Do you guys think that I'm going to feel better about dumping oil and antifreeze all over my engine bay if you keep telling me how clean it is? Well it does help, but still I don't like that I will never be able to wipe the oil out of the cracks and tight spots. :( Oh well it's a driver now, not another garage queen like some of the Vegas Urq's I know. :wink:
I'll bet I've put more miles on this car since Christmas than either of the Sean's did all year in their cars.
No front sway bar, rally style or just haven't got to it yet?
I purposely left the front sway bar off to fix the oil and water leaks. I figured one less thing to be in the way and clean. Now that I have ran it about a thousand miles and some of that pretty aggresively, I'm thinking I kind of like the turn in I get without it on. It seems like it doesn't push as badly in the corners as it used to, but then it could also be the solid mounted subframe and delrin control arm bushings helping out there. I will probably put it back on now that the leaks are under control and at least see how it handles.
Old school WX dual oil filters, any special reason?
I had originally installed a single filter housing out of an MC or 7A. It was all bead blasted and cleared of course, but when I went to install the oil cooler I realized that the cooler line fittings were smaller than what was on the housing. I couldn't just swap fittings and looked a bit for some adapters, but in the end I cleaned, blasted, and clear coated the original Urq housing and put it back in place. The oil cooler, lines, and location are all stock Urq.
Al subframe mounts, I've got them but haven't installed. What are your thoughts on these from a NVH and handling point of view?
I worried about the same thing....mainly NVH noise. This is after all Her Urq.
I have always wanted my wife to at least take a trip in it with me if not drive and take ownership. I know that coming from her B7 S-line, she is going to think the Urq is loud. In reality it's not bad.
It did pick up some NVH, but it's way livable in my book. Again it's hard to say how much handling was improved, because I replaced the control arm bushings with delrin at the same time. Between the two the front end is much tighter and because the delrin was so tight, it feels like it is a stiffer front end also. I think that is partly why I don't mind the sway bar missing. We did have a conversation at cars and coffee about the solid subframe mounts with an old german man that runs a local VAG shop. He didn't have much good to say about them saying that everytime Dick brings his 2.7tt Urq in the subframe bolts are loose and needing attention. All four of the urq's there that weekend are running the solid mounts and I think I can speak for both Seans that we all like them. I will make sure I give them a few once overs now and again however.
How did you get the a/c radiator(condenser/evaporator I can't remember) to fit so nicely with the cooling system radiator? I'm running the dialynx radiator and its so tight in there between the radiator and a/c compressor, the a/c radiator is rubbing on the a/c compressor bracket. Any tips on fitment here?
I am running the Ron Davis radiator that was a very nice plug and play piece. It was tight getting everything in place, but fits very nicely once there. I running the original York compressor and brackets up front, but although tight, it still has about a half inch between the compressor bracket and the condensing coil. My biggest headache was getting the low side A/C line along with the hydraulic pump lines to fit between the radiator and the 3B manifold. It's pretty tight there and could probably stand to have longer custom lines made to come below the intake. I have yet to get the A/C running, but intend to at least see what it will do before going to a more modern rotary compressor. I want to get idle control working before I even try to cycle in an A/C compressor. My to do list is getting as long as the original swap almost. LOL
I am about at 900 miles since starting up this engine and have decided to up the boost a bit. I was always going to control boost with the IIc and will eventually go that way, but in the mean time I installed a manual boost controller. Notice how well I have utilized the bracing shelf from the strut tower to the firewall.
I got a lot of people telling be to cut it out and I almost did, but it has worked out well for both my FPR and now my boost controller.
Besides that I've already taken off the front subframe from this car to use on the other car.
