what i found out today--was: i got the new rocc--but....

[abatzis2@hotmail.com (Michael Abatzis)]

>From: Nate Mellom <bronson@inwave.com>
>Mike,
>Is this the Rockford Roc?
>I thought from what I knew the cars story was pretty rock solid.....
>
>Nate

yup, i thought so too. a not-so-brief update: called the kid that sold me 
that car. he said the head was in fact not the p&p'd head, but a rebuilt 
1.8. he says he told me this. he didn't.  did a fairly thorough inspection. 
the results:

body/paint very nice. euro bumpers/lights (no relays!). can't decide if i 
like the kamai grille/eyebrow.

removed valve cover gasket. cam timing dead on. crap, i was hoping to find 
something that would account for the car's slowness. checked out the 
alledgedly euro intake cam. had the numbers "6603 AST" on it. my other cams 
on spare heads didn't have this. good sign. looks like we have head studs, 
as claimed. "techtonics" fuel enrichment looks like a homemade version. 
thought about taking it off, decided against it. vacuum hole on air boot 
plugged with electrical tape-never good. replaced with correct hose. 
neuspeed wires/upper stress bars front and rear. upper stress bar is nice, 
but a pita to work around. i end up taking it on/off about 5 times during 
course of day.

schrick baffled aluminum oil pan, and oil cooler installed. good times.

a/c didn't work on the way back yesterday (i had tried it, compressor went 
on, but it was too damn cold to tell if the a/c was working or if it was 
just cold air when we exchanged cars).  checked sight glass. nada, out of 
refrigerent. observed one of the hoses not hooked up to compressor. 
postulated that this might be a reason for leak. controls also didn't work 
well-- took out vent, noticed that defrost flapper don't flap. vaccuum leak 
somewhere. looks like a pita to get to. crap.

start to derice-ify the car by ripping out all the red hoses out of engine 
compartment (http://www.jwelty.com/jwelty3/juven-rocco.html) couldn't tell 
what they were covering. i feel a bit better.

tt downpipe/cat/cat back/borla muffler. good. huge ass 3 inch tips smooshed 
on the end. bad. can't get the damn thing off, notice exhaust not 
surprisingly leaking around the connection. could this be the leak i hear 
under acceleration (but not when parker in neutral for some reason)? it's 
after the muffler, so i'm skeptical...

poly bushings all around, bilsteins of some sort. some h&r "softsport" type 
springs. no swaybars. too mushy after my shine setup. can't decide if these 
are good or bad findings. i settle on calling it a draw.

velocity short shift/limited slip/.80 5th gear. freed up sticky clutch 
cable. these are good things. .80 is soooo choice. don't lose much power, 
car is MUCH quieter, i got >34 mpg at 85-90 mpg! if you have the means, i 
highly recommend it.

did a tune up (sort of), hoping to find something wrong. rotor/cap kind of 
beat looking. cleaned 'em off. cam/engine timing dead on (oh yeah, tt 
adjustable cam sprocket). idle perfect. mixture perfect. bad; hoping to find 
out why it's slow!

car pulls/bumps on highway. hoping it's the wheels. was going to swap them, 
but didn't have time.

starting to feel depressed. this is looking like more of a project than i 
wanted. i get a beer, then chastise myself for drinking a celebratory "end 
of the day" beer when nothing got done. feel better when i remember that 
it's ok to drink when you're sad too.

make myself feel better by judiciously meguier-ing the interior. very pretty 
leather corrado seats, rears leather scirocco. mmmmm, leather.
derice-ify some more by removing "audiosport" and "autotech" stickers from 
side windws. probably lost about 10hp, but worth it :) i feel a bit better.

so the good news: nice body, some good goodies. nice built tranny, engine is 
real smoooooth, i like the seats. all in all a nice car, but i don't think 
it's worth what i paid. i'm going to use all my powers to get $$ from the 
ins co now. may even get a...a lawyer (*shudder*)

the bad: hvac controls screwed up, no p/p head, i still don't know what the 
engine really is, the door cards need work (looks like a hack job putting 
them back on), power mirrors/locks don't work. car is still slooow. i don't 
get it. this should be faster than my old one. even if the engine is a 1.8, 
a euro cam/enrichment/good exhaust shouldn't feel as slow as this-- it's 
missing that kick at 4k rpms that a 16v should have.

ugly: vents are all outlined in what looks to be red nailpolish. yech. i 
swap the big middle one from my wrecked car. looks much better. big tt 
sticker on windshield. they're not sponsoring me. it's coming off. no side 
bump strip moulding. looks nice, but not practical if i want to keep it free 
of dings. those things work great. i'm putting my old ones on.

sorry for the outrageously long post! i never read these when other people 
write them. i feel bad about that now...

-michael
87 1.8? 2.0? 16v newscirocco gtx (what's a gtx?)
88 2.0 furshure wrecked rocco :( <--everything worked



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