Jcarrick's Projects (of all sorts): Wife's B6 A4 Avant

[jcarrick]

Hey guys, here is a little introduction about me.

I bought a 1993 Audi urS4 when I was 17 right before I left for college. I fell in love with these cars since the first time I drove one. After buying the car I immediately got on Motorgeek and started a project thread. It was a very slow build, especially as I went through college, but in the end, with lots of help from people on here, I got to build the car into exactly what I wanted. Here is a quick mod list of the car, as some of you may have seen in the past:
1993 urS4
Built lower end with 034 coated bearings, ARP main studs, rod bolts, head studs, scat rods and fully balanced rotating assembly
The head was fairly stock except for an RS2 exhaust cam
HX35/40 hybrid turbo
034 Log Manifold
Tial Wastegate
Tial Blowoff Valve
Custom mandrel bend exhaust and intake piping
CXRacing eBay intercooler
1200cc FIC Injectors
VEMS
1.8t coils
993tt front brakes
H&R Springs
Koni adjustable struts
Southbend "Stage 4 Drag" clutch
Ronal Wheels

Here are a few pics:























Not too long after finishing the car I started shopping for houses and realized that the car was not practical enough for me at the time. I put it up for sale and started shopping for a truck. I found an old 1973 Ford crewcab longbed on a ranch in eastern Oregon for a good deal and picked it up. This is where I got started doing cummins conversions. I put a p-pump 12v cummins and nv4500 in it, as well as super duty front springs, updated steering box, etc. Heres a few pics of that:











I really wanted to keep this truck and restore it, but with going back to school I decided it was too much of a project for the time being and sold it. From here I found a really clean 1997 F350 CCLB with a 460 for a good deal and decided to pick it up and do another conversion. Here are some pics of it:





This picture is after about 25k miles of driving, so you will have to excuse the mess


This has been a great truck and I continue to drive it daily. From doing these swaps word has gotten out and I am now doing them as a way to make money, which is awesome! Now we are caught up to the present. About a month ago I decided to get on Motorgeek and check out where everyones projects were and came to find out about The Project Pad. I have really missed to camaraderie around this group and want to be a part of it again, but I don't have an Audi worth posting about, ha. I proceeded to create an account and reconnect with Chris (loxxrider) asking him if he thought this kind of stuff would be welcomed on here or if I should wait to post until I get another Audi. He was very encouraging and said I should post it up, so here we are! Once I am done with Paramedic school I will most definitely be getting another old Audi, but that wont be for a while. For now I can dream and watch everyone else's builds Sorry for the long read!

[pilihp2]

Glad to see you around, Jon! Even if it's not an Audi :p

[ringbearer]

On old Audi is most comfortable with a tow rig at the ready

Good to see you back, swaps and mods of any sort are welcome here.

[alxdgr8]

What kind of MPG do you get in the cummins convert? Highway and while towing?

[Midnight]

I've been thinking about buying an obs and doing a Cummins swap. Where do you get your motor mounts and stuff from?

[loxxrider]

Very nice! Glad you're here.

I'll need a truck for work soon and would love something like a suburban with a cummins swap (my friend has one actually). Very awesome tow vehicle!

[carl]

All i can say is, cummins are rock solid, everything around it will die before that engine does. Always loved how they start and how strong they are at low rpm.
Been pushing allot of snow with a few w250's through the years, never had any probs with the engine.
Pretty hard on the 727 type trannies mind you...

[themagellan]

Love the projects man! Those trucks are AWESOME, I would daily that truck like no other.

[PRY4SNO]

Enjoyed your threads on the 'geek, glad you've come back to share

[jcarrick]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! I am glad this stuff is welcome around here.

alxdgr8,
I get around 20 in town and the best I have done is 23mpg on the highway. That is with 3:55 gears, zf-5 speed manual, and 35 in tires.

Midknight,
Diesel Conversion Specialist sell mounts for them. Their mounts are super basic and not hard to build on your own if you have the tools to do it (i.e. welder, cutter, etc.)

Chris,
A suburban would be awesome! I just picked up another motor from a guy that had a converted suburban with a 6 speed and twin turbos. It was a sweet tow rig

[jcarrick]

Hey guys,
It's been awhile since I've updated this thread and we just got a 2003 A4 1.8T Avant, so I figured it was time for a little update. I'll start by bringing everything up to date first.

The truck was taken out of DD use about a year ago when I purchased a 1976 Mercedes 240D 4spd manual. My last year of school I had to drive to 4 different hospitals, all over central Oregon, on a daily basis and it was getting too expensive to drive my F350 over a 100 miles a day. One of my buddies at the fire station told me he was looking to sell his Mercedes. He offered me a screaming deal, at $1000, that was right in the budget for a beater DD. When I bought this car it was the first time it had left the family since it was bought brand new. It has 176,000 miles on it and needs some TLC, but, overall, it runs great and has been super reliable. This winter we have been getting tons of snow and, with good snow tires, this thing actually does amazing in the snow! Heres a pic:



Onto the truck. Anyone who has ridden in an old, 1 ton Ford knows that they ride like they don't even have suspension. This was getting old so I decided to link the front end with some coilovers. I did a 3 link with a panhard bar setup with 2.5" Fox coilovers. This thing now rides and handles amazing! It seriously rides and drives better than any new truck I've driven. Here are some pictures of the front suspension stuff:















Next came compound turbos. I have had the turbos sitting on the bench in the garage for a year and just had not made time to install them. I was doing a conversion on a customers truck and came to the conclusion that my turbo/exhaust manifold/downpipe would work best on it so that meant that the time had come to install the twins on mine... haha. So now it is running a Holset HT3B with a 23cm exhaust housing and an HX35 with a 12cm exhaust housing. I am able to get 50psi of boost on my current tuning, but I really haven't had time to get it all dialed in just yet. Here are some pics:





I still have a lot of cleaning up to do in the engine bay (I.E. new coolant pipes, re-route wiring, etc.), but it's slowly but surely getting there.

Well, if anyone is still reading, this brings us up to present and the actual Audi topic. On New Year's Eve my wife and I bought a 2003 Audi 1.8T 5spd manual Avant for her. It has 186xxx miles on it and needs some TLC, but overall it is in good shape. It is completely stock aside from the Rotiform wheels. I actually didn't even know it had Rotiforms until we went and looked at it! Apparently the guy got them after he made the Craigslist posting. He didn't have any other wheels for it, so we got them with the car. It was a pleasant surprise for me and I think they look super good. They may look even better on an urS6 Avant, but we'll see



A month before we bought the car the previous owner had the timing belt, water pump, tensioners, etc. replaced. Here is the current list of needs, let me know what you think:
-Transmission mount (Apikol?)
-Valve cover gasket, oil fill cap and spark plugs
-All fluids and filters changed (previous owner said it was just done, but I will do it just for peace of mind)
-New stereo (the old Bose amp goes in and out)
-Glove box door (broken hinges)
-Center console arm rest
-Both sun visor clips
-Rear hatch struts

I've never owned a B6 or a 1.8T so all input and advice would be appreciated. Personally, the car feels slow in stock form and I want to add a little more power. Not too much, as it is the wife's DD, but enough to be kinda fun Right now I'm thinking:
-Some sort of tune? APR?
-Mild, quiet exhaust
-Intake?
-K04 in the future
Like I said, I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to 1.8T's and I'll need to do some reading and research, but all input is appreciated!

Thanks for reading!
-Jon

[loxxrider]

Glad to see a post from you and glad you found something for the ole' lady. It's not easy to find a decent urS avant is it?

I love your Fummins work by the way. I always say if the Audi wasn't practical for work, I'd love to have one of these done up by you.

[jcarrick]

Same here! The 90 finally got the point where I didn't feel like putting more time and money into it. It definitely is not! Ill be patient and find the one I want... eventually.

Thanks man! If you ever want one, just let me know.

[scubagli]

A nice stage 2 tune will wake the B6 up quite a bit.

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[PRY4SNO]

A nice stage 2 tune will wake the B6 up quite a bit.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

However an intake isn't really going to do much for you aside from looks.

[jcarrick]

A nice stage 2 tune will wake the B6 up quite a bit.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

However an intake isn't really going to do much for you aside from looks.

I figured as much with the intake. I don't care about looks or the added "cool" sound. Honestly, it's really nice to have a very quiet car!

Are you guys talking the stage 2 tune that uses the 380cc injectors? Whose tune do you recommend?

[scubagli]

Where are you located? I'd look for a local, there are tons of guys that can do simple tunes for that car. You'll probably gain 20-30 hp with a good tune no need for injectors. Those cars have 4 bar fpr's stock.

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[Marc]

Where are you located? I'd look for a local, there are tons of guys that can do simple tunes for that car. You'll probably gain 20-30 hp with a good tune no need for injectors. Those cars have 4 bar fpr's stock.

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b6? careful, thats the returnless pump stock. you cant go too far on the stock injectors as a result. most tuners split the stage1+ tunes on that car into two categories: tt injectors and stock injector for that reason.

[scubadave]

Nice, another B6er. So what I have found while doing upgrades to my B6 ultrasport is as far as tuning, you can go stage 2 which includes doing injectors and it will kick up the power nicely. (as in, it will be where it should have been in the first place) It is irritating to me that I had to pay extra for that since Audi decided to rob us of what it should have been in the first place. This will put the stock K03 to its max though, so I would take a look at the turbo closely before you do tuning. I went with GIAC as it will still pass emissions but has the desired power. If you want to do a K04, the stock intercooler will not be up to par, so keep that in mind if you decide to take it to stage 3, you will be buying a turbo and intercooler to keep the temps under control. There are remnants of info out there that describe a dual intercooler setup, but this late in the game, hard to find the parts. I have decided to build my own uprated intercoolers and forego trying to find a stock setup. I have been looking at Bell Intercoolers for the cores and tanks to build my own setup. (time to put my TIG and developing welding skills to work)

[Dave]

Still in Bend?

[PRY4SNO]

FWIW, I and three other friends had Unitronic tunes with nary an issue. But the nature of tuning seems to be that the preferred vendor tends to change. For a while it was APR or Revo, then it was Unitronic, then Gonzo; as for right now, I'm not sure who's on deck.

I agree with the previous sentiment of finding someone local with a good reputation for quality and support. Whether that happens to be an indy shop who can tune Motronic or sells tunes, find someone close who you trust.

[jcarrick]

Where are you located? I'd look for a local, there are tons of guys that can do simple tunes for that car. You'll probably gain 20-30 hp with a good tune no need for injectors. Those cars have 4 bar fpr's stock.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

b6? careful, thats the returnless pump stock. you cant go too far on the stock injectors as a result. most tuners split the stage1+ tunes on that car into two categories: tt injectors and stock injector for that reason.

Thanks for all the info. I am going to wait to do any tuning until I get some 380cc and see what local tuning is available.

Dave,
Yes I am still in Bend, probably never going to leave, haha.

[jcarrick]

The time has come to do some much needed maintenance on the wife's B6 Avant. For the past 6 months we have been remodeling our house and getting it ready to sell. This has caused me to put off regular personal vehicle maintenance, working on customers vehicles and all other aspects of life. I packed up all of my "shop stuff" into a 40' shipping container, which is not at my house, so the only tools I have to work with are the ones I keep in the tool box of my truck. While it is probably better stocked than most people's garages, it is still limited.

The avant is just about to hit the 200k mile mark and is in desperate need of a cam chain tensioner, rear coolant flange, PCV upgrade, oil filter housing reseal and a clutch. I was going to do everything except the clutch in order to not have a big car project going on in the garage while we are showing/selling the house, but now I am wondering if I should just do the clutch as well and get it all out of the way... Here's a pic of where I am currently at with this project:



Now that I've got everything removed to fix the previously stated issues, I am starting to wonder if it would be easier to just pull the motor and do the clutch now. I am new to B6's and don't know the tricks or easiest ways to do things on them. What do you guys think? Are there any other "while you're in there" things that I should replace? Knock sensors, etc.?

Thank you!

-Jon

[jcarrick]

I went ahead and decided to go ahead and pull the motor and get everything fixed. This really opened a can of worms... I started to disassemble to front end of the car, removed the front wheels, and found that they were wearing severely bad on the very inside edge of the tires. Upon inspection I found that all of the control arms on both sides were shot. Time to make another order from ECS, haha. Once the engine was out it became obvious that it was definitely a good idea to just pull it and fix everything. It was basically leaking from every orifice. I gave it a serious cleaning and started replacing all the leaking, broken, worn out parts on it. Here is a list of the work that has/is getting done while it is out, which is basically just for my own documentation:
-Rear coolant flange and coolant temp sensor
-Oil filter housing gaskets
-034 PCV hoses
-034 PCV valve
-Cam chain
-Cam chain tensioner
-Valve cover gasket
-Timing belt kit
-New crank cog (someone broke a bolt off in the original one)
-Both cam seals
-Front and rear crank seals
-Oil pan gasket
-Clean pickup tube
-Thermostat housing
-ECS Aluminum J-Plug
-RS4 Motor mounts
-ECS Snub mount
-Black Forest Industries "Stage 1" clutch kit and lightweight flywheel
-034 Control arms and sway bar end links
-Meyle HD outer tie rod ends

A little before and after cleaning the engine bay; Super Clean is awesome BTW:




I am really hoping doing all of this basically gets this car back up to par and I won't have to mess with it for a while, haha. Maybe once the old K03 decides to bite the dust I can start to have some fun with a little bigger turbo, injectors, tune, etc.