My Rado(s) thread....

[Neaty]

Yea teledials have always been a favourite of mine. I have a feeling they are 5x130.

You could experiment with them and paint the centres black, seeing as though they would be winter wheels.

[gibby]

Looking good Martin. I'm still loving those wheels.

Best bet for some wheel geekness knowledge would be to pm ...joe and jv and they'll probbaly tell you what will fit those adaptors.

[martinb]

not updated this for a while!

anyway, my head gasket went, didnt think it was worth chucking money at an engine that has done nearly 200k now so sourced a new engine that a mate built for his mk2 before changing his mind and dropping a VR6 lump n. The spec is 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 of the above for £350 which having looked in the various classifieds looks a good price.

I trust the person who has the engine that its good (seeing his stunning mk2 VR is enough to convince me he doesnt cut corners as the engine was intended for that before he changed his mind and out the vr in) and its even in my village so no hassles collecting it.

So started the engine swap today, will have to use the original gear box outta my car for the time being though:




















fingers crossed, so far so good, should be finished over the weekend/monday (if i can blag another half day!).

steve's (caddyman) awsome carb'd mk2 valver, (I want!), cheers for all your hard work today buddy  !!




 

[martinb]

not up dated in here for a while so thought i would finish the stort of what happened next.....





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......

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!   

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 

[martinb]

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:  ) 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! 

[martinb]

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!!!!!!!!!!   

I had a few minor issues to sort with a few flashing warning lights/buzzers but after some helpful advice from Rubjonny 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:








 

[martinb]

and then after all that work and only enjoying the abf for a couple of months I reluctantly gave in to the need for a more sensible family car and because the sale of our mk2 would not raise enough funds to buy the sort of thing we wanted so the Corrado was put up for sale but eventually swapped for something a bit newer/more sensible:





Although i really miss the Corrado im am quite enjoying the Bora (especially heaters that actually blow HOT air, leccy windows that DONT take 5mins to go up, and not having to clean it every other day cos its not bright yellow!  ).

Since i have got it i've changed the de-badged grill for a standard one as i wasnt keen on the de-badge one and will probably eventually change the wheels as not too keen on the A8's either.

 

[Horney]

Sad times, always loved your Rado. Bora is a good car though. My Dad rates both his TDI Bora's as amongst the best cars he's ever had. High Praise from a man who's had a lotus elan, a MKI lotus Cortina, an Alfasud, a Saab 900 Turbo Carlson and a lowered and tuned MKIII VR!

Nick

[martinb]

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I would revive this one! I quickly got bored of the Bora, which made way for a 3dr mk2 oak green gti that kept me happy for a bit until last winter I decided to try something more "modern" again and got an A3 T Sport. With a remap that T sport was very quick but no real character. I had regretted getting rid of my Rado since about 10mins after it went so when a friend said he was getting rid of his, I could not resist! He had always liked my A3 so a deal was struck and this is the result:

when I first got it:





after sorting a few issues such as the tracking being way out and ruined front tyres, I got shot of the bonnet bra and changed the badgeless grille for a proper 'rado early 7 slat grille with 16v badge. Also found some Brock centre caps on Ebay.

The tatty interior bugged me so replaced the worn steering wheel with a 3 spoke leather one from a vr6, fitted an original gear knob to replace the pool ball that was fitted and changed the front seat for some Corrado half leather seats in the same pattern - these look factory and I have been told they could be from one of the original Corrado press cars which came with half leather.

before:



after:



These are the most recent pics I have:












Also have a VR6 lump waiting to drop in once I have collected all the bits I need...

[Seanl]

Yay another one! Looks tidy too! I looked at a nugget and a red one in my search. Nugget had been blown over but was done very poorly, no windows out or door jams, and no/very little attempt at cutting in the new paint as well as rough running and no centre exhaust. Red one had lots of faded areas and was over priced IMO. Glad you got a deal for another characterful car though! What are future plans if any?