Purple Tom's Corrado TDi - gone

[Purple Tom 0]

Passat gone, Corrado home ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Getting a bit excited now!!

[Andy-H 0]

Is that the Pettsy wagon I see there? Did the passat have a sunroof in it Tom? not sure if I asked you that when I was there.

[Laser Mark 0]

Nice progress Tom.

 

I'm just wondering how far you'll have got by 12 tomorrow, as your not hanging about!

[Leonard 0]

Blimey didnt know you had got this stuck in already! Nice one Tom, look fwd to seeing the finished article.

[Diesel Junior 0]

Burning the midnight oil Tom, this is a great thread keep it going mate, more photos if possible!

[Purple Tom 0]

Day 1 of the project proper today. It doesn't look like I've got a lot done but I actually have. Got the Corrado up onto axle stands, wheels off etc, then got the front end off, exposing the radiator, engine etc:

 

 

Everything came off easily which was nice, I was expecting the nightmare that I had with the VR6 breaker but there was none of that. It's all in fairly good condition under there, and its the same as the rest of the car - totally untampered with so everything is nice and original.

 

I measured up the space between the radiator and slam panel before them completely and have determined that I have room for a front mount intercooler of approximately 800mm x 200mm x 80mm before I have to start doing too much in the way of modifications - that should give me plenty of scope for something aftermarket to slot in in front of the rad.

 

I then turned my attention to the airbox situation, which has been bugging me for a while because I've been unsure of how to mount the TDi MAF. Other people have used the Mk2 GTD airbox (which is rare and expensive second hand and unavailable new) or gone for a cone filter arrangement. I didn't fancy searching for a GTD airbox and I don't like cone filters so I thought I'd see what I could do with what I've got. Handily the TDi MAF bolts straight onto the 8V airbox, which was nice :) All I need to do is fit a small union for one of the vacuum hoses to attach to and that's that job sorted. I trial fitted it into the inner wing along with the diesel fuel filter and it all looks good:

 

 

I then tried to suss out the alternator arrangement. The TDi donor car came with A/C which meant that the main serpentine belt drove the A/C pump and alternator only (via a plastic tensioner pulley). The smaller V-belt drove the PAS pump and water pump.

 

However on the 8V there is no A/C and the water pump is driven by the serpentine belt, not the V-belt (see the airbox pic above). I'm not fitting the Passat A/C to the Corrado so I needed to figure out what to do with the pulleys in terms of making sure they're all driven. I'm fortunate to have the Ibiza as a reference which doesn't have A/C and I discovered that on the non-A/C TDi's the water pump is also driven by the serpentine belt, as on the 8V Corrado.

 

A bit of investigation later and I discovered that the alternator mounting bracket from the 8V will bolt straight onto the TDi engine (the block and water pump are essentially the same) and allow me to use the 8V alternator. All I need to do is swap the 8V water pump pulley onto the TDi pump and then I basically have the same drive belt system as the 8V originally had without having to buy any new parts - although I am fitting a new water pump as a matter of course. Pretty chuffed with that really to be honest, that pulley situation had been bothering me for a while.

 

The engine should be out first thing tomorrow morning and then I can begin the task of removing the looms, cleaning the bay etc. I'm aiming to have it in and running for Sunday this week.

 

Cheers

Tom

Edited April 4, 2011 by Purple Tom

[porki 0]

Good work buddy, I thought long and hard about a TDi conversion before plumping on a 20vt (making decisions for the benefit of my wallet has never been a strong point!). Keep up the good work

[Laser Mark 0]

Looks and sounds as if you've got everything sorted now mate.

 

Top work so far, can't wait to see how you get on later in the week.

 

Will hopefully be dropping your bits of Thursday night if that ok with you. If you need them sooner let me know.

 

Mark

[dalhalvaig 0]

Will you need to use a different battery compared to the 8V. I would think that the TDi will need something bigger for cranking.

[Purple Tom 0]

Well the 8V already had a massive battery fitted, and the donor B4 had a brand new Varta which I'll be using. It's physically no larger than the 8V battery but provides a few more cold cranking amps. It started the B4 with no trouble even when it was -15C in the winter so I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

Mark - thursday is good for me mate, thank you :)

[Supercharged 2]

I'm using a Bosch 096 in mine - was nice and cheap with the Halfords Trade Card and seems better than the same size Halfords one I had before - doesn't struggle at all in winter now!

 

Remember you'll need to mod the fuel filler to take the Derv nozzle - mine is running the standard G60 Fuel pump and filter by the way as the PD only needs 1.5 Barr to the pump on the engine - I also have a TDI filter in the engine bay.

[Purple Tom 0]

Already well on the case with the fuel filler modification, think I mentioned it in the first post when I outlined the plans.

 

The 1Z doesn't have an in-tank fuel pump at all, the engine driven injector pump acts as the lift pump on its own but I'm going to retain the 8V in-tank pump anyway. I've devised a modification to the fuel lines to allow any excess fuel to return to the tank before it reaches the injector pump (basically a stepped 'H' fitting in the feed and return lines). I'll describe it better once I've built it :)

 

Supercharged - I'd be really interested in seeing some pictures of your TDi if at all possible?

 

Cheers

Tom

[Purple Tom 0]

Day 2 over and done with, got the engine, front suspension (including subframe etc) and most of the interior out of the Corrado, just the carpet to go really.

 

 

 

 

Mark (Laser Mark) came round this evening and picked up a few more bits to be blasted and powdercoated, he also stayed while I removed the interior and helped out quite a lot, cheers dude :)

 

As well as removing parts today I also modified the filler neck on the spare fuel tank that I have (the one from the VR). I basically totally removed the restrictor from the neck by means of a hammer, chisel, screwdriver and long nosed pliers. Sounds brutal and I half expected to cause some damage (hence using the spare tank as a trial run), but it turns out the restrictor is only very lightly glued into place and I soon had it totally off, leaving a smooth filler neck with plenty of room for a diesel fuel nozzle, well pleased with that!

 

I also degreased the engine bay just before finishing for the night so it'll be ready for a good clean in the morning. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the majority of the wiring looms swapped over, as well as installing the Passat pedal box, servo, ABS unit and clutch master cylinder. It'll be nice to be finally bolting bits on rather than taking them off :lol:

 

Thanks

Tom

[Laser Mark 0]

Your welcome chap. I didn't really do much, apart from handing you tools or holding the light :confused: But I gotta learn somehow!

 

Thinking I should have invested in a van with the amount of bits I've been lugging around lately!....lol

 

It's coming along nicely, only 4 more days before its running!

[Abdul 0]

Nice progress mate, had the same lump in my mk3 tdi i think and I'll tell ya now, it won't take long before you get desperate for a bit more power lol.

 

Mine had a K&N cone on it and tbh sounded quite cool with some nice turbo wooshes drowning out the diesel clatter, try one if you can.

[Diesel Junior 0]

Great stuff Tom, you are moving at a rate of knots. The Corrado database is a a big website over here in euro-land but nothing beats this one in my humble opinion. Anyway, reading all this has inspired me to attack the seats with the Gliptone i got at Essen last week, this is the start.....and the completed front seat. Keep up the great work over there :cheers:

[Purple Tom 0]

Day 3 - fairly productive and I got quite a lot done, again visually it doesn't look like much but I'm a good step closer to getting the engine in now.

 

Firstly I spent about 3 hours sorting out and rewrapping the majority of the interior wiring loom. I removed, rerouted and reinstalled an alarm that I had fitted in 2009 because I wasn't happy with the way it was fitted (nothing to do with the quality, just the routing more than anything else). Another thing is that I've removed all of the horrible sponge wrapping the VW fit as standard. While I'm sure it helps with a bit of sound deadening it does make it really awkward to route the wires and is generally messy as it starts to deteriorate with age, so I thought I'd remove it altogether. As well as checking the loom out I've rewrapped it with rayon cloth loom tape which allows the wiring to maintain its flexibility but also improves the look of it over standard insulation tape (in my opinion).

 

I removed the heater box and repaired the heater controls, which never adjusted before. I found the problem to be the lower gearing for the face/feet flap, it had skipped a few teeth so I removed it, repositioned it, regreased the mechanism and cleaned/greased the bowden cables. The control panel itself was fine so I should have functioning heater controls again :)

 

I've also totally removed the ABS system now, including the ECU and loom. I'm happy because compared to the new loom the old one is very complicated with it series of relays and fuses. As the new system is much more modern it doesn't rely on relays as much as as such the loom is much smaller which'll help to reduce the rats nest effect up near the heater blower motor on the left hand side of the car.

 

Here's some pictures of the progress, including a couple of the modification to the filler neck, which as described in my previous post, was very easy :) It doesn't sound like I've done a lot today, but it took a good long while to sort everything out and I'm glad because things are clearer in my head now!

 

 

 

Standard filler neck (with restrictor):

 

 

Modified filler neck (restrictor removed):

 

 

Restrictor:

 

 

Tomorrow should see some looms going in (engine loom and ABS loom) and the pedal box, steering column back on etc :)

 

---------- Post added at 10:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 PM ----------

 

Abdul - I agree, I'm sure more power will be something I crave quite quickly but as I've mentioned before, I just want to get it running and reliable and then go on the hunt for more. I'll just enjoy driving the car without constantly looking at the MFA and worrying about the fuel consumption!

 

Diesel Junior - those seats look great, good job :) I wish I was at the stage of feeding my leather, a few more weeks before I get to that point I reckon!

[dragon green 5]

Good progress, I look forward to reading your updates,keep up with the good work !

[Laser Mark 0]

As mentioned, continued good progress mate. I think your idea of having it running by Sunday will be reality at this rate, could even be Saturday? Lol

 

Lots of nice shiny painted bits going on soon?!?!

[Purple Tom 0]

I doubt it'll be on Saturday...Sunday afternoon perhaps but I'm not going to rush it, if it happens it does but if not I still have a bit of time to get it ready :)

 

Looking forward to getting lots of these shiny bits fitted...it really is going to look good with them! :D

[Purple Tom 0]

Just placed a massive order with TPS for all of the nuts, bolts and fixings etc that I'm going to need...I daren't ask what the total price was :S

 

Also ordered 4 new ABS sensors and some Dinitrol rust treatment for under the battery tray.

 

Off to the garage for another day on it now so I'll update later with progress :)

[Andy-H 0]

This is coming on well Tom. Good to see you again last night at the meet. Hopefully this will be making an appearence at the next one so the Corrado numbers are increased 8)

[k6kny 1]

Really interesting thread and you're certainly not hanging around with it. Good luck with the rest of the conversion and I can't wait to see how it turns out 8)

[Purple Tom 0]

Day 4 - a bit of an up and down day really!

 

Firstly, I think the Ibiza is a bit jealous of all the attention that the Corrado's getting so it decided to both get a puncture and break its exhaust clean in half on the way to the garage this morning. Luckily the puncture was repairable and I repaired the exhaust by using a section from the B4 donor so it wasn't too expensive, but it took about 3 hours in total to sort out which knocked me back quite a bit for today. Still, the exhaust is better than it ever has been now and I knew it needed doing so I'm pleased in a way.

 

Finally managed to start work on the Corrado and got the pedal box, steering column, servo etc off. Everything seems ok and I was able to compare the Corrado and Passat pedal boxes side by side....completely identical in every way that matters, the Passat box obviously has the DBW throttle linkage and clutch/brake switches etc, but it mounts in exactly the same way (Corrado is on the left)

 

 

As well as that I extracted the 8V engine loom and compared it with the Passat loom. While the Passat is better than the Golf as a donor vehicle because it has seperate headlamp and engine looms, I found that on the Passat the wiper loom is integrated into the headlight loom, whereas on the Corrado it is part of the engine loom. Also, the outside temperature sensor on the Passat takes a very convoluted route to the front of the car rather than directly like on the Corrado so I spent an hour or so sorting those little things out. I also had to repair the reverse light switch wiring on the Passat loom as it had lost its plug at some point in its life. I then totally rewrapped the loom using rayon cloth tape and it looks pretty good now.

 

The rest of the evening I spent getting my head around the rest of the wiring. The 1Z engine from the Passat has a factory immobiliser which I need to include, but unfortunately so does my Corrado so its a case of removing the Corrado immob and installing the Passat system. However, trust it to be that the Corrado uses totally different wiring to the Passat, even the diagnostic plug is wired differently so its been a bit of a bugger getting that sorted. However its nearly there and I was able to actually fit something to the car - the cluster wiring! It might not be much but its on the car so there's a little milestone right there :)

 

I'll update this again tomorrow as hopefully I'll be doing something more exciting than wiring!

 

Cheers

Tom

Edited April 8, 2011 by Purple Tom

[daves16v 1]

Thought I'd better have my say as I've been up to Tom's quite abit recently.

 

I take my hat off to you mate, the work you're doing is just awesome and like me you're not cutting corners but getting everything spot-on in terms of build quality. This should minimise any problems occuring in the future.

 

Don't hesitate to ask me or Mark for anything else, we're really happy to help.

 

Oh and everytime I start reading your daily update I seem to start off in a Geordie accent, dunno why lol