Sun, 04 Oct 1998....Well, I finally did it. With some financial help I was able to buy one of my dream cars. Yes, the original Quattro (Ur-quattro). All together only about 99 cars thoughout the production have been imported to Canada. There is only 61 Canadian Spec 1983 models.
Lucky for me the model is a late 1983. You can sort of call it 1983 1/2. It has the new style wiring harness and newer style suspension. Only bad thing is that the newer suspension did not come with a rear sway bar. I plan to copy the design I used on my '86 4000 quattro.
I have found a lot of very interesting things about this car. First of all it only had 220,000 km when I bought it. It came with a copy of the original invoice and shipping order. Even the maintanance booklet was up to date. Sort of. The date was 1987 and the milage was 208,000 km. This would suggest that in the last 11 years the car only did 12,000 km? Hard to believe, but what can you do. The engine looks like it has been removed before and painted red. Nice surprise was a rebuilt cylinder head (the newer style). However other things have made me realize the car has been owned by a butcher.
First of all I found that the oil drain plug has been stripped and PO has used a self tapping bolt! I guess he was not planning on doing the next oil change. Next was the use of GOOP for a rocker cover gasket. Oil dripping all over the place.
The biggest problem though turned out to be a hard wiried fuel pump. The usual cure for cutting out fuel pump. There is usually a good reason for the computer to shut the pump off, like foulty intake air temperature sensor, or high boost etc. Hard wiring of the fuel pump made the frequancy valve work at 95% duty cycle and burned out the transistor in the ECU. The fuel pump relay was also incorrect, a shock since the proper one is only $10.
Now that I finally got the engine to run properly I also discovered the air temp sensor to be non functioning. A likely reason for hard wiring the fuel pump.
Next came the lack of brakes. A foulty pressure bias valve was discovered. It looks like they are a regular thing to fail on these and 4000 quattro models. I like something adjustable and opted for wilwood's adjustable valve. The installation was very easy and brakes are back.
Since I hate the old style interior and had a extra dash out of an '85 Coupe
next step was to swap them. The nice surprise was the fact that since the car
had the newer wiring harness all the wires matched with the '85 switches. All I
had to do is color code match and splice. It took about an afternoon to swap the
dash. Also since the car had the newer style suspension it also hd the dual
stage diff locks. That went perfectly with the rotary switch out of a 4000
quattro which also allowed a use of LED volt meter and a oil temperature gauges.
While in there I also updated the gauges. I removed the boost gauge in favour of
the water temp gauge. I also updated those to newer style metric with ranges of
70-120 degrees C and 0-90 liters. Also I installed a tach with red needle (I
like those better) and changed the speedo needle to match (it's clear/white
originally).
Next step was to upgrade the brakes. Front were easy with the G60 twin
pistons a set of matching Brembo rotors and KVR carbon/kevlar pads.
The rear was a bit more complicated. I decided to do the vented swap a'la
European RR engine code Ur-quattro. I also added a little twist. Swapping the
rotors and calipers was just too easy : ). I transfered the old single piston
G54's from the front to do a new job of gripping the new vented rotors at the
back. For that I needet to modify the mounting holes on the strut. For that I
cut off the mounting holes from a 5kt front strut and welded them onto the rear
Ur-q struts. This took a bit of cut and paste as you have to have the caliper
pads and the rotor together to locate the new mounting holes. Once done I was
stuck without a handbrake. Not for long though. Since I was routing the rear
brake line through the interior to allow the proportioning valve to be mounted
between the seats I took this oppurtunity to mount a hydraulic lock to act as a
handbrake. It actually works very well. You step on the brake and lock the
pressure in the rear calipers. When you like to release just turn the valve to
the open position and way you go. Dragsters use this method for a different
purpose to separate the rear brakes as they apply the fronts to do a nice brake
unaffected burnout. I personally will not be able to do one in the quattro but
it serves as a handbrake very nicely though.
After 3 weeks on the road I noticed few things. The engine was burning a lot
of oil and it did not run properly when cold (duty cycle would go down to 4% for
no reason). This was the time I realized the car was costing me more in oil and
nerves than it was worth it. So I decided to put an MC engine in that a friend
of mine has offered for sale along with the wiring harness and a MAC11 ECU. This
way I would have a knock sensing ignition.
The installation did not go as quickly as I had hoped. I decided to upgrade a
lot of things at the same time and run into problems along the way.
The engine, transmission, wiring harness, fuel injection unit, computer and
clutch came from a 1988 5000 turbo Quattro.
I decided to move the oil cooler into the position once occupied by the
auxiliary radiator. At the same time I upgraded the oil cooler hoses to
stainless steel braided Aeroquip hoses and fittings. The cooler is an
aftermarket Earls with 9"x6"x2" dimensions. It fits perfectly and makes a big
difference in the area around the turbo. To make more room on that side I
decided to move the alternator to the side where once Air conditioning
compressor used to be. I just used a brackets and alternator from a 1986 4000
Quattro. All I had to do is run the power cable to other side while the blue
control cable comes from the driver side already so all that is needed is to
shorten it and install a new connector. Along with the single oil filter housing
the turbo side of the engine bay is empty from the bottom giving plenty of
ventilation room for cooling.
I found a 1993 Audi S4 aluminum oil pan and decided to use it. It is far
different from the pan used in the 1990 Coupe/90quattro 20 valve engines as
those allow clearance for the radiator. The S4 pan is the same shape as the 5000
turbo pan. I needed to turn the radiator a'la Sport Quattro in order to allow
enough clearance. I also used the newer style aluminum radiator. Since the turbo
is now water-cooled I was worried that without the auxiliary radiator the
cooling system might not keep up. As I found out later there was nothing to be
concerned about. The pan fitted nicely along with the windage tray etc and
radiator can actually be turned about 30 degrees.
The MAC 11 easily took place of the MAC 02. A lot of inputs were not used.
Here is the list of the inputs that were used:
1. Cold Start Valve
2. Ignition Module Ground
3. Not used
4. Not used
5. Not used
6. Not used
7. Not used
8. CIS Freq Valve
9. Ground
10. Coolant Sensor
11. RPM Sensor + (Y)
12. TDC signal -
13. TDC signal +
14. Not used
15. Knock Sensor signal
16. Knock Sensor ground/shield
17. Not used
18. Ground
19. Waste Gate solenoid control
20. Idle Switch
21. Fuel Pump relay ground control
22. Ignition Module control signal
23. Intake sensor and Hall sensor ground return
24. Intake Air Temp Sensor
25. Hall Effect +12V supply
26. Full Throttle Switch
27. Hall Sensor signal
28. RPM/TDC shield wire
29. RPM return ground
30. O2 Sensor shield ground
31. Fault code light control (fuel pump fuse contact)
32. Not used
33. O2 sensor output
34. Not used
35. +12 Voltage from ignition switch
Most of the wires are in the harness that comes with the computer. The once
that had to be used from the old MAC 02 were pins 35 and 21! That's it. There
was some splicing necessary to provide power for the frequency valves and cold
start valve etc. But that takes minutes. I had a problem with splicing in a new
connector that was damaged during taking off from the old car. The wires had
crossed each other under the rubber boot and it took me the longest time to
locate the problem. The engine fired up right away. One thing I noticed was a
ticking manifold. I did not see any cracks when installing the engine in. It
turns out that the cylinder head was rebuilt at one point and cheap aftermarket
exhaust manifold gaskets were used. Now one has a leak in it and I can just see
the pain of trying to replace it. Probably easier to remove the engine to do
that : (.
So far the car is running like a dream. With a chipped computer and 14 psi of
boost it feels like it wants to rip the wheels of the suspension in first gear.
Next was a by-pass installation. The basic concept is to recirculate the
compressed air through the turbocharger as soon as the throttle plate is closed.
The valve operates using vacuum from the intake manifold generated when the
throttle closes. I have a 944 Turbo By-pass valve on my Ur-q. It was a very easy
install actually. The hardest part is fabricating the T pieces. I used stock 5kt
turbo intake pipe (2.5"dia) and welded couple of heater hose pipe end pieces
(the one along the engine block) as it has the flared ends and is the same
diameter as the by-pass valve inlet/outlet. The rest is basically cutting
sections of 2.5" hose (you can get those in any truck shop, I used Volvo turbo
hoses instead) to fit. I did enlarge the hose going from the FI to the turbo at
the same time. The hose going from the intercooler to the MC throttle body
became the 5kt accordion hose (the piece after the metal T, see it in the
picture page. If you are installing the valve on your stock Ur-q you can just
cut a section out of the original Ur-q intercooler/TB hose. The valve works
extreamly well and makes upshifts a lot more enjoyable now.
I had a lot of fun taking the car to Mosport (Ontario) racetrack this fall
and having some fun (finally). The engine still needs the manifold gaskets and
for now I just pretend I can't hear the noise as it has been too long of a wait
for me to take her apart yet again.
The manifold swap was not actually as painful as I thought. Since most of the
fasteners have been off just few months before most were very co-operative. I
found a very strange exhaust manifold that no one seams to know where it comes
from. Basically the portion that usually fails and cracks is missing in the
actual casting, i.e. there is nothing joining the outlets from cylinder 4 &
5. Please take a look in my picture gallery and maybe you will be able to tell
me what vintage and model of Audi this manifold actually apeared.
It is now officially a joy to drive the car.
Not for long as now the center driveshaft bearing is starting to complain and
whine to be replaced. There never a dull moment around these cars. Maybe that's
why I like them.
Got the center prop shaft bearing replaced, actually easier than I thought.
Coupe 20v oil pan replaced the S4 one so I could put the rad back the way it's
supposed to be. Replaced the rear diff mounts and diff seals... No more leaks. I
also had to replace the rear main output flange seal on the tranny... You need
either a press or a very good puller. Simple job.
More to follow.