The Project Pad

Jim, I just spent about 6 hours trying to make something :( first time working with sheet metal. i'll post up a few pics of what I ended up with.

Upper rad shroud, to direct air in.





Lower shroud, pretty hard to tell what you're looking at here. It's scooping air up into the bottom of the rad from the lower right opening in the RS2 bumper.

Radiator cap is still leaking , only the one on the Mishimoto radiator.
The radiator is made to fit a '92 honda civic but the bore and height of the cap area is different than stock so I don't know which cap to run. So hopefully once I can find the right one that will solve my problem. I am thinking the cap is not letting the system build any pressure allowing the coolant to boil prematurely.
Edit: I purchased a new 1.4 Bar radiator cap and was able to somehow sift through the ones at the parts store and find one that fits tighly.

Anything helps! Keep at it, a leaking radiator cap will definitely cause your symptoms. Shrouding is such a pain in the ass, I starred at my car for a few hrs tonight just trying to plan how I'll address all of it... It is pretty important to have though.

The shrouding looks good - hope the new cap works!

We will see what happens today but It's suspect to me that one cap is leaking and the other is perfect. Anyone know what pressure the stock Audi expansion tank caps are rated at? No matter the situation I haven't been able to build any pressure in the system. If I can't build pressure the boiling point would be right at 100C.
Also.. does anyone know after how long are you supposed to re-torque the ARP head studs?

audifreakjim wrote:Anything helps! Keep at it, a leaking radiator cap will definitely cause your symptoms. Shrouding is such a pain in the ass, I starred at my car for a few hrs tonight just trying to plan how I'll address all of it... It is pretty important to have though.

Jim, in the past did you have any shrouding down stream of the radiator to direct the air out of the engine bay? If so did you direct it up towards the hood? I'm assuming that's the direction air would flow- I don't have a belly pan fitted up yet but at least if I did.

Forgot to bring my computer with me but was able to get the car on the freeway today and get up to full temp then drive at 35 MPH at 15 mins or so at this temp.


Which is about where I used to run and looks to be maybe on the high end of normal operating which I'm fine with for now, Especially in summer temps. The new rad cap is holding pressure now, which is an improvement. So hopefully do some more driving today and verify that this is a fix. Then I will move on and fix my odometer so I can track how many break in miles to shoot for. Any suggestions there?

Afterthought wrote:

audifreakjim wrote:Anything helps! Keep at it, a leaking radiator cap will definitely cause your symptoms. Shrouding is such a pain in the ass, I starred at my car for a few hrs tonight just trying to plan how I'll address all of it... It is pretty important to have though.

Jim, in the past did you have any shrouding down stream of the radiator to direct the air out of the engine bay? If so did you direct it up towards the hood? I'm assuming that's the direction air would flow- I don't have a belly pan fitted up yet but at least if I did.

No, was just running the stock shroud and fan on the back. I did have hood vents, I suspect those were helping a little more than I imagined. I have a carbon fiber hood that I am going to put on without vents and see how things behave. If I have issues I'll swap back the steel hood and see if it helps to have the vents again.

I dont want to cut any holes in my carbon fiber hood either but I bet it would work nice.
Its a shame the bumper reinforccement is in the way or I could use the small vents as brake ducts. May have to find a way to do that.

Understood regarding wanting to preserve the CF hood... but if it comes to it you could carefully imitate the sport quattro vents on both sides and it would look pretty good.

If the hood vents are needed, they will definitely go in the CF hood

Afterthought wrote:...Also.. does anyone know after how long are you supposed to re-torque the ARP head studs?

Re-torque after a couple heat cycles

Shoot, ok I'm due. 50 lb/ft or 55?

Afterthought wrote:Shoot, ok I'm due. 50 lb/ft or 55?

It depends on the thread dope you used. If you used the ARP supplied stuff, and I double checked, your torque value is 80#.

Thank you... I remember feeling like it was low and then used their moly lube or whatever it is. Still sounds low to me but Im no engineer . Head studs on my dads truck were to 310 lb/ft!

Interesting. What kind of lubricant was used?

PRY4SNO wrote:Interesting. What kind of lubricant was used?

ARP lube but this is for a 6.0L diesel truck, which no one should ever buy :(

Today's project: get the car ready to commute to work for the next 5 days and work on breaking the engine in.
ARP head stud retorque:


Didn't get anything out of them, which is exactly what a guy hopes for.
Still havent lost any coolant since installing the new radiator cap. Emailed Mishimoto to see if they'll send me a new one.

Sounds like an upswing!

Mcstiff wrote:Sounds like an upswing!

Its running real good. Ran exceptionally cool on the way to work today probably with the help of those shrouds.
Now for my next issue to tackle, I found a used cluster that had been all rebuilt with new gears. So it is on the way here. I need to fix my odometer so I know how many miles are on the car since the engine rebuild. So I can plug my N75 back in in the near future.

Also, whats the best method nowadays for window regulator repair. This car might as well be called "the sweatlodge" right now.

Afterthought wrote:Also, whats the best method nowadays for window regulator repair. This car might as well be called "the sweatlodge" right now.

Price for using this link is keeping the car!

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=381

PRY4SNO wrote:

Afterthought wrote:Also, whats the best method nowadays for window regulator repair. This car might as well be called "the sweatlodge" right now.

Price for using this link is keeping the car!

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=381

I can't guarantee that. But someone will get a steal of a deal at what I priced it at. If it doesn't sell for that price Ill just keep driving it and fixing things.

For the window what I think I need is to replace the cable. Its all frayed. I dont know if anyone has had success putting a new cable in there and crimping their own ends on or if there isn't a reliable way to do that?

Well I thought I was out of the woods after replacing the leaky radiator cap , but temps have warmed up it outside and it looks like Im not.
Driving to work at 4 am temps have been about 60 F ambient and the car has run around 88 C, leaving work yesterday ambient was aroun 80 F, and sure enough temps were starting to creep up again to 100C even at freeway speeds with the fan on I couldn't get them turned for the better
So, something is just not right. I'm convinced that I have enough flow through the radiator but I am considering adding another fan to it as well. But first priority is to take a look at the thermostat and maybe just replace with a new one to be sure. I convinced that either the thermostat is not opening all the way or something similar.