The Project Pad

DE80q wrote:It was good to hang out with you this weekend Ben! This car is amazing!

Did the changes made fix the "cheap whiskey" smell under hard acceleration?

Also, I did make my purchase yesterday...

Good to spend time with you Dave!

There is still a fuel smell on boost but it seems better now. Still something I need to address though. All in all, the car was great for the about 1,000 mile trip. It's always SUPER nerve wracking to drive a project car that far but it seems like the proof that I did it right! Found a couple little idiosyncrasies, but nothing that slowed me down. Even got over 200 miles for the E-85 tanks. Averaging 18-20 mpg on e85 isn't bad.

Sooooo -- pics of the new acquisition?

Pics will come in time. Want to get it to my place first. At least the parts car and tractor are gone now...

Good to know, thanks for the tips! Now here's to hoping the yard I ordered mine from didn't break it...

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alxdgr8 wrote:Good to know, thanks for the tips! Now here's to hoping the yard I ordered mine from didn't break it...

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I'm sure they knew how to remove it without breaking it. It appears that the design is common to all new Audi/VW - I just don't ever work on the new stuff!

DE80q wrote:Pics will come in time. Want to get it to my place first. At least the parts car and tractor are gone now...

Parts car (shell) gone good!

But what’s with the tractor leaving?

Sparkyjack wrote:

DE80q wrote:Pics will come in time. Want to get it to my place first. At least the parts car and tractor are gone now...

Parts car (shell) gone good!

But what’s with the tractor leaving?

I had a parts lawn tractor as well...

It's been a while for an update!

First of all this somehow ended up behind my truck:


1987 924S - non running and with damage on the driver's side. Had a grey door sprayed red on the drivers side and dents there from a hit. It has potential though!
PO thought it overheated and blew the head gasket. At the same time that this popped up on craigslist, this showed up in the upullandpay:


to be safe, I pulled just about everything I could.



The interior came together pretty quickly. I replaced one of the seats and just cleaned the hell out of everything else.




Then time to deal with the oxidized paint - the single stage "guard's red" had become "guard's pink" - so some polishing and....

Before:

After:



Anyway, got it running after finding a loose resistor in the ECU (and replacing the ECU)

polished up more and looks like this now:



I'm going to build the spare engine and put it in the car and see how I like it. It's pretty fun as it is!


Now onto the Audi content:

I finally got around to starting with the AC install on the white car. I got an RS2 fan shroud from Marc and used a junkyard found 200 500 watt fan. The great thing is that the RS2 shroud and 200 fan are a lot shallower than the 7a setup:

7A on left, Rs2 on Right

What I had been dealing with was that the 7A shroud and fan were rubbing the frame rail a bit which made me have to tilt the fan a little bit forward at the frame rail. This made the AC condenser not fit.


Anyway, I pulled the radiator and combined the radiator, RS2 shroud and AC condenser all together and put it back in:


Everything fits great!

now though I need to wire the 200 fan and I wasn't really sure how to do so. for now I'm using the 80 Amp fuse from the 200 fan harness and an 80 amp relay that will be triggered by the existing fan system. Shortly, I'll switch to a PWM setup through VEMS.

Lastly, I ordered a set of S2 colored gauge faces and swapped them out today:

Fancy stuff for the audi... but

When is the 944 07k build thread...?

themagellan wrote:Fancy stuff for the audi... but

When is the 944 07k build thread...?

HA! that would be a hoot!

I made some progress wiring up the fan. I ended up using 2 relays and was able to maintain dual speed control from the existing triggers in the car and the 7A fan's resistor.

I wired as such:


It works great so far and OH BOY is that high speed high!

This look like a good solution to you electrical nerds out there?

Some progress and challenges since the last update.

Firstly, the fan works perfectly wired this way. Score one for me!

I did a dyno day and it uncovered a problem I had noticed but didn’t realize the full extent of. I have a pressurized crankcase which blew the little hose between the block and the 4 way breather hard hose.

https://youtu.be/H4OIh8xx1P8





I’ve been getting the stank of corn when I really stand on it since I put it all together but didn’t realize it was this bad.
After I blew the hose, the shop had some heater hose that I replaced it with and ran again. This time, it sucked a bunch of oil through the breather and into the turbo - shooting a lot of smoke out the back. Also popped the dipstick and seeped oil out the filler cap.

So clearly there’s an issue!
I’ve been putting off messing with it due to some sudden rental house rehab and the 924 living on the lift while I put in the rebuilt motor for it but I’ve got it replaced and running now. So the B4 goes into the work bay!



Can I tell you all again that the Danmar lift is one of the best things I’ve ever done? It’s so damn nice to not have to crawl around under cars anymore. I can sit on my little stool on wheels and roll around under the car just fine. So nice!

Anyway, now that I have some time to get this on the lift, I have a small list:

Fix breather issue
Fix Suspension clunk
Install AC lines - and make it work!
Fix power drain
Rebuild 01E


Breather issue
I have ABY breather pipes on the way from Audi Tradition (thanks Issam). I’ve been running the AAN breather and N80 setup under the 3b intake and it’s not ideal. I’ve also been running an 034 billet check valve which seems to be working (though you really have to blow hard to get it to open). Also I have to figure out how I’m getting so much boost pressure in the crankcase. Hoping that the 034 valve is the culprit but it doesn’t seem broken. We’ll see.
Also, I’m installing a air/oil separator. I bought this fella at Marc’s suggestion. He warned me it was big but holy crap it’s really big. I think I can make it work if I move my fuel pressure regulator Over.



Suspension clunk
I’ve had a clunk on the right front for the whole time I’ve had the pro mount/URS strut setup. I have now stripped the threads on that strut so I think I’ll need to cut it off to get a look at it. I have a spare now and will do so

AC lines
I have the condenser in place, the compressor in place. Just need to find a home for the dryer or evaporator or whatever that can thing is and figure out lines. With the EFR in the engine bay, there’s not a lot of room over there. I have a set of 7a lines but I’m anticipating having to make lines to fit. Having AC working in the car will be next level shit!

Power drain
I have had this problem forever but when I start and drive the car for a short time, the fuel pump stick in priming mode and the accessories all stay on. I can kill the power if I pull the little fuse to the VEMS box. I have read up on this a bit on the VEMS forums and I think that the installation of a Zener diode on the fly back circuit will solve this. But it’s never the right time to pull the drivers knee panel out and start cutting wires out of the VEMS harness.

Last but not least, I have been working with a really notchy 01E since it was installed. I need to pull it out and I have a JHM kit for rebuild on order from Marc. Anybody that has done this, how bad a job is it?

Anyway, wish me luck!

Aaron says he uses the JHM video every time even though he's done it more than a handful of times. I believe he says the only hiccup is they mix up the orientation of the 5th and 6th gears in the video and to be aware of it so you don't get caught out. Hope I got that right, going off memory from the Motorgeek days.

Can you hook up the check valve to your air compressor and measure how much pressure it takes to open?

PRY4SNO wrote:Can you hook up the check valve to your air compressor and measure how much pressure it takes to open?

it flutters open/shut up to about 10 psi where it is open all the way. If I turn it the other way, the check valve definitely appears to be working properly as for not letting boost in. I was really hoping it was the source of my crankcase pressure.

The 1/2 swap isn't bad at all, I watched the video start to finish in advance and then it took me a Saturday to get from trans unopened to trans closed back up again.

Just make sure you have some all thread on hand to make the one special tool and have the correct gear pullers, lots of space to lay out parts and it's pretty straightforward from there.

Do they have a list of the required pullers?
Thanks!

Grillage wrote:Do they have a list of the required pullers?
Thanks!

They show them to you in the video but they don't give you a list, I think I used my smaller 2 jaw, a large-ish 3 jaw and then a couple of stack-ups on the press as well as the special tool. Nothing too crazy but personally I hate breaking my work flow to go to the parts store

A few things happening

I started the 01E rebuild yesterday and am about halfway through

A few tips for anyone who comes behind me

Tools I’ve needed so far:
I have a big press from harbor freight but needed one of these: https://www.harborfreight.com/bearing-s ... 63662.html
Better external snap ring pliers. The snap rings have been the worst part by far
I ended up buying 6 bricks to use as spacers in the press

Lastly I needed a pipe to put some stuff back together and the video says to use 1 1/2” steel pipe but I can’t get 1 1/2” pipe over the shaft. I had to use 2” and all I had was PVC and some 2’ square stock. Between the two, I’ve been able to get things back together so far

Interestingly, the problem I am trying to solve is a really hard shift in 1st and 2nd but with it all apart the 1/2 shift collar seemed to move pretty freely. Who knows whether I had a real problem with this or not.


The other fun thing was that I bought this coupe GT last week - There’s a thread for it too:

More updates

Finished the 01E rebuild. It does actually shift better now so I'm happy that I did this!
As much as anything though, sorting out the shifter will make a huge difference.

I have had the JHM solid shifter on the car since I put this all together. It used to be on my cabriolet and I swapped the two over thinking that it would be great with the 6 speed but I didn't anticipate a few things.

With the 5 speed, the JHM is absolutely fantastic. there is no reverse lockout, but you don't really need that with the 01A because if you've got the shifter all the way to the right, you either go up for 5th or down for reverse. However, on the 6 speed, the far left side is ONLY for reverse and without a reverse lockout, I found myself moving the shifter all the way to the left and back a bit to find first - which got super irritating.

I am solving all of this by sourcing a B4 01E shifter from an S2 member in Poland.
Here's the difference in the two:

01A (which I had flipped 180* to get the lockout to work - sort of. You could still get into that far left shift column, but couldn't go forward without pushdown)


and the Rs2 version:


the RS2 version keeps you out of that far left column unless you push down the shifter. This will be great. I also bought an 034 short shift kit (I believe the Billzcat design) that I can use with the underside of the RS2 shifter. That way it will be nice and new/tight.

I also upgraded the linkage cross rod which has a much nicer spherical bearing in place of the plastic ball/socket that was there and very loose.


On to the AC project:
I was able to mock up all the lines and fittings with parts and pieces I had in the garage and had a local shop (Ohio Hydraulics) make them all up:

I'm waiting on a bunch of o-rings and I'll get this reinstalled as well

Then, on to the Breather setup:

I'd been using the URS breather system which really doesn't fit in a small chassis correctly. So I sourced these from Audi Tradition:

and these fit great. I got the upgraded crankcase breather vent adapter that Issam makes and got the breather stuff mocked up. I'm still waiting for some hose and fittings to finalize:


This let me install the catch can that I so desperately need as well. I got the Mann Provent 200 which unfortunately is pretty big. It only fit where I have the fuel pressure regulator so I will need to relocate some things.

Here's what I have in the works:
made a little bracket:

and it fits pretty well in there:


So now I found a place to move the FPR. It can fit on the outside of the intake manifold. Made a little bracket for it too and it should work:


need to paint it and get new fuel lines made.

All in all, I am feeling good about this. I'm excited to get the car off the lift and back on the road.

I need to get the 924S steering rack out for rebuild and get that thing sold. I have too many cars

An Update:

Got everything back together and it is running great! I pushed it hard today with the windows open and there is no longer a corn whisky smell at high boost so something is working. Either the catch can or the updated breather system.

I spent a lot of time getting the shifter and lockouts set up just right and its so nice to be able to find the gears where I expect them to be!

A couple things still to fix. There is a clunk in my right front wheel that I cannot find. I just pulled the strut, replaced it, rebuilt the Mance “Pro-Mount” on that side and it’s still there. I can’t replicate it under any circumstance while the car is standing still.

One thing on the suspension that could potentially be an issue is that my tie rods are installed upside down - pointing down rather than up. This is because my wheels are wide and they only fit that way. I am considering a set of spacers to push the wheels out a touch and I would be able to flip them. That would also help the suddenly crowded right side wheel well where I have the AC line going out and catch can drains right there too. Flipping would help a lot there.

The other thing is I now have a really hard cold start that wasn’t there before. I am guessing the new breather system is the cause but I’m not sure.

I don’t know if my VEMS tune has the N80 functionality built in but I do have it wired. I am thinking maybe I need to invert it if it’s open when it should be closed or vice verse. I had a hard cold start before but this is way worse.

I’m anxious to get the AC charged up and see if it works. Having a 20VT swap with working AC would make this a daily driver for sure.

Also, I forgot how great this car drives!

how can you install it upside down, isnt that conical?

It is indeed conical but it sticks through enough that I can tighten it down.

Grillage wrote:It is indeed conical but it sticks through enough that I can tighten it down.

and cant that make the noise?

it definitely could but it doesn't on the other side and I've had it apart a bunch of times trying to find the clunk. Also I can't reproduce it by messing with that tie rod end.

With that said, I still want to fix the situation. I just need to make sure my wheels won't stick out too far and measure how much I'd need to space them out.

More updates. Been working on the CGT a bunch and getting the 924S squared away likely to sell, but I’ve had some time to mess with the car a bit

I got some wheel spacers and was able to push the wheels out enough that I could put the tie rods ends right side up. Clunk is still there sadly.

Also, been chasing the hard start and N80 - the N80 was in fact backward and needed inverted in VEMS. Got that squared away but it didn’t really seem to make much difference with the hard start. Monkeyed a bit with fuel and timing in the crank settings and it seems to work a little better but what really makes a difference is having the jump pack on it.

One other thing I did recently when I had the car all apart was to put in a jump post in the engine bay. I’d had to jump it a few times and it was super annoying having the battery in the trunk. So I connected a very sturdy wire from the starter post to the jump post and mounted up by the strut tower.

Could that added wiring have an affect on the starting? My battery is 650 CCA but has been relocated. I wonder if I just don’t have the juice to start it easily.

Ok, so this is going to sound dumb... Check that you gland nut is tight. I had an odd clunking noise on my 80 that I couldn't track down. Turned out the top nut wasn't tight so the strut was actually moving when I hit the right bump.