The Project Pad

Hi everyone, been lurking on here for awhile, thought I would make an account and post a formal thread introducing myself and my car!

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.

Good to see you over here.

My s4 had a bunch of work done by 2b and it had an mtm1 chip with stock injectors and an rs2 turbo. I'm lucky I didn't kill it before I figured it out. The same shop may have done yours as well.

Jealous. Nice car

Thanks guys, appreciate it. I'll post some more pictures soon as I'm back up and running, should be sometime next week!

Crazy story! The good parts are that the po and the shop helped out with some of the work/$ to repair. Good thing you figured it out for the final iteration. In my engine swap 4k, the wiring harness I bought from someone was missing the ground in the ecu connector! It caused all sorts of issues and I blew up a nicely built engine because of it. Thankfully yours is a nice simple "bad tune" and you can just swap it out. Good job sticking with it, in for impressions on the k26b!

Man you had the same situation as me after I bought my Avant! My clutch went on the drive home from Colorado then 500 miles later my head gaskets went! I have similar things as you including a k26 billet. Just need to make time to get it done! Can't wait to hear your reviews on it because it sounds like your much more motivated than I!

Also stoked for info about the k26b... seems like a potent package for the cost!

Hi everyone,

Finally got everything done, and took her out on the road for the first time today. Fired up first time and boosted to right at 26psi. Drove about 50 miles on the highway, and after I got off, when I slowed down and put the clutch in coming up to a stoplight, the revs immediately dropped to 0 and the car died. This then proceeded to happen every single time I slowed up for a stop unless I kept revving it. Happened about 7 or 8 times before I got home. Now, this wasn't happening before I got on the freeway. Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I feel like I'm so close to properly running again but then this issue is killing me!

Hose popped off? Sounds like boost leak, I.E. MAF thinks it's getting X air when it is really getting Y air = car no worky!

Welcome by the way, and thanks for telling this story. It's amazing the way people just turn a blind eye to something as important as a tune!

audi408 wrote:Hi everyone,

Finally got everything done, and took her out on the road for the first time today. Fired up first time and boosted to right at 26psi. Drove about 50 miles on the highway, and after I got off, when I slowed down and put the clutch in coming up to a stoplight, the revs immediately dropped to 0 and the car died. This then proceeded to happen every single time I slowed up for a stop unless I kept revving it. Happened about 7 or 8 times before I got home. Now, this wasn't happening before I got on the freeway. Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I feel like I'm so close to properly running again but then this issue is killing me!

I had a bad bypass valve cause that on an old 200q20v, died every time coming to idle unless you feathered the throttle, would restart immediately afterward. If you're making good boost, that's where I'd look.

Berserker wrote:

audi408 wrote:Hi everyone,

Finally got everything done, and took her out on the road for the first time today. Fired up first time and boosted to right at 26psi. Drove about 50 miles on the highway, and after I got off, when I slowed down and put the clutch in coming up to a stoplight, the revs immediately dropped to 0 and the car died. This then proceeded to happen every single time I slowed up for a stop unless I kept revving it. Happened about 7 or 8 times before I got home. Now, this wasn't happening before I got on the freeway. Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I feel like I'm so close to properly running again but then this issue is killing me!

I had a bad bypass valve cause that on an old 200q20v, died every time coming to idle unless you feathered the throttle, would restart immediately afterward. If you're making good boost, that's where I'd look.

So today after work I checked that the plugs were correct, and they were, so I swapped out the ISV with a known good one from the motor I blew. Then, when that didn't work, I swapped out the TPS with a known working one, and that didn't solve it either. How do I test the diverter valve? I don't just have a known good one lying around to swap in, unfortunately. Would like to be able to test it before just paying $$ for a replacement.

Blow in it!

Pull vacuum on the small vacuum line to the bypass valve. If it doesn't hold vacuum, the diaphragm is likely torn.

Then, go to the junkyard and find any turbo saab, volvo, audi, and probably others, and grab the bosch bypass valve from it for $5.

My old eS2 did this shortly after my engine swap. Basically would stall when coasting into a stop. Otherwise boosted just fine...turns out it was a vac leak (open 1/8" nipple on back of intake manifold). Plugged and fixed. Check your vac lines...could be a small leak...like chris said, unmetered air is a significant fraction at no load/idle, and engine can't fire.

Checked all the Vac lines, and they were fine. Same with the Diverter Valve. This thing is stumping me! It did okay this morning when I took it around the block a few times but then right as I pulled up to my place it died. Will do some more troubleshooting after work

Step 1: Get cheap cigar
Step 2: Breath in a lot of smoke
Step 3: Blow into vacuum line
Step 4: Repeat step 2 and 3
Step 5: Watch for smoke if you arent high yet

Update: While driving on the freeway to try to replicate the stalling problem, I decided to go for a couple of brief pulls on the K26 Billet. Holy shit this thing is a monster.

But I was wondering, does anyone else have the K26/EFI Chipset & Injectors? What is the max PSI you all are hitting? Because I'm up at 27 PSI, and that seems high to me, particularly when 25 PSI is written on the chipset itself...

Oh man, that's great, can't wait to get mine in!

27PSI! Yeah, that needs some vids...

Fixed the idle problem! Turns out the ISV was damaged in the swap. So put in a working one and the problem resolved itself. Yay!

Unfortunately, it's looking like I may have to sell. I've moved up to San Francisco and don't have a garage, and I literally can't sleep at night worrying about this thing being street parked. It's simply too nice for that. I've put about 1500 miles on her since the build, and it's a beast, but all I do is sit in traffic commuting down the peninsula 30 miles one way. Definitely not the ideal use for a car like this. I love this thing so much, and it just might not be the right time for me to have an URS6...

Glad it's fixed, but don't sell!

It's too old to get stolen in SF, just don't leave your stash on the seat and no one will look at it twice

Traffic does such down there though