I'd like to thank -skidmarks- for hooking me up with a copy the Fall 1997 issue of VW Power. I was finally able to read about "The Beast From The East," a car from which I drew a lot of inspiration despite never have read the article. So much was left to speculation and folk lore. Here are the scans for public consumption:
That VW Power article was a reprint of the 2/96 issue of EC. That was my first issue of EC, and started my interest in modified Corrados and 3.1 stroker kits.
That g60 intercooler pic is from a Eurotech g60 GTI article.
I spoke to Corey @ Euro Auto Source in York PA, apparently he has an ABT Crank but wont sell it to just anyone. Being that Das Beast owns the "Beast from the East" I think that might be enough incentive if someone wants to buy that car from him and restore it to its 3.1 greatness.
The 3.1L was made with this crank, and OEM 2.9L Pistons that were machined down about 2.5mm for the added stroke. A few people built motors without doing this important step and those 3.1L motors self destructed.
This is what ABT told me when we used to import from them. ABT gets the crank from the oem foundry that does them for VW. They are raw un cut casting and that is why both ABT and VW markings appear on them They are ground with the same crank journals, and same rod journals as a stock 90.3mm VR6 crank but at 95.6mm.
Yes, oem rods would work provided that you offset the stroke by lowering the pin height of the pistons by 2.65mm. What ABT did was shave oem cast pistons and remachine them to adjust for the increased stroke, we did overbore (83mm) forged parts instead.
BTW, the only way you could regrind the oem 90.3mm crank would be to weld it then re-grind it. In fact, in 1996 we sent a VR6 crank to a well known US crank and rod manufacturer (I won't mention any names but it sounds a lot like...Power). Our hope was to have the oem crank welded and reground to be able to offer this reground version at a far lower cost than the ABT part. We heard nothing for almost 2 years and then one day we got it back in 1998 with a note telling us they couldn't help us that it was too complex. (Jeez, thanks)
If you are really an old school VR6 guy, you may find this entertaining. I know that every year or two I enjoy cracking open a cold one or three and dreaming back to the days when a p-flo was still a mythical power adder, ecu chips were state of the art, and the world of VR6 tuning was basically a new land, yet to be explored.
what would you wind up with on a bored 3.0L block and a 3.2 crank? i believe the answer is a 3.2 but some of you know this better than i do. how do they get to a 3.6? crank and bore or mainly bore with a 3.2 crank? im assuming a 3.2 would be maxing out our 12v blacks safely for NA or FI. I could def see doing a 3.2 over a 3.0 if youre going to bother, a 3.2 is almost a 15% increase over a 2.8. screw it, just turn up the boost.:laugh:
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