My weekend warrior - 20VT from Israel

[orons 10]

Hi,

 

My name is Oron and i live in Israel.

About a year ago I have bought a Corrado and this is my build story.

English is not my native language so i apologize for any typos and bad grammar :)

 

Into

I have been a car enthusiast all my life and always had a sporty cars. About 3 years ago i finished my degree and finally started to make some money.

So after a couple of month i could buy a proper sports car. After couple weeks of searching i found it a 2011 Renault Megane RS250 Cup.

 

 

What a great car!!!

 

 

Had the car for a year, problem was that the next year i plan of doing a lot of mileage and it was no longer economical to keep it. So i decided to look at something old that handle well and do a project on it and buying some economical crap for my every day use.

Started looking but the sport car market here is very thin, looked at old BMW s series almost bought a MK2 Golf G60 but all of them was or very expensive for the price or been in an accidents.

 

One day a friend of mine (who owns a Corrado) call me at work and tell me to drop every thing and call a guy who sells his Corrado 20VT in a good price. So i dropped every thing and called him, to cut the story short the same evening i went to see the car and bought it.

 

Its a 1900 US spec G60 Corrado which had a 20VT transplant.

 

 

And with my Megane:

 

 

The car stood for a lot of years during and after the engine swap so the car needed a lot of TLC so started a 2 days cleaning marathon.

 

Engine bay:

Interior:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued...

Edited September 26, 2014 by orons

[orons 10]

A friend on mine stopped by and we gave the car a proper polish and sealant:

 

 

 

 

 

Looked a lot better.

 

Ordered Momo wheel:

 

 

 

 

Took the car for a semi track day (we don't have tracks in Israel, this is a long carting track we use), I like the balance of the car but i realize that the suspension setting was not good:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the role angle and wheel in the air :)

 

Also met Israel Corrado club:

 

 

 

Look how high my car sit...

 

At that point i realize that i need to sort the suspension, all about it in the next post

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Welcome!

 

I love it when foreign people apologise for their English, when in fact it is a LOT better than most ENGLISH people's English :D

 

Good to see Corrado clubs the world over.

 

I like the way the G60 airbox has been kept in the conversion, which makes it look original. I approve :D

 

Keep up the good work!

[orons 10]

After i saw how soggy the suspension i decided to do an overhaul for it, order all the bushing new from Powerflex , new tie rods and new ball joints.

 

 

 

My US spec seat belts were not good so i've got a Europe spec seat belts and convert it:

 

 

 

 

Got some new mats:

 

 

Gear lever trim:

 

 

So someone is selling after market Recaros cheap so went and bought them (very rare in Israel):

 

 

H&R anti roll bar:

 

 

KW V3:

 

[orons 10]

Installation:

 

 

First trip with new suspension:

 

With a friend:

[orons 10]

Welcome!

 

I love it when foreign people apologise for their English, when in fact it is a LOT better than most ENGLISH people's English :D

 

Good to see Corrado clubs the world over.

 

I like the way the G60 airbox has been kept in the conversion, which makes it look original. I approve :D

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks!

 

I also loved that it looks stock, but i have to ditch it later on... :( you will see why.

[orons 10]

So after the suspension was sorted out decided to go to the next thing that annoyed me, the brakes...

After looking for a complete kit i realize its to expensive for me at this point so i went with a home made kit :)

 

Porsche 911 (996) calipers:

 

Weighs just 2.7 KG.

 

Problem was that they are huge, and will not fit in my wheels... looked all over Israel for wheels that can fit the calipers and didn't find ones (most of the wheels in Israel in Chinese knockoffs). So looked abroad and found out that Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 will fit with a small spacer so i've order them from the UK.

 

 

Fitment checks

 

 

Adapters form Germany, not cheap but great quality

 

 

A friend gave me a MK4 golf rear calipers, painted them black to match the front calipers:

 

[orons 10]

Fitted the wheels:

 

 

And drove to a friend garage to install the brakes, trunk picture:

 

All the parts on the floor:

 

For discs i went with Seat Ibiza Cupra R discs ( 305X28 mm)

 

Installation pictures:

 

 

After that a photographer friend on mine wanted to do a photo shoot for the car, saw no reason to say no

 

[orons 10]

So That conclude the fun portion of the build for me (the suspension and brakes).

 

As the time pass i realize that the weakest point of the car was the engine swap, it was done on a budget and was good for a drive around town but not for spirited driving.

Some examples:

On every electrical plug that was connected there were a plug in the air.

One time my fans electrical plug caught fire... after i left the car.

Boost hose got loose from there bands.

Boost leaks from bad welding.

 

And things got even worse after i got the car tuned (big mistake to do it before sorted out the engine)

 

So started ordering some parts for the engine:

Plugs

Coils

Temperature sensors

Fan switch (lower temperature)

New timing kit (belts, tensioner, water pump...)

 

Thermostat

 

Coolant silicone hoses:

 

Inlet:

 

My gearbox also started to make problems, there were a wine from it and the diff started to make clicking noise.

So found Ibiza Cupra gearbox and shift lever\cables.

 

Parts for restoring the shifter

 

Got a Quaife diff:

 

Lightweight flywheel and VR6 Clutch (LUK)

BFI shift knob

 

Diesel geek quick shift

 

Turbosmart BOV:

[orons 10]

So after I've done with parts hording i finally found a VW specialist mechanic who opened is own shop.

Came for an oil change and ended leaving the car there for a project.

 

What's on the menu:

Replace engine mounts.

Replace the Timing.

New fuel lines and pump.

Changing the inlet manifold to the other side to make room for FMIC.

Changing the valve cover, mine was from a A4 with no breather outlets.

Install the new gearbox, install diff in gearbox and change clutch and flywheel.

Sort out the electrical wiring.

Move the battery to the trunk.

Change all the coolant system.

Change the breather hose to silicone.

Replace faulty starter.

Replace gear lever mechanism and install quick shift.

Replace coolant tank.

Replace power steering pump hose.

Move washer bottle to the other side.

Downpipe, FMIC and free flow exhaust system.

Replace O2 Sensor.

 

Sure i'm forgetting some stuffs....

 

So lets get started, this is how the engine looked when we started:

 

 

New valve cover and intake gets a new paint job:

 

 

Starting to look better:

 

 

In the same time a near by shop done me a new downpipe and exhaust system:

 

 

 

Till next time...

Edited September 26, 2014 by orons

[sexybourbon 0]

Very nice work mate , parts cant be to hard to source judging by the anount done lol

[orons 10]

Very nice work mate , parts cant be to hard to source judging by the anount done lol

 

Thanks mate!

Maybe 5% of the parts are from Israel, most of the parts are from abroad, My post office stuff knows me by name...

[Hairyarse 10]

Some nice upgrades there, that's a nice looking Corrado. The engine bay is looking much nicer now :)

[GrahamU 5]

looking good

[Jim 1]

Wow - what an introduction! I've said it before many times, but I love seeing all the places in the world where Corrado's live - never even occurred to me there were any out in Israel! Was the car originally sold out there, or was it imported from somewhere else?

 

Great work on giving it some TLC and overhauling it - looks superb now and I bet it drives great with all the upgrades you've done.

[emu 0]

Lots of good work done :) welcome and good luck wit the car.

[orons 10]

Wow - what an introduction! I've said it before many times, but I love seeing all the places in the world where Corrado's live - never even occurred to me there were any out in Israel! Was the car originally sold out there, or was it imported from somewhere else?

 

Great work on giving it some TLC and overhauling it - looks superb now and I bet it drives great with all the upgrades you've done.

 

My Corrado was imported from the U.S. sometime during the 1990s. There was a regular sale of Corrado in Israel buy they were very expensive so I estimate that half of the Corrado in Israel are private imports.

[orons 10]

Thanks guys for all you positive feedback's, i appreciate it :thumbleft:

 

The next part was the fuel line, there was a couple of horror story with fuel line among my friends, so i decided not to take any risks with it. The plan was to change all the fuel lines from the tank to the fuel rail with braided ones, and add some "bling" to it :)

 

Some measuring and testing fuel filters (ended up with an Audi S4 fuel filter, because it have threads):

 

 

Starting to get into shape:

 

 

Installed a fuel pressure gauge

 

Bracket for fuel filter:

[orons 10]

Next thing on the list was the FMIC, during the swap they use the original G60 intercooler which is small, also all the welds were rotten and i had a lot of boost leaks.

Problem was that Corrado is one of the worst cars for FMIC, i live in a very host climate and didn't want to ditch the AC system. Another option was to change to RS bumper but i don't like the look of them... Another option was to cut the bumper support bar, also didn't like that idea. So ended up with a small intercooler, hopes that i will be enough (my power goal is not to high).

 

So the picture:

 

Initial measuring

 

Painted black

 

Almost final results

 

With fuel lines and washer bottle

[orons 10]

Another thing we have done is move the Battery to the trunk.

 

 

In the engine bay we've made a connector for starts.

 

 

 

Gearbox/diff/shifter

 

Diff getting installed:

 

 

New gearbox with the short shifter:

 

Painted the front subframe and gearbox mount arm:

 

Flywheel and clutch:

 

Installed in the car:

 

New shift knob:

 

During the work in the garage the hood cable snapped, so ordered billet horn and Audi hood cable (the Corrado one are no longer in production...)

 

Installed oil temp and pressure gauge:

[sexybourbon 0]

Nice work bud nice to see someone putting in olent of effort ,do you have a link to the site where you got your cable and bonnet pop pieces ??

[orons 10]

The horns are from:

http://www.verdictmotorsports.com/Corrado_G60_SLC_VR6_Hood_Cable_Horns_p/0138.htm

 

Or:

http://www.spoonfedtuning.com/collections/corrado/products/stainless-steel-hood-release-cable-horns

 

Cable from here:

http://www.tdnparts.com/hood-release-cable/

 

You need to short it a little

[orons 10]

Got some carbon fiber surprise from spoon.

 

 

Had to install VR wiper asselmbly

 

 

And installed:

 

[fitzy121 10]

Nice work .

[sexybourbon 0]

Thanks bud that good of you to put the links up , scuttle looks great in carbon