The Project Pad

Grillage wrote:

loxxrider wrote:

The man who casts no shadow!

nice, I actually didn't take notice until you pointed that out!

It would have been nice to meet you at Carlisle, but I think it was well worth it for you to miss the show to go get this. It is a beautiful avant, and make me want one again.

Next time your in the York PA area, hit me up. Will be nice to meet you, and check out the RennWGN.

Haha damn u forgot the shadow! That's what I get for photoshopping just before bed.

I'll definitely be there next year. Can't miss two in a row! I'm sure I'll pass by your area from time to time, so maybe we'll figure something out one day. Always down to meet a fellow ppadder

*edit* here's one with a shadow lol

Great story, glad it all worked out! Most of the classic Audi community is top notch. Now sell the Audi fund hogging PSUV thingy

Hey, don't forget there are two sides to the Rockies and its just a beautiful on the west side too. There are places in Utah that are truly out of this world and cannot be appreciated with a mere picture. I do like Colorado, and if I had to, could be made to enjoy myself.

Glad your trip went well over all. looks like Drew did you proper. Nice find on the Wagon, and I'm sure you will have it running proper in no time....that is if you can get some time to work on it. Perhaps next year, I may bring the coupe down to FL to have some fun with the abundant E85 that's sold everywhere. Ive been salivating over how fast my car would be down here. We could plan an epic dive trip in Key West?

Indeed we are a good community. I love it. I'm doing my best to sell the Porsche, but it's not an easy sell. I'm learning the market for one of these is pretty limited. Oh well! It's fun to drive it while I can It's downright ridiculous after driving the Audi lol. It's a wonder that a thing like the Cayenne can easily run circles around almost any car on the road at the track. It's incredible and cannot be understood without experiencing it. Nothing else inspires more confidence in the combination of on and offroad that I see on a daily basis.

Dave, yes this is very true! The problem is you guys have some pretty stange laws on beer and such. I'm sure I could get over that though. Unfortunately, you're on the wrong side of the Rockies for my line of work!

Actually, my family is planning a reunion in the Keys next December. My vacation time is so limited that I'll probably have to save it all year just to go to it. I'm sure my Mom would love to get in on some diving though... maybe we could meet up! I'd have to spend most of the time with my family though as I am only getting to see them once a year now it seems :/



Update coming soon...

OK. Calling alxdgr8! I need your acoustical engineer advice.

I would like to build a 1/4 wave resonator for this car like LKSi did. I measured my drone using a phone and an application with a Fast Fourier Transform to take the sound recording into the frequency domain. This let me determine the frequency of the drone and specific RPMs. I determined that 120 Hz is what I want to target based on the speed I will be driving and the amount of drone I could hear.

Alex, two questions:

1) Does the angle of entry into the tube matter? I would think that some wave energy would be lost if it hits a 90 first before entering the tube. However, having a bend shouldn't be as big of a deal at all. Probably not much energy gets lost there at all.

2) When calculating the length, only arc length matters right?

3) Does location in the exhaust matter? Before/after cat, muffler, etc.? I would think the sooner the better really.

4) The bigger the diameter of the pipe I use, the more energy will be able to be used for destructive interference right?


So the math isn't too bad. 120 Hz is the frequency I want to cancel, so I need to build a chamber which will make sound waves destructively interfere with other sound waves in the exhaust. To be most effective, the sound waves should arrive 1/2 wavelength out of phase. The pipe will have to be 1/4 the length of one wavelength in order to to arrive at 1/2 a wavelength out of phase since it has to travel the distance of the pipe twice.

SO, what's the wavelength of a 125 Hz sound wave in my exhaust? Well, that depends what the temperature is going to be inside that pipe. That's REALLY hard to make an assumption on because it is highly dependent on the airflow and heat transfer while cruising at highway speeds (since that's where I want the drone cancelled).

I am going to do the math now to see how much X degrees affects X length of pipe. It may not even be worth worrying about. It'd be really cool to get it right though and have the max attenuation at the target frequency!

So I did the analysis on temperature and how it will change the effective frequency of the cancellation waves. Being 100 degrees off could shift the frequency cancelled by roughly 10 Hz, which could push me out of the range I want to cancel. So either I will need to get a good figure on the temperature that pipe will be or I need to make an adjustable pipe to make sure I get it right!

I really don't know what to assume for the temperature of this pipe, but I know it won't be below ambient, so let's call it a bare minimum of 100 deg F. Air wont be flowing through it much (only somewhat due to convection and the sound wave energy), heat transfer will occur significantly at highway speeds, and the exhaust temp by the time it reaches at least the midway part of the exhaust system shouldn't be more than 300 deg F. I don't know though. Might need to do some research here. I'm thinking maybe between 150 and 200 deg F though in that pipe. That's just a roughly educated guess!

Anyway, either way it puts me somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 inches long. Should be pretty easily doable and fun to see if it works.

I'll work on a response to your questions in a day or two, just wanted to let you know I saw it

wow that was a long post.

lol. good stuff

You have my full attention on this. I'm hoping to make a wave resonator as well in the future. My drone used to be so unbearable.

Nice car choice! I have driven that section from the front range in CO to Missouri MANY times. Even taken some pictures in the windmill farm out there!
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Great story!

I am very curious about that custom boost gauge. Would love to have one. EDIT: Found the site. Cool!

Knowing you, you will probably end up building a custom set of coilovers.

Hey Chris,

I just read through your new thread and absolutely love the new avant! Very nice work It sounds like you have some awesome plans for it and should be a super fun DD when all said and done. I've been itching to get back into a 20vt car more and more lately and seeing this definitely does NOT help keep that at bay...ha. I hope all is well and if you guys ever make it out to Oregon hit me up!

-Jon

loxxrider wrote:

Mcstiff wrote:When did the trip happen? It would have been funny to see it on 80!

It was last weekend. I thought about you several times on the trip and wish we could have set something up, but we were too pressed for time and the trip was too last minute for it to be feasible. She fell in love with CO though (like I knew she would), so we will definitely be back! She wants to move LOL

I did Youngstown to my house yesterday, bypassing many people along the way, totally understand Next time take 80, it's not as ugly as Kansas and there are more hills to make progress perceptible.

CO has a better overall climate than PA (IMO) but it was cool to get back and see all the trees and weird old rolling roads in PA.

Amazing Story, awesome car, glad you made it. The write up was fantastic, and I enjoyed reading it hahaha.

Have you checked the ECU boost reference line?

also +1 For a drone free calculation

PRA4WX wrote:Nice car choice! I have driven that section from the front range in CO to Missouri MANY times. Even taken some pictures in the windmill farm out there!
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Thanks! It's not a bad drive, but could be a little more exciting. I would have loved to get pictures with the wind turbines, but just didn't have the time.

ChrisAudi80 wrote:Great story!

I am very curious about that custom boost gauge. Would love to have one. EDIT: Found the site. Cool!

Knowing you, you will probably end up building a custom set of coilovers.

Cool site huh? I am working on some other little unique touches to compliment that. I've never had a car that I actually came up with a decent nickname for (in my opinion), so now I get to try some stuff lol.

Haha, yes that might be the case, except this time I'd be building them with touring in mind (rather than all out performance).

jcarrick wrote:Hey Chris,

I just read through your new thread and absolutely love the new avant! Very nice work It sounds like you have some awesome plans for it and should be a super fun DD when all said and done. I've been itching to get back into a 20vt car more and more lately and seeing this definitely does NOT help keep that at bay...ha. I hope all is well and if you guys ever make it out to Oregon hit me up!

-Jon

Good to hear from you Jon! Thank you very much. It's really hard to stay away from these ur-5cyl powered Audis... there really isn't anything else like it. There are so many things you can do to modernize them and keep them running, it doesn't really make much sense to have anything else. I'd rather dump a few k per year into this with maintenance than dump a even more money into a car payment every month. Even if this thing cost me $500 a month in maintenance to keep it dead nuts reliable, I'd still see it as a winning situation compared to having almost any other car. I just like it more for my needs right now.

Now if I was working at a normal job in South Florida, I might just have to eat my words and buy an M2 I'd still want an old Audi to drive at times though!

Mcstiff wrote:

loxxrider wrote:

Mcstiff wrote:When did the trip happen? It would have been funny to see it on 80!

It was last weekend. I thought about you several times on the trip and wish we could have set something up, but we were too pressed for time and the trip was too last minute for it to be feasible. She fell in love with CO though (like I knew she would), so we will definitely be back! She wants to move LOL

I did Youngstown to my house yesterday, bypassing many people along the way, totally understand ;-) Next time take 80, it's not as ugly as Kansas and there are more hills to make progress perceptible.

CO has a better overall climate than PA (IMO) but it was cool to get back and see all the trees and weird old rolling roads in PA.

Yeah, we would have done that, but we really wanted to go see the arch. I feel like it's a once in a lifetime type of thing and now we don't have to ever go back lol.

I love some of the windy roads we have in this part of PA/OH/WV. It makes for some really fun driving in the summer, and "interesting" driving in the winter!

Who knows, maybe I'll get transferred to the Rockies at some point in my career. I definitely wouldn't complain too much.

themagellan wrote:Amazing Story, awesome car, glad you made it. The write up was fantastic, and I enjoyed reading it hahaha.

Have you checked the ECU boost reference line?

also +1 For a drone free calculation

Thanks! Glad you guys have mostly liked it despite the length haha. On the ECU boost reference line... update coming soon

Time for UPGRAYDES!

By now you guys know my number one priorities for this car are reliability and preservation… then fun!

In the name of reliability, I took a Venair intercooler hose kit off of Apikol’s hands. I chose not to have them install it because the stock hoses were still intact, and this is the kind of installation that I enjoy. Not too difficult. Something you can do while drinking a cold one in an hour or so, and it’s more like an upgrade than maintenance if you look at it from a reliability upgrade standpoint. Also, working on this is like working on an old friend again. I just love these engines and their relative simplicity and robustness.



This got me itching for more reliability upgrades though, so I will probably order a matching silicone TB hose next along with a silicone intake hose.

Next on the list of things to do was install my new exhaust DUMP

When Troy at Apikol inspected the car for me, he mentioned that the exhaust was a bit rough and didn’t have any way to remove it unless the car was on a lift. He suggested adding a flange (I requested v-band of course!), and also modifying the downpipe to increase ground clearance as well as adding a flex section. After looking at the exhaust that was on it, I’m sure glad at least the front section is new now!

Here's the rear section that Apikol had nothing to do with (bleh). It’s still this way from the cat back, but oh well.



I also figured why not have a little fun. If I’m going to be on stock turbo for a while, I might as well at least make it sound badass when I want. So I had Troy integrate a QTP electric cutout into the system. The end result is really sweet! 3” from the turbo back. I’m not sure who made the original downpipe, but it’s made nicely (maybe Stromung?). You can see the new stainless from halfway down the downpipe and back to the cat. All of that is top notch now!

Maybe I'll have to get a TIG one of these days and do the rest myself

Original dp with new SS bends and QTP Y-pipe from Apikol.



Troy spliced into that in a much nicer way than the exhaust was originally and now the whole exhaust has much more ground clearance. The QTP valve is nicely tucked up and doesn’t affect clearance at all. Sweet!





I’m really happy with the work Troy did. I couldn’t have done it better myself. Not even close!

Then I decided to poke around in the engine bay a bit more just to get better acquainted. Looks pretty decent for so many miles. There are just a few things I’ll want to clean up like that heat shield by the wastegate.



I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get into running all new vac lines, but then I remembered that I had some silicone vac line somewhere, so I figured why not spend the 10 minutes it takes to run all new vac lines to the two most important things, the ECU and the FPR.

Boy, am I glad I did! Back in Denver Drew pointed out that the hose going to the ECU looked pretty bad where it connects to the T. I looked, but it seemed like it was still intact enough not to cause a problem. Well, when I looked at it this day, it pretty much just fell off of the T.



At first Drew and I chalked the sluggishness up to just being at altitude, but when I got close to sea level it still wasn’t as it should have been. I knew something was wrong. It didn’t feel quite right at full boost. Didn’t sound quite right either. I’m surprised it didn’t hurt anything when I was trying to get a feel for it and making it boost as much as it could. I could tell something was wrong though, so I didn’t do it toooo much. Only enough to try to get a feel for what was going on.

Well, after fixing this T and everything that connects to it with silicone, I went for a drive. I suspected this would cure all of the problems, and I was right. It boost all the way to 1.8, 1.9, and probably even close to 2 bar on the stock gauge now and feels like ~280 hp should. It’s not quite as quick as I remember my sedan being on VEMS and stock turbo, but it’s close.

The only problem is that now it hits overboost fuel cut when boosting too much at times. The problem is accentuated when running open downpipe because the turbo likes to spool better without the cat being in the way! VEMS… soon.

No real progress has been made on other fronts, but I think audio will be next. Then VEMS and hopefully some suspension work. I need to take a closer look at the health of the struts and then decide what to do from there. Go back to stock height, but with stiffer springs, sways, and dampers? I think that might just be the ticket.

Keep it up Chris, before you know it, you will have a bullet proof avant.

And now for something probably completely unexciting to most of you, but should be kinda cool when I'm done with it.

The Ronals I got didn't come with hub/center caps for some reason. I have pictures of the ones it had on it at one point, and they were pretty cool. Only problem is that after searching for HOURS, I still can't find a set of them.



I like them a lot because of the German flag on there. I've seen it in other pictures of Ronals. I think maybe they're just no longer made. I'd love to have a set or have a set made if I can get a high res shot of them.

I can get the same caps in black with the Ronal logo, but no flag. I could settle for that, but I really enjoy little subtle details like that a lot.

Another option I found while trying to figure out the size of the center caps for these wheels is a stock Audi center cap. It is part number 893 601 170, color code 7ZC. Here's what that would look like (thanks Ed H. for posting this on MG!)



I think that's a pretty sweet option, but those are about $45 a piece new, so it slid down the option list a bit. If anyone has some of those, I'd love to have some though!

However, I have come up with another idea altogether. Custom

I'll post when they arrive.

In the meantime, I'm still trying to figure out the diameter of the Ronal R28 center caps (and/or the diameter of that Audi one). I need it to be fairly exact to make sure what I have made will fit! I see them listed often as 2.5", but that isn't accurate. I think they are actually 65 mm OD.

I should be able to measure mine over the weekend.

I'm fairly certain they are 63 or 64 mm, but it wouldn't hurt to confirm.

Chris, are you planning to get a plug and play, or an econoseal? I have a spare econoseal never used I would like to release back to the wild... or I could be coerced to convert it to a plug and play... I know stuff and have skills and junk.

I'm actually just going to use the one from my sedan, but then I will need another one for that when it's done. Not planning to purchase that just yet though. I need to decide if I want to do a custom harness in the car before that.

If you want it and I still have it when your ready, hit me up.

Will do Dave!


Ed, do you have the caps with the correct color code and everything? They should say 7ZC somewhere on them to indicate that. They're painted right? Got an up-close picture?

**edit** nevermind, I found a good picture on ebay finally. Looks like the 7ZC is not cast into the part, only on the package they came in (makes sense from a manufacturing standpoint). That is definitely the correct color code though.