Well Its been a while since I have updated this about the Corrado. So here goes. Be Warned this is a long post, Best to grab your self a cup of tea before reading.
For the past few years its been sat in the garage slowly being lost under parts and general crap that just got puit in there for the moment(those long term moments).
The reason I put it to sleep was she needed a few things doing to her like:-
All 4 fuel injectors needed replacing as they had done 155,000+ miles
Fuel lines replacing as two was leaking
Distributer was getting the dreaded oil in it
The whole exhaust system was shot, manifold had snapped bolts so it leaked gases and the rest was in close to dieing as well
Rear light electric needed looking at
Its large 17/40/205 wheels had seen better days and all 4 tyres needed replacing
She was running like crap and on a good day I was only getting 18mpg which was pain full.
At this point I was thinking maybe its time to let her sleep permanently as I had to much else going on but I decided to put her in the garage cover her up and forget about her. That was about the end of 2010.
Then in 2012 I started to get that Corrado itch again and wrnt out to the garage pulled off the cover and said its time to get you sorted. The pen and pad started to write all the things that needed doing and I started to formulate a plan of attack.
first step was to sort the rear light as it was the easiest to do. Yhe fault turned out just to be crud on the connectors so a clean up and all is well but I thought its time to change her lights from red and clear to some thing a little darker. ( which strated me to change other things to make her stance a little meaner ) So I grabbed the O.E rear light clusters and tinted a few shades darker, See Pics
Then Lucky for me I found someone selling a custom made SS exhaust from the down pipe onwards for sale locally and he only wanted £50 so I snapped that up straight away ready for when I needed it. This gave me an idea to remove the O.E down pipe and fit one from a ABf motor and get a after market de-cat pipe to make it fit the SS exhaust I had got. Over a few months in scrap yards I found the downpipe and then bought the de-cat pipe off ebay.
The whole abf Thing made me thing of the engine and as I had got some quotes in for new injectors and fuel lines and other parts the cost was mounting up so I decided to put the Digifant 3.2 system in the car.
So I started to do research on this and found it can be done and a Gentleman who most of you would know Rubjonny was recommedded as being the Guru for abf looms. I connected him about it and he kindle said he would help/guide me when I needed it to make the changes to a ABF loom to run in the Corrado.
Knowing I would need an abf engine or parts I started hunting but to many complete abf engine were to far away from where I live (IOW) so the alternative was to retro fit the ABf parts to my existing engine, I knew at this point I would need some custom parts like the Crank senor bracket and wheel, no problem 034 Motorsport do one so thats sorted I'll buy one when I need it. over the next year I started to source the required ABF parts bit at time and as I was in no rush I got most of the parts cheaply.
Once I had the bulk of the parts I started to work on the ABF loom it self to strip out the crap I didn't need and keep the things I did from both the corrado orignal loom and the abf to make one new loom. A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO RUBJONNY for helping me and answering so many questions. At first the the wiring diagrams seemed like I was in way over my head but I managed to get through it with his help.
When I started the ABf loom I had to strip the engine down and remove the brake servo to remove the existing Engine harness. See the pics for an idea.
once I had the loom finished over a few weeks it was time for it to go back into the car.
I then started to bolt parts back on the car, first thing was to deal with the exhaust I had got another manifold and had the 6 threads replaced. so I removed the old system and the old downlpipe ( cut the down pipe off ). I then put on the reconditioned manifold and abf down pipe on then bolted up the de-cat pipe and the £50 SS exhaust system on.
Then things like the intake manifold and fuel rail got put with the redone engine harness. But this is where I hit he first bump the Fuel pipes fouled the Altenator support bracket so back on the search for a solution and people simply changed the setup for either abf one or the mk3 8v setup. off to the scrappy I went in search and after a few weeks I had a 8v alternator setup all but the Crank pulley. I fitted what I could and continued to get the ABF management and parts in place and ready to go.
Second bump arrived thought I had got a ABF ECU that was pre immobolizer but no.
Third bump having trouble sourcing a ABF Crank pulley. months have passed and even now I'm still looking. these things seem like gold dust.
fourth bump was I had to make up a new top rad hose as the old cylinder head front outlet went in different direction so fabrication come into play and a few cuts of pipe from the scrap heap and a metal connector pipe and that was sorted.
At this point I had sorted the rear lights, exhaust removed the CIS fuel sytema and was almost at the point to finishing it to start it but I had a ABF ecu that needed sorting, no crank pulley to drive the Alternator or power steering pump and the fifth bump as I had to change the Crank setup the 034 Bracket now wouldn't work any more.
I thought dame it !! so for a few months I left the corrado alone, wondering how am I going to sort this.
But I never stopped searching for a solution as I was at a point where I could do the following.
1) source an abf engine or least a block.
2)fit another type of Engine management.
3) break her up and move on.
4)try and make the 034 bracket to work and sort he ABf ecu and sort the crank pulley out.
All the options were not going to be cheap. so I got hold of ABF block as it come up local to me but it needed some tlc but at the time it was the only option I had so I bought it. But it seemed at the time to be the best option I choose option 1 and started to clean the block up and make list of parts needed to swap out my 2l 6A engine and fit th ABF block.
The list got big as it needed a new clutch, headgasket set, timing belt kit, I already had a spare Cylinder head but it needed new Tappets, the price was shooting up. So I cleaned the ABF block and sat down again and thought with what I'm doing and what I still need to sort like the ecu and the crank pulley and then it had to go the dyno. The cost list was building.
So I went down the pub..........
Well I'm in this deep what do I want?? simple a nice easy drive that brings a smile to my face. With all the things I had read on the internet and all the work I had done I decided to not to carry on with abf Engine management install. and Was going MICROSQUIRT route as it could use all the existing parts and would only leave me with having to sort the crank pulley out.
I nedeed to use the abf harness and parts so using Rubjonny Tech diagrams of the ABF engine harness and basic testing started to layout the needed pin outs on the ABF harness so I could use the recently installed abf engine harness right up to the ABF ecu plug.
I made up a spread sheet wthe the pins matched up between the Microsquirt loom and the ABF loom. I de-soldered the aBF ECU board So I had the plug ready for the adapted I was going to make.
I ordered All what I needed from DIYAUTOTUNE and it arrived Friday I have already completed the 98% of the adapter see pics
I now at a stage where all that needs doing is the crank pulley, a few senors plugs to be changed and the adapter to be finished and I can see if she starts. then the Tuning startd.
I'll update once she starts. well I hope she does... well it is a project car.
I have posted some pics.
