Stonejag

Check your driveshaft bolts. That's the best scenario though...

Any paint designed for plastics will be fine. I used a base coat of black Hycote Plastic & Vinyl Paint with a colour coat over the top (also by Hycote) and got good results. Be sure to prep them carefully - more time rubbing them down than you might like! - and spray in multiple extremely-thin coats to avoid streaks. If you get impatient and respray too soon then you'll get the orange-peel effect :) Stone

Left: 2.8 VR6 (AAA). Right: 2.9 VR6 (ABV). All UK VR6 Corrados had the ABV. The AAA came with early or late engine management (called OBD1 or OBD2, even though that's a bit inaccurate...). It's possible to fit the later engine management off an AAA to an ABV block to get some more horses out, but it's quite an involved job to swap over the engine harness/immobiliser/ECU. The inlet manifold off the OBD2 cars looks more like the ABV one. There's no obvious difference between them from the top. Stone

Roger B tipped me off and I made a very similar one out of copper heating pipe a while back - worked better than the metal one I copied as I rounded the edges a little more :) Only drawback is the copper's a bit soft and it bends outwards after popping a couple of leads off, you have to bend the ears back in a little each time. Yours looks pretty solid! PS: get that heater plug popped back onto the blue spacer on your PCV valve, before it gets caught in something! ;)

Worth swapping the immobiliser coil to check - doesn't take much effort, especially if you just leave it dangling free to test! I got one from a Mk4 Polo in a scrappy for a fiver...just cut off the tab on the connector that stops it fitting in the immobiliser box, they're otherwise identical.

If I had the money spare I'd love to send him a brand new set of six to see what the report said!

Cheers, hope the wife lets you have your own soon ;)

Go on then, I'll have it. Will you be in on Sunday?

Awesome, thanks. PM sent.

Yeah, I wouldn't send him half a surround, that's just mean! ;) The metal plate is supposed to be stuck to the lower half (there's only one way it fits) to reinforce it against having screwdrivers stuck through it. The self-adhesive tape dates to 1995 when my car was built, so predictably enough it's long since disintegrated. Just stick it back on with some trim tape :) Stone

I've got one too, give me a shout if Kiran can't sort you out.

Anybody got a pair of dual-row upper camshaft sprockets for sale? I could use a second set to put on my 263s :) Still attached to camshafts is fine. Thanks, Stone

Interested, any chance of a pic? Stock lights that have been smoked or aftermarket?

As an aside, make sure your cone filter is firmly mounted to something (I suggest the suspension turret, or some people use one of the three bolts holding on the aux belt tensioner). If the MAF and cone filter are left to flap around on the end of the inlet tube it cracks the inlet pipe and / or gives the MAF wiring metal fatigue, which makes it fall apart at the connector! Ask me how I know :D Stone

Have you also removed the shear bolt that holds the steering lock assembly to the outer steering column tube? It holds the two halves of the lock housing together, passing through a tab on the outer column tube which will prevent it sliding off. You'll need to grind the head off. Don't remember if the lock housing can be removed without releasing the steering lock, but from memory it should be possible. Just sold my spare column so I can't investigate! Stone

At £2.10 each for Febi guides they're a smidge over £25 from AVS (VW Spares) - link. Very rare that they're not the cheapest and they're all as good as OEM. Good service and fast delivery too! I thought you only had to machine the lip off for 'high lift' cams? I'm rebuilding a head for 263s and now I'm worried I'm going to smash all my valves... Stone

Definitely sounds like it. You can try spraying a fine water mist over the coilpack in the dark - sparking indicates definite failure, but no sparking doesn't mean it's ok... GSF sold me one for £90ish last time I was struggling with one. Ended up fitting my spare instead (after covering it in epoxy) and they gave me a full refund when I took it back, so maybe go buy one and take it back if it doesn't fix it? I'm quite confident it will though ;) Stone

There's a switch on eBay - link. The adjusters are like rocking horse droppings though! I've got a spare set of Euro headlight connectors if you don't mind cutting your harness up. The under-dash trays are the same early to late. Stone

Is it trying to be an R8 with those black stripes? 'Mighty' 1.9TDI :lol: Wouldn't actually be too bad if they put an R32 in it! Stone

You lot are mad, I got a tape holder with the car and struggled to get rid :lol:

Suspect the inlet manifold underside thing you're talking about is for a 2.8 AAA inlet manifold. Left is a 2.8 manifold, right is a 2.9 one. All Corrados should have a 2.9 ABV unless they've been fiddled with :) More to the point, I need to get my head skimmed now I've had the pitting on the block side and thermostat flange welded up. Is it worth fitting bigger valves at the same time, for a n/a engine? +2mm inlet and +1.8mm exhaust valves aren't too expensive and there wouldn't be drastically more machine work to get it done at the same time. Planning to do some mild port-matching on it afterwards. Already got a CDA and decat fitted but I was going to add a six-branch exhaust manifold at the same time as fitting the head and 263s. Cheers, Stone

Here's a pic of a Raceland one - looks like they did match port lengths as the pipes differ alternately (far left, cylinder 1, has a short exhaust tract in the head, and that matches with the longer pipe on the manifold) Good practice for a bit of stainless fabrication, mind! :) Stone

Had a couple in the last two days! Parked up outside my welder dropping off a head to sort some pitting out, as I got the head out of the boot a middleaged woman walking down the road stopped dead, said "Ooh, nice car" and carried on :D Then a colleague saw me turning up at work and stopped for a quick chat about how he loved the look and he always wanted one. Not such a big deal but it made me happy, I should wash it more often! :lol:

Have a read of this - but bear in mind it's written for AAA motors mot ABV so some of it is irrelevant! http://forums.motivemag.com/showthread.php?4761622

Interesting you want to keep the 12v engine as I'm doing something similar! My motivation is more to work with what's already there though, engine swaps are outside the realm of OEM+ in my mind. Start with the exhaust - if you're good at fabricating then you could knock up a six-branch replacement for the stock cast manifolds and downpipe quite easily. It's worth attempting to match the lengths as the front cylinders have a longer exhaust tract - not sure if the usual suspects (Dubpower / Raceland) have done this, or even if it's possible in the available space. The rest of the exhaust system can be widened to 2.5" / 3" and you can lose the cat or replace it with a high-flow one. I say go for the BMC CDA because it's cool and I've got one ;) I was replacing a dodgy cone filter so only used the stock airbox for a short time but it felt a lot more 'muted' compared to the CDA. Hopefully you'll like the boy-racer noise! Probably worth leaving the rest of the inlet alone. VSR/Schrick manifolds have two different-length inlet paths which the changeover controlled by a vacuum-operated 'flap' - so not that complicated, but not something you'd really want to develop from scratch. Replacing the inlet air temperature sensor with the one from a 1.8t is supposed to give a couple of free horses. link Cams are a safe bet - 263s get the best reviews around here, but I think Autotech did some 262s which will be very similar. When you take the head off you may find enough corrosion on the base that it will need welding up - then once it's welded and needs skimming you could consider larger valves. 2mm oversize (42mm inlet, 36mm exhaust) are as big as you can go as the seats touch in the middle! Don't think many here have done that though - you could try a search for "big valve head". If you're feeling flush you could bore out to a larger displacement (stock is 82.5mm pistons, a few places make larger ones), or go for a longer stroke crank. Both of these are scary money! Turbo and supercharging make big numbers but also at a high price. With a big exhaust and some cams you'll probably be 70% of the way to perfection while only spending 20% of the money. Don't go too wild :) Stone