I picked up a 95 urS6 Avant, Tornado Red/Ecru, in March. Previously I had owned a 1990 Coupe Quattro when I sold moving from Kentucky back home to the SF Bay Area. When I bought it, the PO had done a ton of work to it and it looked to be in pristine shape. Shining Full body respray Tornado Red paint, the seats looked almost brand new plus: "RS2 Turbo" and a "stage 3 chip", Wagner RS2 exhaust manifold, FMIC, Stromong Turbo-back exhaust, Porsche 993TT Brakes w/ A8 310mm rotors, 034/Apikol SSK, 2Bennett Adjustable Coil-overs, 2Bennett Camber and Caster Adjustment, , Illuminated Shift Knob, Cold Air Intake, Euro Taillights, Euro Hella Clear Corners, a silly modern S badge on the rear hatch (to be changed out), and more.
Well, about 300 miles after I bought it, car blew a head gasket and heater core. When I bought it, it was sitting at a shop in Berkeley, so I had it towed back there, as the PO had agreed to pay for some of the work. I was not prepared or skilled enough to take on that type of project. They built it back up, did the whole timing belt/water pump routine while in there, and put in new 034 Silicone Cooling Hoses. They put 400 miles on it, and less than 50 miles after handing it back to me, engine melted a piston. I was pissed off. But when I dug inside the ECU, sure enough, it had some ridiculous home-brewed chip in there that had been running the thing lean as all hell. It was kind enough to take the "RS2 Turbo" with it on it's way out.
To be fair, I should have immediately checked the ECU when I bought the car. I never thought that someone like the PO who had sunk so much money into upgrading and modding the car would be running a setup like that. But I immediately pulled it out of that shop, got some of my money back, and bought a used engine with 90k, complimenting it with Hank's K26 Billet, Chipset and Injectors from Marc, and should be back on the road shortly. Really wasn't planning to make this into a project on this scale, but I'm in it now and love the car and the 20vt so much from even the 300 miles I drove when the car was actually running. Should be getting back on the road shortly, but until then, here are a couple relatively decent phone pictures in the driveway below from when I first picked her up, so engine bay is not current.
