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66K views 934 replies 80 participants last post by  LT1M21Stingray 
#1 · (Edited)
TO DO LIST:


  • [*] New Starter install
    [*] Repair rear seat-heater plug
    [*] Upholster bottom of seats
    [*] Re-upholster wheel well to black
    [*] Undo the modded cluster
    [*] install undertray
    [*] Install new air box
    [*] Determine what the random wire is in the door

    [*]Metal diverter valve (PSH PSH PSHHHHH)
  • right hatch light is out
  • windshield wiper hoses+wiring
    [*]mfts sensor plug wiring
    [*]fuel system clean+flush
    [*]only one speaker functions (front passenger)
    [*]034 Fuel battery relay install
    [*]wheel well repair + install
    [*]sound deadening in rear (wheel well and floor)
  • stromung exhaust
  • complete bushing replacement on everything
  • ceramic+powder coating of turbo+downpipe
  • wiring cleanup + heat shielding
  • wheels (ENKEI RPF1 looks like it is the ticket)
  • Possibly an IR to RF conversion
    [*]Clean and repaint intercooler (not black enough)
  • patch hole in passenger side fender -- possibly find replacements
  • find and bolt on an injector cover
    [*]relocate/shield the LS2 coils
  • find a rubber boot for hatch wiring
    [*]fix all temperature/pressure gauges
    [*]replace clock with boost gauge (in cluster) - booooo this sucks
    [*]re-mount ECU (it's not bolted in)
  • Windshield replacement
  • register the car
  • drive car


So I am finally delving into the project car realm. I'm not too scared of things breaking, more concerned with buying a 1995 Audi in general. SoldOverSticker was a complete gentleman and went and looked at the car for me and I decided to pull the trigger. I know 2Bennet is the go-to for parts for these things, and the guy I am buying it from is heavily involved in the California racing scene so it's got all kinds of goodies coming with it.

Any of you ever own a URS6/4? Teach me about them. Enjoy the ride.




 
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#297 ·
Update: Part 2
92603

Rebuilding the wastegate.
92606


Redid the catch can in silver as the black looked bad. It took about an hour to clean this thing out of all the grit from not masking it. Again, hindsight.

I'm going to do several oil flushes after everything is ready.

92605


I also wish I did some copper or bronze accents. I think in the future I want to give the burnt-bronze color from Cerakote a try. I think black and copper would look classy.

Test fitting it all.

92607


92609

I opted to not spray the turbo cartridge because I didn't want to deal with the risk of sandblasting. However, I do have some thermal paint that I will apply to it after some masking. It is supposedly great for this application.

Also, new fittings. Bunch of new AN parts that cost entirely too much but work for what I need.
92612

One question I have is if a 90 degree fitting is going to be too tight for my coolant drain pipe. I shouldn't think it'll be too big a restriction but, you know...


So finally, where I am at:

  1. I ordered some new studs and nuts after mangling them a little. I didn't want to put anything that wasn't fresh and new on the car again. I had the wrong thread pitch nuts for the turbo manifold to downpipe so had to order some more. Hopefully it doesn't take a month or I may go insane.
  2. I got the plugs under the center console for the heater core motors plugged in and the glovebox in fully. Now I just need to put the trim panels back in place and glue the carpet in a few places that were ripped previously.
  3. Get the wiper assembly back on, which I can probably do now. I've been hesitant because it has to come off for the heater core, which may or may not leak when the car runs.
  4. Get some new fuel for it and turn the damn thing on. It's going to run within a month I hope.
  5. I also adjusted the shift linkage. 3rd gear has a hitch in it, so I am hoping it is just needing lubrication. I can probably tinker with the adjustment a little more, but everything is pretty centered up now. Reverse comes out relatively easy so I may need to toy with that as well.

I've considered getting a steering wheel without an airbag. I've heard stories about old airbags being crappy and dangerous. I also need the steering wheel I have now reupholstered, so it'd be killing two stonies with one bird. Thoughts? I'm sure insurance would be $10 higher a month or something.
 
#455 ·
If you are leakdown testing the engine, it shouldn't be hard to see where its leaking from. Open the throttle body, see if the hissing is coming from there, take off the oil cap, listen if its hissing from there, put your ear by the exhaust tailpipe, listen to any noise coming from there. At 0psi compression,(major leak) it shouldn't be hard to find where its leaking from. You can also take the radiator cap off and see if coolant either bubbles or starts to overflow when you pressurize the cylinder which would mean definite headgasket.
 
#477 ·
I read that you did a leakdown but I was lost when you posted, "I couldn't make out where the sound was coming from, but it did not sound like the dipstick tube which leads me to believe it is one of the valves." With a 98% leakage(most likely valve), the hissing should be easily heard from exhaust, intake or oil cap(or pushing coolant). With a good leakdown tester, you are pushing 100psi and 98% of it is escaping, it will definitely be heard where its coming from.
 
#537 ·
It is time. I'm not going to post everything at once but I will probably space it out over a day or two. Just to farm ad revenue, obviously. Also, I have no idea where I left off, so I am going to just restart right after the engine teardown.

UPDATE - check the website for full post and all the pics. I'm too lazy to copy everything. Audi S6 Parts Cleaning and Prep

Disassembling things for paint stripping




check out the coolant passages.


Chem Dip on everything!





Time for aircraft stripper! The sandblasting wouldn't even get close to penetrating whatever this intake and valve cover were coated in.








You can see little slivers left in the corners. I did a few more coats and it eventually came clean. Not pictured here.


Some more chem dip for the inside.

That stuff is very nice. It smells terrible and stains your skin as well, but it works nicely.


And finally, the new Crankshaft came in and I cleaned it up.
 
#540 ·
Update ! - I found out I can just copy paste the entire post up to 20 pics at a time, so I am going to just start doing that so you can get the full story here. I'll require multiple posts per update, though


After my first attempt at sandblasting I learned a lot. I also purchased some upgrades for my blast cabinet which should help a lot. I wish I had a foot pedal and more space as I still need to farm out a few parts, but it works just fine as you can see.
Blast media is Aluminum Oxide purchased from Harbor Freight. PSI was 125 PSI. Yes, it was that high. No, it is not recommended. Yes, it destroyed my window several times, even with the Eastwood glass liners on. I had to use this PSI to get to all of the rust and oxidation that had occurred. In the end it was fine.
I also purchased a new air filtration system. I am a proponent of safe operation even if I do not follow it all the time. This unit is just a little Wen deal which isn't great but it works. The proof is in the black crap all over the filter after a few days of use! I also have a vacuum that sucks everything up from the blast cabinet and blows it out the window.








To the blasting! Coil cover first. This thing was nasty. Came out very nicely.







Next up was the crank pulley. Now I know this isn't recommended, but I did sandblast the whole thing. I will mask off the beltway when coating it though.



Check out this stuff I am about to blast. I almost feel dirty doing it because it did look quite nice. I have faith that the idea I have in mind will look good as well.


 
#697 ·
This time around I heated the parts thoroughly before and during spraying, and then after spraying it on thicker I heated the heck out of the paint. I used a heat gun to do this with direct heat. I ignored all caution that was provided from other guides that said not to heat too much to not "burn" the paint. I don't think that is actually a thing. Turns out that more heat did a wonderful job and now these are the results!





 
#879 ·
I agree, I'd prefer more DIY content and less threads about which expensive new cars to lease, too, but he's made things harder on himself than they need to be. Repeatedly asking questions and then arguing with the people who respond because he already made up his mind probably turned people off and then the dustup in the Radwood thread was the last straw.

It's too bad, because it didn't have to end this way.
 
#271 ·
Just pulled the trigger on the Stromung exhaust. Wallet hurts but it's the best thing to do, especially since this might actually be my daily driver for the foreseeable future.

Got the rest of the gaskets in tonight as well so I'm getting the engine buttoned up right now! Finally!!! I got the timing sorted out at lunch. It's so satisfying!
 
#286 ·
UPDATE: Boats and Hose

Decided to replace the vacuum hoses because I had them and wanted to replace them. Getting rid of as many hose clamps as I can in favor of Oetiker clamps. Invested in a nice tool and a few sets of assorted clamps.

65012

65013


Yes, I am aware that the hose routing is a little bit wonky and not necessarily supposed to fit like it is fitting, but I thought it worked better than how it was set up previously, and I didn't want 1 spare hole to go to waste.

I also ordered some new Vibrant performance supplies to make a new line for the oil drain plug. I was not happy with how short the line is and it gets in the way of the turbo inlet pipe. You can see in this that there is a mess of lines crossing each other and not allowing any space for the silicon hose coming from the intercooler into the turbo. I'm trying to check out some older photos to see how the hell it worked in the first place because frankly I'm at a loss.


Also I am trying to sort out the remaining plugs. I think I've got a good idea, though. As an aside, I went to change out the fuel pressure regulator but it had a 3.5 or 4 bar regulator in there already. I think it might be the adjustable 034 one but not positive.

65015
 
#317 ·
One more day, one or more parts installed. We're getting very close! I need to track down a self-locking m10 nut for the motor mount.

Also I cannot get to the motor mount anymore because it is under the turbo, so I might have to hire a contortionist.

You can see below that I tried cleaning the intercooler and screwed up and dissolved a lot of the paint. I had to repaint it today and it's still pretty crummy. Really upset about that, but i'll live... The intercooler is only slightly visible with the bumper on.

96264

This was pre-repaint.

96265

mounted up.... please don't pay attention to the crossbar being mounted incorrectly. I fix it later.


96266


This garage has become and absolute disaster for this project. I am more excited to get the car out of it and clean everything up than I am to get the car running.

96267


:(

96268


96269

uno
96270

dos


I got the coolant filled up today and only forgot to do up one and a half hoses! No leaks! Woooooo.

Gas tomorrow I think and i'll see if I can't track down some nuts and a tiny person's arm to fit in-between the pipes to get to the motor mount.
 
#405 ·
hahahahaha
101264


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101265
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101266

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101267
 
#470 ·
I understand where you are coming from but while the engine is together it would be for the better to do a leakdown test. You have compression numbers, the leakdown test would explain why those compression numbers are like that. Blow-by past the rings would be heard in the oil cap, bad exhaust valve would be heard in the tailpipe, bad intake valve would be heard in the intake, bad head gasket would push/bubble coolant. Leakdown test would identify certain problem parts of the engine you would have to look closer at.

Either way, good luck. (y)
 
#544 ·
Update: Finally caught up

This is the last time I will be sandblasting parts for this car, I promise. Same setup as previously. 100 to 125 PSI. Aluminum Oxide. Harbor Freight stuff. Anyone can do this!
This time I went a step further. You will see things in this post that shock, stun, and amaze. Please understand that I know the risks. I know that sandblasting an oil pump is stupid. I want it to look cool. The parts will be thoroughly cleaned and the sediments will be dissolved.
Step one: Disassemble things. This first bit is the fan clutch and pulley which will be going bye-bye. Well, the pulley is staying, so it gets coated. The accessory assembly that mounts on the side of the engine will also be getting coated, and thus requires blasting. I was serious when I said everything is getting blasted.







Do not do what I am about to do. I thought it would be far easier to get the casing apart and remove the internals to sandblast the casing of the AC compressor. This was not the case. Instead, enjoy some pictures of my disassembling and re-assembling an AC compressor for sandblasting before I mask it off instead.






 
#549 ·
So going forward:

I am waiting on my Cerakote to get here as well as a local gentleman to finish coating my downpipe
I received my full car wiring harness that I will be hopefully using to repair the hatch wiring and radio+door wiring. I haven't looked to see how in-tact it is yet but I basically paid nothing for it.
I will be doing a viscous fan delete and replacing it with a SPAL fan and mishimoto fan controller. I guess I forgot to get pics and make that post or I would have had that here already.
Still need to sandblast the turbo center section
Need to treat the rust on the driveshaft and then coat it in something. Probably just black Cerakote if I can get it to stick.
Waiting on VEMS to arrive. Trying to figure out what I want to do for gauges. I can get a VEMS display from them directly inside of an enclosure. It looks like this:
Audio equipment Gadget Font Electric blue Multimedia

Alternatively, I can get a small tablet or other Android OS system and screen and run the standalone VEMS data app. Looks like this:
Telephony Communication Device Gadget Mobile device Font
Speedometer Odometer Trip computer Light Gauge

etc. You can customize it a bit.

I'm going to be getting EGT and fuel pressure taps so I want to send those to a gauge. I considered removing the stock 3-gauge cluster and adding 3 gauges in its place, sort of like I did with the original boost gauge design I tried, but I don't know.
 
#571 ·
I saw that he sandblasted a bunch of parts before applying the coating but didn't think he'd want to immediately put a freshly-coated piece right back into the blast cabinet. I was just trying to save him some time and aggravation and suggest a simpler solution.
 
#684 · (Edited)
Tried welding last night. I don't think I am going to be welding anything I care about any time soon, lol.

My bushings shipped out last night and are scheduled to be here tomorrow allegedly. That'd be cool. I'll probably finish the wiring job I have started before moving to the bushing job. Likely going to install some new speakers as well while I am at it since I am already getting into the speaker wiring.

I looked at wheels briefly. Wasn't happy with any of the Rotiform options. Possibly going with RPF1s but I prefer a beefier spoke and more dish.
 
#685 ·
I had the same experience with welding ha. Some day I’ll have time to practice.

As for wheels, you gotta be careful with RPF1s. Some of them look really cool and have the right spoke curvature, dish etc. and some of them look pretty bad. If you want to look at a similar wheel to the RPF1 that is also flow formed and super light/strong but inexpensive enough to “try” take a look at the Konig Hypergrams. Theyre ~$200-250 per wheel and are only 18lbs for an 18x8.5. I just put a set on my MK7 R and even had metal VW center caps made for them for like $25 on etsy.

Wheel Tire Vehicle Car Automotive tire


Dont mind the dust, was just bedding in new pads/rotors ha

Tire Wheel Vehicle Automotive tire Motor vehicle
 
#741 ·
That is mix of a removed remote start and factory wiring. Nothing to freak out about. Remove and tape up the 3M t-taps that have the conductors exposed, leave the ones that don’t.

Though, you did ask about a remote start, you have half the work done already. [emoji6]
There is way more done to this than remote start. There are missing wires, the rear doors for some reason have had their speakers removed completely and wiring terminated inside the door, the ignition is all sorts of tapped into (for said starter probably), the hatch wiring is completely severed and I had to go back in and re-splice it in. If you remember, the old splicing techniques used in the hatch were to twist the copper strands together and leave it like that.

The radio wiring is not salvageable. This is actually less work than just re-splicing everything and results in unspliced wiring. Also you're asking me to just cancel everything while I am 3/5ths of the way there, sir. The reason I am not getting any sort of extra electronics in the first place is because of the wiring mess it leads to. If I want to sell the car in the future I think some people might look over the hole in the trunk, but not the wiring.

The issue with restoring this car in this manner is that everything is documented and everyone can see the state the car was in. This takes like 50% of the value off the car. I'm not trying to get big bucks for this, but with the time spent on it I am probably going to end up keeping it until I get an offer I don't want to refuse and then buy a boat or something.
 
#753 ·
Having worked on primarily older cars for a long time, I probably have a different definition of "bad wiring", haha. I can't tell you how many aircooled VW's I've worked on where the wiring was so brittle that it would break if you just touched it. And on my rabbit truck, the entire dash harness had shorted out at some point and melted every wire in the harness.
 
#819 ·
B) no
A) I'm so confused about how these dudes get dimes. I think I am probably using too much amperage and not prepping the surface properly but jeez, the stuff flows strangely. To be fair I definitely did no research regarding which filler rod and metal material I am using.

The Michael Furick cups are ridiculously helpful. I had no idea how much oxidation absolutely kills a weld. The difference between having a colorful weld and having a normal looking gray weld can simply be whether or not you have post-flow on. I now have great gas coverage which some would say is a crutch, but I would say I am working smarter and not harder. Only destroyed one tungsten this time and it took a little bit rather than immediately!
 
#278 ·
Been a while since I've updated. Basically just waiting for some tiny parts from Audi Tradition via a proxy shipper. But....


60148

It's here!! I was going to work with a gentleman local to me to get my downpipe matched up with the new exhaust but decided it would be more cost effective to just buy the damn Stromung fitment downpipe brand new. So Marc from EFI Express should be getting that out to me this week hopefully. One step closer!

60149


When putting in the RPM and speed sensor the bracket decided to split in two. Rip.

Ordered a new one off Ebay. $45. Why.

As she sits now:
60150


I was recently scolded for using hose clamps. Well, the engine came with hose clamps everywhere so I decided I would just use hose clamps everywhere. There are quite a few in use and frankly I don't have the patience right now to swap everything out with oetiker clamps or something else.


I am waiting on one final hose to arrive so I can get the coolant return line installed and then I should be able to torque everything down on the turbo side and assuming the final transmission bolt arrives this year, mount it up in the car. Hurrayyy!

I may need to spin the turbo a little to get the right hose fitment, yet...
 
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