MartinB's ongoing Rado Saga! 1 nugget 16v, 1 Red 16v & 1 grey G60! Corrado no.3 pg10

[Stan 24v 0]

haha my mrs knows i went to the shoot but has not seen the pics, do you reckon i should show her? :lol:

 

Your funeral mate :lol: Nice C, nicer lady :lol:

[martinb 0]

finally some stuff to update!!!!!

 

some new stickers:

 

some new brakes, no longer rolls away when parked :thumb right:

 

and lastly new wheels:

 

 

 

I well pleased with them 8) , what do you think?

[martinb 0]

i love nuggets,also can't resist choppin standard rados :D

 

that looks awsome mate!!!!!!! 8)

 

Doh, now you got me wanting to build an exact replica of that! :(

 

 

jeez..........its actually starting to look quite like that! g60greeny its all your fault :lol: 8)

[Goldie 2]

The 928s look great, very nice..

[g60greeny 0]

i love nuggets,also can't resist choppin standard rados :D

 

that looks awsome mate!!!!!!! 8)

 

Doh, now you got me wanting to build an exact replica of that! :(

 

 

jeez..........its actually starting to look quite like that! g60greeny its all your fault :lol: 8)

 

yeah wasnt far off really was i :lol:

shes lookin good mate 8)

[Rick 0]

Looks awesome mate.

[martinb 0]

got a load of new/better pics yesterday with the new wheels on, few of my faves:

 

 

 

 

 

8)

[Jim Bowen 1]

chesnut avenue?

 

i was behind you a few weeks back, not in the corrado tho, cars looks very mean from behind now 8)

[yorkshireone 0]

Really nice mate, love the new wheels! I'd love a nugget C!

[martinb 0]

chesnut avenue?

 

i was behind you a few weeks back, not in the corrado tho, cars looks very mean from behind now 8)

 

lol yes mate chesnut avenue! was gonna put on the post 3cm can you guess the location as i always try too when you post pics! :lol:

[Jim Bowen 1]

i like going under the other bridge at 6000rpm... :lol:

[martinb 0]

im always a little wary down there....had my first ever "off" down chesnut ave when i was 17 - had only passed my test a few months and was going down there flat out in my 1st car (1ltr beige 1982 metro nice!), hit a bump on one of the bends and aquaplaned (it was p!ssing down) into a rather large tree sideways at fairly high speed (for a metro)! not nice but luckily i walked away and learnt a valuable lesson (metro's are cr@p :lol: )!

 

There is still a mark on the tree there now...looked as i went down there yesterday :eek:

[Jim Bowen 1]

whoops :lol:

 

it is a horrible bit of road, especially in a lowered car, its like surfing almost!! road throws you everywhere

[martinb 0]

not updated this for a while but its been an eventfull few months for my Corrado!

 

Basically the head gasket went and after looking at the cost of getting it done i decided it was not worth chucking money at an engine that had done over 190k so thought it would be a good time to replace it and maybe upgrade it a bit. A mate had recently offered me an engine that sounded perfect, spec as follows

 

2ltr 16v ABF bottom end from a mk3 16v gti 'long throw' engine - supplied by Stevens VW about 2yrs ago and informed it was a good low mileage engine, standard internals,

painted silver

1.8 16v original head

ported inlet and exhaust openings to gasket size and welds smoothed

Skimmed

All valves removed, de-coked and replaced. Guides fine so not messed with

New Head Gasket fitted

comes with new head gasket set

New head bolts fitted - not torqued up yet

Cams - has 2exhaust cams - supposed to be a good power upgrade due to increased lift, need toqueing up

standard tappets

comes with chrome affect rocker cover and mildly polished 50mm inlet manifold

020 16v box as original - good synchromesh with none of the usual 1st-2nd gear faults

also painted silver and bolted to the bottom end ready to go

new clutch and assembly - also from Stevens VW

comes with all main ancillaries - starter, alternator, k-jet injection system, mfa, hoses etc etc

mk2 16v subframe comes with the engine if required

all for £350:

 

 

 

[Toad 0]

:) Sounds good.

 

There are supposed to be some issues with fitting an ABF to a corrado due to bonnet clearance issues, so it'l be interesting to see how you get on. Might need to fit a 42mm inlet to get a bit more space?

 

Will make good power and rev well once in though :)

[martinb 0]

sooo we set about fitting it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

new lump in.....

 

 

almost time to give it a try

 

 

starting to look like a car again!

 

Right up until this point things seemed like they where going fairly well......

[martinb 0]

then came the big moment.....it was time to try and start it!

 

What an anti climax, it would not go, i did not really expect it to start 1st time but after flattening the battery on the Rado, my g/f's mk2 gti and my mates van still with no joy i was starting to worry.....the next couple of days where spent going over everything checking it had fuel, it had sprk, checking the timing where all spot on but it still would not go! :brickwall:

 

Had several people look at it and all agreed there was no reason it would not run, the guy i bought the engine was/is adament that it should be good (although had never had it running himself). As a last resort we attatched the tow rope and pulled the car up the road to see if we could bump it into life! Bingo....it was finally running but all was still not well.

 

It would not tick over, was blowing clouds of smoke, sounded terrible and was very flat and would not rev up. Once we turned it off we where back to square one....it would not start again and i bit of poking around the engine bay soon revealed everything was far from right with the engine. It had filled the airbox full of oil and after draining the oil found that to be full of water :sad:

[martinb 0]

by now i really needed the car back. The mrs was getting fed up with me constantly stealing her car and E38 was fast approaching so we decided that the quickest and easist way to get the car back on the road would be find another engine out of a running car that was known to be good (lesson learnt there!). Mik at MV develpments came to the rescue (thanks mate) with a complete running ABF lump for only £100.

 

An afternoons work had the engine out again and after Steve/caddyman had picked up the new engine for me we started again! Luckily with such highly skilled helpers (well actually really Steve did the vast majority of the work :clap: :grin: ) and my boy Alex the new 2ltr 16v ABF went in really easily

 

 

 

we fitted a brand new clutch along the way as mine was shot and the gearbox/clutch we got with the last engine would not fit, and by the afternoon that day we where ready to try and start it again!

[mrbeige 0]

Christ Martin, I didn't realise you'd had such a game with your Rado! Spending £350 on a funked engine must have hurt....mind you getting a full ABF for £100, kinda makes up for that :D

[martinb 0]

i was totally Cr@pping myself when the moment came to turn the key again but this time it fired up pretty much first time!!!!!!!!!! :luvlove:

 

I had a few minor issues to sort with a few flashing warning lights/buzzers but after some helpful advice from the user Rubjonny who uses several of the forums these where soon sorted.

 

So thats pretty much where im up too now. The ABF is sooo much better than my old fairly tired KR lump. There are still a couple of minor things i need to sort - Starter motor keeps sticking on & think i need to get the camber/tracking checked as the steering wheel is on the p!ss now but it was straight before. Also where we had the front off and the bonnet catch etc (cos i snapped the cable) the bonnet does not quite shut down right so left with slightly iffy looking panel gaps which really bugs me but should be easy enough to sort!

 

Oh and i still want to strip down the 1st engine i bought to try and figure out what was wrong with it (and perhaps get some money back although there are a lot of bits i did use or want too keep and i made a bit back by selling the gearbox seperatly)! but its kinda out of sight out of mind at the back of the shed now the car is on the road - will definatly do it at some point and then probably put the head/cams on at some point in the future.

 

anyway couple of more recent pics:

 

 

at E38:

 

with its twin:

 

 

 

 

:grin:

[martinb 0]

Christ Martin, I didn't realise you'd had such a game with your Rado! Spending £350 on a funked engine must have hurt....mind you getting a full ABF for £100, kinda makes up for that :D

 

yeah was not paticularly impressed Stu, particularly as there where cheaper engines available but i paid extra as it had already had everything done to it and was bought from a mate! Still gotta look into what was wrong with it and then perhaps have a chat with him about getting a bit of my money back.

 

But well pleased with it now, got there in the end!

[martinb 0]

:) Sounds good.

 

There are supposed to be some issues with fitting an ABF to a corrado due to bonnet clearance issues, so it'l be interesting to see how you get on. Might need to fit a 42mm inlet to get a bit more space?

 

Will make good power and rev well once in though :)

 

yeah was slightly worried by that as it was obvious it was going to be tight but it just about fits :)

[martinb 0]

now sadly sold :(

[Super-G 0]

Martin, Such a shame, you took the car such a long way in the last two years. Looked challenging at times, but what a massive improvement you made to the car. It really looked sweet and i'm sure it went well too. Hope the next owner will cherish it as much as you have.

Top work. :salute:

 

Are you replacing it?

[martinb 0]

Cheers Dude. Really do miss the car but the im sure the new owner is gonna take good care - he has already signed up on here.

 

Yeah it has been replaced with a Bora, not as much fun but proving to be much easier to live with as a family car :)