Justin's '85 UrQ'd 4000 20vt Project - Tuning Help?

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:26 pm

derracuda wrote:looking good Justin 8)

which azenis do you have? RT-215? 615? or some more street oriented tires?

thanks Derek

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure which ones they are. I bought 'em used and never paid attention :-P They're the ones w/ the huge tread blocking and aren't really too street oriented (loud as hell when driving around). I do know this model has been replaced with a newer model/design if that means anything.

They stick like hell though on the track, but do get a tiny bit greasy after a solid 25 min of abuse around the twisties

Derracuda · Post by **Derracuda** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:35 pm

these are 215's...

these are 615's..

i've had 615's and they are fantastic tires...

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:50 pm

Ahh pictures

I have the 215s

I was actually surprised on how wide they run for 225s. They're the same overall width as the 235 Bridgestone Potenzas I have up in my attic waiting their turn to go on the track wheels after I kill off the Azenis.

I've heard good things about the 615s as well. Might give them a go after the potenzas are killed off... but that might be a while as they're pretty much brand spankin' new 8) Gotta love it when friends give away perfectly good tires

Derracuda · Post by **Derracuda** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:17 pm

ah, ok. i had 215/40/17 RT-615's on a 7.5" rim, and they were actually a little stretched. i'm working on getting some 235/40/17 RT-615's on my zermatt car, so if they are on the smaller side, that's a good thing

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:44 pm

derracuda wrote:ah, ok. i had 215/40/17 RT-615's on a 7.5" rim, and they were actually a little stretched. i'm working on getting some 235/40/17 RT-615's on my zermatt car, so if they are on the smaller side, that's a good thing

I'll def look forward to seeing how those fit... I'm sure you'll be fine though considering the clearance you gave yourself w/ those custom steering arms. I'm trying to avoid going that route if at all possible b/c I really don't want to mess w/ altering the tierods, clocking the arms properly, etc. I can do it, but I'd rather not if I have the choice.

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:52 am

Ok, well it's about time I do an update as a LOT has been happening with the car... so here it goes!

I've had my ups and downs getting to this point, but everything seems to be pulling together nicely!

First I'll start w/ the front hub assemblies:

Since I had to space out the bearing/hub assembly in the front to get the proper clearancing for the brake system, the CV joint was now pressing into the hub assembly. After looking over everything and sizing it up I found that I'd be best off doing two things: 1) Cut the Hub assembly ever so slightly to clearance the CV joint and 2) space the CV joint back a little bit.

What I ended up doing was removing approx 1/4" of the 'lip' that goes around the assembly... which resulted in something like this:

In addition to this, I made up some ~1/8" spacers to push the CV joint away from the hub. I ended up using 2 of these spacers on each front assembly and one on each rear assembly. now nothing makes contact, which is nice

Next on the list was rebuilding the inner CV joints on the 'new' rear axles I bought from a fellow MG'er. Unfortunately I wasn't too careful with where I put them and a considerable amount of dirt and metal shavings got into the inner CVs. It only made sense to rebuild them, but unfortunately that was easier said than done :frustrated: The CV on the one axle was a royal bitch to get off... I ended up making a 'jig' so to speak and use that along w/ a pulley puller to get it off... it was not pretty. This pic is of the original design.

Needless to say, it didn't hold up to well and actually bent w/o moving the CV. So I cut up a 1/4" thick C-channel I had laying around and used that... that one worked great

Once the joints were off I popped 'em all apart, cleaned them, reassembled and repacked w/ grease... making sure to wrap them up this time so nothing foreign got in!

Next on the list was prepping and painting the calipers

Due to some clearance issues w/ my 16" rims, I had to do some minor grinding on the Boxster calipers to make sure there was enough room. This now left an exposed area on the caliper that I needed to paint over... so while I was at it, I just painted all 4 of 'em

I was torn as to what colors to go, but decided to just go black for sutbleness. I might get a red Audi or quattro sticker to put on the boxter calipers once all done, but at the moment I'm ok w/ 'em being plain.

Here are the calipers all prepped and ready to go:

painting

and hanging all over the garage

Now came time to address the clearancing issues on the front uprights. I was able to get about 1/8" of clearance b/n the tie rod end and the track wheels w/ a 12mm spacer. Unfortunately, this was just too close IMHO... so I had to come up with a solution. I wasn't too keen on slicing the strut tube or cutting the arm completely free and rotating it in fear of compromising strenght of the upright.

Instead, I decided to cut about a 1/4" wedge from the arm and angle it in:

after a lil bit of hammering and grinding to prep the area:

and all welded and cleaned up:

Now, not that I don't trust my welding skills... but I don't necessarily trust the strength of my welds 100%... so I decided to add some plates to the top and bottom of the arms for the just to be sure factor

Basically sandwiched the arms w/ 3/16" plate...

The next thing that needs to be done to these uprights is to have Mance's BBSEs welded on... but more on that later (as that is this weekend's project).

From this point, I was at a standstill for parts, so I figured it was time to start prepping the car to receive the suspension as time is getting tight for me to get the car ready for VIR.

Last weekend I spent my time tearing out the old suspension and prepping everything...

First to come out was the uprights:

I honestly can't believe how clean everything is! There's not a spec of rust on these things... anywhere! Only thing on 'em is dirt... oh, and they're FOR SALE as well 8)

Here's the old girl after a fair amount of violating:

When dropping the rear subframe to get it out in prep for AL subframe bushings as well as seam welding, I found a little surprise on the rear diff! Thank GOD this was no longer inhabited!

Made my skin crawl just chiseling it off... yick. These guys probably took up residence when the car sat for the entire year before I bought it...

rear diff dropped w/o an issue, which I was VERY thankful for:

and who says cali cars always have new looking hardware:

as best I can tell, these are original... I was simply amazed at how clean this NC car was!!

Next on was prepping the rear subframe

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating with me and I didn't have any space in the garage to grind and weld... soooooooo I improvised

at least kept my head dry while I was having at the rear subframe. Got it all grinding and welding done on the seams.

Also, I will be installing AL subframe bushings, so out with the old they go. I originally started to cut the tops off these things and tried to hammer them out. Worked when I did the front, but these were REALLY in there...

So autozone to the rescue!

This thing buzzed these out w/o even batting an eye! Biggest issue I had was finding the right 'die' to press the bushing into while clearing the bushing. I found that the tops of my front uprights worked perfectly (see right side of pic

)

Next thing was Control Arm bushings

I was hoping to leave these be for now for the sake of saving some $$... unfortunately, these bushings were obviously shot. So while having hte autozone press I figured I'd push them out so they're ready for the 034 Delrin bushings showing up monday

I find that the easiest way to press these out is to hammer the inner lip (inside the A of the a-arm) in on itself so the socket has more area to bite when pressing it out. I forgot to do this on one bushing and had a helluva time getting it out. I ended up pounding it out w/ a screwdriver and hammer due to it being so wedged in there the press wouldn't budge it :bashtard: The other 3 went much more smoothly.

And surprisingly enough... those upright tops came in handy again

Now that brings you up to the present...

As of earlier this week, my Bilstein UrS4 sport shocks showed up:

This means I can now start welding in my BBSEs. I wanted to have the shocks here so I could make sure everything is straight. Mance really tolerances these things tight (which is a good thing), so I didn't want to accidentally weld them in "untrue" and not have the strut fit in.

I also got a new set of rear tie rods because the boots on the old ones were toast and the adjusters were so seized I couldn't get them apart. I swear it's a conspiracy from Audi, though, as these damn things were already starting to rust internally before even getting on the car!!!!

I bathed them in antiseize though, so all should be good now 8)

And as of last night my brakes and fluid (thanks to raceshopper.com) and springs showed up as well... so if I'm lucky, I can get the assembly completely assembled and ready to go for installation next week.

That's about it for now. Figured I'd toss this up since I'm bored at work right now. Will hopefully have a lot more to share next week! And hopefully the 'ol girl will be sitting on all 4s again too.

Hope ya enjoyed the show!

Oh, and as usual, a special thanks to Joe @ Axismotorsport for helping me out with a majority of these parts! He has been a real help with getting me everything (and putting up with me

) and I can't say enough good things about him!

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:08 am

Got some quality time in with the car this weekend... Car is pretty much ready to touch the ground, just need tranny mounts and brake lines.

But onto the update...

As the week drew to a close last week, I was welcomed by more "toys" to enjoy...

yes... the springs came in. Going to run 400lb front and 600lb rear and forgo all swaybars for the time being. I will see how I like how the car handles and go from there.

Also, got some goodies from 034 as well... a lot faster than I was anticipating. Since the rear control arm bushings were shot, I ordered a set through Joe and had him drop ship them to me. Was expecting them monday, but they showed up friday, much to my surprise! Very happy camper as it allowed me to fully assemble the rear suspension and subframe this weekend!

It's surprising that something so simple costs so much, but whatcha gonna do:

They pressed right in. Instead of using the syringe of grease they sent w/ the bushings I decided to coat 'em w/ antiseize liek I did the fronts. It's held up well over the past 2 yrs or so and they don't squeak, so figured I'd keep using what works well... ya know?

After a lil bit of coaxing, I was able to get the rear subframe up and back into place w/ some tasty AL bushings. Since I have a set of track sport tranny mounts on their way to me, I took the regular motorsport mounts I had on the tranny and swapped them to the rear for the diff. Everything buttoned up nice and easy, though.

Here's teh subframe in its new home (all painted up and lookin' good):

and a side shot so you can see the nice AL bushings and freshly installed delrin bushings:

Next on the list was building the rear uprights. Unfortunately the shocks did not come with the special tool to tighten the collars. I called bilstein and they shipped one out to me, but I didn't expect it until Monday... and I wanted to get cracking! So what else was I to do but make my own ghetto tool, as I didn't like the idea of boogering up the rings w/ a pipe wrench...

So w/ some 3" leftover exhaust tubing and some plate I came up with this:

Ghetto as hell, but did the trick on both rears!

here's the rear after getting torqued down (under my ghetto tent of course!):

Next thing on the list was to get that puppy springed up and installed!

Everything popped right together as I expected w/ mance's CCK. Things were def tight fitting together, though. had to do a lil tapping to get the top hat and the pro-mount to seat properly so that there were enough threads on the shock sticking through the cupped washer for the nut to thread onto.

BTW, here's a comparison of the stock 4000 rear rotors to the 200 20vt rear rotors now on the car:

This should be fun

These rear rotors are as big as the stock 4000 front rotors, so hopefully this puppy will stop nicely!

Next on the list was to tackle the Front Uprights and get the BBSEs welded on so I can use the UrS4 bilsteins.

After a bit of sizing up, it was pretty much a mark and weld situation... Here's everything welded up and groudn down:

painted:

and assembling (with the proper Bilstein collar tool as it came in Saturday afternoon... yet another surprise delivery!!)

aaaaannnd all assembled:

Once installing the uprights, the moment of truth was here... how well are my 17" OZ SLs w/ track rubber going to fit on the car... Is it going to be sticking out of the fender a ridiculous amount? Am I going to have to beat and bend things to get it to fit???

Answer? Newp, pretty much fits like a glove!!

I might have to do some slight fender rolling and trimming of the back fender liner, but overall... these fit PERFECTLY! Was very stoked about this!

Unfortunately, the victory was short lived as I realized that, due to the modifications done to my steering arms, I didn't have enough adjustment in my tie rods to get the wheels *straight*. So out came the TRs and out came the grinder and welder yet again!

What I ended up doing was taking ~1/4"-3/8" from the pass and driver's side TRs to make up for what I had taken out. This should be enough to get me back into spec and get this puppy lined up and ready to go!

Here's the cuts lined up waiting for a lil weld:

and the final product:

Again, since I dont' 100% trust the strength of my welds (though these probably would have been fine) I decided to add some strengthening pieces. Lil redneck, ok, but I'd rather that be the case than having the bar break at the welds when hitting a pot hole or the turtles on the track

So next thing on the list is to toss the tie rods BACK into the car and wait for my last bit of parts and the 'ol girl can hit the ground once again! Hopefully everything comes in by friday so I can do some testing on the car this weekend and get it on the dyno early next week and tune it for VIR on the 21st and 22nd

thegetawaycar · Post by **thegetawaycar** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:36 am

i cant seem to find the width of those 200 rear discs. maybe i'm missing something. care to enlighten me?

Derracuda · Post by **Derracuda** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:40 am

hey Justin, i shortened my tie rods like you did... but i stuffed a .5" rod in the middle as a guide/strengthener, and i'm not worried about it one bit. i'd be worried about a butt weld like that man... :(

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:00 am

i cant seem to find the width of those 200 rear discs. maybe i'm missing something. care to enlighten me?

I want to say they're around 20mm, but don't hold me to that. Can't seem to find any specs within reach at the moment.

hey Justin, i shortened my tie rods like you did... but i stuffed a .5" rod in the middle as a guide/strengthener, and i'm not worried about it one bit. i'd be worried about a butt weld like that man...

Yeah, I wasn't 100% confident in the butt weld, that's why I did 2 things. 1) I champhered the edges a bit so I could get a full penetrating weld and 2) I sandwiched the tie rod w/ 3/16" plate top and bottom (hence why it looks like a snake w/ a mouse in its stomach). That should help stiffen/reinforce things adequately... don't you think?

Derracuda · Post by **Derracuda** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:18 am

well, hopefully it holds up!

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:31 am

derracuda wrote:well, hopefully it holds up!

yup, I'm thinking the same thing

I'll keep close watch on them as time goes on and see how they fair.

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:39 am

I spent more hours on this car friday night trying to get it done and on the ground than I even want to comment on!

After enjoying the 84* weather we had here friday afternoon by going out and playing 18 holes w/ my buddy I arrived home to find the last box of parts I needed from good 'ol Mr Joe @ Axismotorsport! Contents were 4 braided brake lines and 2 tracksport tranny mounts!

I went right to work. Tranny mounts went in w/o issue (much to my delight). Sure, I did swear a few times at them, but what car work isn't complete w/o a few explatives, right?

From there I went to work on the brakes. Everything bolted in w/o an issue, though the front lines might be <i>slightly</i> too long. Will have to crawl under and double check.

And of course, then came the big issues. At around 730 or so my parents showed up from PA. I had solicited my dad to pump the brakes for me so I can bleed out my system w/ the new calipers and lines. After going through 2 liters of fluid and 2.5 hrs, I was STILL getting air in the lines and my dad's leg was getting a tad bit tired. I was at a loss as to why I was getting air still. All fittings were tight and nothing was leaking. At 10pm we finally took a break for dinner. While sititng down eating I realized that it was time to come up with a pressure bleeder because my folks needed to head down to their condo and unpack for the night. I remembered I had a spare brake reservoir in the attic, so I stole the cap and w/ a spare air nipple and some epoxy putty I made my own pressure bleeder system for my aircompressor. Who needs a motive pressure bleeder??? nah, not me :-P

It wasn't until I started to bleed the brakes AGAIN that I realized that there was NO air what so ever in the lines... it was infact my bleeding tube!!! It seemed there was a pin hole right about where it met with the nipple. When the fluid would rush by, it would suck air through the hold and make a "bubble". It wasn't until I was getting constant flow from the compressor that I realized this. So I lost about $14 worth of brake fluid and moved on... pride a little bruised, but more than happy that it was all working!

And then the moment of truth... I put on the track wheels and dropped the 'ol girl back on her feet once again! I have about 1-2 fingers gap ALL the way around the wheels... lol

This is the front portion of the rear wheels:

This is the rear portion of the rear wheel:

Front portion of the front wheel:

On the rear of the front wheel, all clears fine... until I make a tight turn. The tire ever so slightly hits the plastic fender liner on the car... not the end of the world, just makes some funny noises. This won't be an issue w/ my regular tires I don't think, but we'll see. I'll probably do some trimming, but for now it's OK.

By the time I got it on its own 2 feet again it was about midnight... and I couldn't just let the car be and not do a test drive!!! Go to start the car and... battery was dead. Nothing is never easy! Jump the car yet again w/ the A4 and get her moving. Let me just say that aligning a car by eye is NOT a good idea... lol Car was ALL over the road! I didn't feel too safe to take it out that night so after a quick ddart up and down the street to make sure everything was OK I parked the 'ol girl.

Saturday morning I brought it to Firestone to get my tech inspection for the track, state inspection and an alignment. I'm not going to even go into the debacle I went through there w/ the alignment or state inspection... but lets say I had to wait til sunday to get the car because the service writer f'd up and didn't put me in for an alignment (didn't find that out til 630... 30 min after closing time!) and the crotchety inspector flunked the car cuz the license plate lights wouldn't turn on. Turned out to be a fuse, and he sat on the car for 4 hrs before he put the passed sticker in hte car!!!! what a crock!

So Sunday morning they got the car aligned and ready to go. Apparently the tie rod end on the pass front is seized (I jammed it I think) and he couldn't get it aligned perfectly, but it's good enough for now. I'll mess w/ it after VIR.

As for impressions... wow. That's all I have to say... wow. This car rides like a friggen wash board! I mean, I knew it was going to... but wow... lol. Open containers are not allowed in the car anymore... Took my dad for a spin in the car and he ended up sloshing his coffee all over the place due to the bumpy road

Should handle perfectly on the track though! Car is flat through the turns and a dream on the highway... but the bumps get kinda punishing to say the least... but 400lb front and 600lb rear springs in a 2900lb car will do that to ya :wink: I am thankful though that the quattro script seats are supportive and well cushioned! So the bumps don't hurt, but women will probably need a sports bra to ride in the car from this point on

So the car is officially ready for VIR! I was going to retune it to 20psi, but at this point I'm going to leave it be. Car has more than enough pep right now at 14psi and I don't want to tempt fate and break something a week before the track, ya know?

Only think I need at this point is a fender roller!!! These tires are too close to the fender lips, so I need to do some finessing, so to speak, to the fender lips

so that's how she stands! It's been a great lil trip to this point, and I'm really excited to see what she can do! Next step will be a little extreme, but won't be happening anytime soon. i'm going to drive the car and enjoy... that's the game plan now!

jbrentd · Post by **jbrentd** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:04 am

Looking good Justin. Good luck at VIR.

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:59 am

So I was hoping to make a fun and exciting post about how the 4000 is tuned and ready to rock for watkins glen next week... but unfortunately, I can't say that it's going to make it at this point :-\

Thursday last week was the day that I was going to dyno the 4000 to

a) see what kinda power she was putting down and

b) get a good solid tune to bring my EGTs down since they were way too high at VIR back in April.

It all started off all innocent. That morning I pulled the valve cover off and retorqued all my APR head studs, checked my plugs, made sure everything in the motor was a-ok.

By 1230ish Keith (karthurtq) showed up and we drove the whole mile down the street to Dyno Inc, the local 4wd dyno.

In not too short of a time, they were backing the 'ol girl into place:

At this point I was getting anxious to get this party started!

Once everything was strapped down, I got the laptop all hooked up and got the dyno calibrated and it was time for the first pull.... and it is here where things got ugly :(

Got the car in 3rd gear at around 2k rpms... got the go ahead and dropped the hammer. 3k hit quick, you heard the turbo start screaming, the RPMs started really climbing and the 'ol girl was really taking off! Car sounded absolutely amazing as well! Unfortunately, this was short lived.

Out of the blue, the car started jumping/bouncing everywhere like a damn wild stallion trying to break free of it's teathers, there was a sound of squealing/screaching rubber and out of the corner of my eye I see Keith running from the side of the car. At first sign of a problem, I immediately let off the gas once the car started to violently bounce back and forth, but obviously couldn't hit the brakes as that would have made things worse on teh dyno... so it slowly spooled down.

This all went down at around 4-5k rpms and say 75 mph? Yeah, scary scary $hit!

When I got out of the car and walked around the side, I was welcomed by this:

Notice something wrong? Steering wheel is straight BTW... so is the driver's side wheel......... but not the passenger's side!!!!!!

What happened you ask?

Yeah, the passenger side steering arm basically folded down on itself! I was in shock... basically, by folding the way it did, it cause the wheel to go to full lock as if I was turning left. It turned so sharp that the tire hit the inner wheel well and the back of the a-arm as well as folded teh tire under the wheel so badly the lip of my front wheel got ground down a little bit (look later on for pics).

At this point, the guys came over from the other side of the shop because there were noises going down that should not be happening on a dyno. They all look at it in shock as well... yup, this was a first for them for sure! Best line though was the operator who goes "so how are we suppose to get it off the dyno now?" lol.

After about 30 min, I was able to get the steering arm off the upright so that we could turn the wheel straight and drive it off the dyno... and then I awaited patiently for AAA to show...

I was hoping not to have to do this again:

I rode home a little disgusted and a little embarassed... but thankful no one was hurt and the car wasn't destroyed. The guys were nice enough not to charge me for the dyno use, but I also have a feeling that they were nervous that I was going to try to pin this on them as well. I will get into reasons for potential failure a little later as well.

So I got the 'ol girl home and tore into it immediately after planning a course of attack.

First off the wheel:

and the contact on the inner fender:

And finally the steering arm (mind you, this is SUPPOSEto be straight):

After looking at the steering arm, it came apparent that my modifications that I had made to shorten it came back to bite me in the ass. If you notice, it kinked right after my braces that I welded in there where I butted everything together... After talking around, it is very apparent that I annealed the metal from the welding thus weakened/softening the steel enough to make it fail under the pressure. In hindsight, the 1/2" steel rod Derek talked about would have been a better call, but additionally I should have quenched the welds in cold water to temper it instead of letting it air cool. Regardless though, this should NOT have happened.

Other than the weak point in the arm, something else was screwy. I'm not sure if either these guys didn't tie the car down enough so it moved (car did lift up a little bit when it started really rolling, but being that it was the first time I've ever been on a dyno, I don't know if that's normal or not), or that my alignment was screwy enough that it put undue pressure on the steering arm, causing it to fold under the force. I know that my alignment was off a little bit, but I didn't think it was enough to cause THIS! Since no real damage was done to the car, I'm not going to make a big deal of it. All I lost now was time and a little $$ since I need to replace the TRE since we ripped the boot trying to steer it around the parkinglot to get it out of the dyno garage and onto the flatbed.

At this point, the car is sitting in the driveway w/o any steering arms. I took the driver's side one out and immediately cut it in half where I had butted it together and inserted an 8" long 1/2" steel rod inside it to reinforce it so this didn't happen to that side (fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me kinda deal).

Dan (RocketSLC) is pulling through for me and sending me a new TR assembly that will hopefully arrive tuesday. I will immediately head to the shop and bend it up and then get to shorten it and again insert an 8" rod into that one too and hopefully prevent this from happening again! I will also make sure to quench the welds after I'm done with them!

In the end, no one was hurt as the teathers did their job and kept the car where it belonged! I am eternally grateful for that part. Car can be replaced obviously... but thankfully, nothing was seriously damaged.

I'm now pushing hard to get the car fixed and ready for Watkins Glen on monday. This was def a huge wrench in the gears, but hopefully I can pull through. If not, the track tires/wheels will go onto the A4 along w/ fresh brake pads and I'll leave the 4000 to be abused next year.

But that's it for this installment... and I hope to never ever repeat this again! lol

audifreakjim · Post by **audifreakjim** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:53 am

Whoa, I'm relieved that it's not the motor that Gone Bad.

death 4kqt · Post by **death 4kqt** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:55 am

yea it sounds like you got off pretty lucky. Pretty scary though :(

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:50 am

audifreakjim wrote:Whoa, I'm relieved that it's not the motor that Gone Bad.

[quote="death 4kqt"]yea it sounds like you got off pretty lucky. Pretty scary though {/quote]

Yeah, I got off VERY lucky all considering. Hope to get it back on the rollers in the next month or so, but will probably hold off until after Watkins Glen. I'll just mess with the tune a little more so it's "safe" and move on from there.

90_Koop · Post by **90_Koop** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:30 pm

It could have been alot worse. Lucky you.

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:26 am

Figured I'd give a bit of an update....

Took the car to Watkins Glen at the end of August and had some issues... basically I blew the heater core after about 15 min on the track during the first session, and then blew coolant out of the cap from the reservoir the 2nd and 3rd session... again after about 15 min or so. Temps were def elevated, but not sure what the actual temp was b/c the 4000 gauges suck goat balls

The blown HC left the interior....... damp to say the least:

At first the concensus was that the head gasket was blown. After compression tests, all cylinders checked out fine. Also, after pressurizing the coolant system for over 48 hrs straight, I had zero coolant in the cylinders. So that in my mind basically scratched the idea that the HG was blown, as it always took about 15 min before the car would start having issues, and the temp needle was pretty high when it happened....

Once I got back from the glen, I basically let the car sit as I just didn't have the motivation to work on it... that was until last weekend.

This new found motivation was mainly sparked after the muffler fell off as I was driving into work last week, but that's neither here nor there

But while I was in there, I decided to start cracking on some issues I came up with that were probably the reasons I had issues at Watkins Glen.

After talking a bunch w/ Joe @ Axismotorsport bouncing ideas off eachother, a few things needed to get addressed.

The biggest was radiator shrouding! Ever since the turbo swap, I never installed any lower radiator shrouding since the oil cooler lines and IC piping are really in the way. This shot me in the foot when pushing the car (as Joe pointed out to me several times), as all the air went under the radiator instead of through it, and the fan wasn't able to flow enough air to keep the car cool when living at redline for 30 min track sessions

I had the top and side plastic shrouds installed, but not really secured, so they kinda flopped around. I also had a half a$$ed shroud I bent up for the engine side, but in reality that really wasn't doing too much...... so the only option I had was to start from scratch and rebuild everything.

It started off w/ a template of the lower plate:

Yes, that's a coors light box... sush. I had a party last weekend so I had a few extra beer boxes laying around, which make perfect template material

Since the area was far from flat, the piece needed some coaxing to fit properly... so out came the hammer, a large C-channel, and a couple clamps... resulting in:

And roughly installed so I could start looking at fab'ing up the side pieces:

This was my "break" system for the metal... that and a 2lb shot filled hammer that you can see in the background

Here's the side bottom piece for the engine side of the radiator.

This piece was tricky b/c I had to clear the motor mount and oil pan, while still making it so I could attach an upper piece to it... but a bit of creative bending and cutting and it worked out well

And installed:

Underside w/ fender side shround installed:

Lower plate installed:

And here's the start of the upper piece for the engine side... first, take plate and measure off where you want to bend:

Bend, cut, hammer, tweak, and trim... and install (yup, just that simple too :roll:

):

Here's everything 'built' and out of the car:

Once I got everything mocked up, I decided to sandblast everything to give it a nice dull finish (no bling bling under the hood for this guy... though I did contemplate polishing it all up).

Unfortunately, it was a lot rougher than I was expecting, and if I left it to the elements it was going to get REALLY nasty since the roughness was basically a magnet for dirt. So after digging through the garage I decided to use 3m underbody coating on it vs paint as it'd be a bit more durable:

And the final product:

So part 1 is officially done. Took WAY too much time to come up with this, but I also work at a slow and steady pace. There was a fair amount of head scratching and staring during this process as well while I figured out what I wanted to do... but it's done! I'm sure my neighbors are also grateful as there was a fair amount of banging involved w/ this project... haha.

But this shrouding is step 1. Next step, I'm going to recore the radiator. I talked to a local radiator shop, and they're able to recore my radiator w/ a better core that will give me a min of double the current capacity, if not more (the 4000 cores are so old they're no longer in the book... lol). So when I pull the motor to install the new tranny (putting in a 200 20vt torsen tranny

), I will yank the radiator and bring it to him to make pretty again.

Hopefully once that's done, I won't have overheating problems again w/ the car. I also picked up an aftermarket coolant temp gauge as I'm sick of guessing w/ the stock piece. I will keep the stock one functional since I don't have anything else to put in that spot, but otherwise I'm tired of 'guessing' what my temp is... I want to know! If I would have known it before, I might have avoided some of the issues I ran into at WG.

But that's it for now... hope ya enjoyed the pix. Won't be motor pulling for a few months, but I'll keep ya in the loop once I do

Need to save up and buy a cherry picker to get the 'ol girl out as I'm tired of renting one, and we're going to need it up north when it comes time to start tearing down the UrQ.

WRC · Post by **WRC** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 5:10 am

Looking good. Good things take time.

Rocket SLC · Post by **Rocket SLC** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:02 am

Hey, I was just wondering if you could make me a set of those shrouds?

AudiSport4000 · Post by **AudiSport4000** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:13 am

Holla! Looks awesome Justin 8)

jretal · Post by **jretal** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:46 am

Rocket SLC wrote:[/quote]

Hey, I was just wondering if you could make me a set of those shrouds?[/quote]

lol... call me and we can talk. This was about 10 hrs worth of work that I could probably repeat in a few hours.

Also, not sure how it'd work on a stock setup (the base part at least) since I'm using my IC piping and oil lines (wedged b/n the 2) to hold the front portion in place.