There's some saying, which I don't know the exact words of, about something like "the best laid plans of mice and men." There's another saying, which I am quite fond of, which is, "it seemed like a good idea at the time." I can't say I ever quite got to that point over the past week with working on Carmen, but it came pretty close.
Why? Well despite my previous experience working on 8v motors of all sorts, it had been a while since I had to work on one which was still sporting pretty much all the original accessories as equipped from Volkswagen. What could possibly go wrong?
Well to start, not a whole lot. Aside from some fairly skanky coolant, things were progressing quite smoothly up until it came time to separate the water pump from the O.G. water pump housing. Snap, snap, snap...three of the bolts decided they were just fine where they were and didn't feel they needed to move one inch. Looks like the supercharger and all it's bracketry has to come off...
And so it's just as well. The G-lader, despite being a pretty low mile rebuild, has clearly had oil seeping through the seals, so I took the time to clean things up.
I assume this was from the rebuild? Someone was in there with an engraver at some point. Looks like M.B. 08/21/01. (Like I said, the car was sitting for quite a while before I picked it up)
We'll revisit some time in the future to see if they're still a problem, but for now things are looking a lot better, visually anyway.
After removing the charger, disconnecting the A/C compressor (which still seems to work amazingly enough), and removing the charger bracket, I was finally able to swap out the housing. It's pretty clear that the PG block has been living with sub-standard coolant and not VW G11, as there is a lot of corrosion in there. It makes me a little nervous but we'll see how things pan out there as well.
The other big job was to swap the old coolant hoses for a high-quality Samco kit. Although the top hose had been installed some time before, the rest of the kit was sitting in a box just waiting to be installed. How hard could that be? Turns out, very.
I'd never worked on a Corrado before, and let's just say space is at a bit of a premium. The factory spring clamps, although reliable and strong, are a real pain to remove when you can barely get a grip on them. I took this chance to replace them with stainless steel ABA clamps which are easier to install and won't cut into the silicone. Much time was spent cursing, swearing, and generally abusing my arms and hands trying to get this kit on. No wonder it was still in the box. It took a good bit of effort, but eventually everything was replaced, including the coolant flange on the side of the head, and thanks to a handy-dandy vacuum pump, I had the cooling system topped off and things running again in no time. As long as by no time you mean spending four 5 hour+ evenings after work getting all these little problems worked out.
One other thing I noticed is that Carmen seems to be running a 65mm pulley rather than the 68mm that I assumed was on the charger. The 68mm pulley was stuffed down inside another parts box and after comparing the two, it's clear that the one from the charger was smaller. I also took the time to create a little more clearance for the super wide Bahn Brenner belt conversion, which had done some clearancing of its own, but Chad had some of his trusty metal bits around so it took barely any time to do.
The one thing I didn't get a chance to do was to get her on the dyno. For another time I suppose. The important thing is that the timing belt (which was in fine shape), water pump (bearings felt good!), and a few other key components (the only weak point was the coolant flange I replaced), were brought back to spec and we're at a point where we won't have to worry about those things when we finally are on the dyno. I also sprung for a new crankshaft bolt, as this is a one-time use item and as they tend to back out and wreck crankshafts and motors, I wasn't taking any chances. I also cleaned and re-oiled the K&N air filter, but like I said before, I hope to be going back to a stock air box before too long. I'll dyno it to see if there are any losses, but the extra safety is probably worth a few less horses.
One last final word of thanks to Chad and Pat from NGP, who as always came through with tools, time, and always helpful advice. Without those guys I would not have gotten things done in the time I had. And I'd not have that super fantastic OEM grill with G60 badge if it weren't for Chad either. (chad has a Corrado G60 as well and is stocked to the gills with extra this and that from all his parts cars)
As of right now we're going to have some time before we move any further forward with Carmen, which is perfect since Jason has finally taken delivery of his 1973 Fox sedan and has been cursing his decision ever since. More soon!
_WRS
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