Project VR6 What!

[359Bailey1320]

Wow might have to let him do work on elsee.

[RedYellowWhite]

I had the car detailed by my friend Garrett today. It's never looked so good since I've owned it! If you need detailing done this guy is your guy.

No real photo shoot, just a pic he sent me. Still god damn, it's looking good.


Freshly Detailed VR6T by rrotsaert, on Flickr

^^
Describing a "clean" Corrado perfectly

[vintage empire]

[DUBZAK]

[corrado-correr]

The Vrt, or "the green car" as I'm calling it these days desperately needed some new spark plugs. I dont know how or why I waited so long to do it.

So here's some new NGK BKR7E's and the associated tools need to do the job.


VR6T Spark Plug Install-8905 by rrotsaert, on Flickr

I learned this one the hard way a few years ago. The things need to be gaped down to 0.024". I put a black paint mark on the gapper this time to help me remember.


VR6T Spark Plug Install-8906 by rrotsaert, on Flickr

The old plugs had about 30k miles on them (maybe more). They literally came with the Kinetics stage 1 turbo kit I bought back in 2005.


VR6T Spark Plug Install-8907 by rrotsaert, on Flickr

They all looked the same. Not bad, just not really working so well with high humidity cold starts any more.


VR6T Spark Plug Install-8908 by rrotsaert, on Flickr

I'm still getting used to seeing two Corrados in my driveway everyday. I'm not going to lie - it's pretty ****ing cool.


Corrado Driveway by rrotsaert, on Flickr

[d-bot]

Don't care. Keep motivated and put the manifold on finally.

[corrado-correr]

Don't care. Keep motivated and put the manifold on finally.

you're such a good friend. i want the car to be running perfectly before i tear it apart.

[d-bot]

you're such a good friend. i want the car to be running perfectly before i tear it apart.

ZOMG!!! where did your oil cap go?

[HavokRuels]

As you saw from my instagram, I did mine yesterday as well. I'm not sure whose looked worse?? :p

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

[corrado-correr]

The garage door opens for the spring, revealing a familiar sight.


VR6 What Tail Light by rrotsaert, on Flickr

Some how the lower grill spontaneously combusted over the winter. This is concerning to me.


Spontaneously Combusted Lower Grill by rrotsaert, on Flickr

Any way, doing stuff. Taking some pictures.


VR6 What Wire Harness by rrotsaert, on Flickr


VR6 What Wire Harness by rrotsaert, on Flickr


VR6 What Wire Harness by rrotsaert, on Flickr


VR6 What Wire Harness by rrotsaert, on Flickr


VR6 What Wire Harness by rrotsaert, on Flickr


VR6 What Wire Harness by rrotsaert, on Flickr

[d-bot]

[RedYellowWhite]

[DUBZAK]

+

[hatemenow]

[corrado-correr]

Thanks I , , and you guys too.

[corrado-correr]

Maybe you guys can help me here. I look at all this stuff and I know what I want but then I start working on it and it becomes really intimidating and I stop working on it.

The theme of the engine bay:
Tidy, functional, probably dirty, not a show car bay. Clean would be nice, but i only care because i want it to be clean enough that diagnosing problems could be easy.

So two main goals here:
1. Find a good spot to mount a stand alone ECU. Keeping in mind that the Ecu is water tight and could just as easily be at home in the rain tray (this would be easiest maybe). The only reason why I think that mounting it inside the cab might be a good idea is that i'm going to have to run a data-com cable to a laptop every now and then for calibration and data logging.
2. Re-route the engine harness so it's not touching the turbo compressor housing.

So things that I could use opinions on:
1. Mount the ECU in the car, or in the rain tray? Why?
2. If I mount the ECU in one place or the other how should I route the engine harness? Why?


In the ideal scenario I dont have to lengthen the harness at all. I feel like I should be able to get away with this. The new ECU is plug and play meaning it plugs into the old ecu connector, also everything on the passenger side of the car is no longer needed (MAF, O2, rear knock, evap). This makes it easier i think because i have the length of wire that used to travel along the firewall to enter the inside of the car or run along the inside of the rain tray.

So I took a bunch of pictures of how it looks now (it's a mess), hopefully they illustrate what I'm working with.

This is the hole behind the turbo that the wire harness used to pass through to go to the ecu in the rain tray. just to the right of the hole is were the tubo used to touch the harness.

WireHarnessMess by rrotsaert, on Flickr


Here, are two pictures that are sort of an overview shot of the bay, you can see here that the length of the harness has a decent amount to work with.

WireHarnessMess-2 by rrotsaert, on Flickr


WireHarnessMess-4 by rrotsaert, on Flickr


Some where here, i'm thinking could be a potential area to pipe the harness into the cab if need be.

WireHarnessMess-3 by rrotsaert, on Flickr


You can see if the harness went into the cab how there seems to be planty of length alread, hence why i think i might not have to lengthen it.

WireHarnessMess-5 by rrotsaert, on Flickr


WireHarnessMess-6 by rrotsaert, on Flickr


So the other thought I had was to mount the ECU in the rain tray in a similar location as the stock ECU. Only this time run the harness up into the rain tray out of the way of the turbo.

WireHarnessMess-7 by rrotsaert, on Flickr


All opinions welcome.

Cheers,
Raven

[SLC4EVER]

The best way is typically not the easiest.

I think you should run it into the cabin where all the other harnesses enter. Cleans things up and you'd still have access to the data cable when needed. Plus I would prefer to tie into any power, grounds, or signals inside, not in the engine bay.

[g6raddo]

Please I have a feaver and the only remedy is seing how this manifold is going to turn out!!! It's killing me!!!!! Post pics ASAP!!!!!

[GT TDI Golf]

Please I have a feaver and the only remedy is seing how this manifold is going to turn out!!! It's killing me!!!!! Post pics ASAP!!!!!

Same here! Wish I had the welding and fab skills to make one myself.

[FlatlanderSJ]

I extended my harness and mounted my megasquirt ecu on the kneebar underneath the glovebox and ran the com cables through a hole drilled in the back of the glove box to keep it all neat and hidden when not in use. the only thing I worry about is EMI from the blower motor.

[corrado-correr]

the only thing I worry about is EMI from the blower motor.

this is the kind of thing i worry about.

also i worry about air flow to the ecu, and the ecu over heating. also i worry about vibration. also i worry about drilling new holes into the firewall. also i worry about worrieng and wish i didnt worry so much.

so just to make an argument for arguments sake, whats so bad about the OEM ecu location? what if i had the spoonfed rain tray (i do) and it covered all these wires anyway? what if this stand alone adventure dosent work out and I have to go back to the oem ecu? i worry about this.

Please I have a feaver and the only remedy is seing how this manifold is going to turn out!!! It's killing me!!!!! Post pics ASAP!!!!!

the point of this rewiring exercise is to start using the new manifold. the new manifold puts the throttle body just a few mm back to the point that after connecting the silicone coupler the turbo compressor housing needs to be rotated a bit for everything to fit right and now the turbo is in a touch condition with the wire harness.

i'm hesitant to run the car with the turbo touching the wire harness. I was going to maybe try to do something with the wire harness and keep the oem ecu and C2 managment (it's continued to work very well for me over the ~6 years i've had it). but then as an engine calibration engineer by profession i got tired of it all just working well and i decided that at the same time I'd like to know exactly what everything was doing and why.

so the project escalated. and now i'm here, i move the harness around and think about other options then move the harness around a bit, then think some more, then worry, then move it all around a bit more and peel off some more dried friction tape, then worry, then panic and run away.

i'll get the courage eventually.

[FlatlanderSJ]

this is the kind of thing i worry about.

also i worry about air flow to the ecu

well i think airflow would be the same inside the car vs in the rain tray and i don't think the ecu would get that hot sitting in the rain tray.

also i worry about drilling new holes into the firewall.

if you run it inside the car you should pull the whole harness and just re-route the ecu wires through the existing firewall boot. This would require de-pinning the connector and unwrapping/re-wrapping the harness but all the time spent is worth it. having a de-pinning tool also helps a ton.

[92rado2.8]

I run my MS set-up In the rain tray, works great. Stop worrying, that's what your wife is for.

[359Bailey1320]

t..., then worry, then panic and run away...

this pretty much sums up my entire corrado ownership experience

[corrado-correr]

Brian came over with some wire snips and gave me the courage i needed. Ok, truth be told, I stood around and drank beer while Brian cut all this stuff out.


Wire Harness Pruning by rrotsaert, on Flickr

What's left is something I think I can work with for now.


Wire Harness Pruning by rrotsaert, on Flickr

Re-motvated. Doing work. Party on.