The Project Pad

...and I'll show you how deep the pocket book goes.

After more years than I care to count I have been reunited with my Mars 83 UrQ.

Its been in a couple shops, used for parts, and neglected. Now its been saved and its safely residing in my garage downstairs.

My head has been spinning with options as I have browsed this site for months now. Still not sure what will motor-vate the car but Im pretty motivated myself.

I will update this as some of the more basic projects unfold and hopefully by then I will have picked an engine combo...

mmmm, that other urq there looks mighty nice with them big wheelios 8)

oh jealousy...

creative wheel chuck....thats a good way to put your old 9.6" solid rear rotors to work

thats a good way to put your old 9.6" solid rear rotors to work

I don't know...might be the resolution on my monitor...but that rotor/chock looks vented...

I like your poster.... the cars are nice too! :-D

I do prefer vented wheel chocks. Really pays off here in Vegas 8)

Drop a 20vt in it and make it a 500+ monster like Javad's :-D

oh wee.. THats 3 URQ in a within a mile of eachother, thats gonna be trouble

Quick! Off to a rallycross and spank the Subies and Mitsubishis!!! :-D

Ok guys, after spending a bit of time under the hood today I have found the engine to be full of water - don't ask, Im trying not to think about it. My strongest feelings are leaning towards a V8 swap. I really want a 4.2, but $$$ is going to determine the scope of the whole project.

Great that it has made it's way home. Did Trinity come with it? or Agent Smith?
Looks like you have another project! Do the V8 swap!!!! Oh, and nice Helios Blue 83 right next to it!

Well, still trying to get me a V8, I want Bobs "kit" but I havent heard back form any shippers yet.

As mentioned above, the Red pill has been sitting - for years - for one reason or another. I started poking around and found water in the cyls so I was pretty bummed that I wasnt going to get the car to move on its own means until I could get all the stuff for my transplant. I gave the cylinders a healthy dose of WD-40 and let it sit a day or two while my fingers were crossed. Last night I took off the front facia and got my breaker bar on to the crank bolt. After a little wigglin' I got 'er free. Man there is a bunch of crap in the cyls. I poured some oil in the bores and gave it many revolutions to coat everything and then went to bed.

This morning started with fabbing and running the new brake lines, that went swimmingly, looks good. Sense of accomplishment indeed. No matter what the engine does, it needs brakes right?

Next on the list was the fuel lines, the brakes needed to be done first since they reside closer to the chassis than the fuel lines. I hade collected all the line and fittings so i just needed to crawl under and size everything up. I used braided from the pump to the filter and then a hi-pressure rubber hose with push-on ends from the filter forward to where I have it clamped to the original metal line. this will serve well until I see where the engine swap takes me. I will likely eithe rrun new hard metal lines all the way forward, or braided all the way...

Battery was charged and installed. Fuel pump relay checked and functional. None of the fuel lines leaked - got it right first time. Yea, all was sounding too good.

It took a while to get the fuel system primed and to get the 5 gals of new gas flowing. I had the plugs out and cranked the engine to chuck the rest of the crud out of the cyls and prime the oil syslem. Took off the oil cap, plenty of oil up top now.

Heck, maybe I'll just put the new plugs in and hope for the best.

Well, thats about where my day ended. I could get a chug here and there but just wouldnt crack off. Verified spark, verified fuel, thats almost all ya need right? Well out came the plugs and in went the compression tester.

Cylinders, 50 - 80 - 50 - 100 - 70. Either the rings are still stuck or they got broke in the process, either way I had nuttin to lose.

The thing that bums me out is the fact that after all these years the car sat where I couldnt work on it myself, it was only a weekend away from running. Now I spent that weekend to find its not going to happen.

On to bigger and better i guess, that was the plan anyway but I needed some sort of closure to the current state of the car.

I you go with the almighty v8, supercharge that mo-fo. it would be cool and really worth it.

Well, still havent secured an engine yet but I have started working on removing the lump thats in there. I took out all the CIS, intake, ECU, and grey harness on friday. I managed to keep everything intact in case someone wants a 4k turbo project.

The grey harness is pretty self explanatory but the Brown (big) harness poses some questions. How do most people handle this harness?

The brown harness is a combination of both accessories and engine related items, what can go and what can stay?

Well, I had a busy weekend but productive no less. Friday morning the wrecked Coupe Q arrived a bit earlier than I had thought but that was a good thing.

Most of the crap was out of the UrQ except for that WX lump itself, ahead of time I checked a few of the tranny bolts to see how much muscle I'd need, they all broke loose pretty easily. The ones I didnt check were WAY stuck, and some of those 'hidden' bolts... I made a couple new swear words. It finally came out, I just needed a break, afterall it was over 100 outside this weekend.

As soon as the WX was out, I swapped cars in the garage and started pulling junk out of the 20v engine bay. I'd like to think that Audi actually learned a few things about building a car between 1983 and 1990, very few though.

I was pretty happy about how the 20v cam out, there were a couple snags but for the most part it went swimmingly.

I am going to do some basic maintenance to the 20v before I put it in the UrQ, clean it up a bit, and detail the engine bay a lil'. Not going to be a show car... Im still not sure what the ultimate long term engine will even be in this car but for now I think a NA 20v will get it mobile.

not bad work Sean, pretty fast actually....

nice hoist and engine stand.. howd em treat you.. Sorry i couldn't be more help this weekend...

Looks like you got it under control though.. can't wait..

Hank

Actually the Red Pill is gone, Im taking the Blue Pill and Staying in Wonderland.

The parts pile is looking pretty nice, rough tally so far:

103k mile 7A
IIb ecu + harness
AAN intake (currently considering other options)
AAN fuel rail
Tube Header w/kkk flange
944T Intercooler
Fidanza Aluminum Flywheel

Im trying to sort out as many potential snags before I start this teardown, I can't have the car disabled for months.

Well, its that time. Im beyond frustrated with the CIS issues. Car runs awesome, but its a hard-starter...

I have decided to stay with the 20v in this car, its very fresh, not many miles since it was rebuilt and I just kinda like 20v cars. My goal isn't to make it the fastest but I plan on surprising a few unsuspecting victims here and there.

I drove it for the last time on Friday, the clock starts ticking today as I disabled it unwillingly. The MC2 conversion was done by Champaign Motors in Denver and was easily mistaken for a factory job so it pains me to undo their great work.



I started by marking all connections and performing the harness-ectomy. I was tired of pulling wires and hoses through the CIS metering unit I decided that it was time for that to go as well.



My back was telling me to stop but my right foot was telling me to keep working. Its going to be hot as a mutha here in Vegas soon.



This was about it for me today, I see I have some cleaning to do. Overall this motor is very tight as far as leaks but it sure gets dusty 'round here.

It looks like you are going to try to be ready for the Urq event up in Colorado in a few months. Nice What are you going to need first from the garage? Are you still thinking the 4k intake? Did you ever track down Hank?
WHAT A CLEAN CAR YOU HAVE THERE. KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING!!!

Hi, this seems a silly question, but what is the battery location on an UrQ? Under the rear seat?

I stopped by and saw Hank for a little while yesterday, we talked some strategies for the car. The intake is going to be based on what we decide for an intercooler. The rally bumpers don't allow for any more intercooler than the original bumpers/valance. I can't seem to bring myself to cutting out the core support on this car so we will look at reworking the end tanks on the 944T intercooler. Since the alternator is already on the drivers side there is quite a bit of room where the stock intercooler resides.

I have a line on a GT2871R turbo, its used but in good shape. Best of all it's an actual Garrett, not a knock-off. Im still negotiating a price right now. I ordered a bunch of stuff from 034 last night, track density mounts for engine, trans, and diff. I bought Hanks delrin rear diff mount, and solid subframe bushings. I got a couple of the sensors I will be needing as well. When Hank pulls his injectors I will be snagging them too. Im sure I still have more spending to do but for the most part I have everything accounted for.

I know there aren't as many IIB setups out there but Im hoping I can find some baseline maps for it. I know one car in Hawaii that is running a very similar arrangement in that UrQ, if he is willing to share, that might be a good jump off point

John, I saw a big empty spot in your garage yesterday. Since you now have possession of the red pill, I think we need to roll it on in. You know, it's personal... 8)

Here are a couple 'before' shots showing the standard hood and bumpers. Sport hood, front and rear rallly bumpers, and tall rally wing will be added.





And the battery is under the seat in these cars.

Looks great, and nice work so far on getting the CIS lump out of there. Dust is easy to clean, as id rather have that than rust to contend with

AFAIK the battery for the Urq was under the rear seat, like the typ44's, right?

can't seem to bring myself to cutting out the core support on this car

Can't say I blame you on that one. It sure does make it so much easier though, but your car is so flawless it would be hard to fire up the porta-band. Bring it on over and we will use the torch.

I bought Hanks delrin rear diff mount, and solid subframe bushings

I think that those items just arrived in the mail last week! This getting married action sure drains the pocket book!!

I know one car in Hawaii that is running a very similar arrangement in that UrQ, if he is willing to share,

I just talked to Eric last week. He called from the hospital to tell me he had just had a new FIRST baby born. He is a great guy that I know will have no problem sharing his map with you, although come June he will no longer be an Hawiian, but will be living in Texas I believe.

John, I saw a big empty spot in your garage yesterday. Since you now have possession of the red pill, I think we need to roll it on in. You know, it's personal..

Don't think that I haven't contemplated that. I hate to get going on it to hot and heavy though....if I were to finish it before you there may be problems. LOL Not much chance of that though. In all seriousness though, it might not be a bad idea to roll it into the garage and throw one of the blocks and 20v heads that are laying around the place into it to use as a mock up for your header/turbo placement. It sure would be a lot easier to make changes there at the house where we have the tig, mill, lathe and other fab tools.

quattro87 wrote:

In all seriousness though, it might not be a bad idea to roll it into the garage and throw one of the blocks and 20v heads that are laying around the place into it to use as a mock up for your header/turbo placement. It sure would be a lot easier to make changes there at the house where we have the tig, mill, lathe and other fab tools.

To tell ya the truth, that would be a blessing considering the other option which is putting the car on the trailer and hauling it back and forth...