Yandards

Pic 1 is pretty much how my 9.5j is with 195 45 tyres! Looks awesome!

..and is dangerous in my opinion as an aircraft mechanical engineer of almost 20 years.

If you hit a pothole in the road whilst cornering enthusiastically then that sort of load applied to the tyre could result in an immediate deflation, this problem is hugely amplified by stretched tyres already forcing the tyre into a shape it is not designed to be in and placing large loads on the weakest point of the tyre at the same time (sidewall).

Have you ever considered why stretched tyres deform the way they do and what that means for the strength of the tyre?

This has been the subject of debate for years and some people have been taken to court under existing legislation, the fact that DVLA have now issued guidance to MOT tester may mean what passed last year won't next time.

If you live in the Norfolk Constabulary area then they say stretched tyres are illegal under section 40A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and could result in 3 points and £100 Norfolk Police Link

Ultimately by running excessive stretch you are opening yourself to this sort of incident and looking at the rear wheels this guy is not running huge amounts of stretch:

Whoops!

Morning all,

For those of you that run stretched tyres DVLA have issued new guidance on if this is legal as of the 30th Oct 15, it would seem that in extreme cases cars can be failed for stretched tyres during an MOT although as with all things MOT is comes down to the tester concerned and some seem happy to fail a tyre for being out of the range of manufacturers recommended tyre sizes.

It is also worth noting that fitting a tyre outside of the range for the wheel will likely invalidate your insurance.

Link to the revised MOT guidance is here and I recommend reading the comments at the bottom from testers: Stretched?

It might not be the thermostat that is stuck, it could be the thermal bypass to the heater matrix is going.

If you look in the engine bay near the bulkhead around where the ignition coil lives there should be a aluminium coloured valve with 3 hose connections on it - this is there is prevent hot coolant from flowing into the car if the heater matrix fails. This was all done as part of a recall program and if you have replaced the heater matrix then the same mechanism is incorporated into the newer matrix so you can remove the aluminium valve from the hoses.

If it is a thermostat replacement you need to do then its not possible without dropping the power steering pump out of the way so you will need to remove the V belt that drives this - you don't need the charger belt off though.

Top tip is to use a little bit of Vaseline to help glue the thermostat and seal in place.

Off the shelf ones to fit the existing wiper arms are rubbish, tried Bosch ones a while ago and they are worse than normal wiper blades.

The two most important things for good charger life are regular engine oil and filter changes and to not use any air filter system that will allow fine particles into the air intake.

As the charger uses the engine oil supply system for lubrication it is critical to the overall life of the charger, you also tend to fine small chips out of the softer scroll section when it is stripped down due to people fitting poor quality air filters or not replacing them regularly.

Factors effecting life between servicing are done to mileage done against pulley size, smaller the pulley the more often you need to service it and it also puts much more stress on the charger overall.

Finally the rubber drive belt that keeps the whole thing in sync needs replacing regularly so I would tie it in with the Camelot life of 5 years maximum but adjust that downwards depending on usage and pulley size.

Its also worth replacing the oil supply braided hose and the return rubber one if you have not done it as I have known someone on the past go through 3 chargers before they discovered the return line was blocked causing an overpressure blowing the charger seals.

You can get replacement internal scrolls from a few companies in Germany and the USA and one German company makes a G75 charger that is a bolt in option if you want to go that way: G75

One from BarTek, its a better item comparing the casting quality, also has ISV connections to shift about as not happy with the pipe size and location compared to a stock G60.

Glad to hear it was worth the effort from your end.

Hey Yan, anymore updates?

 

I finally got my 16vG on a rolling road yesterday, 241 with 215 torque.

 

Thanks for all the advice over the years, made my life alot easier!

Glad to hear yours is complete and putting out some healthy power, what's the driveability like?

As for mine, got the manifold in late August and just couldn't be bothered with it - give it a good dry weekend and it will all be done ready for another go at mapping it.

As the fuse keeps popping it sounds like the motor is having to work too hard to operate the wipers causing the electrical overload and the fuse pop.

Worth looking at links as mentioned by Dox, but it could also be that the motor has just had it.

You can get some paint called alumablast from Frost - used it on all my aluminium engine bay components and its holding up well as designed for engine bay use so resistant to oil and grease and good for up to 150 deg C temperature too.

It's not mega cheap but the finish looks like freshly blasted aluminium.

Some pics of painted bits here: Rocker Cover etc

I don't think soaking the tappets was the cause tbh. They're filled with pressurised oil when the engine runs, so not something that would happen when sat in a tub of oil.

 

It's certainly and odd one for sure, and even odder that it happened twice!

They are but at the same time its circulating oil and the NRV in the oil gallery up to the cylinder head will be open not closed allowing that oil to move around.

Problem is that the engine didn't move between chain disconnection, it was at the No.1 TDC point and the problem didn't happen when the old camshaft came out - as camshaft installation is the reverse of removal in terms of bearing cap removal the same stress load that caused the camshaft to snap should have existed when the outer bearing caps were removed, it didn't.

Couple that with the only change in the entire system being the hyd tappets and it really points to them being the problem.

If you have not changed the foam seal on the bottom of the foliage grill it will go brittle with age and then leak when it rains hard as that area fills with water depending on angle of parking etc.

No me neither. I thought pre-soaking in oil was a legacy of leather oil seals from 50s Jaguars?

 

I've never seen a cam snap on a VR before! I'm surprised there's enough pull down strength from a couple of 10mm bolts in ally threads to snap a cam like that! I would have put money on the threads stripping first, but stranger things have happened! As Dox said, the cam must have had excessive bending going on.

 

Strange! Hope you get it sorted.

First one went that well it jumped out of the engine bay, missed the wing completely and hit the floor.

Second time was just a ting as I got Jim to stick the outer pair of bearing caps on and follow the cam down with finger tightening the nuts.

It is a very odd scenario, having done the 16v earlier this year that's a much trickier bugger as there are more tappets over a shorter run per cam and I needed to lean on the cam whilst trying to get enough threads engaged on the cover caps to stop them stripping.

There's seems to be plenty of internet based info ref soaking them in oil first but neither the workshop manual or the crappy install sheet from INA have anything like that there; seems like a pile of crapola and something you shouldn't be doing instead.

Are you 100% sure the bottom of the engine didn't move between removal and refitting? If the car was in gear and moved slightly the engine would have rotated also.

 

Before fitting the next set of cams I'd move the tappets front to back and vise versa as at least you have a few spare inlet cams now (not meant as a joke)

 

Really bad luck

Yes as engine was hand cranked to No 1 TDC, not in gear and handbrake applied.

Regardless of where No 1 piston is with the cam lobes at a position where they will not be opening the valves then you won't get contact between the valve and the top of the piston.

So you had the engine set to number 1 TDC and the cam with the off centre slot horizontal and uppermost?

 

Did you progressively nip the cam cap bolts or just torque up the first nut you put on the cam caps?

 

Cams are made of cast iron and cast doesn't like to bend, the best way to nip down the caps it to see which lobes are touching the tappets and tighten those progressively a turn at a time.

 

If you tighten one with the base of the cam nearest the tappet (so its hollow or gapped) first you're trying to bend the cam.

 

If you can secure the upper chain from jamming you can use a spanner on the crank pulley bolt and put your thumb over each sparkplug hole in turn to see if there's compression.

Centre bearing caps fitted first as per the workshop manual for fitment sequence of bearing caps, finger tight initially and then 1/4 per nut in a diagonal sequence as per the workshop manual.

Just to clear this one up everything was setup correctly in terms of No.1 at TDC, correct orientation of cams and correct bearing cap fitment sequence and subsequent tightening down onto the head as per the VW workshop manual.

Looking at the VR6 self study guide there is a valve in the oil system that is there to prevent oil draining from the cylinder head oil paths - if there is too much oil in the tappets its got nowhere to go when you start to tighten the bearing caps down. This seems to have resulted in a hydraulic lock on either no 1 or 2 exhaust cam tappet being fully pumped up, although I would guess its no 1, and the camshaft snapping at the load point of the bearing cap.

Interestingly the first break was to the left of the bearing cap under load and the second was to the right of it - which is odd when you consider the caps run down true to the cylinder head.

Aside from what Brunny mentioned on the bottom of the last page to ensure the tappets are free to move and fully compressed prior to fitment there is not a lot else in the system that could cause it as everything was setup correctly for the task.

Unfortunately jim I agree with the above of mis positioned cam.

 

Sorry to hear buddy hopefully will come good

It wasn't Jim didn't look at it but both Eric and I did on both occasions.

Er, the fuel pump on the VR does not prime on ignition in the run position folks, it only operates when the ECU signals the fuel pump relay to change over during the starting process.

So you will never get a VR pump operating without the ignition on.

Interesting. The wording is:

 

You must not drive the vehicle on the road if it fails the test, even if the MOT hasn’t run out, except to:

 

* have the failed defects fixed

* a pre-arranged MOT test appointment

 

I wonder how flexible "have the failed defects fixed" is... does that mean you can drive it back home again, under the premise you're going to be working on it yourself, or could you drive it from that garage back to your home, then subsequently to another garage to get it fixed?

That's exactly what it's there for but I would always make sure I had an appointment with the garage you are taking it to as cover for that, also you could be fixing the faults yourself at home and that's legal too.

As Jamo says though if its failed because you are leaking brake fluid everywhere then its a no brainer on driving it but a hole in the exhaust or a split wiper blade are not likely to be fatal.

I do know some folk who have bought a car without an MOT and then driven it home with an MOT booked near home as a way of getting it back..

Hallo,

Obviously anything remanufactured to an OEM standard is good with me especially as its nigh on impossible to source the wider diameter solid line as used for the clutch system.

Prices seem reasonable enough but my only concern is that the replacement flexi line seems a lot narrower than the OE part - I assume the internal bore is the same as the original flexi?

We've done all that in the past, and it just get ignored and becomes a pain to police.

The rules do state you will get a ban for being an arse.. Haha

Oh well, guess that fixes the double posting issue that has been happening recently but it's back to the in fighting and gazumping!

:)

Its the holder for the after run temp sensor, sensor screws into the bracket and the bracket lives under ones of the mountings for the fuel injector rail.

Have a look at image number 38 on VAG Cat its on there and pretty clear where it goes.

Indeed, pics are a bit different!

Ah its an Eaton charger hence the power drop.

The true sign of a Corrado owner :-) Made destitute by his car!

Or the search for spares!

Good old Ebay had a setup like this for sale recently. It suggested it was about 210 BHP.

Sounds a bit on the low side, the VW produced version was 211bhp on a 1.8 KR.

You get 160-170hp from 9A with KR or ABF cams and good exhaust

Cams on an ABF with inlet, TB and exhaust tweaks should see closer to 190 bhp but will mess the torque curve around quite a bit.

An ABF 16vG60 is the choice I would make doing the conversion again but that is a hell of a lot more work and cost to get it functioning correctly.

As Dave W said, one of the reason the ABF consistently makes more performance than the 9A is that is a first 16v engine with VR levels of engine management sensors so fuel control is much more accurate.

ABF was 150 bhp standard..........

Doh! Had a bit of brain fart this morning..

I meant 165bhp on just a remap; some tweaking of the exhaust, TB and a panel filter should see 175bhp with 125lb ft of torque usable from around 2500 rpm up to peak torque of 150 lb ft.

Which when you look at 2.8 VR figures that is a little too close for VWs comfort, same mods on a 2.9 VR might see around the 200 bhp figure at best and it has a head start over the 2.8 VR by 20 bhp.