The Project Pad

Hello Project Pad! I have finally decided to start a project thread for my black on platinum grey 1990 Coupe Quattro. I am relatively new to the Audi world, but decided to dive right into this project once it presented itself. I purchased the Coupe (my second audi) in spring 2011 with an estimated 240,000 miles. The condition was good for its experience, and after a few fixes it served me well for a number of months. It was off to a much better start than the 89 200 avant I had previously. Then I decided to tear it apart and rebuild. The handling was sketchy at best, the 7a was leaking oil, a rear diff mount broke and managed to hit an already repaired fuel line and spring a leak, the coolant bleed valve was leaking, the 01A sounded awful, etc. I pulled the car into the garage space next to Tim's Coupe and began work. To give you an idea of time-frame, I started in mid-August.
Meanwhile, a deal had presented itself for a 200 20v engine/trans combo that my friend Tim helped me to pull from the sedan in the owner's driveway (he wanted the parts for his good 20v). I brought it back from northern NH and prepped it for the CQ. Here goes!

Goals: My goal for this car is to have a reasonably reliable daily driver that is a blast to drive. To start, I will run a stock 3b on stock ecu. Eventually, another 20vt will be built to take the place of the 220,000 mile 3b unit that is going in now. It seems to have been well maintained, and had a timing belt service done 10k ago. The previous owner said he drove it from VT back home and parked it. I'm not too worried about it, but I do want to begin prepping another just in case, and build it to easily handle the 3-400whp I eventually want.

Engine:
Stock 3b - 220,000 miles, building a front-facing IM, otherwise not much in this department for now.

Transmission:
01E from an S6, narrow first five speed.
4kq output cups
Hanks mounts
b5 s4 shift linkage (shortened 1.25") and shifter box mounted in stock CQ location.
CQ PP, FW, and disc
4k driveshaft sized up and ready with a new carrier bearing.
CQ Axles

Suspension:
Front: New - Control arm bushings, ball joints, upper strut mounts, tie rod ends, swaybar endlinks
Needs - new struts soon, perhaps a coilover setup?
Rear: Needs to be gone through relatively soon. Trying to hold out until I do something major back there...torsen small chassis rear diff? I have most of the parts :-)
Brakes:
Vacuum assist
ABS pump removed
Rebuilt calipers, new discs, pads, rear lines, ebrake cables.
Eventually some sort of big brake setup will be in order.

Currently in progress, updates to come!

why not use stock coupe axles and put the a4 rear flanges in the o1e

love cq builds :thumbup:

Thanks! My understanding of the cups is that one side of the b5a4 rear diff has the same cup as both sides *mistaken, apparently just one side of 4kq rear diff works* of the 4k rear diff. These have the smaller 100mm cups that the stock axles require, but need to be shortened slightly (3mm I hear) to work properly in the 01e. Part of my reasoning for posting this project is for input, the other two are for my records and motivation. When I get bored later tonight I will continue and probably babble on and share many more photos.

So I pulled the old, leaky, tired 7a and 01a and engine harness out and got to work trying to remove the 1/4" of pentosin on the driver's framerail and inner fender area. Once the bay way cleaned up (which took forever btw) I set about removing bits I didn't want/need. Out came the battery tray, ABS pump bracket, as well as a few other bits here and there. Threw some primer on it for the time being and moved forward.

Here is where not getting sucked into the 'while you're in there' hole can really save you some time, but I'm no good at that. Since the dash was out for the harness, might as well do the heater core. Oh crap, heater core must have been leaking at some point - carpet is soaked with some nasty fluid. Seats out, carpet out, carpet pad on the passenger side was wet with water (dried right up) and I believe it is due to poor window alignment of the replacement window that's in there now. Driver's side was soaked with what seemed like Gatorade fruit punch. This shit wouldn't dry up, probably just coolant, maybe pentosin from the hydro-assist brakes? This car leaked everything, so I don't really care what it was, I want it gone. I ended up ripping the driver's side padding up and am ready now to put down some home carpet padding for lack of a better idea. If anyone cares, or it's a stupid idea, I am planning on using Home Depot 6lb pad with Moisture Barrier. I have a black carpet out of a 90 that needs a little needle-work to fix some tears, as well as a few cuts for the seatbelt slide bracket. The padding, carpet, seats, etc will go back in once I am confident that the shifter linkage for the 01e will clear the kink in the tunnel sheetmetal (I have hammered the piss out of it and need to drop the motor/tranny back in to check it). Those of you who have swapped an 01e into a coupe know the area I'm referring to I'm sure. Once the carpet is back down, my HVAC unit with a new heater core, re-foamed flaps, and gutted out ac portion will go back in. I have made 90% of my engine harness by combining the 200 20v 3b harness with the appropriate portions of whats left of the 7a harness, and am down to a few more connections and about 15 male pins that I can only seem to find in Europe...grrr. Then once running, I can put the dash back.

Next episode: "Back to the bay."

With nearly everything (save for the rack and some wiring/plumbing) out of the bay, I mated the 3b and 01e up, and installed motor and trans mounts. I went with 034's street density motor mounts and track density tranny and rear diff mounts. I also replaced the rear diff center mount with an OE replacement after recognizing that the density one I had purchased was .045" larger than the stock aluminum housing. I wasn't interested in blowing up or turning down the factory piece, and turning down the mount wouldn't have left much metal around it. So in went a stock replacement.

I installed the b5 s4 shifter box into the Coupe in about 30mins. The studs on the box all line up perfectly with the 4 tacked nuts on the chassis. So I drilled the nuts out, shaved the box a bit with a razor, and it slid right in (oh yeah!).

Perfect, now engine and transmission in, and attempt to attach linkage. The selector will connect, and push the shifter way too far back in the box as soon as you try to line up the stabilizer (which won't work by the way because it will hit the tunnel just before you can get it to sit on its mount point on the trans). So I decided on 1.25 inches shorter on both rods to get the shifter centered with some front/back adjustability remaining. I have not tested this length yet, but am confident it will allow me to center the shifter so that it is in the factory CQ location. These shift rods are lead-filled, so you have to remove the white caulking/sealant stuff from the end prior to cutting. No problems there, contained it so I can refill both rods for a nice solid factory feel. I chose to cut the connector pieces off of the rods on the shifter end of things, shorten the rods 1.25" and reweld (thanks Jim) the connectors exactly as they were before. This is a straight portion of the rods, parallel to the chassis front-to-back and should not affect shifting. Essentially this is like adjusting the shifter along the slots on the pieces I moved, I just moved things forward a bit. Currently, these are ready to be test fit, and if it works, refilled, recaulked, and repainted.

I moved back a bit and checked the fitment of the 4k driveshaft. Should work great. I also pulled the rotten fuel lines out as well as the filter for replacement.

Then I got to work on the engine side of things. I decided to keep the euro 20v bumper that came on the car for now, but it really doesn't provide any intercooler room. So I chose to run a b4 hood to go with the b4 lights that were on there (with a b3 hood and homemade grill). It didn't look too bad, but the b4 hood looks better in my opinion, and gave me another ~3/4" of clearance behind the grill where the intercooler would go. I also love the stubby coupe nose, so this will work until I want/need more power. I purchased a cheap 7"x22"x2" core (about 25" long total), some tight 90 degree 2.5" sweeps, some silicone couplers, and some shitty "2.5 inch" aluminum tubing that was actually 2.4" and doesn't fit the silicone. I cut the outlets on the intercooler, as well as the tight 90's so that the endtanks will face rearward. I have to have Ryan weld these up, but I want to get some actual 2.5" piping first. The driver's side will outlet with a quick 60 degree turn into the throttlebody of the front-facing intake manifold I am working on with Ryan as well. (I'll get into that on a separate post) This thing barely fits, isn't very big, but it will work. This has more frontal area than the factory intercooler, and is also almost entirely exposed through the grill, so it should get more airflow than stock as well. The only way this thing fits is by using a different crossmember and a shorter snub mount (maybe an UrS snub would work too). I will also be building another upper crossmember since the stock one would be completely in the way.

Time for a break, here's some pictures:

Does it run yet?

4kq 016 trans front output cups are what you have, and wil work great once the other is cutdown

Only one side from 4kq diff would work you need to pilage multiple diffs

I stand corrected on the cups. Yup, just need to shorten the other and confirm that it requires the 4k 016 bolt.

E

Toph wrote:I stand corrected on the cups. Yup, just need to shorten the other and confirm that it requires the 4k 016 bolt.

Use the damn 4kq 016 bolt

i'm happy you're taking such good care of my old car. funny that this thing was COMPLETELY bone stock as it came from the factory less then 2 years ago.

good luck with her, she treated me well. (except the minor issues you've addressed)

does it run yet?

gettting wired

Attachment ( 31009 ) : toph wire hell.jpg


Attachment ( 31010 ) : toph wiring.jpg


Attachment ( 31011 ) : toph wiring2.jpg

tophs online and wont update this thread

Here's a picture

More soon - no, it doesn't run yet.

hoow soon

Looking good!

WOW looking great!

Thanks guys. Here's another couple of pictures for the time being - This thread needs a real update, I know, but I'm off to the shop to spend the Fourth working on the car.

bout time, now make tim do an update or 2!

Like the build so far.

Are you done filing yet?

Just need a npt bung or nipple for the ISV, and npt tap the ports there, then the intake is ready to be welded up.
Water manifold is ready to be tacked.
So yes, Ryan, I believe I may be...for the time being.

And the 'wiring' pictures are an exaggeration - just a lot going on under there, but I had the harness made well before that shot was taken. It is in there now, with just a few more details to finalize.

Does anyone have any thoughts on a stock Coupe Quattro catalytic converter's ability to flow sufficiently in a stock 3b application? Should I consider running something else?

The plan now is to have Ryan weld the cut 200 20v downpipe to a single 2.5" ~90 degree bend, 6" flex to v-band. Then cut the factory 4bolt flange off of the low-mileage cat I have, and weld the other v-band flange to it. This way I can just use the catback that is already in place (60mm cat piping to factory sleeve clamp to a short 60mm reducer piece from the 65mm mid section and out through the Stebro muffler)

In the not-to-distant future it will change to a 3" exhaust front to back most likely, if things continue as intended.

Ordering the flex and vband tonight, already have a 2.5" 180 stainless mandrel-bent piece with ~10" legs.

Input is appreciated, thanks

Do you have to smog the car? If not I would leave it out all together. If you are concerned about global warming and doing your part to be green, I think I would just offset it all by tuning and running it on E85. .......you know the clean burning, renewable alternative to petroleum based fuels. Come on, do your part!

does it run yet?

soo wheres the pics, huh :slap: