# Misinformation MK2 VR6 swap



## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

I've extensively read between this forum and mk2vr6.com and I'm rather shocked at the huge amount of misinformation regarding this swap and what pieces will/will not work.

I'm tired of trying to sift through this crap on my own (after a good 6 months or so) so I'm breaking down and asking a question.

The internet says you can use a stock a2 lower radiator support beam to fit a corrado vr6/g60 radiator. I have verified this as true. However the problem with this is:

1: There is no way to mount the radiator tot he upper rad/grill support
2: the only way to actually mount this in the car is to remove the rad fans. Otherwise it hits the alt/AC compressor
3: there is no room to mount the AC condenser without it hitting the grill/rad support (not enough room in front).

I find this really infuriating because I have read multiple places that all of these pieces "bolt right on." 

So set me straight please.


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## bonesaw (Aug 8, 2004)

the a2 and corrado lower rad part are identical. 
you use the stock tab to hold the rad up top.
you mount corrado fans or trim mk3 shroud to fit.
AC should be no problem as it fits in a corrado.


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

what stock tab? Is mine magically missing said tab? You have a picture of this tab?

Roger the fans... except mine inexplicably hit the alternator

and I have corrado vr6 condenser which as I said, there is not enough room in front of the rad :sly:

Thanks for helping.


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## bonesaw (Aug 8, 2004)

The same tabs that work on mk2 rad. They bolt to upper rad support and have a tab that goes into the rad.


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

Interesting. I do not have these tabs. Think you have a spare set I could buy?


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## sdezego (Apr 23, 2004)

What radiator are you using? You never mentioned it. It sounds like you may be using the G60 Rad which will not work because it is longer than the Corrado VR Rad and sits on less of an angle which would cause it to hit the Alt/Comp.


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

corrado vr


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## all-starr-me (Jul 14, 2003)

The tabs are part of the upper radiator support/headlight cross member, should be right where the upper radiator outlet neck comes out unless someone cut them off for you. should all fit in there very tightly with just enough room for everything.

personally I ditch the corrado stuff and use a B4 radiator which is thicker, taller and just as long and has a bigger fan, but it needs a B3 16v 5 speed lower support and B3/4 hoses as well as some trimming to the upper rad support. It doesn't really fit with small bumpers like a corrado one does but I have no cooling problems between the larger core bigger fans and a low temp thermostat even in the hottest temps.


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## vonfulk (Sep 2, 2004)

I ended up buying a couple 10" slim fans. much easier to access stuff up front too.
-dave


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## BiH (Nov 27, 2000)

corrado rad with fans will fit fine and if you use corrado AC parts it fits perfectly. not sure why are you running into problems I had mine fitted fine but then decided to ditch the AC and ended up with mk3 rad at this point cause of SRI clearance.


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## Wayne92SLC (Mar 1, 2001)

tasty danish said:


> what stock tab? Is mine magically missing said tab? You have a picture of this tab?
> 
> Roger the fans... except mine inexplicably hit the alternator
> 
> ...


 Not sure if you still need a pic of the tabs...they are on the right side of this pic. Basically, L-brackets that slide into slots in the radiator. 

 
S2 header project 009 by wayne92SLC, on Flickr 

Here's a decent pic of the one on the driver's side by the radiator neck... 

 
VR6 build 283 by wayne92SLC, on Flickr 

And after I changed the bolts out to ARP for no reason at all... 

 
arp 016 by wayne92SLC, on Flickr 

 
arp 015 by wayne92SLC, on Flickr


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

No shi... 

I need to either buy or fab these damn things. Thanks! 

I must be a freak. I Have slim fans and a rado radiator and they hit the alternator, and to make enough clearance to fit there, I had to tilt it forward and grind away at some of the front support. 

It's not an issue of it working, it's an issue of wanting to be as lazy as possible. 

I'll take some shots once my head goes back on.


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

sdezego said:


> the G60 Rad will not work because it is longer than the Corrado VR Rad and sits on less of an angle which would cause it to hit the Alt/Comp.


 Speaking of misinformation.


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## sdezego (Apr 23, 2004)

please enlighten me on what part of what I stated is "wrong information"?


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

sdezego said:


> please enlighten me on what part of what I stated is "wrong information"?


 The part where you say the Corrado G60 radiator doesn't fit. I've been running one on my car for 10 years. What makes you say it won't fit?


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## sdezego (Apr 23, 2004)

stealthmk1 said:


> The part where you say the Corrado G60 radiator doesn't fit. I've been running one on my car for 10 years. What makes you say it won't fit?


 Are you running A/C and the stock Corrado condenser like the OP posted? 

Regardless, anything can work, but if you read what the OP was looking for, he was looking for pretty much plug and play.


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

sdezego said:


> Are you running A/C and the stock Corrado condenser like the OP posted?
> 
> Regardless, anything can work, but if you read what the OP was looking for, he was looking for pretty much plug and play.


 No, I bought what I was told was plug and play, and I'm pretty convinced that nothing truly is such. 

Not that I don't like playing with my plasma cutter, but once, just ONCE I'd like to read on a forum how well something went together and have it actually work out as such. 

Regardless, I've made it fit, but I still need to find some of these tabs... I'll probably just bend my own... :banghead:


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

sdezego said:


> Are you running A/C and the stock Corrado condenser like the OP posted?
> 
> Regardless, anything can work, but if you read what the OP was looking for, he was looking for pretty much plug and play.


 I'm not, but his original question didnt seem to center around the use of a/c, though he mentioned it. He seems to be asking several, more general questions and it appeard that your answer was similarly general, saying that a G60 radiator cannot be used. I apologize if I misunderstood your response, but in a thread whee the OP is questioning conflicting or unclear information I feel like we should all try to answer as concisely as possible. :beer:


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

tasty danish said:


> No, I bought what I was told was plug and play, and I'm pretty convinced that nothing truly is such.
> 
> Not that I don't like playing with my plasma cutter, but once, just ONCE I'd like to read on a forum how well something went together and have it actually work out as such.
> 
> Regardless, I've made it fit, but I still need to find some of these tabs... I'll probably just bend my own... :banghead:


 I understand you're frusterated, but remember, you're doing a swap so regardless of what you read on the internet one way of the other, stuff may need to be altered to fit or work properly. there have been hundreds of these swaps carried out by members of this forum, so I assure you, when you do finally get the al info and parts you need all will be well. :thumbup:


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

stealthmk1 said:


> I understand you're frusterated, but remember, you're doing a swap so regardless of what you read on the internet one way of the other, stuff may need to be altered to fit or work properly. there have been hundreds of these swaps carried out by members of this forum, so I assure you, when you do finally get the al info and parts you need all will be well. :thumbup:


 LOL, this isn't my first engine swap. The issue with the VW forum vs the other cars I've worked with is that the info either doesn't exist or is just wrong. This causes you to buy parts that straight up don't fit, or where you should have stayed with the stock stuff. It costs me time and money. 

I feel like I could have built 3 400hp turbo rx-7s in the time it's taken me to just get straight info on my N/A VR6. 

Hell I megasquirted it and built the wiring harness from scratch simply because I was sick of playing "how's this work?" and spending time making the stock system work when I could re-engineer it better myself. 

Had I known everything wouldn't go together to begin with I'd have just fabricated my own radiator mount and gotten a used Griffen radiator from a Nascar team or something, instead I took quick and easy "advice" that costed me in the long run. And I've found that's the rule as opposed to the exception. 

Like I said, I made it work, on the the next problem, but I had to bust out my plasma cutter to do so.


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## sdezego (Apr 23, 2004)

The problem is that one person's idea of fitting or working can be ambiguous. 

When you get into Rads, Condensers, Subframes, Cross members and Engine brackets, Auto vs non-Auto, there are a ton of nuances with mix matching. These can cause worlds of pain and may elude most.


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

Very very true. I'm lucky that I can fab pretty much anything, but I love to avoid that when I can. 

But then you get the guy on mk2vr6.com who said he used a VW fox speedo cable for his VR swap, and that is absolutely false. It does not fit in the o2a. I learned the hard way, just as I did many other times.


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

What required a plasma cutter? I used a Passat lower front engine crossmemebr, Mk2 lower rad support, Corrado G60 rad, and Mk3 VR fans. The only thing that needed to be modified to make those things work together was the bottom edge of the fan shroud had to be trimmed. 

What i was trying to say in my last post was that the swap itself is fairly straightforward with mostly off the shelf OEM parts, and very little requiring modification, depending on what cars you're getting your parts from. 

Unfortunately your issues seem to have come from misinformation and not the parts (thus the title of the thread, obviously). if you got the right info the first time the swap almost installs itself.


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

I had to cut notches here and there to fit the front upper rad support on the car at all with the VR6 radiator. It either hit the rad support or the alternator. So I notched the support in multiple places to make it fit. I could have used a grinder, but I had the cutter and it's fun.


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

Without seeing your setup personally I can't assess whats going on, but I can't see why that would have been necessary. Not saying you don't know what you're doing, it just sounds like something went wrong somewhere. 
If you got it figured out somehow then all's well, but it definitely seems like things were harder than they needed to be for you.

Sorry if you already mentioned it, but what fan shroud are you using?


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

I'm not using a shroud, I custom mounted some Spal slim fans.


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

what size? I'm running 2x 10" Spal fans on my G60 rad with no interference issues.


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## tasty danish (Nov 29, 2009)

IIRC they are 12's. still WAY slimmer than anything factory. I don't get it man. Stock a2 crossmember, VR6 k-frame/engine crossmember. that's it.


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## stealthmk1 (Aug 17, 2001)

and there was no way of angling the rad so it contacted neither the rad support or alternator? was it the fan itself hitting the alt? because a Spal fan may actually be thicker than a factory secondary (pass side) fan.


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## Scrubbs (Mar 14, 2006)

Sometimes the motor mounts are sacked out on the donor motors. And this puts the motor in odd agles. Or possibly the frame is out of square also, (my vr swap didnt need the frame rail dent at all).


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