Hi, new Bristol member

[pappers 50]

Hello...

I picked this up a month ago after some research. 1.8L, 76k, Mystic Blue. Drives solid with very little rust and the interior has little to no wear. Why am I here? I will be attempting a VR conversion nearer Summer, so on the lookout for infos and parts. The site has already been a great help. Cheers, Chris

Edited February 20, 2015 by pappers

[daveyboy 897]

Welcome along mate. You've came to the right place for your conversion. Are you planning to get a donor car?

[pappers 50]

I have limited storage space (and Id be making trouble for myself at home...cough) so Im trying to find a car being broken with a good engine and box to get most of the bits from. Ive done a lot of reading - still undecided, OBD2 AAA or ABV. Makes sense to go ABV from my base starting point unless anyone knows otherwise? Id convert the ABV (if I can find one) to OBDII. I'll drop it and stick some wheels on when I find what I want, but its quite fun at the mo as original barge spec.

[daveyboy 897]

It's easy enough to change from odb1 to odb2. I've got the ABV lump in mine and it's odb2 now

[daveyboy 897]

I'd say the easiest way to do your conversion would be to get the sub frame with the engine box front struts brakes etc still all in place and drop all your stuff off your wagon and just bolt the vr subframe in place

[pappers 50]

Thanks for the straight info. Forgive me if I come across ignorant here Daveyboy, but would I need to change that much? Or, Ive been missing the fact that the Golf and Corrado subframes/front suspension etc are the same? That would make sense.

Ive been working towards finding an engine and box as I believe the wagon driveshafts mate up ok to the VR box. I was going to keep the 4 studs but do a 280mm brake conversion up front. Do I need to go 5 stud or is it about better suspension geometry? Cheers.

[daveyboy 897]

Well the mk3 golf subframe is the same I think to the vr but I think wishbones and drive shaft lengths will be slightly different as the mk3 gti 16v and vr6 have a wider track. To do a 288mm (odb2) brake conversion you'd have to go 5 stud. Like I say the easiest way for me would be to get everything complete on the vr subframe and just bolt it all in to your shell.

I'm not sure if the corrado subframe is the same. I'd imagine it is.

I'm sure someone will jump in and say otherwise

Edited February 16, 2015 by daveyboy

[daveyboy 897]

I must add the suspension on the mk3 vr and the corrado vr are the same as my coilovers came off a corrado

[daveyboy 897]

There's a guy on here has done a vr conversion called DanChave he would be a good help for you

[DanChave 98]

Hello bud! The subframes are indeed the same on mk3's and Corrado's If I could give one bit of advise, it would be to buy a complete donor though, as then you have everything in front of you, and it will save a lot of time hunting for parts you didn't realise you needed before you get into it! It's also worth noting that Estate rear suspension and beam are different to the hatch's, so you will need Variant specific coilovers Like daveyboy said, the easiest way would be to leave everything attacted to the subframe and put it all in, in one lump

 

disc conversion wise, you can bolt up the VR6 rear hubs to the estate beam and you are good to go for 5x100 I'll be doing a 5x100 disc conversion on my estate over the next few days, so I'll let you know if I encounter any issues

[pappers 50]

Hello Dan,

Cheers for that. Nice to 'meet' someone also doing an estate, I think you can expect questions in the future. Yeah found out about that rear beam doing the internet rounds. Which coilovers are you running, the TA ones? The others dont seem to drop so much.

 

At the mo I'm between keeping the 4 studs but running the 280mm discs (not 288mm 5 stud) up front (G60/ early Gti setup) or going full 5 stud. I have 256mm discs up front at the mo so the 280mm calipers and carriers will bolt on allwoing new 280mm discs and pads. I could then substitute the equivalent extra track width of the 5 stud suspension with a lower ET wheel dimension. The rears could stay as drums or take Mk2/3 calipers/carriers and 239mm 4 stud discs I believe. May I ask why you've decided to go 5 stud Dan?

 

So to go the ABV route Id be looking for a complete Corrado VR really. Is it relatively plug and play Daveyboy if I converted the ABV to OBD2? Dan are you running AAA?

 

I should start a proper thread really, keep all this together.

[daveyboy 897]

If the ABV engine isn't running a coil pack you'll have to get a AAA coil pack upper timing chain cover and swap them. I think the odb2 inlet is different to the odb1. I got just a bare ABV block and swapped all my AAA odb2 stuff onto the ABV lump

[DanChave 98]

I'm going 5 stud on the estate, just purely so all my cars are 5x100 and I can swap my wheels about when I get bored lol yeah, it's on Ta Technix

As for the GTI, I converted to OBD1 AAA, which went bang, so I stuck an ABV in there. I'm now running a 2.9 on obd1 2.8 throttle body, maf and ecu because I couldn't be arsed to change the loom again, as it ment taking out the servo and re bleeding the breaks and clutch lol!

I will get mapped soon though, hopefully April, so I can use the larger inner diameter ABV throttle body

[pappers 50]

Cheers Dan. Id be interested to hear how the 5x100 swap goes on the estate, especially up front. I presume you too have an ARB on the front of your estate, be interesting to know if that needs swapping for the VR one to go 5 stud. I dont have wheels to swap with anything so for me its prob best to stay 4 stud. There are plenty of 4 stud wheels about and I can get a slightly wider track through lower ET on wheels. Also can do 280mm 4 stud brake conversion easy enough from my 256mm fronts.

Will prob end up with TA Technix as limited choice.

Sounds like you have a fairly unique and interesting setup there in your VR! Let me know how the remap goes.

Whereabouts are you in Devon? We get down there a fair bit in Summer.

[DanChave 98]

I'll be making a start on the 5 stud conversion early next week, so I'll update on that front soon

The ideal thing about going 5 stud is, if you buy a complete donor, you have everything right there

[DanChave 98]

After getting into the 5 stud conversion yesterday, I soon realised a lot was different up front! I won't go into everything, but in the end I had to swap outer cv joints, wishbones, hubs, ball joints, track rod ends, and ARB. it would have been far easier to replace the whole subframe and components in one go, but the rod change setup on my 1.9d has a bracket bolted on top of the power steering rack. This meant to remove the subframe, I would have had to remove the exhaust, heat shielding and shifter as well, so I opted to swap all the above in situ. I'll let you know how the rear goes tonight

For your conversion, it's definitely best to remove the subframe with the engine, and then fit the VR6 with its subframe, to save a ton of work. As you will have to remove your exhaust anyway, it will be easy enough for you to remove the shifter if it's a rod set up, and drop it down with the engine on the subframe! If your current engine is a cable setup, then you can leave that in place, as it will bolt to the VR6's O2A shifter tower

[pappers 50]

Hi Dan,

Good work.

Id read that about the front, bit of work - rears should be easier. How was the ARB to change?

I was going to ask about the exhaust, but Ill leave that till nearer the time I do mine otherwise Ill forget.

Im on the lookout now for a donor, although Id rather wait till it warms up a bit, so will bear your advice in mind ref. transplant of subframe.

Ill be dealing with a driveshaft puzzle instead cos of the 4 stud, although I believe splines are interchangeable between shafts.

I just picked up some Lucas 280mm calipers that are being soda blasted (in my other thread) and wheels next week, so Im committed to 4 stud

Im looking forward to getting on with the main event, the 'go' part, but at least Ill have something that looks half way decent in the next few weeks.

[oliver cox 71]

hi pal you have to start somewhere look like a good base to start on