The Baconator's latest victim

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Kev, saw your reply on Pat Mc Crotch's thread about an upgrade you were thinking of for the 288mm brakes, an upgrade that will still fit under the Speedlines? Sounds interesting! Are you not going to run the APs again? Would they sit behing BBS RS 301s? :norty: Thanks

 

Yeah Phase 1 of the project is to retrofit the entire ABS system from a late MK3 VR6 / Highline. Thanks to Iceviolet on here, I have all the bits necessary :D

 

It's a much simpler system than the Corrado's, both hyrdaulically and electrically.

 

I've seen threads on here about ABS ECUs getting soaked, pedal position sensors being obsolete, siezed rear proportioning valves, mushy pedal etc etc and this upgrade appears to be a 'fix all' solution because it has no rear valve, no pedal position sensor and the ECU & ABS pump are one unit :D

 

Vince at Stealth feels just this alone will massively improve the Corrado's pedal, but I want to go the whole hog with the MK3's servo, MC and pedal as well, but I'm not convinced they will fit on initial glance. The Corrado has a very weird and vehicle specific MC and Servo, which makes upgrades to larger parts more difficult. I'll try and figure out what the score is with that and report my findings!

 

Phase 2 is to look at calipers and discs but in all honesty, I think the 288s will up to the job, but just uprated with ally bells to resist warping. I haven't calculated the swept area differences between the APs and 288s yet, but I'll bet they're fairly close.

 

The APs use a thin pad with a large disc circumference, whereas the 288s have great big fat pads on a smaller circumference. It's the only way VAG could get more braking power behind 15s. Leverage works best, without a doubt, but bigger pads work too. Heat is the killer though. Hence why the 288 is 25mm thick as opposed to the more usual 22mm.

 

Anyway, Phase 2 is still theoretical at this stage, but Phase 1 is defo a goer so I'll get that done and jot down the results in here :D

 

Will APs sit behind BBS RS301s? I don't know tbh! The AP 330 setup is quite slim as far as powerful 4 pots go, so you might get away with it. I would imagine some spacing would be in the cards. I'm not sure if I'll run them again. Currently the discs and pads are spent and need replacement, so not really in a condition to sell I'm afraid.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

sweet moses, black socks and white footwear! :nono:

 

Not my socks and white footwear mate :D But I agree, the fashion police should have been called to scene immediately!

 

 

This picture made me laugh, Kev will know why when he sees what's in the background :lol:

 

Kev, I think we need to find a 3rd brake light for mine. Where did you get your original clear one from and is it difficult to sort out the trim or was it an Audioscape job?

 

Ha! "Because we're WURTH it" :lol:

 

Sorry.... in joke. Neil is "Mr Wurth". He loves his Wurth products and I keep cracking jokes at him about it.

 

3rd Brake light - It was a generic retro fit Hella one from Halfords mate. Designed to sit on a parcel shelf or something. I chopped out the bits I needed and grafted it into the tailgate trim. I did it a long time ago when I didn't have a garage or decent tools. I could probably do a better job of it now if you want to be a guinea pig?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

And whilst I'm here, in other news: She flew through the MOT on Friday :D

 

It's 8th pass in a row :D

[coullstar 0]

Good new, have you put it through without the CAT fitted before?

 

Black socks is ok, its white socks with shoes or dark trouser / jeans thats the ulimate sin!!!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah it's had 2 catless tests and 2 with a cat. Passed all of them :D

 

I do go to the same tester each year though :D. He puts it through as an "unclassified" engine type because VW never made a VR6 Turbo, therefore it gets a more leniant set of emissions to pass ;)

 

I don't know what the HC and CO differences are between cat and non-cat on mine, but I much prefer the smell of the exhaust with the cat!

[boost monkey 0]

doesn't the cat make it smell of eggs?

[boost monkey 0]

Also, what car is your brake servo and MC off to make it seem so different to the others? I'm 99% sure mine is just a mk2 item, but then being an early 16v that's not very surprising :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

No it runs too rich to smell of eggs :D It does have that fruity, kind a sweet smell as it warms up though.

 

Standard VR6 servo and MC mate. You have to look at one to see what I mean. The MC's mountings are at 45 degrees where as all other VWs seem to have normal horizontal bolt spacings.

[matty.vrt 0]

so does this mean the AP's could be for sale in the near future ? :norty:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

so does this mean the AP's could be for sale in the near future ? :norty:

 

Potentially, although I think Gareth (OSV) has already hinted he might be first in the queue :lol:

[pete_griff 0]

i would just save the hassle and fit the Mk3 abs assembly and not obther with the MC & servo, but then that's me taking the easy way out!

 

if you do go changing the MC & servo perhaps you could have a look into reinforcing the bulkhead in that area. i found it to be weak on all corrados - you can see the master cylinder moving slightly when you push the brake pedal and it's the same for the clutch!

not only will that not be good in the VERY long run, but that won't be doing much for pedal feel either...

 

why don't you bin the idea of the servo & MC and start there - that way you'll have less work, preserve the life of the car and do something everyone else can benefit from. just a thought obviously, but i was pretty shocked when i first noticed this on my own corrado ages ago and helping Kip_VR on his brakes the other day reminded me.

 

on - and well done on the MOT pass, always happy with that :D

[matty.vrt 0]

Ok thanks seconds will do me.

[pete_griff 0]

oh, if you want custom discs knocking up then it would be worth getting in touch with a company called Godspeed brakes (you can google him). it's an enthusiast based company run by a guy named Ian Godney.

he makes brakes for all sorts of vehicles and if you give him a call (if you ever manage to get through!) he should be able to sort you out with pretty much anything you need

:D

[Supercharged 2]

oh, if you want custom discs knocking up then it would be worth getting in touch with a company called Godspeed brakes (you can google him). it's an enthusiast based company run by a guy named Ian Godney.

he makes brakes for all sorts of vehicles and if you give him a call (if you ever manage to get through!) he should be able to sort you out with pretty much anything you need

:D

 

I'm not sure I would tbh Pete - heard all sorts of bad things about Godspeed - expensive kit that doesn't last and virtually no aftersales service!

[pete_griff 0]

oh, if you want custom discs knocking up then it would be worth getting in touch with a company called Godspeed brakes (you can google him). it's an enthusiast based company run by a guy named Ian Godney.

he makes brakes for all sorts of vehicles and if you give him a call (if you ever manage to get through!) he should be able to sort you out with pretty much anything you need

:D

 

I'm not sure I would tbh Pete - heard all sorts of bad things about Godspeed - expensive kit that doesn't last and virtually no aftersales service!

that's interesting...

 

i've heard his turnaround time isn't great and people can be very frustrated because he's very difficult to get hold of.

 

i had a set of discs off him when i had my evo and i was very impressed with them. they were of a really good standard and they were pretty cheap considering the price of AP discs etc.

 

i guess it all depends on personal experience...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

if you do go changing the MC & servo perhaps you could have a look into reinforcing the bulkhead in that area. i found it to be weak on all corrados - you can see the master cylinder moving slightly when you push the brake pedal and it's the same for the clutch!

 

That's a damn good point mate, I wil certainly have a look into that. What do you think? A stainless plate behind the pedal mountings or something? This reminds me of the good MK1 days where the clutch cable pulled through the bulkhead because it was so weak :lol:

[pete_griff 0]

it's funny that nothing has been done about it as yet - the old sciroccos suffered a similar issue, to the point where the bulkhead would actually give way and "tear". there's actually a small plate for a very similar area on the scirocco you can buy to reinforce/repair it - so it was obviously a reasonably well documented problem.

 

that said, despite the fact there almost certainly isn't one for a 'rado (you'd think someone on here would have heard of it if there was...), i reckon that it would be fairly easy to make one. you'd obviously be best of using a stripped shell (or a car with no engine etc in it) as a template then work off that (i know Karl has a shell in some degree of disassembly if you ask him nicely!).

i wouldn't have thought it would cost the earth to make and i'm willing to bet that if you did it then a fair few people on here would happily jump in on a groupbuy.

at the end of the day it would serve to preserve the shell as well as making the whole pedal assembly feel more secure as in fairness they've never felt the best - i seem to remember you mentioning tightening up the bolts for the steering column in the same area a while ago in the "dodgy steering - a cure" thread. i would have thought that the flex in he whole area is the reason for that.

plus if you did that it would serve to further insulate the interior from noise from the bay and also the heat from your spinny-snail accessory!

:D

 

i was thinking of the plate mounting on the outside - i.e. in the bay as i recon it would do more good there as you could probably get it to over a wider area more easily than intalling it inside the car.

 

never knew that about the mk1 either! - every day's a school day!

:)

[KipVR 1]

It's a very good point about the flex on the bulkead, they were all made thin in those days to enable them to press out the complicated shape. I'm sure you could brace it from inside though, ie brace the pedal box bracket to the underneath of the scuttle tray and down to the floor further, therefore reducing the load the bulkhead receives.

 

Having siad that if you've got big enough brakes you shouldn't have to press so hard anyway :D .

 

Congrats on the MOT Kev, mines up soon!

 

My Mk1's clutch pulled through! Nice little brace panel sorted it though.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

A boring, but worthwhile update :D

 

I finally got round to sorting out a proper and permanent headlight loom :D

 

I looked into ways of making a water tight one in the engine bay but nothing exists that's to my satisfaction. I wanted a proper OE style uprated loom that is inside the car and therefore fit and forget. I also wanted to take power and headlight connections directly from the fusebox for OE reliability.

 

The reason for doing this stems from relays getting wet in the engine bay and I don't do electronics in bags (for condensation reasons). Bags are for crisps, relays are for interiors.

 

And the other reason was all this crap taking up space in the engine bay....

 

 

Much better :D 30amp cable sheathed in Raychem fire and abrasion resistant sleeving. It's what the OE's use ;)

 

 

2 Micro relays (half the size and noise of normal ones) and 2 fuses per headlight, all nicely tucked up inside where it's warm and dry :D

 

 

That's that done, for good 8)

 

The next update should be more interesting as my Drive By Wire has all been configured. Just need to wire it up and I'm good to go.

 

 

Benefits include:-

 

ISV, ISV pipework and throttle cable can all be deleted for a tidier install.

RPM blip on downshifts

Vanity mode RPM limit

Cruise control

Traction control

Superior idle control

Mappable throttle response

Etc, Etc.

 

So basically I'm setting the ground work for my 24V Turbo. I want DBW, but I don't want to run the Bosch management, so this is the perfect solution. The 12V T is just the test bed. The REAL turbo motor has yet to come ;)

 

If anyone wants to make their own uprated loom, it's dead easy. Here is the cicuit I used....

 

Edited March 7, 2011 by Kevin Bacon

[fla 9]

good idea moving it inside the cabin! What gauge wire did you use and how did you wire in the full beam?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

2.0 sqmm thinwall PVC wire mate. I wired it as per standard to keep everything reliable.

[mic_VR 3]

How you getting on with the 288's and Speedlines now mate? Going back to 17s and big brakes again soon??

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah not bad cheers mate. Obviously I can't come off slip roads at mega speeds and brake 30 yards before the corner any more, but life in the slow lane isn't so bad :D

 

I'm just enjoying the refining of things at the moment. All projects consist of the build, and then months / years of 'development'. Nearly everyone on here has crumbled during the development stage and sold them on. Not me though :D I'm going to see it through to the bitter end :lol:

 

I tell you what, I'm surprised my car hasn't caught fire yet as I found some right old bodgey wiring (done by me) in there whilst doing the headlights! Lesson for today: More haste, less speed!

[mic_VR 3]

I'm with you on the refinement stages. I'm starting to think about going back to Speedline and 288's myself at the moment as I think the 17s aren't quite to my tastes for drivability. Love the way they look but I don't think I'm going to get away from the rubbing issue without raising it. But, as I'm sure you'll agree, it drives so well as it is I'm lothed to mess around with the suspension.

 

If I can squeeze the AP's under Speedlines I'll keep them but we'll have to see.

 

Been thinking seriously about the cams from Bill. You still interested?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Thing is though, I don't ever remember my car driving so well on 15s. What started off as a cheap way to go onto Winters has ended up being a permanent change :lol: I can only put it down to the V3s really. Those, 15s and Conti tyres are simply brilliant for refinement and comfort, but still has the grip and sure footed cornering for when you need it.

 

The car is so much less effort to hustle along briskly on 15s too. The major negative of 15s is limited cornering speeds because of the lofty sidewall, but that kind of driving accounts for less than 5% of my total road time.

 

Yeah defo interested in the cams mate if we can get a good deal and we can escape the import charges?