arc (hence the worn down bare metal spot in the picture above). There is a thread on here detailing the conversion: http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?26056-TT-Wipers-(arms-amp-blades)

I tried switching the cables around again and all started OK, so maybe was the ignition switch and just a coincidence. Although I did notice one of the insulating sleeves on the plug had slid off, so I wonder if it could have shorted on the metal cage? On my old unit the wiring had also been cut and spliced to bits, but I couldn't see to what end. It all just seemed to go to the same places, but a fuse had been inserted. Was a massive mess though.

Pair of used Audi TT wiper arms for sale, after I mistakenly bought new ones. Condition is OK, just a few chips here and there but work fine. Only major bad bit is a bit of a gouge mark on one where it rubbed on the plastic trim after the previous owner didn't sand that down. £30 for the pair + postage Good for a cheap conversion or spares as the cheapest I could find these new was £90 for the pair. Fine as they are but could easily be smartened up with a quick rub down and black spray paint.

Could be, I haven't had a chance to look at it again just yet. Could be coincidence and have nothing to do with the stereo wires, would seem a bit odd!

I've also just bought a head unit and in the manual it says you need to swap red/red and yellow/yellow to red/yellow and yellow/red for VW cars, as others have said above. Mine handily came with connectors fitted to these wires so it's easy. One of them is the battery feed so should keep the settings running in the background. Have had a bit of a weird issue with this though. Car was fine after first doing it, but when trying to start it again after a short drive the electrics went dead as though it had all shorted. Swapped the cables back and started fine again. Need to do a bit of investigation and try it with the cables swapped again, but very odd it started first time after swapped the cables... doesn't make much sense. Be interested to see if you encounter a similar issue.