Alex's V8 90QS : Cutting the cylinders in half

[alxdgr8]

New place, new name! Not really, Alxdgr8 is what I use on most forums. Not sure why I changed it on MG but I'm back to the usual one.

The car:
1995 Audi 90 Quattro Sport (Sport VIN)
LY9B Brilliant Black
NOK/SL Tan Leather Interior
Chassis #083068

X9A = National sales program USA
B0A = Component parts set without country-specific design requirement
C5S = Alloy wheels 8J x 19 ***NOT CORRECT***
G0G = 5-speed manual transmission for four-wheel drive vehicle
H5B = All-weather tires 195/65 R15 H (NAR)
J0J = Battery 300 A (63 Ah)
M82 = 6-cylinder gasoline engine 2.8 L/128 kW MH-motronic, closed-loop catalytic conv.base engine is T7X
Q1D = Sports front seats
1AC = Anti-lock brake system (ABS)
1G4 = Space-saving spare wheel
1MR = Leather steering wheel
1N1 = Power steering
1AG = Nine-inch power brake
3BE = Left exterior mirror: flat, electricallyadjustable and heated
T7X = 6-cylinder gasoline engine 2.8 L unit 078.5
3S0 = Without roof rails/roof load rack
4UB = Air bag for NAR
5J0 = Without rear spoiler
0G1 = Gearshift lever
8YA = Radio for USA
8GL = Alternator 120 A
8FA = Without second battery
8RK = 2 speakers
1LF = Disc brakes, front
3FD = Electric sliding/pop-up sunroof
3YB = Door pockets, front
1BE = Sports suspension/shock absorption

Currently installed modifications:
4.2L 32V ABH V8 (with spare AEC heads which aren't installed)
Fidanza flywheel and unknown clutch
01A 5 spd
034 IIc 2.5 Bar ECU with COP conversion, #30 injectors, and 60-2 crank trigger
ABZ Intake manifold
Griffin aluminum radiator
Custom 2.5" dual - 3" single exhaust tied into the factory rear exhaust for now
Stock Bilstein struts and Vogtland springs
ABT A21 16x7.5" wheels
OEM 80 competition spoiler risers with aluminum spoiler
OEM euro tail lights
Votex B3 dual round headlights
Reiger ABS RS2 bumper with fog/brake ducts
4 spoke sport wheel with adapter
LC1 wideband (HUGE POS!)
AEM UEGO wideband

Parts waiting to be installed:
4.2L 40V D2 S8 V8 engine (AYS)
B6 A4 01E transmission
B5 A4 5x112 rear hubs and brakes
S2 Avant 5x112 rear hubs to be installed on the front
Spare B4 spindles
Brembo Cayenne 18Z 6-piston calipers for front brakes
S.S. braided brake lines
RS2 replica front sway bar
B5 S4 rear sway bar
VAP BBSE's
VAP front control arm bushings
Reiger infinity sideskirts
3 spoke sport steering wheel
A8 brushed aluminum interior door handles
18x8" USP wheels
Holset HX52 big ass turbo (most likely rear mount)

Parts I still need to collect:
4.11 rear diff installed into B4 locker housing
Correct driveshaft for 01E swap (I don't think the 4kq one I have works with a B4)
Custom coilvoers
VEMS?
B5S4 rear calipers with B7 A4 rear rotors
Some kind of clutch/flywheel for 01E


Back story:
I bought this from Ben Tate in Seattle who had spent a few years building it. He got it running at one point and then popped a head gasket. He tore it apart and rebuilt it (and screwed something up...more on that later). I think he kinda got it running once after that and drove it a few miles before he decided to part it. A few of the rare items went pretty quick, including a FG RS2 bumper that I bought for my at the time CQ which I was planning on putting the AAN out of my 93 S4 into. A few months went buy and Ben sold a few more parts, and I decided to ask him how much he wanted for the car. He gave me a great price so I jumped on it. A lot of things were half taken apart by then but it still had all of the important bits to get it back running again.

Fast forward a few months and I had it up and running. Made it's maiden trip to Audi Expo 2011 where it overheated and popped what I thought at the time was a freeze plug at the back of the motor. Had to tow it home. Several months later I realized it was a coolant block off plate (or lack of one) so it was a much easier fix than pulling the engine.

Fast forward even longer, and a few weeks before the BBQ '12 in Las Vegas I was rapidly redoing the cooling system and working on the tune. I got it running pretty good and put about 100 miles on it in a week prior to the departure date. I decided to risk it and make the 1,100 mile (one way) drive from Seattle to Las Vegas and left early in the morning. The first 8 hours of the trip were uneventful and went great (despite a loud exhaust, horrible stock radio, and no cruise control). After that the car started to develop a stumble with medium throttle and low RPM's that seemed to get worse and worse as I drove on. I made it to Wells, NV to stop for the night where I ran into a fellow Audi nut also on his way to Vegas. We exchanged information in case I had any problems the next morning. I spent another hour or two swapping plugs and checking everything I could think of in the dark (and after 12 hrs of driving) but nothing worked. I woke up early the next morning and started looking for an auto parts store with a fuel filter...there was one 45 min away. I limped there and proceeded to swap out the fuel filter, FPR, and hollow out my cat (into my trunk) in the NAPA parking lot. None of those fixed it. I drove back to Wells and had a dilemma. I wasn't sure whether to drive 12hrs back to Seattle or 6 hours to Vegas where the smartest Audi nuts in the US were. A call from the Audi nut I met the previous night convinced me to limp it to Vegas where we were sure we could find the problem. So I limped it 6 more hours (through the middle of NOWHERE; you will understand if you have driven US-93) and I made quite the entrance to the hotel as I had my car idling at about 3.5k rpms to keep it alive during city driving. I had a great time and made a lot of new friends at the BBQ. However....after replacing plugs/fuel filter/fpr/hollow cat/fuel pump/coils and checking damn near EVERYTHING, we discovered the bad news. Bad head gasket that was pressurizing the crank case. Pulled the valve cover later that night and discovered a stripped head stud which was causing the leak (I'm assuming this happened when the PO did the head gaskets as mentioned above). I booked a flight for the next morning and flew home. Hank was gracious to let me keep the car in his shop for a few weeks before I returned with my truck to tow it home.

So that's where it currently sits, outside the garage as my Porsche has become my main focus. I'm doubtful that I'll make it to the BBQ in the Audi this year, but I might be there in a Porsche so I hope they will let me hang out! (even if I come in the Tow-reg)

Once the Porsche is done, then the plan is to pull out the ABH and fix the headstud and sell it. I'll then start work on getting the S8 motor in there. I might make the switch to VEMS at this time too.

[alxdgr8]

Now for the good stuff, pictures!

When I first towed it home:




Cyclops with the new rad:


Sleeper mode:




Most recent pictures, right before the Vegas voyage:




Towing home:


The future heart:

[Hank]

How are you planning on mounting the vulva?

[loxxrider]

lol Hank

I heard rumors of rear mount

I love this car Alex, I'd really love to have one like it!

[EDIGREG]

How are you planning on mounting the vulva?

[Hank]

Alex, can it be true? lol

[alxdgr8]

How are you planning on mounting the vulva?

Mounted between the drive tunnel and shaft... Oh wait

Most likely rear mount as that's the only place I think I have room. I thought maybe front mount with a short radiator and flipped manifolds, but I can't flip the manifolds on the 40V, water pump is in the way IIRC. So they'd require more mods. I don't think there's enough room behind the motor (at least for the vulva) even if I flipped the intake. I could do a sidemount with crossover pipe, or something similar to this:



But it's already hard enough to keep such a small engine bay cool.

[DomP90]

Where did you get the spoiler risers from? I've been trying to find them ever since I got my b4.

[alxdgr8]

Where did you get the spoiler risers from? I've been trying to find them ever since I got my b4.

They came up for sale on MG from a guy in Austria. First set I've seen for sale so I jumped on them. There's a company in Europe that makes fiberglass replicas. I've been thinking of getting some molds made of mine.

[amd is the best]

This thing is awesome and Ronin was a great movie

[FRCFD5]

pretty sweet....

[alxdgr8]

I decided to take a break from bodywork and engine assembly on the Porsche and pull the 90 apart to figure out what failed in Vegas last year. Quick back story, I drove the car from Seattle to Las Vegas for the BBQ and about 8hrs into the 19hr trip I started to have a misfire/stutter that kept getting worse. After a few days of troubleshooting in Vegas we realized the crankcase was getting pressurized. A pull of the valve cover found a stripped head bolt. We assumed this cause a leak in the head gasket which was in turn pressurizing the crankcase.

So, I got the head off today and trying to figure out what happened. The head bolt was definitely stripped (as shown in the picture below). However, the head gasket doesn't have any signs of failure and looks brand new (since it has probably 1500 miles on it). I'm obviously going to fix the stripped thread in the block and put a new head gasket on, but is there anything else I should look at while it's apart? Would a stripped head bolt be able to pressurize the crankcase without an obvious fault in the head gasket?

Head gasket:




Head bolt:

[Hank]

That sucks Alex...

[pilihp2]

That's never fun to see...

[alxdgr8]

Today was a good day, scored a B6 3.0 6spd 01E (Code GBE) for $600

[alxdgr8]

Stripped headbolt thread has been fixed with a TimeSert (M11x1.5 x 30mm). Waiting on new headbolts and then it'll be put back together. Going to ceramic coat the exhaust manifolds while I have it apart to try and cut down on some engine bay temps.

[Hank]

Nice fix on the Timecert. Lots of win here

[alxdgr8]

Car is now back together! Still fighting crank trigger problems though :( I thought I had this figured out as I was getting perfect triggers prior to the tear down.

Ceramic coated the exhaust manifolds to try and cut down on engine bay temps. Did a Cermakrome ceramic primer and main coat. Polished by hand so it's not perfect. I'd really need a vibratory polisher to make it shine. We'll see how it holds up and if it helps. It's not swain-tech but it should be better than nothing. And it does appear to have some ceramic in it as it does sparkle after blasting between coats. Disregard those hideous welds, they aren't mine!





Took off my motor mounts to look at them as I figured they were on their way out. It's a good thing I did, the driver's side was completely separated. B4 are kinda similar to B5, but the mounts are crimped onto the aluminum housing. I decided to mod mine by cutting out the old mount and enlarging the center hole so a mount could be secured through it. I could use B5 mounts now, but I opted for something cheaper. Hockey pucks! 4 stacked together is pretty much the same height as the old mounts. Glued them together and then drilled them and mounted them. I should probably fab up some heatshields for them too. Took me visits to 4 different stores before I found a place that had pucks in stock this time of year. $30 later and I had a set of mounts.







It desperately needs a wash. It's got quite the buildup of 8 months of dirt and pollen!

[Hank]

What changed on the crank trigger?

[alxdgr8]

What changed on the crank trigger?

Freakin' NOTHING! I just regapped it after I moved it to put the accessory belt on.

[alxdgr8]

What I've done:
-Checked wiring. All is good from what I can tell. I redid this last time I had problems with aviation shielded wiring.
-Checked grounds. Redid ECU ground just in case. All good
-All coils and injectors working fine.
-Scoped trigger. Waveform looks good and is ~+/- 2Vppk
-Swapped polarity, but this didn't help. Set correctly and verified by scope.
-Sensor was new last time I had this problem. Measures ~1k ohms resistance.
-Gapped from 0.005 to 0.100 in steps of 0.005
-Tried trigger wheels codes 57 and 60. One doesn't seem any better than the other.
-Verified timing.
-Trigger wheel is true to 0.001 IIRC, had this turned last time.

The 034 crank trigger diagnostic tool shows a flat line. Even before, when I had the trigger working, the diagnostic scope showed barely a wiggle. Trigger value jumps around a little from zero, but I never see 59.

I'm at a loss as to what to do now, and about at whit's end. I've spent 8 hours the past two days just messing with the trigger.

[alxdgr8]

Sensor set to 0.025" gap.
Measured at the sensor connector and at the ECU connector; both were the same.
4Vppk and correct polarity.

It looks like the wheel still has some runout (or the mounting on the crank is off), but it seems like it should be good enough right?
If this is the signal the ECU is seeing, why do I not see this on the software diagnostic scope and why am I not getting triggers?
I don't know what else to check.

[chaloux]

... VEMS?

[alxdgr8]

... VEMS?

I will be changing to VEMS for the 40V motor

[alxdgr8]

Xpost in case any EE's or Marc have any ideas...

Since you are so adept at running your scope, take the probe ground an put it to the power ground lead (big black wire on the PCB) and capture the wave form on the VR jumpered point on J4.
This is the post amplifier version of the VR sensor.
Set the trigger at 1v high to low transition with 1v per division Y axis setting.
This will tell us what the CPU sees as the trigger.

Also, have you tried disconnecting the coil/injector harness while cranking to see if those drivers are somehow to blame for lack of what looks to be a quality trigger signal?

So, the past sensor measurements were without the ECU being plugged in (one at the sensor connector, one at the wiring harness ECU connector). This gives me 4Vppk.

When I plug the wiring harness into the ECU and then measure at the board connector or at the J3 VR jumper, I get a 0.760 Vppk signal.





If I measure at J4, I get a 3.3V DC offset upon key on and just noise during cranking.



Bad amp bringing the input down and no output?