The Project Pad

ok, so doing more research on the EA82 transmission as Alex suggested yielded some interesting results. The clever people at subaru put the low range reduction gear set on the input shaft of the transmission above the front differential, as seen here in this picture:



This is quite nifty in terms of packaging and weight, vs. the planetary gear set that Audi used on the dual range 01E, which adds ~8" to the tail housing of the transmission. It is also just slightly better that the ratio used by Audi (1.59 vs 1.54). This is certainly worth investigating more.

Also, I double checked and the automatic transmission from the A4 has basically the same torsen center differential as the 01a that is in the CQ. The difference is that on the B5 they ditched the locking rear differential and instead used open front and rear differentials. The B5 system relies on a system which monitors individual wheel speed and applies brake to spinning wheels to divert torque to the other wheels which have more traction. In other words, if you are driving a b5 in the mud and your ABS system/wheel speed sensors aren't working correctly you could easily spin just one wheel.

By keeping my locking rear differential in the CQ, the quattro system will be identical with the auto trans to what it is now with the stock 01a manual transmission (for better or worse). Now, since I still have an open front differential, it is still possible (though less likely) that I could get stuck with one wheel in the air spinning and very little torque applied to the other 3 wheels. To avoid 100% avoid that I would need either:

1) a locking center differential
2) a locking front differential
3) a way to apply brake pressure to individual front wheels on command
4) probably a number of other ways to do this that I haven't thought of

I kind of like the idea of trying to adapt a locking center differential from a 4kq in place of the torsen on an auto trans... but that will be more of a long-term science project

weld the center and use lock out hubs

Hahaha brilliant! That would make it a true 4x4!

Call me a "purist" but this project begs to be kept an authentic quattro.

Would a coupe/cab auto trans from a 2.8 be suitable to hold desired power levels and maintain locking rear?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUDI-80-CABRIOL ... 2080303924

PRY4SNO wrote:Call me a "purist" but this project begs to be kept an authentic quattro.

Would a coupe/cab auto trans from a 2.8 be suitable to hold desired power levels and maintain locking rear?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUDI-80-CABRIOL ... 2080303924

Don't worry, the locking rear is not going anywhere; it will remain a proper quattro. The 5HP19FLA auto trans that is going in has a 4:11 final drive so everything is compatible. I want to pick up an 016 from a 4kq to see if I can adapt the locking center diff from it to the auto box. Unfortunately, I'm traveling this week so I wasn't able to go pull the trans out of one that showed up in the local pick-n-pull right before I left, and it has already been crushed. I'll have to keep looking.....

I have a junk 4kq trans you can have. I drilled a hole in the case. Supposedly worked fine prior to that.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

alxdgr8 wrote:I have a junk 4kq trans you can have. I drilled a hole in the case. Supposedly worked fine prior to that.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Some progress on the donor:

-Did the head gasket, timing belt and water pump this weekend. I had suspected from the box-of-rocks sound at the front of the motor that the overheating issue was due to the water pump being dead rather than the head gasket, but I did both as a matter of preventative maintenance. Didn't find any evidence that the head gasket was actually blown, but the impeller had fallen off the water so that confirmed my initial suspicion.

Progress was slower than I had planned due to discovering (1) that the crankcase breather hose had blown up.. like completely... and (2) that I needed a tripple square to get the old head bolts out, and a polydrive for the new replacement ones. After striking out with every dealer and tool store in town, the local Audi community got me both items in short order so much thanks to Alex and Linn!

Headless:


Got the car back together, replaced a failed transmission safety interlock switch, then test drove the car. The good news is that is runs well, drives ok, and is boosting well above 7psi which suggests that I have a chip! The bad news is that a significant boost leak is limiting me to 13psi but that should be easy to fix. woohoo!

Made a pressure tester today (pipe cap with a schrader valve screwed into it) and pressure tested the system:



I quickly found the culprit for my boost leak to be this aftermarket DV that some PO installed:


With the DV removed and it's hole plugged, the system holds 30 psi with no leaks. Going to grab an OEM diverter valve and all should be good.

WIth that done I took the car for a drive to the self-serve car wash and spent some time cleaning up the engine. I love how well the "high pressure, hot soapy spray" works to clean away almost two decades of dirt and oil sludge.



The driving behavior of the car is a bit odd (doesn't pull very hard at all under boost), so I want to see how it acts once I get a proper DV installed.

In other news, I don't think I actually have a chipped ECU. I'm not sure why the engine is boosting to (an indicated) 12 PSI under sustained heavy load (stock is 7 psi), but I peeked in the ECU enclosure box today and didn't see any outward sign (such as a GIAC sticker or something) to suggest that it has been messed with. At some point I'll pull it out and see if there has been a chip soldered in, but I strongly suspect it's stock.

Pressure tested the intake manifold today and found my boost leak!



This is a little rubber elbow that goes to the brake booster vacuum line. Also found a few small vacuum lines that where leaking a little and confirmed for myself that I'm going to be replacing all the boost and vacuum lines on this engine.

With those leaks fixed I took it for a test drive and it is a completely different car! This engine is going to be a lot of fun in the lifted car.

Found this video of an b5 A4 in Sweden. ~4" lift and 205/70R15 tires. This is a 2.8l auto car which I think is a good choice; sufficient torque down low with the V6 and an auto for better low speed control. Glad to see I'm not the only one with these crazy ideas!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h803IlAkRLM[/youtube]

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anz ... 3-216-4168





EDIT:
Found this while searching the seller's other ads:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anz ... 8-223-4168

PRY4SNO wrote:I'll just leave this here:

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anz ... 3-216-4168

auto-cq-interior-01.png

auto-cq-interior-02.png

EDIT:
Found this while searching the seller's other ads:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anz ... 8-223-4168

Oh man, that thing would have been a PERFECT candidate for this build... 2.0 means it has the motor mounts & most other bits to do a 1.8T swap, and its already automatic. Ugh.

I'm going to try and install the B5 shif lever & trim when I do the swap, but I'm not quite sure how it will all work out. I would also really like to have a screen showing gear for tiptronic mode like the A4 had, but that is likely beyond the scope of my electronics abilities. Obviously I have some work to do on figuring this all out. LOL

Has anyone swapped a b5 cluster into a b3/4 dash? That might be my best option if it's possible...

Talk to MDZ on s2forum. Guy is awesome at OEM retrofits.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63540

holy balls that dude is legit, thanks for the link!! He mentions in there that the B5 cluster is the same size and should fit just fine in place of a b3/4. I'll have to try this out and see what all I would need to do to make it work properly. I haven't yet found a b5 Bentley manual for a good price so I'm a bit limited in that realm right now. I have some research to do!

Chris/varia has done a B5 cluster swap, I believe he eventually swapped back. I also think it's been done on S2forums.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

the german wrote:holy balls that dude is legit, thanks for the link!! He mentions in there that the B5 cluster is the same size and should fit just fine in place of a b3/4. I'll have to try this out and see what all I would need to do to make it work properly. I haven't yet found a b5 Bentley manual for a good price so I'm a bit limited in that realm right now. I have some research to do!

No problem! It's been an extremely interesting build from the beginning. Not the highest HP build, but one of the most creative. After seeing him do the B5 instrument cluster swap, I've long had it in mind as it moves two gauges (voltmeter, oil temp) from the centre console into the cluster. With that room freed up from the stock position there's space for a boost/vac gauge and one more (w/m? AFR? EGT?) without having to modify any air vents. The other thing that's appealing is the big LCD screen, which should be able to act as an integrated V1 and VEMS display using CAN, but I haven't really gone down that road yet.

Not sure if you have a set yet, but he's got the all-weather rubber mats in that car you might be able to get for a good deal. I got a nearly new set for 50 euro plus shipping, for what it's worth. Also, any of the interior trims from the auto might make for an OEM+ appearance, maybe pedals would be handy. There should be some good bits to nick before he scraps the car, not just the big stuff.

Went for a Quattro play day with some folks from the local Audi group today and Alex got some great photos and videos of the coupe in action. He also got to ride along and witness just how under powered this thing is with a 7a!







[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cDMl0dAQHs[/youtube]

So awesome. Great picture of the car and fantastic video. I want one.

she wheels good! man its too bad there is not an easy way to really gear it down. Automatic should help a lot, just let the converter slip and add a big cooler to keep it from getting too hot?

dana wrote:she wheels good! man its too bad there is not an easy way to really gear it down. Automatic should help a lot, just let the converter slip and add a big cooler to keep it from getting too hot?

That's the plan! Yeah it does pretty well, but the low torque and big tires are the Achilles heel at the moment. Looking forward to swapping it!

not sure if you have a cooler picked out yet, but I have this on my car as an oil cooler and its great. The fans pull a ton of air and the quality is very good. Its a really high capacity cooler.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/der-15840

That's sexy... gotta see if I can find a place to package it that I like. My plan was to go with something like this, mostly because I can stick it in front of the radiator and make packaging simple:

https://www.amazon.com/HAYDEN-TRANSAVER-TRANS-COOLER-OC-1405-EXTRA/dp/B009TACG54/ref=sr_1_11?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1480528310&sr=1-11&keywords=transmission+cooler

https://www.amazon.com/Hayden-Automotive-678-Rapid-Cool-Transmission/dp/B000C3DDKO/ref=sr_1_3?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1480528310&sr=1-3&keywords=transmission+cooler

i have mine down on the original side mount radiator mount, clocked sideways and braced off the frame rail. Gets lots of air from the lower bumper grill, i was going to duct it, but it works so well as is, that i did not bother.

Makes sense- there is a lot of space there. Thats where I put the remote oil filter and oil cooler on my V8 car and it works great; I was planning to do the same thing for at least the oil filter on this car as well.