Cluffy’s Corrado VR6 - Love/Hate/Love saga...

[stuboy]

great work !!

[Cluffy]

The other driveshaft is now torqued. 

I've tried in/above the engine mount with covers and cabling routed how I want - the was a cable interfering with steering movement before (or I think there was). It's now safely tucked out of harms way

Aux water pump and housing seated back in place. This has allowed the injector wiring to be fitted up too:

Gear linkage now mated back up to gearbox. I'll torque it once I have the linkage all joined up. I'll likely leave that until the clutch slave issue has been resolved:

Finally I got the inlet manifold and new gasket on. Not sure of the torque figure so need to nip up once I've confirmed that from the Bentley Book. 

No avoiding it now, need to split the clutch line and hope the new hose/pipe is a good replacement fit (looks it). Also not far from a first fire up just to confirm no craziness during the last couple of months of build up..!

[Cluffy]

Today is a big day. First start... Just a few jobs to complete first. 

Tidied up gearlinkage just so it was done and to test I could get 1-5 plus Reverse. All good. Torqued to spec. 

Starter wiring. Lost my photos of the previous setup so Google and brain power to the rescue. 

Finally battery on:

And.... Turned over fine 💪

Then had a brief calm down it hadn't blown up to then do the big one... Fuel pump relay back in, plugs in, leads on..... And it started after maybe 4 seconds on the starter 👏 I took a video but don't think I can include here....

Very pleased. A bit of power steering pump whine but that'll clear up with more fluid and exercising the rack... 

Now @grogee needs to help my bleed the clutch and I need to do (my nemesis) the coolant hoses and fill that without leaks. Plus front bodywork back together etc. Determined to have a shakedown with tax on/around 1st June 🤞🤞🤞

[Cluffy]

Well, where did we get to... Ah yes, Clutch and bits... Well, had a little wait while the diaries aligned with @grogee but no drama as a fair bit to do...

First was plumbing in all the coolant lines, rad etc:

There was a weep around the thermostat housing but that seems (God please let it be so!) to have fixed itself while running the car for a short period. 

It was also squealing like a pig and still is somewhat. I'm hoping it's the power steering. The belt goes quiet with a bit of tensioner spray.

Next up was front end on. Rad plastic surrounds and all the bits to get the slam panel on including lighting wiring and the bonnet release cabling. Then a million bolts and screws. I then threw the bumper in to place and left it to go for a beer:

Then the big effort today. Clutch bleeding with monsieur @grogee , lights fitted, bumper fully aligned and bolted up (bastard of a job for some daft reason), then dropped down and wheels torqued up to finally get.....:

...20 feet out of the garage..! But still, quite taken aback with feeling quite so proud. Genuinely wasn't sure at points if it would come out again under its own steam...!

Tomorrow I'll tax it and then the shakedown runs begin. Check getting up to temperature goes ok and I'm under instruction to do about 150 miles under load for the new bottom end before swapping out the oil and filter. I'll need an alignment doing soon as the rack'd been off and I've only done the straight ahead with the wheels by eye... It would be amazing if I can do a few miles in it tomorrow without the world ending and then give it a wash..!

[Cluffy]

After a short drive this morning we have a snag list:

- Coolant leak is back (bastard)

-Braking is there but firm pressure the pedal goes to the floor and no more braking. Bleed it up? Not sure why it happened as I only opened the clutch line. But I guess air could've made it's way in?

-Still squealing on the auxiliaries somewhere

-Top mounts needs securing better than I've been able to

As the MOT is up mid-July I can easily see this being a job card for our friendly local mechanic as I just don't have the stomach to take apart again to great lengths. A bleed of the brakes I can do with help if a friends right boot but the rest I just want some reassurance..! Also, a professional look over after this amount of work will be very welcome!

Engine feels and sounds amazing though. Alfa V6 the best sounding six cylinder ever? Hmmm, having had both I'd be on the fence...

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Sorry to hear the old girl is still being a stubborn shite. Talk about ungrateful! As you say, probably the right time to let someone else take a look before you completely lose the love. 

I know what you mean about the sound of the VR - I found the soundtrack from the 2.8 in my old mk2 Golf addictive. I still really miss that car. 

[Missy Charm]

7 hours ago, Cluffy said:

After a short drive this morning we have a snag list:

- Coolant leak is back (bastard)

-Braking is there but firm pressure the pedal goes to the floor and no more braking. Bleed it up? Not sure why it happened as I only opened the clutch line. But I guess air could've made it's way in?

-Still squealing on the auxiliaries somewhere

-Top mounts needs securing better than I've been able to

As the MOT is up mid-July I can easily see this being a job card for our friendly local mechanic as I just don't have the stomach to take apart again to great lengths. A bleed of the brakes I can do with help if a friends right boot but the rest I just want some reassurance..! Also, a professional look over after this amount of work will be very welcome!

Engine feels and sounds amazing though. Alfa V6 the best sounding six cylinder ever? Hmmm, having had both I'd be on the fence...

Is the clutch master cylinder fed from the brake fluid reservoir?  If so, there will be an hydraulic connection - however remote - between the clutch and brake circuits.  I would be possible, I suppose, for air to enter via the clutch system and transfer over to the brakes.  

[Cluffy]

47 minutes ago, Missy Charm said:

Is the clutch master cylinder fed from the brake fluid reservoir?  If so, there will be an hydraulic connection - however remote - between the clutch and brake circuits.  I would be possible, I suppose, for air to enter via the clutch system and transfer over to the brakes.  

Indeed it is. That's my hope as it was behaving just fine before the work began. Hopefully @grogee available for boot service in the week. Really need to get an eezibleed or equivalent...

[Cluffy]

And just like that* it's back on the road...

Turns out I'd bought poor quality aux belt and abs sensor which now they're replaced with FEBI ones are allowing it to behave properly!

I could've saved myself a lot of time and money but I'm just glad now it's working and I can get some use out of it before the winter muck returns...

I plan to wash it / clean it tomorrow so I'll post some more pictures once that's done

[Cluffy]

After some sprucing today... Won't win any awards but I'm going for mechanical ability trumping the cosmetics at the moment...

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Gorgeous.