Jim Bowen Corrado VR6 - New engine build

[Jim Bowen 1]

Gave it a polish and wax yesterday, pic is a bit crap though (was a bit lazy after spending nearly 7hrs cleaning) :lol:

 

 

Ordered some new detailing products to try, like Poorboys natural look for the interior and this IronX stuff i keep hearing about.

 

---------- Post added at 2:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:42 PM ----------

 

Popped out at lunch and took a better couple of pics

 

Edited October 5, 2014 by Jim Bowen

[martinb 0]

looks great Jim and impressive work taking on the engine swap yourself. I presume that was you I passed in Clavering earlier? I had the family with me and my daughter was struggling to understand why myself and my little boy got excited about seeing another Corrado on the road and why we waved!

 

Trying to get the photo locations again - under the bridge in Newport above, then upstairs in Waitrose carpark and the corner or the Carpark at the shop in Clavering on the previous page? :)

 

---------- Post added at 11:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 PM ----------

 

looks great Jim and impressive work taking on the engine swap yourself. I presume that was you I passed in Clavering earlier? I had the family with me and my daughter was struggling to understand why myself and my little boy got excited about seeing another Corrado on the road and why we waved!

 

Trying to get the photo locations again - under the bridge in Newport above, then upstairs in Waitrose carpark and the corner or the Carpark at the shop in Clavering on the previous page? :)

[Jim Bowen 1]

Hi Martin, thanks, I found swapping the engine quite easy really, will probably be doing it again (going to have a go at rebuilding my old one)

 

Yeah thought it was you i saw yesterday. I kept seeing you over the last 2yrs but corrado has been off the road for most of that so was in other cars.

 

All photo locations are as you say, i like to park in that corner at clavering, loads of old & bad drivers in that car park, would like to get some with Audley End house in them.

[Jim Bowen 1]

Bit of an Update:

Corrado is now off the road again. Am thinking there's no point rushing it to get it done this year, so looking at next year now.

 

Have been collecting lots of parts recently and am waiting to fit:

 

-New engine (not rebuilding one, will be mostly new parts, new block, new pistons, new ancillaries, new timing gear etc)

-New clutch

-recon gearbox

-Fixed steering column mod

-Dave16v short shifter

-Teves20 Abs system

-Set of Roose hoses with new clips

-Got to treat some rust again

-Slimline fans

-Oil Catch can

 

Seems to of quickly added up to £3-4k in parts, paying stealth to build the bottom end only, i'll try and do the rest of the work.

Have been stripping lots of metal parts and repainting them, dropping off all the alloy engine covers etc this weekend for aquablasting.

 

Am hoping this will be the last lot of work for a while (but never works that way with a corrado) I can only think of a handful of parts that i haven't renewed now, one being the fuel pump.

 

Bodywork is going to be the only part to let it down, but not respraying it yet, its one of those things where i know it won't be 100% perfect unless its stripped right down to almost a bare shell. Plus i think if i went to that extreme i would get too protective of it. Quite happy for it to look ok from 6yds away.

[g0ldf1ng3r 15]

Thats a tidy 'to-do' list m8 & sounds like good progress so far

 

from my personal experience, & taking on board wise thoughts etc from well rado-educated users on here (kev bacon for instance), i would advise not to buy the jubilee clips from roose for their hoses & use the original OEM spring tension clips.

 

it has been mentioned on here in the past couple of weeks that they are a much better clip & in retrospect i wish i had retained mine rather than let stealth throw them out :(

 

my only caveat would be to check with roose that it will not invalidate their warranty

 

it might also be wise to plan for a new sump oil pump if you have not already done so, mine was struggling so much after the work at stealth that it ended up over pressurising the system & causing issues

 

out of interest, what kind of cost is the teves20 ABS & have you any links to info on it?

[Jim Bowen 1]

Yeah, have ordered new proper clips and ditching the jubliee's, thinking of buying a whole new set of Roose hoses, not had much luck with the samco ones.

 

I bought the Teves20 off someone on here, so its all ready to fit. Think price varyings depending if you find all the bits yourself or buy a whole setup. Tbh i don't actually know too much about it, just thought i'd sort out my ABS this time round as its never worked.

 

Picked up my bottom end from Stealth Racing yesterday, (really good bunch of guys up there, not only Vince)

 

This was a new block and pistons instead of a rebuild. Stealth had it to fit crank and conrods, new bearings/washers etc. They also supplied a new oil pump and gasket set. Its a 2.8 instead of the 2.9, not sure exactly how many cc's difference it actually is. (using corrado inlet etc and some 263 cams, magnex exhaust and bmc cda air filter so should be enough, not looking for massive power, mainly wanting it to last 15yrs or so)

 

Now have all the bits i need (apart from a few little bits) Just got to bolt things together and chuck it in the car. Had all the covers etc aquablasted, not going to paint them. Will update as i go along. My project thread has been a bit random and think most of the photo links have been moved etc.

[robrado974 1]

You must be looking forward to fitting that new engine , it looks amazing .I would love to be able to do this . I cant see your last pics though .

[Jim Bowen 1]

When i bought the car 8yrs ago i had never even changed a brake pad on a car before that. Just bought tools as i need them and then have bought the parts slowly keeping an eye out for bargains. I like to think if a man built it, then i can too, its usually just sticking a bolt in a hole and turning it.

 

Hoping it all goes to plan, not really looking forward to having to run it in, seems a bit tedious.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Sweet mother of shiney engineness!! Pics like that give me a semi.

 

Stealth are the boys for VR6 engines :)

[Jim Bowen 1]

I know, i've had a boner all weekend, its a shame i won't really see any of it once fitted.

[Jim Bowen 1]

Got some more done over the weekend, not been working very fast so taking it slow and triple checking stuff.

 

Got some INA lifters for the head

 

Soaked them in oil before fitting

 

Fitted them to the head

 

Fitted the schimmel 263's

 

Had loads of trouble getting the sprockets off so had to fit new bolts and a new cam pickup bit.

 

Fitted the ARP studs to the block

 

Fitted Victor Reniz head gasket, i actually used some sealant as well, (advice from Vince at Stealth)

 

Then put head on and got it all torqued up. (thinking of getting a better torque wrench, had a bit of trouble with the halfords pro ones)

 

Doing the timing chains etc next.

[diarmaid16 1]

Nice work. Out of interest what's the advantage of using that type of head gasket?

[Jim Bowen 1]

None that i know of, meant to be as a standard replacement, hope i've not fitted a naff one :(

[kerrly 0]

that's a lovely looking engine!

 

is the head gasket a fibre one or metal? i put the mk4 metal one in mine as it supposedly raises compression a little bit

[MarkFoster 0]

.....(thinking of getting a better torque wrench, had a bit of trouble with the halfords pro ones)

 

What trouble did you have Jim? I've always found mine super reliable....

[Jim Bowen 1]

Felt heavy, similar to the original VW gasket, but had a sort of rubbery feel to it. Should be fine, its one of the reasons i went for the ARP studs (just in case head comes off again)

[Jim Bowen 1]

What trouble did you have Jim? I've always found mine super reliable....

 

It wasn't clicking off, had to keep checking it on the wheel nuts, had the same problem last week working on the audi and sheared a bolt. I think it was something to do with the handle and the way it twists and locks.

 

My mate is going to bring his snap-on one down so i can test mine against it.

[Jim Bowen 1]

Got the new timing stuff on last night

 

 

I took some pics of the various timing marks with the intentions of making some sort of guide, but then figured the info is all out there as i managed to do it.

 

One thing Vince told me was on the intermediate sprocket, the alignment mark has to point up with piston 1 at TDC, Not "either top or bottom mark" as some guides say.

[fla 9]

Excellent work there Jim.

[Jim Bowen 1]

Cheers. Am enjoying doing it. Going to try and fit oil pump tonight, i should of done it earlier as its quite hard to turn the engine upside now.

[Roger Chatfield 0]

One thing Vince told me was on the intermediate sprocket, the alignment mark has to point up with piston 1 at TDC, Not "either top or bottom mark" as some guides say.

 

Did he give a reason why??

 

I can't why it would make any difference what position the intermediate sprocket was in as long as the cams are aligned, AFAIK the only thing the intermediate does is drive the oil pump and provide some gear gown so the cams rotate 1/2 the speed of the crank.

 

BTW, good work, engine looks awesome.

 

Rog.

[Jim Bowen 1]

I can't remember the exact reasons, but he had seen cars lose up to 40bhp with it fitted the wrong way. Something to do with the way the ecu adjusts things and something about every fourth revolution and a number of teeth on a gear. He was very certain about it. So i did what he said.

 

Sorry for the non-technical description :lol:

[Jim Bowen 1]

Reply #4 (just over halfway down the thread) on this thread discusses this:

 

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?1264409-DIY-Replacing-timing-chains-tensioners-and-guides-on-a-12v-VR6%5C

 

"The reason that the above procedure is necessary is due to the fact that the 4 timing sprockets (crank, inner intermediate, outer intermediate and camshaft (2)) do not have the same number of teeth. As a result, a full rotation of the crank sprocket does not produce one full rotation in the other sprockets. The impact of this is that setting the crankshaft to Cyl. #1 TDC does not always simultaneously set the intermediate sprocket to the correct position for the reinstallation of the upper timing chain. If you want to read a more detailed explanation of why this is a problem, check out the following thread - http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1406495. Here are some posts of mine from that thread for the curious, but lazy ..."

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Because it throws out the cam position, which the ECU relies on for sequential fuelling, as well as valve correct sealing. Get it mistimed badly enough and you'll be a tooth or more out on the cams.

 

You don't have a direct link from the crank to the cam like you do with a cam belt engine. You have 4 different size sprockets, so gearing comes into play. The timing relationship between the outer intermediate sprocket > cam is diferent to that of the crank > inner intermediate sprocket. Think about it.

 

EDIT: Beaten to it by the Bowen.

[Roger Chatfield 0]

That makes sense Jim, it's all about the 13.5 teeth so if in the wrong position the cams could be 0.5 of a tooth out.

 

Know what you are saying Kev, I just assumed that the gear reduction on each shaft would have equal and even so it wouldn't matter if it was 180 out, like 1/4 reduction crank to inter then another 1/4 inter to cam, obliviously VW had a different idea...lol

 

I didn't check this when I did mine recently, it doesn't feel down on power so hopefully I got it right...lol

 

Rog.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Roger Chatfield