Pearl white coupe revival

[ottawa coupe]

Lol, for the purposes of 10s runtime to verify life, i could see it working. But for the actual build that actuqlly has to last, of course i would get the right one.

Anyways, moving on. Got the head off. Initial survey says one (?!) Bent valve. Looks like all 10 intakes have kissed though. Pistons and bores look incredible for 380k kms!

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i'll give it a rest now n take a close look after i give it a quick clean.

Vw gear looks to be the same. Same number of teeth, different timing make though. I don't think it'll go back together at the moment even if i had parts. Only about 25% of the exhaust studs survived, a few bolts on the intake side snapped and all the seals are not gonna seal if i reassemble as is. So, i'll likely put the head back on, pull the engine n trans, and put things in the corner. Not going to fight getting this started any more.

But if intake valves are the only victims, i'll take it.

[ottawa coupe]

Insert rod burgundy meme

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That escalated quickly lol

Engine ahould be out tomorrow evening, just gotta have some good times underneath for shafts and linkage...that'll be fun for sure....

How does one get these pieces off the c pillars? As you can see, i've got a bubble to sort out.

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And lastly, i picked up a cam gear for a vw 16v from a friend today. In a pinch it would work but 2 issues, different timing mark location as mentioned but as well, it 5mm wider. It fits but you would not be able to put the timing cover on.

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Engine out tomorrowish, car shipped to the back yard for the summer, engine block, crank and head to a machine shop for inspection and measuring. Hopefully i'll have a plan for the engine by june.

[steve briance]

The c pillar trims have 3 short studs on the back of them. Removing boot area trim will reveal where the studs poke through the bodyshell. There 'should' be one way star washers pressed on to the studs holding it in place. Wiggle them off and release....

[ottawa coupe]

Perfect, thank you very much.

I must say, i will pull the engine from my s6 any day instead of this lol. Many cuts and scrapes later.....

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Off to rest under the trees tomorrow hopefully...

[ottawa coupe]

So, car is under a tarp under some trees protected from the elements for the summer. Engine and transmission are sitting in the garage.

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Nothing is gonna happen for a good while ither than clean up, and splitting the engine n trans. I have A LOT of thinking and planning to do. I have 3 choices on hand for my ultimate power solution: 3.6 vr6, 7a on itbs or the latest one, a 4.2 v8.

I must admit the v8 is winning the race right now. I have never owned a v8 and figure i should do so before gasoline is banned lol. I've only been looking at it for a few days now but it seems a later model d2 a8 is the ideal donor and they can be found very cheaply here from time to time. I am currently resisting the urge to buy one that i figure i could get for $2000.... the ONLY downside i see with this swap is that a must cut metal in the engine bay. Ie: it's not a reversible swap. I'm not entirely cool with that but we'll see. I dunno how cleanly i can get the metal out just yet.

Should i do the 7a, i think a bmw m3 would donate it's throttles. The v10 throttles can be had for like half the price but i don't think i can make them work because the bore spacing on those motors is significantly bigger and i just don't think i can compact the v10 bodies together enough.

The 3.6 is trailing. I actually have one on the shelf as a spare for my racecar but i'm missing a complete wiring loom and the adapter stuff for the 01a is very expensive. Not to mention the complete fuelling system change.

Why not the stock 7a? I find it to be a very underwhelming engine in stock form to be honest. Plus, if time is not an issue on this project, i can make it the best thing i can.

But like i said, nothibg is going to happen in this department for the moment. I have a full racing season about to start and tons of other more important things to deal with. Getting the windshield in a couple of weeks while it is available and that'll be just about it for now..

[Tom_]

Nice project I am going through something similar Keep going, there will be ups and downs but important is to stay on the road

[ottawa coupe]

Well, the down happened quite early in the project...

14 hours in the car yesterday to drive to new york city and back to get a windshield. Transporting it from my trunk to it's storage spot, the suction cup let go. Dropping the glass onto brick. One step from wet grass where the outcome would likely be very different.

Cue much swearing.

We'll see when i can get back down.....

On the powerplant front, i have 99% decided to stick with the 7a. The estimates for the v8 swap cost were escalating quickly. Right now the tentative plan is AAN intake, VEMS and bag o snakes exhaust with a few other ideas. Once running and plated, i'll then see about ITBs. Seems that bmw m3 units are the most likely. The v10 itbs are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper (on ebay) but i estimate they won't fit as the bore spacing is so much larger on the v10 and i won't be able to compress the packaging nearly enough.

[david1980]

V8 swap isn't as bad as it sounds. Mounts are around $400 last I checked, engine can be had with loom/ecu for $500-1000. It doesn't require metal being cut to fit in the engine bay. 5 wires to get it running on stock loom/ecu (a early a6 is non immob ecu) There are quite a few threads, I thought about it and even bought the car but in the end it went due to lack of space.

There's a guy in the Buffalo area who has s/rs2 bits quite often.

[ottawa coupe]

The v8 swap math was lookin likethis roughly: $2000 for a donor car (preference cuz then you have "everything"), probably $1000 after everything was said and done for a 40v clutch/flywheel, another $500 if it was an abz i ended up with. Roughly another $1000 in programming and misc stuff.

With what i have and what i need, about twice the cost of non itb standalone 7a, provided it doesn't need machining. I have found a machine shop that can inspect the block, crank, and head. I am fairly confident i can get away with a hone and a re ring given what i've seen. Maybe some bearings....

The risk there is that the moment it needs machining, it's a solid $2500 bill, if not more, making a v8 seem downright practical. Basically, man math at it's best right here lol.

[ottawa coupe]

Engine is on the stand and mostly stripped. Can't get the oil pan off because apparently i was drunk when i put it on the stant and am using one of the oil pan holes for mounting to be remedied asap lol.

Anyways, head looks good save for the bent valve....will that mess up the guide i wonder? I guess it depends on how hard the valve is jammed up in there?

Bores look fantastic. The ridge at the top of the bore is almost un feelable. Does not catch a nail. Unfortunately #5 may not be so pristine though. Some vertical sratches that DO catch your fingernail. It is interesting to note that both exhaust studs on #5 and one on 4 were broken so the manifold was sorta flapping in the breeze. I suppose it coulda sucked in some grit on decel as a result?

Hoping to get this ready to go to a machine shop friday and get properly inspected (it's a big ball off grease right now, wanna clean it up a bit for ease of transport). If the bore is pooched then the question becomes do you bore the bad one out or all 5? Turns out audi tradition sells the first oversize piston assembly (rings and wristpin too) for what i would call a downright reasonable 60€. It's the machining services that'll getcha tho. Gone are the days of getting a block sorted for $500 i fear.

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[steve briance]

Definitely need to bore all 5 out if you need to do that to one in order to resolve scoring. If you don't, your oversize piston assembly will weigh more than the other 4 and balance will be affected and, it will also have a slightly different capacity on that cylinder so may upset balance again by producing fractionally 'bigger bangs'.

When i was faced with rebuilding my 7A, i looked at oversize piston costs and it was quite a lot and options were limited.

Granted prices change but, i managed to pick up a 3B block and had the 81mm bore opened out to the 7A 82.5mm and effectively have myself a brand new 7A.

Original pistons went back in with new rings and the total cost of the block, the rings and machining was still less than new oversize pistons.

[ottawa coupe]

The shocking thing to me is that tradition sells the first oversize piston/ring/wristpin for 60 odd euros a pop (second oversize is over 200 lol). Seems downright reasonable to me. A friend was telling me that mahle motorsport pistons are surprisingly reasonably priced too. If i can dechipher the catalogue, perhaps this is an opportunity to get a bit spicy and bump the CR a bit? I dunno. If i were to stumble across a 3b, then i would likely just do that swap. But those engines are ludicrously expensive here....

Got some time last night and got it cleaned up enough to go into the trunk of the car without risking an exxon valdez scenario. Gonna head to the shop later today n leave it with them to measure up.

At the moment, all options are on the table till i hear back from the machine shop on condition and cost to get right.

A coupla questions about 5x112 swaps. I see that b5 a4 rear hubs and brakes are a straight swap, does that mean b5 s4 rears are as well? I have poked around the parts catalogues a bit and it would appear that there is a b5 v6 FRONT hub that uses the same bearing as a coupe. Has anyone tried that? Can't find confirmation. They are cheap enough that i may print up a mock bearing and see how things fit later next winter. I figureif i can get b5 stuff on there then it becomes significantly easier to get some bigger brakes on it.

[ottawa coupe]

Well, got some finger crossing to do over the weekend. Got in touch with the machine shop. The bores need doing. The cost of actual machining turns out is reasonable. The problem is the ruler... they say 0.5mm bore needed. That's 2nd oversize according to the service manual. Problem is the pistons. The first oversize (.25mm) is 60€ on tradition. The second is 220€. Quite a difference. If they can sharpen their pencils and the first oversize can be used then i am pretty sure i will stay with 7a. If they can't..... v8 is most certainly on the table..... tbd next week when i can go in there n pay up for the cleaning n measuring.

Edit: nevermind the finger crossing. Tradition lied to me about pistons. They only have 2 of the 1st oversize in stock. What that results in is roughly $2500 to get the rotating assembly back into the block.... and then on to the head...

Yikes

I think i now understand why so many coupe projects go nowhere lol

[PeterS]

you might want to check out Petar Antonics' journey from 7a to 7a ITBs to V8 in his Coupe Quattro https://www.motorgeek.com/threads/pe...ing-out.15546/

[ottawa coupe]

Wow, many pages to read. I remember that thread from way back when, before he went v8. Will read his journey.

Question: on a scale between "it's cool" and "you are a bad person and you should feel bad", where do 2.7t swaps stand?

Basically from a $ standpoint, it looks like the 7a is good as a spare head and block for my s6 at this point.... gonna work on all up numbers this weekend. At almost 390k, kinda inevitable i guess??? Kinda figured i'd be here if i had to open it.