'89 Corrado 16v - ABF KJET - Fun weekend car

Hello all,
I am going to document the build of my corrado 16v over here.

Excuse the grammar faults, as I am from Spain....

As background I got into old Vw mk2 in the early 2000's , build and helped build a lot of cars but then priorities changed and I loose the interest in them.

So, this year I was planning into buying a little fun street car, and thought why not buy the dream car when I got my driving license at 18 old, a vw corrado...They are slighting going up in price, so i wanted to pick up one before they are to expensive.

After some searching I came into this very cheap as it needed a lot of work, but was a solid base to work on. I saved it from the wreckers.

Pics from when I bought it. Admire this gorgeousness.

 

So, as you've seen the previous owner got a bit jealous with the red paint spray can. So one of the first jobs was to remove all those shaded red bits of the car and clean up a bit the interior.

Interior(and exterior) needed lots of work as you see:








So I began sourcing parts ,(not that easy anymore for corrado specific parts):

New wheel


New used Dash bezels(center with OEM cassette holder I wanted to have)


OEM golf mk4 gamma radio with oem cd changer. Corrado period correct radios are fecking expensive, so a friend changed the headunit on his mk4 gti and gave away these. I think it matches the interior quite good, although the lighting is red. I installed the cd changer inside the rear armrest.





So after many hours of work it started to look like a normal car again:

 

One of the biggest issues the car had , was no power assistance to the brakes. It is ABS equipped as standard. I knew this would cause me trouble and that they aren't that great form new either.
So instead of trying to find the fault and spend money , I got rid of it completely.
Put a standard servo with a 22mm main cylinder, and voila, instant good braking power and feeling.

Old ankor out, all wiring and ecu also out:






And the replacing servo and 22mm cylinder . Much cleaner , simple and loosed some weight also.

 

Waouh.. You have a lot of work.
You should have kept the ABS. You can buy a diagnostic tool on this site
http://techniqueg60.com/index.php/kunena/boutique-club/932-appareil-de-lecture-de-defauts-abs

 

Momo Wheel looks like one from an EVO3 as seen here from one of my cars.

 

Yes it is, I liked a lot the OEM look with the center padded piece.
The stock steering wheel sits too far inside for me as I am a little large. So I also added a 50mm spacer for perfect driving position.

 

The exhaust also had some special tricks made by previous owner....




Aparently the adapted muffler touched the rear beam, so the solution was to put a string of hose in there....



So picked up a good condition used center suitcase and put all new rubber hangers:

 

The front beam needed some love also:





So refreshed all with new parts:

Old


New front and Audi TT solid rears




Old



New Gaitors and greese:





Some more front end parts



Also changed both front wheel bearings. Used the good ole fridge method. It came smooth:

 

The turn for the engine. It run sweet, no smoke but needed a whole overhaul . Mileage I think was around the 300k Kilometers mark, because the cluster stopped counting like 7 years ago at 240k...

Pictures before the beginning of work:





Some interesting things found:


Longtime no serviced



Usual fucked up distributor seal





This is inside the water pump housing


Awesome

 

I wanted also to renew the radiator.As many of you know the type of radiator for corrados with both hoses near the battery is NLA in a lot of places. And if you find one is not that cheap either.

So to be sure that in the future I can get access to more spare parts, I changed the radiator to normal MK2 GTI style(ready available from 35€), with both hoses on the alternator side. To do that I got both main hoses for MK2 16V with Aircon and done.

ALL coolant hoses were replaced, together with temp sensors, thermoswitch and thermostat.

 

Some more pics of repairs done. Wanted to say thanks to this forum. It was the first time I was working on a 16v KJET and clubgti is always my first choice for info.


Renewed distributor oil seal




Changed injectors cups, together will the inj seals


Brand new steering reservoir, old one was cracked




All the wiring in the engine bay was cracked in many places. Got hold of new EV1 conectors and
replaced main battery wires with used much newer ones from other cars .


Directly to the bin








Bigger/newer battery cables


Made a new charging cable between alt and battery.




And last pic of the engine bay before the first outing!!

 

I like my tunes when I drive, so updated the audio.
Wanted something decent, not overkill, so opted for a small 4 channel amp for powering a 8" sub and front door speakers .
I managed to fit the amp behind the dashboard for a steatlh look.



I did not want to put a sub box in the middle of the boot, I wanted it to be functional. So after searching I came with this idea.
Got a premade sub box for a Golf MK3 from ebay. It only needed some small cuts to fit. I like it a lot!!

 

So finally after some weeks of work I could drive the car.

First and best impression , was the tight and light handling with a 100% stock suspension. Was really impressed how good setup was from the factory.

Engine wise, I knew something wasn't right . It pulled to redline , but with many noises. Later I found out what was wrong...

Gearbox was also very noisy and clutch was on the limit, so began the source for a 02J box.

Was a fun drive anyway and pulled many views on the street.







We used to go on weekends with my friend and his MK3 16V to drive in the mountains and take a good meal. Fun times

 

After some weeks of fun, the disaster happened.

I was going trough the highway cruising and the low oil pressure started beeping, then the clacking from the engine...It was over for this engine.

The search for a replacement engine begun. Kr and 9A are pretty old, so it needed to be an ABF(also old btw..).
It is not that easy anymore to source ABF engines here either. Lucky me , a friend called me, he had a refreshed unit that wanted to sell.

Old Engine out







And the replacement low mileage fresh ABF:

 

I was undecided which route to take, OEM EFI or keep the KJETRONIC.
Strong point for me was to keep the originality of the Kjet with the car, although EFI would be much easier to maintain in the long run.
After reading much info here in the forums, and seeing how good the ABF responded to Kjet, it was clear for me, mechanical injection all the way.

Stock gearbox was garbage, so I sourced a 02J with EGV code. It comes in 20v NA cars, like audi a3 and toledo 1m . Super cheap and great upgrade, shorter gears, 100mm cups and together with a 02j shifter from a IBIZA 6K2, it is all bolt on.
Here are the ratios for reference:








02J shifter from IBIZA 6K2 , all bolt on



Another upgrade, lightened and balanced stock flywheel to 6,5kg

 

Great thread and congratulations on rescuing your Corrado from the breakers. I have a Mk2 Golf with ABF/KR 16v and it's a great match for originality with a bit more capacity

 

Thanks for the feedback Rooster

New MB injectors, thanks to the info given on this forum again. Improved the idle a lot.
Removed the air shroud system for simplicity. Keep it simple stupid.





New Genunine Bosch Fuel pump with new direct batt wiring and relay.

I tested voltage at idle at the pump terminals, I was getting 11,9volts !!!! No good when the alt was charging 14.0V. With fresh wiring now I get strong 13.9V at the pump, how it should be.

Also, do not buy cheap brand fuel pumps. I made that error to save some money, but it only lasted 1 week. False economy.

 

I wanted to be sure that fueling was spot on with this new engine, so welded a bung for a wideband o2 sensor.



Old clutch was touching the flywheel





Engine with new box ready to go inside the car


Midway there



All in

 

All the kjetronic fueling and igniton transfered to the ABF , but kept the newer aux belt system.



Upped main system pressure to 5,2 bar with one extra washer





And lowered control pressure to 3,3bar




And finally all ready for the first test with the ABF longblock

 

Nice job And amazing story