Pete Griff's 'Rado R32 - (Not quite!) Alive at last! :D

[Toad 0]

One thing it might be worth suggesting is that the exhaust wrap if uncoated can absorb oil etc and work as a wick in the event of a fire.

 

Probably not a big risk though.

 

Looks good progress, and very neat work. :)

[MK1Campaign 0]

Pete, Vince at stealth told me they fit a VR thermo housing to the engine then that sorts out most of the hose issues.

[pete_griff 0]

Pete, Vince at stealth told me they fit a VR thermo housing to the engine then that sorts out most of the hose issues.

 

cheers for that my friend - have already got the VR housing on the new engine - just a couple of hoses that i'm still not 100% certain what to do with!

[KipVR 1]

Hi Pete, I've asked Jon a few times to mail the photoshopped vagcat layout to me, still no reply as yet I'm afraid! Sorry bud

[Toad 0]

Hi Pete, I've asked Jon a few times to mail the photoshopped vagcat layout to me, still no reply as yet I'm afraid! Sorry bud

 

What layout? Can I cobble somthing up from ETKA?

[KipVR 1]

The guy helping me with my conversion cobbled up a layout mixing the two vagcat hose diagrams together to give a R32 meets 12V hose diagram, quite clever thinking really. It makes sure all the hose valves are in the correct place etc. apparently, I didn't know there were any!

[pete_griff 0]

The guy helping me with my conversion cobbled up a layout mixing the two vagcat hose diagrams together to give a R32 meets 12V hose diagram, quite clever thinking really. It makes sure all the hose valves are in the correct place etc. apparently, I didn't know there were any!

 

hey buddy, hows things?

 

sorry i should have thanked you for your efforts with the diagram - very rude of me! thank you!

 

i have to confess i wasn't aware of any of those hose valves either..... i also have a full set of samcos, so i'm not sure if that makes it irrelevant...? i was cleaning them the other day and one that ran from the aux pump (i think - can't remember 100%) had a bit of metal on one of the unions in it, where all the others didn't - which needless to say, i thought was a bit strange... (almost like someone had mistakenly cut the hose there at some stage and then done a very tidy job of re-joining it)

 

anyhow - very much looking forward to seeing the aforementioned diagram!

 

i'm going back home weds/thurs, so i hope to get a fair bit of work done cobbling the car back together then...

 

cheers again :)

[KipVR 1]

hey no worries Pete, you're one of the most polite people I've ever met I think!

[pete_griff 0]

hey no worries Pete, you're one of the most polite people I've ever met I think!

 

haha, thank you - i get that a lot - if only people really knew the truth :lol:

 

i think manners go a long way today when most people are as rude as buggery; it's not exactly a big effort to be nice!

[pete_griff 0]

hey all, just another quick update....

 

after getting my exhaust manifold all welded up i test fitted it for the first time with the engine in the car the other day. i was originally a bit worried about the small amount of clearance between the rack and the manifold, but we tried hard to allow for this when it was welded and it's paid off a treat as there is a fair bit of room which i'm happy about. the only snag though is that despite my friend welding it very carefully and spreading the job to avoid any movement of the various bits; the flange on the end of the manifold to go onto the cats moved slightly. this meant that one of the lambdas fouled the centre tunnel; :( there wasn't much clearance anyway during mocking up, i did try and give the centre tunnel a little loving with the hammer, but it wasn't going to move enough and was pretty rough so thankfully i quickly stopped that plan. (will have to remember to get some waxoyl over the hammered area!) i decided to get the lambda bosses moved on the cats; the fabrication place i used did a cracking job very quickly for me and now the exhaust sits perfectly in the tunnel with no clearance issues anywhere by the looks of things and looks a real factory fit, so i'm pretty chuffed :)

 

fitted my new parcel shelf supports, (old ones were past it) new speakers and modified the parcel shelf to accomodate the strut brace. all looks as it should, so again pretty happy with that.

 

my friend who works at the dealers very kindly borrowed some of the 2-pac bonder they use to bond car panels together to sort my cracked inlet manifold. i plastic welded it up myself first, then we went over the top of that with the bonder. it's not pretty, but it's made the manifold as strong as it originally was and i won't have to worry about leakage. also you wouldn't notice the bonder with the manifold on the car unless you went looking for it , so i'm not too upset that i didn't spray it up or anything.

 

got all the drive belt, PAS pump, alternator etc on now too and plumbed up the FPR, some coolant hoses and the PAS.

 

also test fitted the front strut brace i got and it's not even for a VR as it wouldn't clear the coolant header tank! got onto the people i bought it off and they will try and sort me with a new one soon. i originally bought it under the impression it would be one like mr haywire has, as i recon that would fit ok - hopefully i can manage to get hold of one.....

 

hopefully going to look at sorting some brackets and mounting the mocal tomorrow, then will get the rad back on and plumb that up along with the mocal.

 

it's getting pretty close to me finishing my work on it and being ready to go and have the wiring done, so i'm allowing myself to start getting a little excited now :D

 

pics as usual :)

[KIPVW 0]

Looking good Pete :clap: I always like looking at your posts as they are full of pics to help the numpty's like me understand :lol:

 

Nearly finished now though so hope it comes together as planned.

 

Kip :notworthy:

[KipVR 1]

Good work Pete, when is it booked in with VAG doctor? Looking really nice 8)

[Chris 0]

looking fantastic pete :) gona give this thread a good read later, only had chance to skim it recently buts looks like its coming along really well :salute:

[Leonard 0]

Looking good.

 

Reading your posts makes me feel I could actually do these things! LOL Doubtful in reality though.....

[pete_griff 0]

Good work Pete, when is it booked in with VAG doctor? Looking really nice 8)

 

cheers buddy, i haven't booked it in yet as i'm unsure exactly when it's going to be finished...

 

 

Looking good.

 

Reading your posts makes me feel I could actually do these things! LOL Doubtful in reality though.....

 

it's really honestly not that hard to do this kind of stuff, it's just about taking the plunge and having a practice at doing this sort of thing.

i've not been to some college class; nobody has ever taught me anything about cars/mechanics - you just learn from haynes manuals and ripping them apart! best way :D

[pete_griff 0]

got a bit more done yesterday - was really hoping to get the whole front back on yesterday, but no such luck.

 

i have had to get a couple of 90 degree bends made up to move the oil pressure warning switch - the standard one fits ok, but when you try and screw in the sender for my oil pressure gauge in it's place it fouls the crack pipe; so hopefully with a bit if giggery pokery, i'll be able to get that fitted today.

 

also, the route the oil takes in/out of the sandwich plate no longer matters now as i've mounted the oil cooler with the feeds at the top, so the pump will have no choice to push it round and there will definitely be no air in the system at any time. (it will hold the dirty oil when doing a change unfortunately, but there won't be all that much in there, especially not when you think that the r32 has a large sump capacity just like the VR). i'm pretty pleased with how the mounting of the cooler went as well, as it's in pretty much the most ideal place. it's only a small cooler as i shouldn't need anything massive on a N/A R32, but it will defo get plently of air where it is.

had to get my oil lines shortened though - they were supposed to have come off a supercharged VR, but they were horrendously long; so much so that i could have had an extended bracket welded onto the outside of the nearside wing to hold it if i had wanted! either they didn't come off a corrado, or god only knows how the previous owner routed them. anyway, the main thing is that the pipes are like new and i had them shortened with the minimum of fuss.

on that note - if any of you are near hereford/ross, i can't recommend a place called sutton hydraulics enough - absolutely top lads in there :D

 

below are a couple of pics of progress. hoping to completely finish the front end today and maybe change the drivers carpet if i get the time....

 

after this it's just waiting for my gear-shifter to arrive back, then i can install that, the exhaust and the seats and then we should be good to go :D

i won't get it finished before i go back to work now though like i wanted which is a pain as i will only be able to work on it weekends now; and that's weeklends when i do go home and don't stay down near work to see the girlfriend :|

anyway; hopefully i might be somewhere near having it finished my end the weekend after this one...

 

pics:

[KipVR 1]

Good update as usual, not far now buddy!!

[KADVR6 0]

the oil lines did 100% come off a charged vr6, as they are my old ones, they were a little long, but they were in my car for over a year doing there job perfectly.

[coullstar 0]

So are you rigging up an oil temp gauge as well?

[pete_griff 0]

Good update as usual, not far now buddy!!

 

cheers buddy - i really hope so; seriosly itching to drive it now! :)

 

 

the oil lines did 100% come off a charged vr6, as they are my old ones, they were a little long, but they were in my car for over a year doing there job perfectly.

 

fair enough buddy, didn't know that. i can't believe they are a year old - they are like new; great stuff :D

 

 

So are you rigging up an oil temp gauge as well?

 

i obviously want one. i'm going to speak to the vag-doctor when i go down there and ask him if i put a temp sensor somewhere in the oil circuit if he could wire it up to the MFA for me...

i don't see why he couldn't do this, but i want to wait until i know for certain before i go putting one in.

i'll probably end up buying a t-piece and piggy-backing off one of the oil cooler lines for the temp sensor if/when i install it...

if he can't sort it with the mfa, then i might think twice about doing it, as i don't really want any aftermarket gauges in my car - big fan of the oem look.

 

 

 

anyway, managed to get the oil cooler all mounted and plumbed up today, as well as getting the whole front of the car back on. successfully installed the modified take-off for my sender for my oil pressure gauge - hope it doesn't leak!

i'm more or less there now. i got the carpet changed as i wanted to as well - only thing i'm waiting on now is for my now modified gearshifter to arrive, then i can whack that and my new cables back on, then the exhaust, then the last of the interior trim and seats.

realistically as long as there are no major snags (fingers crossed here - it is a corrado after all!) it's only a mornings work, then everything my end is done. after that i'll trailer it to the dealers who are going to sort the geometry for me, then it's off down to see the vag-doctor.

 

i go back to work on monday which is going to make progress on the car much more difficult :(

i'm hoping that the gearshifter and a couple of other tiny bits and bobs that i need will be here by next weekend, as i can hopefully finish the car then, then see about sorting the tracking/wiring. it's all going to depend on time (which i never get much of on my weekends off) and availability of people to do the jobs for me...

 

naturally i'll keep you all updated! :)

 

here are a couple of piccies from today. it feels great to look at it and see that it resembles a roadworthy car again!

[pete_griff 0]

and some more...

[pete_griff 0]

got a bit of a good update for you gents, but you will have to wait until tomorrow now as i'm off out.

 

lets just say, it will be finished sooner than i had originally thought :D

[Super-G 0]

Pete, that is an amazing conversion you've done. Top work :clap:

 

Bet you can't wait for that first drive. Am sure it'll be fun :shock:

 

Andy

[pete_griff 0]

Pete, that is an amazing conversion you've done. Top work :clap:

 

Bet you can't wait for that first drive. Am sure it'll be fun :shock:

 

Andy

 

cheers for that buddy - most appreciated! :) and yeah - i'm properly itching to drive it for the first time :D :D :D

good to meet you a while back by the way, hows the nugget coming along now?

as you can see i'm making good use of those oil lines you sold me, so cheers for that :)

 

 

anyway......

 

this was the scene last night...

 

IMGP0537.JPG[/attachment:20lftc6p]

 

:D the car is now more or less done - i got the shifter assembly that i have been waiting for at about 13.00 yesterday, so i frantically rang around organising everything i would need for today and raced out to the car and got it all back together.

 

the car is currently at my vw dealer getting tracked (dropped it off early doors this morning) and i'm going to pick it up in an hours or so, then stick it back on the low loader and drive it down to the vag-doctor in bristol. :D

he won't be able to start on it for a week or so yet, but at least it will be there and ready to be finished off...

 

hope to have it all sorted and on the road before christmas now - fingers crossed :D

 

naturally i'll keep you all updated on progress; needless to say though, i'm quite happy and very excited right now :D

[boost monkey 0]

amazing updates Pete! you will be like a fat kid in a bakery before long :clap: