That is looking GOOD, man. Nice work. I'd love to score one of those someday.

 

HELP ME CHOOSE SOME TIRES.

The Kumho all seasons (no seasons) that are on the car are done so it's time for some new rubber. The stock size of 215/50-15 is NLA in anything affordable and streetable so it's going to be 225/50-15 again. The car does not see winter so summer tires are a must. I don't track it but want the most grip I can afford in case I have to stop or swerve in a hurry. They should look cool or period or both. Treadwear is a non-issue as these will age out before they wear out.

I've narrowed it down to 4 but can't quite decide:

P ZERO TROFEO R $169





PROXES R888 $138





PROXES R888R $140





PROXES RA1 $189

 

The car is running but not perfectly (more later) so I have been taking every opportunity to drive it and pose around in it. Took it to the post office:






A cars and coffee or two:








Parked in in the driveway:




and at the showroom:






I even parked it outside the local Audi dealer:




This really is the key to happiness.

 

Took the car to AutoEurope in Birmingham for:

new tires
alignment
detailing
dent removal

Now so clean. Hadn't been cleaned for three years!










They did a great job. Shame it's parked back in the showroom and not in my drive.





Next on the agenda is to address the hesitation under load at around 3-4000rpm. Any ideas?

 

WOW. We can’t believe it’s been a year since we updated this thread. Better get cracking. Let’s see, what have we been up to?

Well, before we put it away for the winter we took it to the gas station to fill it up but on the way back it died at a light. Took much cranking to get it to fire back up but then we only had a 100yds or so back to the shop so couldn’t tell if it was ok or not. We parked it and forgot about it.




We fired it back up in April to take it to HOF Designs in Dearborn for some interior work. It didn’t seem really keen. Fortunately the roads were still bad so we trailered it there.



It still didn’t seem very keen once it drove off the trailer:




The car has been selected to appear at the Concours of America in July so we thought it was a good time to address a few issues with the interior. The drivers seat had a small hole and some of the stitching was coming loose. Also, a previous owner had installed big speakers in the doors and parcel shelf.






We got the car back last week. Yes, it took a while but our shop was full so we didn’t mind at all. It actually fired up really nice and drove round the block just like last year. No sign of the stalling now. We’ll have to dig into that later.

HOF did an amazing job and we could not be more pleased:








Next thing to tackle is the hesitation while getting onto boost along with a list of concours prep stuff. Oh, and trying to figure out why it died that one time. Stay tuned.

 

MORE CONCOURS PREP FOR THE QUATTRO

With only a few weeks to go before the Concours of America we thought we better get in stuck and fix some issues with the car so we got it into surgery:




Where we removed the TIM and BRAID stickers we have had on the car since we got it:




Put the stock steering wheel back on:




Put the stock wheels back on:




And found the right screws for the trunk carpet that covers the fuel tank:




Although it’s not really concours related we did want to replace the valve lifters in the head as one or two sound as if they are sticking lately.






Maybe this was the culprit. It was in about the right position considering where the noise was coming from.




Then off to Auto Europe to get it detailed, with a month to spare!

 

Before we dropped the car off at Auto Europe for detailing we had been trying to diagnose some running issues. Basically the car would hesitate when transitioning onto boost but otherwise ran pretty good. There are no real diagnostics on these cars and the CIS injection we find baffling but thought we could troubleshoot it. We went ahead and bought a CIS fuel pressure tester kit to check the various fuel pressures in the system.







These fell a little short of optimal so we replaced the fuel pump and fuel filter That did not help much but did make a marginal difference.













We also tested fuel delivery. We had plenty. So, with Auto Europe also being the home of famed Audi guru Phil we suggested they take a look while they had it in for detailing. Well that escalated fast. Phil quickly diagnosed that the frequency valve was not pulsating. He fixed a dodgy previous owner splice in the wiring but unfortunately that didn’t bring it back to life. He then attacked the wires at the ECU end and discovered some disturbing previous owner hacks. Firstly there were a bunch of wire nut splice adjacent to the ECU. Then he realised the vacuum input had been tee’d and there were now two inputs! It didn’t get any better once he got into the ECU either. There was a second, aftermarket vacuum switch piggy backed onto the original and various pins on the chip were soldered together! Clearly a new ECU was needed to make this car run as intended by the factory.























They managed to find a un-touched and supposedly working ecu from the same year car and threw it in just hours before we picked up the car to take it over to the concours. The car did indeed run and idle much more smoothly than before but exhibited a big backfire the moment it went from vacuum to boost. It also now will not run pat 4000rpm, an issue normally associated with a bad intake air sensor. That was all tested and the wiring repaired during the engine reseal project so it’s probably ECU end related. The backfiring stopped when we disconnected the cold start valve. It appears the ecu is using the that to add fuel on boost; way too much fuel. So that is where we are now: the car idles and runs great up to 4000rpm but then the ecu cuts fuel. We may just drive it like this till the season ends and then let Phil have at it as this car has been off the road far too much these past few years. Let’s see how that goes.

 

One of the backfire’s we mentioned in a previous post must have been so severe it blew a hole in the exhaust system! This was already hacked up by a previous owner who removed the silence and clad the baffled inner pipe but left the rear box end on as a pipe hanger. Temporary fix.





The original floor mats started to dissolve! Apparantly this happens after 35 years. New replacements were sourced from Germany.





We were visited by the Dirtfish tractor trailer on their way back from the east coast. Photo op!



Could resist this.



DIY Auto invited us to the Woodward Drean Cruise press launch







We just had to try our BRAID SERIE 4 wheels off the rally Quattro. 15x10 et0 with 265 Michelin TB5 tires. I think we understand why the Group B cars had wide bodies.





Of course the obvious nex thing to do was try the gravel rally setup from the rally car. They fit better but are still quite a bit taller than stock.





Our 034 Motorsport shift link bushing are so accurate a replic of the factory units that they too dislove after 5 years. The day before a car show of course. Fortunately we had another on the rally Quattro that wasn’y exactly need right now. We’ll have to come up with a better solution for that car, and this one in five years time.





RADWOOD came to Detroit in September so we dragged three cars there and the dog and pony show.





The last outing of 2019 was a cars and coffee at AUDI ROCHESTER. Man it was cold.







After the cars and coffee took thae car to our Quattro guru Phil to get it running right. Unfortunately a leak down test suggested cylinder 4 had some issues. Engine out for a bottom end rebuild!

 

 

It's Back!

Sorry it’s been so long since we updated this project but, thanks mostly to COVID, there was nothing much to update.

Last time we talked was back in June of 2020 when we’d just decided to rebuild the bottom end of the engine. Phil, our URQ guru stripped it down while we shopped around for an engine shop that could and would do the work. The first place we took it did not give me the warm and fuzzies so, after a couple of weeks of unreturned phone calls we scurried back there and retrieved the block and crank.

Then the search was on for another shop and we were referred to Automotive Machine in Fraser, Michigan. When we deposited the block on their counter the owner said “Is that out of a Quattro? I love those things” and we knew we had come to the right place.

Unfortunately COVID slowed engine work right down and finding parts took forever too. We had closed down our building and moved everything into storage so spent a lot of time working from home. We busied ourselves recreating pictures in 1:18 scale models and the continuous search for elusive Quattro engine parts.





We needed to search for second oversize pistons and rings and 2nd undersized crank bearings. We finally found a set of pistons in Germany but when we opened the box were surprised to find that the rings had “Made in Hastings, Michigan” on the box”!

Meanwhile the months were ticking by and come November we had a new building. We dragged the car, sans engine, back from Phil’s and gave it pride of place in the new showroom.





Yes folks; that’s carpet! Posh us now.

As the car would soon be back to fully running condition (yeah, right) we took the opportunity to replace the tires. It had 3 year old Toyo RA1s on it but we were never quite happy with the size of 225/50-15 and thought they would be much happier on the rear of the 911. Plus, Pirelli had just reintroduced their period correct P7000 tires in the correct 215/50-15 size so it was a no brainer. They just had to come from England, that’s all. Worth it though.







Now the race was on the get the car done before they aged out. Yes, we thought we were joking too!

Slowly, bit by bit, parts started showing up









Until, finally, in June 2021 we picked up the finished block and crank!



We hurried them over to Phil’s so he could start the reassembly process.