The Project Pad

Bought this from the estate of a long time friend who passed away recently. I didn't want some CL flake to destroy it or it to get parted for an engine swap. I think it will make a nice upgrade from the '90 90Q 20V I daily at the moment.

Haven't really had a chance to look it over yet but I have a copy of the original ad my friend bought it from in '06, so I know it has Bilstein Sports and non-stock springs (possibly H&R). Reputedly has a TAP ecu in it (yuk) but there were pics he sent another friend showing some MTM chips so I'll have to pull the ECU and have a look. Have to put the stock Recaro back in the drivers side as I can barely reach the pedals at the moment (my friend was 6'9" to my 5'10"), he'd put an older Scirocco seat in that was quite a bit lower and it's stuck back at his setting. I go full toe point on the clutch at the moment (my 4'10 wife can just barely touch the pedals).

Pics...

S4 and 90Q in the driveway today (wifes B5 S4 Avant is over at my buddies while we're replacing timing belt/water pump so there's actually room)


The rest of these are older pics that my friend had emailed to another friend. It has the typical Pearl White crazing on the roof/trunk lid.








Plans are to get up on all the maintenance items, fix anything that isn't working, and DD it like I am the 90Q. Will probably upgrade to a Stg 1+/better brakes/rear sway bar but don't know if it will go any further than that.

Anyone know what wheels are on it in the top 2 pics? Rumor was they're some OEM Euro VW wheels that he picked up on a group buy a few years back off one of the Audi forums.

Nice pickup, car is clean in and out; good to see it go to a worthwhile home.

I think, but am sure I'll be corrected if wrong, those are A4 wheels.

Nice clear corners/e-codes, btw.

And your Lago 90q is drool.

So got back from Japan on Friday and got a couple things done today...

Washed the car, swapped the CAC steering wheel and Momo shift knob in from the 90Q. Took it for a drive and the sunroof switch went completely nuts, opened itself and wouldn't close. Fortunately on one of the couple drives I took it on before I left for Japan it had been a little weird, and I'd bought a good used switch from a member on QW. Swapped that in and all is good.

Looks a lot better and the 3 spoke wheel is SO much nicer than the OEM.

Nice! Looks great with the cf trim. The 4 spoke wheel is so lame imo. It's one of the last things I really want to swap in my 4k. Just need the extra dough

Nice pickup - very sorry about your friend.

I for one love my TAP chip - YUM

chaloux wrote:Nice! Looks great with the cf trim. The 4 spoke wheel is so lame imo. It's one of the last things I really want to swap in my 4k. Just need the extra dough

You should have some extra, Matt... I just threw some your way for brakes

Got them btw... when I got back from Japan they were sitting right next to the front door, that was as far as my 4'10" wife could move the boxes. Ordered a pair of front lines from Apikol, some pads, and a caliper paint kit. Gotta get those bad boys on!

I'm assuming it still has the TAP chip in it at the moment, it's defnitely not stock though. No one home until about 3200rpm then it really takes off. Seems to really lose it between shifts though, which I suspect isn't the chip but a support system issue. I have new boost hoses and BPV to go on so we'll see if that cures the problem.

So, more interesting stuff today...

Decided to replace the boost hoses with the silicone ones I bought and started with removing the turbo inlet hose. Found the N75 was busted and blocked off. Found some play in the turbo shaft so thought I'd pick up a rebuild kit nad go through it, so I cleaned up the ID plate to get the p/n off of it. Turns out the car has a K26 off of a late '84-85 5KT per Scott Mockery's p/n listing. Between that, the TAP ecu, and the lack of a functioning N75 it explains the somewhat interesting boost threshold and why it would fall on its face between shifts.

Ordered the N75, a friend has 3 200 20vt/UrS turbos in decent shape, and I have a stock ECU to toss in while I'm getting it running properly.

Good you found all those random parts mixed together- Make sure you check out the WasteGate spring who knows what is in there...

Will most likely rip with all the new correct parts... My torque comes on really early 2500~ rpm and sticks around till about ~5700.

Ya I'm glad I hadn't driven it much with that combo. My friend hadn't driven the car in a couple years, and hadn't driven it much since he bought it in 2006 (about 17k in 8 years). It had always run somewhat strangely, so putting it back to stock and getting it sorted before making it faster seems to be the right way to go.

Also found the afterrun pump had been bypassed... ordered one of those too.

Just finished up replacing the majority of the coolant hoses, boost hoses, turbo (took off the thrashed K26 and put on a good K24), new N75, new BPV, new OEM radiator, thermostat, new after-run pump, and a bunch of the bits listed in the QuattroWorld "things that will fail" thread. Started right up and made 20+psi on a stock ECU (very unhappily). Tore the wastegate apart and found some mongo spring in it. Fixed that and got it back to normal boost psi.


Drives lovely now...



And by the time I got it home the 20 miles from my buddies house (he has a lift)... my feet were wet with coolant.




Heater core.




Sigh.


Ordered a new core, heater valve, heater box gasket, and bleed hose...

Some pics...

Found the cause of the slow warm up... pieces of aftermarket Nissen radiator stuck in the lower hose and one in the thermostat.



Did a ton of cleaning... the front frame rail areas were 1/8-1/4" deep in mung on both sides, under the airbox, etc... mostly clean now.





The mongo wastegate spring... looks like it was for an MC, too short and smaller diameter. They'd made a spacer out of an MC wastegate seat as shown.






Washed both S4's this weekend...

So on the way home from doing all the above work... the heater core failed. Sigh.

Replaced the core (not too bad compared to B3's and B5's). It's been running great the past few weeks, so I popped in the IA 3+ ECU and adjusted the wastegate per the instructions. Got a little bit of misfire @20+ psi so backed the wastegate off a bit. Changed out the plugs and all was good at 20psi, then readjusted the wastegate back to the 24psi the ECU is supposed to run at and still great.

God help me I'm sliding down the slippery slope... man that extra 8psi is fun.

Lol, it most certainly is. Good luck stopping yourself from going into a full on tumble down the slope!

Knowing me that will probably happen but not until I get the larger brakes on and sort out the suspension.