My Audi project

[86turbodsl]

After all that attention to the engine, I had to address an issue I had with the transmission. Some brilliant previous owner had put a stainless bolt into the aluminum case to hold the slave cylinder on and then not put any anti-seize on it. I had to replace the slave some years ago, and had sheared the bolt off in the housing. Normally this isn't a big issue, because external slave cylinders are usually mounted on the bottom where you're able to access them, but on Audi/VW 01E transmissions, they're on top, nearly completely inaccessible. There's even a special VW tool that's basically an 11mm socket that's about 8" long that fits over the bleed ****** and allows you to get at it without mangling your digits.

All of that is to say, I made a complete hash of blind right-angle drilling the sheared bolt out, and I'd gotten by with a semi-floating 13mm shoved in the hole with a couple metal zip ties around the case holding the slave cylinder down. Nothing's more permanent than a temporary fix that works, after all.

So, I extracted the transmission, had a local machine shop do their business, fill in the hole that I butchered, then stuck a new slave cylinder on (because I was replacing the clutch anyway, might as well do the whole job from soup to nuts).

The offending bolt is there in the middle of the picture, underneath the slave cylinder.


I also washed the hell out of the engine bay, because the exploding engine had left a lot of goo, everywhere.


Then I found out that the gaskets cross listed for my Audi don't actually fit. They fit later versions of the 01E, but not this one, for some reason, so I got to make some using my Cricut.



And to make things easier on me later, I added a remote bleeder. Probably use it about once in the rest of my life, but whatever. It's there now. It's attached via a -3AN hose down to a 10mm x 1.0mm inverted flare fitting to -3AN adapter on the slave cylinder.

That remote bleeder is genius. I'm stealing that idea.

 

[Jehannum]

That remote bleeder is genius. I'm stealing that idea.

Please do!

I stole it from the concentric slave cylinder in my GTO, whose instructions were "eh, just leave it floating", but I ended up tying it up to a bracket on the firewall.

 

[Jehannum]

Ran out of dyno time right when things were really getting rolling, but I feel like this is a respectable effort on pump gas and wastegate pressure. 357 HP at 18 PSI.





There was some spark breakup around 4k that I'm going to remedy with R35 GTR ignition coils. However, first I need to get the new bumper prepped for the body shop on the 26th.

 

[Jehannum]

Sometimes I want data that the dash gauges don't display, like AFR, current battery voltage, flex fuel ethanol content, oil pressure, etc.

So, I wired up the ECU's CAN to Bluetooth adapter, and bought the cheapest Samsung tablet I could find at Walmart, and got to work.

I'll probably 3D print some kind of a mount for it that hooks over the dash, but in terms of confirming that everything's copacetic, this is pretty reasonable.

 

[Jehannum]

Chasing a weird miss at around 4k at WOT. I've got two avenues to pursue, so I'm going with the easier one first, which is ignition.

Based on advice from my engine builder, I put in Brisk Racing DR12S plugs gapped down to .02" and Bosch Audi R8 coils. I also built a new ignition harness. I kept using a part of the old one, because finding the 3 and 4 pin Bosch connectors from 30 years go is basically a non-starter. So, I kept that part, and I think I'm OK on that front, because the wires look fine, and they most definitely did not look fine at the other end (on the coil side).

I'm also going to go ahead and use two of the spare channels on my solid state relay to give power to the coils, as currently it shares a single 15A fuse with the ECU, and based on my back-of-the-napkin calculations, at 3ms dwell, each coil will pull around 12A.



Of that task, I still have to get the triggers pulled out of the 12 pin deutsche connector I put between the old and new harness and run the triggers/power for the coils yet. Without that (and with the new wires, coils, and plugs), I still feel the misfire occasionally.

The other route to pursue is to mount a 60-2 tooth wheel to the crank damper, as there's some question as to whether the ECU is managing to read all 135 triggers on the flywheel. I have 6 M4 holes up there, so I'll get something built up in OpenSCAD soon and get an STL to send-cut-send to make it.

 

[Jehannum]

That's a genuine Lamborghini oil cap. +10HP.

 

[MrPink]

looks good sir, what program are you running on the tablet?

 

[Jehannum]

looks good sir, what program are you running on the tablet?

Thanks! At the moment, a program from the maker of the ECU, called "EMU Dash".

It's very old, hasn't been updated in a while, but it works. I might explore some of the other programs out there, like RealDash in the future.

 

[Jehannum]

Dropped it off yesterday morning to the body shop. They're painting my new front bumper (which I removed from the crash bar), the hood, the bumper surrounds, and blending the fenders from 300,000 miles of rock chips and one baby deer.

 

[Jehannum]

As for the old harness, it demonstrates why I don't trust anyone's aftermarket except mine.

Someone didn't understand that you're supposed to use the seal as strain relief, not just shove the wires in and slide the seal down.



The new harness doesn't use those style seals, instead just plug back seals (which the old one didn't have, instead relying on the boots).

 

[Jehannum]

hnnnngggg







I'm so excited.

 

[CapriMikeC]

This is great to see after hearing about your trail of tears last year.

So are you fool enough to try Radwood Austin again? I have my ticket and the Crappee is sitting on jackstands for some improvements currently.

 

[Jehannum]

This is great to see after hearing about your trail of tears last year.

So are you fool enough to try Radwood Austin again? I have my ticket and the Crappee is sitting on jackstands for some improvements currently.

I'm planning on at least one out-of-state drive this year.

Radwood Austin might be too close for comfort, it might end up being Phoenix in the fall. I still need an alignment, new tires, refinished wheels, interior work on the front passenger seat, and e85 tune (optional, though it would be nice).

 

[Jehannum]

The color match they found is unbelievable.




Then I decided to treat myself, since I solved a particularly vexing issue at work today. I'm having the body shop mount the bumper to the crash bar, so that I won't **** it up. I drilled out all the old rivets and put some rivnuts in.



Then I added some stainless M5s with fender washers and silicone gubbins to keep the bumper in one place (it's secured above by funky clips that I managed not to break somehow).

 

[CapriMikeC]

This wagon rules.

 

[Jehannum]

Got the front end mostly assembled again. Gonna have to do some fabricobbling to get the body mouldings back on, as they're held by some very fragile and irreplaceable sliding plastic thingers.



I'll also have to modify the new bumper further for the old grilles over the intercooler.

 

[driftpin]

I like a white vehicle, yours is turning out great.

My brother had a first generation TT quattro, I could have bought it from him, but decided not-to. It was in beautiful shape. Now we have an S2000, an AP-1.

I hope you don't have what has happened to both my wife and I, someone whacking the vehicle and leaving the scene of the crime. It's happened multiple times. Nothing we have claimed because our rates for full-coverage are high-enough.

 

[Bodj Built]

Got the front end mostly assembled again. Gonna have to do some fabricobbling to get the body mouldings back on, as they're held by some very fragile and irreplaceable sliding plastic thingers.



I'll also have to modify the new bumper further for the old grilles over the intercooler.

Could some hot glue be used to keep the trim mouldings on? Has a melting temp around 212*F. Body panels should never get near that, even in the sun.

 

[Jehannum]

Could some hot glue be used to keep the trim mouldings on? Has a melting temp around 212*F. Body panels should never get near that, even in the sun.

I was thinking that I could probably 3D print something that glues in from the back of the existing mounting plastic, because the only parts that had issues were the things that spring lock the parts into the body, and I can do better than the OE plastic with some nylon.

 

[Jehannum]

Came up with a solution to the molding mounts: glued a stainless M5 bolt with a countersunk head into a countersunk hole.

I lost the little star nut for the molding emblem, so I'm waiting on the Amazon prime collector's edition pack of star nuts, but come Wednesday, I should be back on track to having moldings back on.

Driver side (which had broken) repaired:


Passenger side with the original hardware in place:

 

[Jehannum]

Waiting on the shop to get the color match correct on the center caps, but man the "Silver Oar" powder on the rest of the wheel looks sharp. Putting some of the finest bias ply tires on it . (just kidding, I bought some Uniroyal all-season radials that happened to be in the correct size and load index for the car).

 

[Jehannum]

Because I've been paying attention to the car, it decided to blow both front struts all over the driveway, so I started to repair that with some new 86-1249SPORT Koni yellows.

Instead of the usual rubber strut mounts with separate bearings, I have a set of adjustable tops with built in strut bearings, because the rubber mounts you can get now are hot garbage and last like a year on the outside.

On taking the struts apart though, I noticed the passenger side's upper spring retainer was all wallowed out (which was likely causing some noise on that side).

So I un-wallowed the hole.



Then I re-bored to size and faced each side.


Then I gave it the ol' Krylon treatment.


It's been a little cold and windy, so I haven't gone back outside to reinstall them.

I also had to replace a stud in the ring up top (also on the passenger side), since I cut it off, on account of the nut was stripped.

I think the cause of the wallowing was the nut on the top of the strut. I'm going to use the old nuts as a jam nut this time, so that I won't have it happen again.

 

[CapriMikeC]

The magic of the more-on stick. Well done.

 

[Jehannum]

The magic of the more-on stick. Well done.

Sometimes I wish I could just buy new parts for this thing.

 

[CapriMikeC]

Sometimes I wish I could just buy new parts for this thing.

You wouldn't have these heroic stories to tell.

 

[Jehannum]

You wouldn't have these heroic stories to tell.

I spent the day in the garage with the kid, working on her Datsun roadster. I bought all the suspension consumables last year, but things keep sitting on the shelf waiting for me.

Here it is raised just a little bit off the jackstands to get the shock through the bottom of the control arm:


The "we couldn't get this bushing to stay, so go get the glue, Dad" look.


Then I put the passenger side upright in after replacing the band clamp on the outer CV joint and adding a dollop of CV grease to replace the stuff that leaked out, and power washed the mungus out of the wheel well again:


Nothing's bolted down there, just happy to have gotten the strut in top and bottom. There's a shoulder bolt that meets a spot in the ball joint on the lower control arm that's a real nightmare to line up, but I found that an 8' cheater bar (it's high strength steel and about 2" thick, with threads on both ends) with my fat *** sitting on it wedged between the subframe and the lower control arm can give me fine enough control to get the nub where it belongs.

 

[Ohmthis]

Great Project!!! I love seeing the hot rods from my teenage/early 20’s.

 

[no704]

Nice repair. Think I might have gone for adjustable strut plates?

 

[Jehannum]

Nice repair. Think I might have gone for adjustable strut plates?

They are adjustable.

 

[no704]

I was thinking more like this. Used to have some on a gti rally car. Not these but similar and lots cheaper.

 

[Jehannum]

I was thinking more like this. Used to have some on a gti rally car. Not these but similar and lots cheaper.

Yeah, that's what I have, more or less.



Forgive the scribe mark, it was there so that when I took it all apart, I'd get reasonably close to the original settings when I put it back together.

 

[Jehannum]

Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about mudflaps
My girl's got 'em



Back on its wheels. Apparently I have to tighten down the fitting on the quickjack's right side, as it's left a bit of a spot on the driveway:

 

[MrPink]

They did awesome on the color matching, i need to find a competent body shop in my area to repaint my MK4 Jetta, 23yrs of road use and it needs to be painted. Not to mention the hood is currently black due to the PO hitting a deer.

 

[Jehannum]

Got the Audi back from the alignment shop and that opened up yet another can of worms, apparently the bushings on the rear control arms are donezo. Also, I put the caster adjustment bushes on the front in backwards, so it's got a shitton of positive caster (which isn't the end of the world, but I'll redo it anyway).

Oh well, I guess that I just learned a $200 lesson - do the whole f'n suspension when going for an alignment.

 

[Jehannum]

Advanced cam timing on the Audi by a tooth on the timing belt and got a shitload more vacuum at idle, so I think my builder got it wrong.

I did it based on o-scope readings from the crank and cam sensors, noting that they were just a hair too far away from each other (as counted by the 135 tooth trigger wheel pulses).

Hoping that cleans up hydrocarbons at idle, so that I can get it smogged successfully on Monday.

Audi plays 3-trigger Monte with their timing - there's a shutter wheel with a VR sensor on the cam, a single steel pin on the back of the flywheel with a hall-effect sensor, and a final hall-effect sensor on the flywheel's starter ring with 135 teeth.

When both the cam and the crank read in relatively close proximity, the engine is 55 degrees before top dead center. When just the crank reads, the engine is 55 degrees before bottom dead center.

edit: That's why I was designing that 60-2 trigger wheel for send-cut-send, but ultimately I decided to keep the OE stuff until I can definitively point at it as an issue needing addressing.

 

[no704]

Not sure on Audi, but I had an adjustable cam gear on my ‘85 VW 1.8l sohc.

 

[mlyonsdc]

Cool project I love Audi's I've had several B5 S4' and really miss my Turbo 5cyl DAZA! Right now I am Audi'less but that may change soon.

I kind of skimmed the thread but as far as your miss goes, if you are suspecting a cam or crank signal you ECU masters Black should have a way to make a datalog and to check cam and crank signal and capture the miss?

I would start with grounds with a mysterious miss. Make sure your ECU and sensors are grounded directly through the battery "clean bus" and separate from the coils and chassis ground, "dirty bus". You have a 4 wire coil so it is probably one EST output from ECU, one EST return GND to ECU, 12v pwr and GND to chassis or battery? I would check where that GND goes and make sure the cam and crank signal wires are not run with the power feed wire to the coils or alternator and if they are make sure they are using shielded cable.

 

[Jehannum]

I would start with grounds with a mysterious miss. Make sure your ECU and sensors are grounded directly through the battery "clean bus" and separate from the coils and chassis ground, "dirty bus". You have a 4 wire coil so it is probably one EST output from ECU, one EST return GND to ECU, 12v pwr and GND to chassis or battery? I would check where that GND goes and make sure the cam and crank signal wires are not run with the power feed wire to the coils or alternator and if they are make sure they are using shielded cable.

The weird thing is, I've oscilloscoped the signals at the ECU side of the connection and they're actually cleaner than I would expect.

I'm thinking advancing the cam timing one tooth will help out idle immensely. It certainly helped out idle from a cold start, which is all I've really tested so far.

Also, I got my seat back from the upholsterers and I'm both thrilled and appalled. The leather work makes the rest of the car look pretty worn out. Give it about three weeks though and I probably won't notice anymore.

 

[MrPink]

seat looks good. I need to get a pair of seats done in fabric that matches closely the original color in my MK4.

 

[Jehannum]

Based on my tuner's recommendation, I'm adding Hitachi R35 GTR coils to the setup.

old harness top, new harness bottom:


I used to own an M35, and by chance had some VQ35 spark plug tubes in the attic, so I took those down and modeled/printed in some heat-resistant plastic extensions to get the sparkles down where they need to go. Probably going to print something else to center it up in the plug well, and wrap the whole shebang in some gold foil or something. Whatever, it'll work as is, because if the plug wells get to 285°C, I'll have bigger problems.



Then I popped the laptop open, cadged the settings from Haltech's support page, and drove it in to work today!



Initial impressions: less stumble/misfire at idle, no real change under boost. I was even able to turn PID tuning back on for the idle valve, without it hunting.

Gonna run and get it smogged this afternoon so that I don't get my registration suspended.