Ben's V8 Coupe Quattro project

[Grillage]

Hi all,

I've been a long time lurker here and only posted a few times. I mostly read. I've been a frequent poster at Motorgeek and Quattroworld but not so much here.

I figured it was time to start a thread on my latest project here since the coupe has such a great knowledge base on this forum.

Long story short, I bought a low mile but pretty rough 93 V8 last winter for $400 in a non-start condition. It ended up just being a fuel pump or filter (I changed both and the car fired right up).

After driving it a little bit and discovering a super creaky steering rack and blown heater core along with a really crappy interior, I decided to yank the engine and move on.

I considered putting the ABH in my manual converted Cabriolet but I really wanted to mate it with a quattro transmission.

Along came a rough 1990 Coupe Quattro down in Atlanta and I figured it was as good a car for the engine as any.

A couple pics of the car when it was delivered to me here in Cincinnati Ohio...






The paint is bad - no question - but a wash made a huge difference


The car had sat for about 4 years after blowing the head gasket and mice or squirrels had moved in. Also it had some water intrusion.
I spent some time doing a major cleaning of the interior including taking the carpet to the car wash.

Turned out pretty well



Also found a red hood from a B4 to replace the B3 hood


Then I came to the actual V8 swap.

After a bunch of discussion and tribulation, I decided to go with the following setup:

VEMS for the engine management
Fidanza Flywheel with the 034 Bushing (which I found new)

I'm using the ABH block and heads but an ABZ intake, valve covers and coils.
I had to use the ABH distributor with the cam sensor in it to make the Auditrigger work in VEMS.
Original 01A transmission
ABZ Exhaust Manifolds (ABH wouldn't fit)
Deleted ABS
Vacuum Conversion for the brakes
AC Delete.

First couple things I had to do were to make the ABH/ABZ fit into the Coupe -

The Oil pan needed to be trimmed down and the automatic's short busing in the crankshaft needed removed to make room for the pilot bearing...







Next was the Motor Mounts. I have no welding skills so I made them in Foamcore to send off to a metal guy...


Passenger's Side:


They are still in production. I chose a very busy welder.

Next was some hacking on the 01A bellhousing to make the ABH Crank and Speed sensors fit.


After this, winter set in and I found some inside work to do! Wiring!
I pulled just about everything out of the Coupe and took my ABH harness, an ABZ harness and the 7a Harness and traced everything down to how it would work with VEMS.
The end result is that I have a harness that should work with the ABZ/ABH hybrid and will integrate into the Coupe seamlessly.

I also pulled out all the ABS wirng and was able to delete quite a bit of unneeded wires there too. All this is garbage now:


I went to drain the gas which I figured would be pretty nasty by now. I had no idea it would be this bad...



It is now with a guy who dips gas tanks and whole cars to remove rust and other crap. I should have it back all clean soon.

Lastly, I just started to tackle the water intrusion in the car. I narrowed it down to a few spots. I had cracks in the metal under the windshield that were letting water in. I fixed that with some roofing flashing adhesive and that spray paint waterproofing stuff in red...



Also had water coming in behind the tail lights. I removed and resealed them too.


Then I realized there are no seals on the doors at all. the front and rear seals on either side are missing. I can't order in the US from Audi Tradition so I shipped parts to a friend in Canada and am having him relay them to me here.

The latest things I'm working on now are the Power Steering hoses which need to be custom made, basically need to take the v8's pump side and the coupe's rack side and marry them. That should be ready by next week.

Next things on the agenda are the fun part. I should have a dry car really soon so I can reinstall the carpet and seats.

In the engine bay, I have to get the power steering hose and then I can wrap that up. Then I will have the engine mounts back so I can install the motor for good. Then I see if my VEMS configuration works and start to worry about exhausting and cooling the engine. I can't wait!

[anthonys2]

Looking forward to more from this! The car looked a little sorry for itself but it's an interesting project!

[Thuppu]

What happend to the fuel tank? The inside of it!!?

[Grillage]

Looking forward to more from this! The car looked a little sorry for itself but it's an interesting project!

Thanks, The car was definitely pretty spent when I got my hands on it. Honestly, I wasn't sure when I started whether I'd be able to do the swap so I didn't want to spend a whole bunch of money on a pristine car only to fail halfway through.

It will definitely get some body love and paint once I get everything up and running

[Grillage]

What happend to the fuel tank? The inside of it!!?

It sat for 4 years or so with about 1/4 tank of gas which got super nasty and partially solidified. What I pumped out of the tank smelled like varnish. Really gross stuff. The guy I took it to said he can deliver it back perfectly clean and ready to go. I hope he's right!

[Nj]

the shittier the car was to start with, the greater the transformation will be when you've finished
Looks like a great project.

[Grillage]

A couple recent developments...

I got the gas tank back from the cleaner...



SO much better! I will be reinstalling sometime soon.

Also, I got an order from Audi Tradition that included all new door seals.

Got the door seals on and most of the leaking has stopped but not all!
From a garden hose, I still get this...

Looks like it is coming from behind the A Pillar trim.

All I can think is that it is coming from the windshield seal? Has anyone experienced this?


I also finally got the power steering hoses figured out. I sent two hoses out to the Spokane House of Hose as shown above. Unfortunately, I screwed it up and had them put the wrong banjo fitting on the Pump side. I sent it back to them and they put the proper banjo fitting on it for me for no charge. They did a great job. Now I just need to kick the guy making the engine mounts in the *** to get them finally done. It hasn't been holding me back until right now so I've been letting it go.

[Ruffiano]

could also be a botched windshield install, they are tricky ones, those trim pieces are riveted on.

[macspring]

could also be a botched windshield install, they are tricky ones, those trim pieces are riveted on.

It's most likely this, but surely the 'hay' should be removed from the scuttle as the first step? Just saying............

[Grillage]

Its spring in Ohio, the plants in the air are u stoppable. All my cars are yellow this time of year

I found where the water is getting in:



There is a split in the metal where the seams are and it drips down from there. With the A pillar trim in, it just runs down and ends up in the footwell

I got the sunroof open and have eliminated the drains there as the culprit. I'll spend some more time tomorrow with the hose trying to fix. Anyone seen this before?

[Ruffiano]

did you read what i said above? those trim pieces are riveted on, and they commonly leak when not done correctly.

[Grillage]

I see now. I've been working on the passengers side and that whole channel with rivets and screws (from a prior replacement) were totally covered up by black caulk. I didn't see them or understand until I went to the other side.

What size rivets should they be?

I took the drivers side off and squirted some clear roofing sealant under the seals to create a watertight seal.

We'll see how it works!

[Grillage]

I removed the strip from the leaky side back to the B pillar and cleaned it all up, squirted a bunch of clear silicone roofing sealer in there and replaced it. Then I riveted the whole thing back together. both sides had indeed been removed and poorly replaced. When I pulled the seal off the driver's side door, two little screws fell out!

Then I sealed over all the rivets and let it dry.

This mostly solved the problem but still not completely. I am still getting water intrusion dripping down the rubber door seal and into the cabin at the triangle piece.
It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow so I'll see how bad it really is.

Sealing everything up on the drivers side seems to have fixed that side though.

[Grillage]

I've made quite a bit of progress since I last posted here.

The engine mounts have been made and installed



and I got the clutch / flywheel installed and put the engine in the bay in for what I hope is the last time.


Then I test fit the harness and hooked all the electrical back up and reinstalled the interior





Even monkeyed with the badging a little bit




So now I'm on to trying to start the car and ensure that it will run before I start on the cooling and exhaust systems.

With the VEMS box all hooked up I get good triggers and whatnot with no spark plugs, and no coils or injectors hooked up.
I am using Auditrigger so I have the flywheel teeth and the crankpin/cam sensor as my triggering.

The weirdest thing is that once I put a plug in either cylinders 1 or 5 (no coils, mind you, just a spark plug hooked up to nothing) I lose my triggers.

I went so far as installing the coils, injectors and plugs in the other 6 cylinders and the car runs that way. Once I put that spark plug in I lose it all.

any ideas?

here's the car running on 6 cyl...

[Grillage]

Long time no post -

I figured out the triggering issues. I had to shave down the 034 Spacer and get rid of the spacer behind the flywheel and the flywheel pin is more centered to the sensor.

Triggering issues solved!


Then I attacked the Timing Belt Job.


The knucklehead who did this last appears to have tensioned the belt with the sprockets tightened down.


A few before and after pics...





Then it was time to figure out a radiator solution. I ended up buying a Griffin 56241 - a little wider than the 26221 that a few people have run. also has bigger tubes at 1.25" instead of 1".

It BARELY fits between the headlights and may require an alternative solution to the under headlight trim as I cut off the place they screw into on the one side.
This pic is a mockup pic:

Then I went up to Summit Racing in northern Ohio to figure out a shroud solution. I came back with this (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/bci-75680) - with the intention of cutting and fitting it...


Now I have the radiator mounted in it's final position


and the shroud fitted to the back side. I will close up the sides before final install...


Now the car is off to my exhaust guy who is fabricating an exhaust and this snub mount I mocked up:


The exhaust will be 2 1/4" to a 3" collector with a V band (in case I decide to go 3" from there due to later modifications - ie turbo). That 3" goes back down to 2 1/2" for a resonator and muffler.

I've gotten a couple progress photos:




Here's what it will look like all done inside the engine bay:

and a video of it running without the exhaust: