CrazyDave

Coming together nicely Chaz, shame about the brakes but sure it'll get sorted soon.

Looking forward to the Bristol meet (as long as it doesn't tip it down all day like today!).

Right, manifold skimmed and back on with a thermal resin gasket. Running much much better off boost now. Cold started really well this morning, and drove nice all through warm up (a lot better than it's been in the last week).

The fuel mapping is a little rich now (due to the air leak), another job to sort out.

The resin gasket does reduce the inlet manifold temperature by about 20 degrees, but it still gets quite warm. When fitting the spacer the instructions say you have to file the alternator bracket for clearance of one of the studs, but mine was ok without. This is probably due to having the manifold flange skimmed by about 3mm? The gasket seems well made and uses o-rings to seal against the head and manifold, so it shouldn't leak.

I still think the short manifold affects the low speed running off boost or it may be the lowered compression or both. I'll spend a bit of time adjusting the fuel and ignition this weekend to try and get it sorted.

The last bit of refinement takes an age, but should make the car super smooth 8)

Sorted then! Cool. But now I'm going to have to read the book again to see why I couldn't find that? 8)

Awesome advert. Liquorice fan belt anyone?!

Maybe another answer to supercharger belt slip????

Very cool ad 8)

Well it's a Bently thingy, its just 16 really, but the trouble is that it keeps moving around from year to year. So on a 94 model year it says it on 21 & 22.

The higher fuse numbers are mounted elsewhere on the car.

The ECU pin numbers I've given you are for a Teves 02 (it has three rows of pins in the plug). The old one has only 2 rows. So again have a look and see what you find.

Well that's my bedtime reading out of the way, am I dedicated to the Corrado or what!

OK, a few things to check.

The ABS is feed from the X contact relay (number 4) or load reduction relay. Check that it switching when you put the ignition on, although you'll have other stuff that doesn't work if thats faulty (like wipers, heat rear screen etc so I guess thats not it).

You should have 12v on pin 53 and 35 of the ABS ECU with the ignition on, this also switches the ABS Relay on (J102 is the only reference I have for this?). The feed for this is again off the X load reduction relay and it also puts power to the ABS flow return pump. So nothing will work without it.

Fuses to check S16, S21, S53, S54.

Just a start, but that's the only stuff that prevents powering of the ABS controller?

Give it a go.

I'll have a flick through the Bentley and see what I can find, but VAG-COM would be my first port of call also?

If you can get communication with the ABS module then it proves its got power and isn't dead, then the fault codes should tell you the rest.

I know you've had the system pressure checked but did you check that the pressure held up when you turned the key off?

You might have a leaky injector? Sizzling sound coming from the inlet manifold at the front of the engine after a hot run and switching off.

Try turning the ignition on and off 2 or 3 times before you crank the engine. This should get the fuel pressure up in the rail before and start straight away.

Easy to try... and I've had this before but not on a VR.

A friend of mine has a Octavia Lauren-Clement (think thats correct?) thats been Revo'ed.

We had a run up the 1/4 mile last year at Inters, my C was completely standard (not even an air cleaner or exhaust).

0-60 the Corrado was away, but getting near the quarter the Octavia was catching me real quick. So even a Revo'ed Octavia is a pretty even match for a standard C. Although out on the road the Skoda does feel quicker but only because of the mid range torque I think.

We're both going again this year....what do you reckon his chances are this time??? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Borla exhaust... not heard of that one before? I'll have to do a google search. Guess it's a proper 2.5" all the way through then?

Car wiring is just the strangest thing at times, earth faults are a real nightmare, but shorts in looms is pretty unusual. Nice to have a bit of luck to find it.

I've ordered a resin spacer through badger5.co.uk, it comes as a complete kit, longer screws etc.

The manifold has gone to a local machinist to be milled flat, so it should all be sorted in a few days.

More boost..... Kev, I'm having to re-learn how to drive my car to make the most out of 8psi!

But that's the best bit with VRT, just dial the boost up when you get bored! :)

Been a while, but been trying to get time to sort a minor problem with off boost running. On boost it pulls strong as ever.

I checked a few things this afternoon and got to the bottom of it, and I'm pretty sure it's nothing in the engine.

During warm running I noticed a small stumble (like a mild misfire), it was another reason that the MOT emissions had been so close (as well as the other stuff).

So today after driving home I checked the compression and all cylinders are about 10.5bar +-0.25. Which sounds OK considering the compression has been lowered with a spacer. It also means that the valves, head gasket and pistons / rings etc are OK. But I didn't think the head gasket was the cause because I've had no signs of water loss or oil contamination, excessive water pressure etc. But still nice to comfirm it's OK.

The plugs looked fine but no.6 seemed a little different in colour, and it was a bit wet?

I could smell fuel in the exhaust at idle so obviously not happy?

So I bit the bullet and took the front of the car off and removed the manifold. Then found the cause! The gasket wasn't squashed evenly at the edges of no.1 and no.6 inlet tracts because of a slight distortion in the flange. Pretty silly really I should have checked it after welding.... So as the gasket has settled it's started to leak, on boost isn't a problem because the turbo just works a bit harder to give 8psi in the manifold. When idling or part throttle the air leak causes a slight misfire because the mixtures wrong. DOH!

Not much but enough to cause an air leak!

Gasket not squashed down properly at no.6

Same on no.1.

My own silly fault, I should have checked it. Tops marks to Kev! Didn't you say I might have an air leak a while back???

I'll get the manifold skimmed flat and it'll be sorted. I'd also like to get a thermal gasket from somewhere, to try and stop some of the heat soak?

Removing the cat from a 10 year old+ car usually involves grinding and cutting of the 3 bolt section at the front from the downpipe as the bolts will be very seized up or under sized or both. The other end will also be pretty tight but should come off in one piece as it's the usual exhuast sleeve and clamp type stuff.

Milltek and others do a standard fit cat bypass pipe, but it may need the rest of the system to fit or adapters (as on a Jetex 2.5").

But if you want to swap the cat back in I'd highly recommend getting V bands fitted to the sections of pipe, as this makes it much easier to swap over at test time.

And always remember that it is a legal requirement that post 92 cars are fitted with a catalytic converter.

Really depends on the MOT station (just been through all off this with mine!), and a VR running properly will pass an MOT without a cat, but only if the tester doesn't notice it's missing.

Get some V bands welded onto the standard cat to put in for the mot and have a bypass pipe with V bands for the rest of the year. Easy to change over then.

Jim, not sure at the minute, the Miltek ones are very nice. Jetex now have a range of cats available in various shapes and sizes which would be ideal for me as the my front exhaust sections are all non standard now.

Toad, the megasquirt is getting better and better, I guess if I spent some money on a bit of rolling road time it would happen a lot quicker. The latest MSII_Extra software is very good and getting better week by week. I still have some things to sort out but that's all part of running standalones I'm afraid. As for fun, the big grin is still firmly fixed!

Some test stations have the emissions tester linked to the new DVLA computer system. So the tester can't change it. At least thats how it looked?

I do need to sort a proper cat out for next year, cos it was really close.

I fitted some S3 platinum plugs tonight and it all ran much better. I have to say it's a real handfull in the wet!!! Have to be real gentle with the throttle and try staying off boost or it just breaks traction. :)

I also went back a step with the MegaSquirt settings. The new code has something called EAE, it's for acceleration enrichment (adds more fuel when you press the throttle pedal). I've been having trouble with starting and driving straight away, the engine would cough and splutter when first started and trying to rev from idle. So I turned off the EAE and hey presto, it starts and drives great again.

Turns out that this problem has been noted and a new release of the software is available that allows EAE to work differently based on engine temperature (so it doesn't flood when running rich already due to cold start settings). I'll have to download the new firmware to my ECU and give it a go this weekend.

Been driving an A3 diesel all week, real glad to get back in the C tonight 8)

I made one of these for radio controlled car lap timing (1/10" scale rally cars). Worked a treat, but knowbody was interested?

They look really nice!

17's?

Mine is fully shut at idle.

It's a Tial similar to Kev's but with a 12psi spring fitted I think?

Sorted :)

Emissions a little higher than normal but OK. This is mainly down to my improvised cat! I cut open the standard cat and hacked up the core to make one that would fit into the 3" section of exhuast under the car. Not ideal but gets me out the poo.

Revised fuel rail really works well, didn't miss a beat through 4 o'clock traffic in town. Rail was still cold after lots and lots of idling. The plugs are all the same colour now.

I stuck the Motronic back on with the standard injectors and it ran fine (but keeping off boost!). Although the narrow band didn't work to begin with because I'd forgotten to connect it back up! In such a bloody hurry to get it sorted today (for Stanford!).

LM1 was showing a mixed bag of readings, I guess due to the spread of mixtures across the cylinders. But looking back at some data logging from previous runs you can see the mixture 'wobbling' at light throttle. It's rock steady now.

I guess that they don't have to worry about this stuff in the States? All the picture of cars on spturbo.com have dead end fuel rails?

Well the MOT was OK, but failed on emissions! Not surprised really.

I pulled all the plugs tonight and guess what.... graded colours rich to lean with 6 being the worst. I was with the car all through the MOT (my baby!) and they left it sat for ages and ages at idle and it got lumpier the longer it was left.

They didn't notice that the cat wasn't fitted, but the trouble is a 95 car has a pretty strict emissions requirement 0.2 CO and less than 200HC. So with it missing on number 6 (I suspect) the HC went to 1400 and without a CAT the CO was 0.6 so no chance (even with me tweeking the map down while they tested it). The guys at the station gave me a fair bit of time to mess with a few settings.

I've had the front sections of exhaust off tonight and measured up to get the cat in. I'll order some bits tomorrow as it looks pretty straight forward.

I've also had a good look at the fuel rail and will order some parts to make a fuel loop rather than the dead end it has now.

If I still have problems I could always fit the standard injectors and Motronic just to get through the MOT and then put it all back again (doesn't take more than 30mins to change over!).

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that one. Worn front mounts do have a habit of allowing the engine to hit the bonnet!!

When you take it off it's the most complex piece of rubber engineering, but way to soft even when new.

Some new diesels have adaptive engine mounts. Like the ferro suspension dampers you can get now. Apply an electric current and metal particles in the mount stiffen the damping. Cool stuff, gives the best of both worlds.

Ben, well worth every penny. I know it's a bit of a shock when you have to buy it (ie not cheap), but one of the best 'easy fit' mods you can do.

The front mount is a real must, I had the fast-road one for my standard VR. I couldn't believe how much the handling improved and the gearchange was better aswell.

Getting the ride height down that little bit just make Corrados look great. I really don't know why they left that 3" gap in the rear wheel arch?

Looks spot on now though! Good job.

I have the same trouble with my job at times, fortunately mostly late in the evenings during the week and not weekends!

We'll I'll most likely be around gassing most of the afternoon, so fingers crossed you might make it.

Dave

Chris, are you coming to the Bath meet this Sunday?

Cars looking tidy by the way. Glad you got the insurance sorted out, I went with Brentacre in the end, mainly cos John was very helpfull.