Shawn's thread: #LegalStatus

[peterpeterson]

there are 2 important grounding points in the engine for sensors... One is on the intake manifold, bolted to the bracket that holds the throttle linkage. The other is on the back of the valve cover, firewall side. Check those ground points first. If they are not correct especially the one on the throttle linkage plate the ECU and assorted sensors read all wonky.

[death 4kqt]

sounds like you maybe aught to go ahead and pull the pan and check the pickup tube. Might be something strange in there? Bit of a shot towel or something? Out of all the trouble I have had with old audis, low oil pressure has never been an issue.

[Rallyfreak202]

Intercooler pics.

[vt10vt]

Okay, I need some input. I have been waiting for the last 3 weeks for some money to come through and it finally has so it's time to make some orders I have had my Ben Swann chip in for a couple weeks now and it's 100%, totally transformed the car! The plan is to pull the head and do as much as I can afford to: MLS headgasket w/ ARP studs, H20 pump, oil pan gasket and new oil pump gaskets, all turbo gaskets, 3" turbo back exhaust (may only do downpipe back to begin with), and basically just give the bay a thorough cleaning/organizing/touching up. I'm hoping to get this all done and then add my new intercooler (cxracing 3in core w/ 3in pipes) with an OEM Bosch DV and hopefully be running 16psi reliably :woowoo: I think that would make it quite a fun ride, I'm hoping to make it to 75/80 dragstrip in MD within the next couple weeks as I'm hoping if I get all the parts in front of me I can get it apart/back together within a week.

1. Wideband: I've done some shopping and research and I think right now it's down to either an AEM unit or the Innovative MTX-L. I've heard about a lot of problems with Innovative's controllers so I'm kind of weary of them and the AEM has the added bonus of no free air calibrations... any input?

2. Motor mounts: I might as well do these while I'm in there, I'm planning on using fox body transmission mounts, can anyone confirm they will work for a 20v in a type44 and/or have a part number or specific year they have ordered them for?

3. Subframe bushings: I'm ordering most of my stuff through autohausaz, they only list one part for the front subframe and say you need 2, but it looks like there's 4 mounting points. Do I need 2 or 4 to do the whole thing?

4. Head resurfacing: I've never overheated it, and it runs fine, the only thing is that it's got 280k on it; should I just have it planed while I'm in there or should I be fine (I'd rather not do it due to the $$, this is all getting very expensive very quickly )

I'm hoping to have everything to do the engine ordered tomorrow as my check clears at midnight. I will be in NO condition to be ordering hundreds of dollars in parts tonight, and thankfully my computer is broken so it removes a very real temptation :slap: Hopefully have parts midway through next week and have the problem with my subaru figured out cause I will be leaving it at my girlfriend's mom's place to work on it (farm= barn!!) As a totally unrealistic goal I would like to take car to Ocean City for H20... but realistically have it done by around then... but I really wanna take it to OC so... classes and my senior seminar will be taking a bit of a back seat for a couple weeks

All input welcome!!

-Shawn C.

ps. sorry for the lack of pictures, my computer is still broken

[Ronald G Wainwright+]

Why are u going to use ARP studs? Besides the reuse factor?

[vt10vt]

Ronald G Wainwright+ wrote:[/quote]

Why are u going to use ARP studs? Besides the reuse factor?[/quote]
Reuse and safety, I would like to eventually be running big boost through the K24 and maybe adding something bigger down the road, either a smaller holset or some T3 variant this winter or next spring when I've graduated and it would be pretty sweet to not have to pull the head again since I'm going to be in there anyway.

[Rallyfreak202]

Is it done yet?!

[vt10vt]

Life sucks! Since my last post I have added a dog, graduated college, had my first full time job at an organic meat farm, worked anywhere from way too little (30hrs a week) to way too much (60hrs a week), lost said job a week and a half ago and now here I am Although money is beyond tight, I'm trying to treat the 200 like a job because job hunting really doesn't take that much time and I'm kind of waiting on a couple things to *hopefully* come through.

Anyways, progress on the avant has come in spurts, but at the beginning of August I moved and now have both a place to park it without worry and a little shed/shop :woowoo: I'll post pics of "my lab" (not to steal Hank's moniker but that's what I just kinda started calling it) and the "garage" (it's a tree) sometime later, I just needed to get this post up.

I did the headgasket again due to several stripped intake mani bolts, it seemed easiest and I wanted to check that I did everything right the first time and success I did! Only problem is a few problems related to putting the car back together (including fubaring my CIS injectors) I decided to just hold off working on it until I got it to the new place and could do the Megasquirt conversion at an enjoyable pace in an enjoyable place.

Anyways, as must happen on motorgeek, on to the pics!

Subframe out ready for new mounts, strut mounts, control arms, ball joints, wheel bearings etc. EVERYTHING in the front end will be new when it goes back together next mon/tues when I get the rest of the parts


Relay board bracket built off the power steering reservoir bracket


Relay board mounted


Throttle body adapter, I actually had to re drill it to gain some more clearance for the fuel rail but you get the idea, just more holes in it Let me tell you, countersinking those holes and making sure everything ended up straight was a HUGE PITA with just a craftsman hand drill, I wouldn't wish that on anyone!


Had to modify my intercooler mounts to line up the outlet with the TB. I actually like it better now, it sits more upright. I had originally wanted to try and make a grille fit over it but that just ain't happening, so much for stealth/unobtrusiveness!




Throttle body mounted up, it is offset but not by more than like 3/8" and I'm planning on using the adaptor plate to kind of angle flow into the manifold, the hole in the manifold is bigger than the TB outlet anyways (OBD I ABA TB, I had one and it's easy cause it only has TPS wiring). The next project after getting this setup fine tuned is a custom intake manifold and VR TB to match my wayyy oversized 3in charge pipes




Final mock up of all the fab work I have been doing. Everything seems to fit and clear each other! I'm getting pretty excited!


Not really sure specifically what this pic was supposed to be of but...

[vt10vt]

Now for the aesthetic side of things. I wanted to do something cheap and different for wheels, and my buddy just changed up to GT500 wheels on his 07 GT so I had a look at his old wheels and...





I think it looks pretty sweet, just wish it was actually going to sit like this with suspension! The wheels are 8in with a 45 et, they are going to be pushing it but I think with the 20v flares it will sit really nice, at least in the front those things swallow wheels! I have a set of cut out 20v rear arches I want to do something with but it's looking like a LOT of work to get it right so I might just cut and pull what's there, we will see. (wheels were test fit with suspension in car prior to break down and they do appear to fit, going to run a 215/40/17)

And my helper, someday I will post a picture of him not in sun glasses:


Encouragement gladly accepted!! I don't have any real hands on car friends down here in Maryland (and I rarely make it to VT these days) so I'm kinda just going off what I read here and what seems to work. I think it's starting to look like a car again but now I'm getting to the part I have feared most since the beginning and that is the actual Megasquirt. The wiring I am fine on, but I'm worried without any local support and my total lack of electrical knowledge/understanding and fear of computers I'm going to run into some issues with setup etc. and get stuck. Dana if you read this sorry I never gave you a call, I was hoping to be at this point (well a little further) a while ago and life has just gotten in the way. I'm saving my call for when I run into issues with startup!

Anyway, let me know what you think guys and I'm going to try and keep this more updated!

[vt10vt]

Spent half the day reading about megasquirt and the other half doing all the wiring. I'm using a relay board like a wuss

For the injectors, I used all 4 + terminals, just wired cylinders 1+2 to the same positive and 3, 4, 5 all got their own individual + terminal. I then grounded 1, 2, 3 to one of the 'Injector Bank 1' and cylinders 4 and 5 grounded through the other 'Injector Bank 1' terminal, this is correct, correct? I think I got the TPS right but we will have to see, I swear some birds came and stole a couple of my pretty DIY autotune labeled wires cause I was missing 2 I know I had this AM. I just used some of the wires designated for Fidle setup because I'm not doing that right now.

Which brings me to another question. I'm not touching the original wiring at all, just removing the CIS components, if I wired the full throttle/idle switch to work somehow could I just leave the ISV controlled like stock? Sorry if this is a dumb question

Anyways, a couple pics. I forgot to take one when I was wrapping up but it's still a war zone under there, I need to get some more wire wrap tomorrow so I can square away the injector harness. Starting to feel like I can hear daylight! Unfortunately I have plans with friends tomorrow so I won't have much time but Sunday I have a semi car/computer savy friend coming over to help try and get the ECU powered up, and after that it's just a fuel pump relay and some gaskets away from at least making some noise :woowoo:

Quite a mess, although it doesn't show well on my only camera which is an iphone, this is before I began the injector harness


And cleaned up a little bit, starting to sort injector wires too, I'll get pics of the finished product unwrapped and then wrapped. I wish the wiring was running a little differently but maybe on V2.0


And an official introduction to my assistant/year and two month old Boxer/Black lab. He had Parvo and Coccidia when he was little and I think he was a runt as well because he's so small, like 40lbs. He is ALL muscle though and is better at getting girls than I am. Luckily he lets me ride his coattails :wink:

[vt10vt]

Well yesterday was a waste of a day, should have stayed home and worked on the 200, instead I nursed a hangover this morning and still haven't really started work yet :slap:

Anyways, I did a ton of research trying to figure out exactly what I have here. I bought it of Vortex years ago and haven't made it to this stage although this is the second car I was "going" to use it on


I'm not sure which firmware is on it but I'm going to try and use MegaTune to get the hi res code onto it. I will hopefully update to TunerStudio soon (like next couple days) but from what I've read it's not as easy as MegaTune when dealing with MS1 so I'm just going to try the old stuff first and then update. I seem to have TunerStudio already but it wants some Java script or something... I hate computers and will deal with this later.

Anyways, sorry if this post is annoying/useless, it's helping build some motivation to go out and get going on all the little stuff.

Also ordered a new wideband (lost my actual sensor, I lose EVERYTHING) this morning, $49.xx with tax on Advance Auto's website, there was a 20% discount code and it was in stock at the local store so no waiting and no shipping cost (so much for my student loan payment getting made today) :woowoo:

[vt10vt]

I'm an idiot, somehow I managed to blow a trace straight out of my relay board... hopefully my jumper solution works, it was the switched 12v port to relay.

Blown trace


Repair station on coffee table


Gromit offering his input


Fixed! (hopefully)


Also got my subframe bushings in today so I removed the old ones and will press the new ones in tomorrow morning if I'm motivated or wedensday cause I have to work in the afternoon in a kitchen I used to work in




It would sure be nice not to have to talk to myself the whole time I work on the car AND in my build thread, input appreciated :thanks:

[death 4kqt]

im in here looking....lurking if you will. Some shade tree action in here. Bad news, i remembered my old megasquirt laptop wouldnt power up and i think i ridded myself of it long ago. Didnt we try to make it work that night that we got back from getting my v8 in NYC and make the same conclusion? Not sure. Memory is foggy.

[vt10vt]

death 4kqt wrote:[/quote]

im in here looking....lurking if you will. Some shade tree action in here. Bad news, i remembered my old megasquirt laptop wouldnt power up and i think i ridded myself of it long ago. Didnt we try to make it work that night that we got back from getting my v8 in NYC and make the same conclusion? Not sure. Memory is foggy.[/quote]
Man, that was a helluva day, I wish I had a picture of you wearing Berkley around your shoulders when we got back! I don't remember exactly but I know I have seen that laptop and I'm pretty sure whenever that was we tried to power it up, could have been that night. It would have been great to have your maps because I got to see them in action (and know they work) but I found a couple around here I'll try and mess with, thanks for trying to figure out the whereabouts of that thing though!

I wish it wasn't raining, I'd rather be putting the harness back in the audi than building a plate frame for my roommate's GSX-R

[death 4kqt]

Yea man, it just occurred to me the other day that we already tried to salvage them once and failed. Sorry man, but you wont have a problem. Fuel only is easy peasy. That day getting the v8 was awesome....and retarded....The best kind of day.

[loxxrider]

Hey man, nice build thread and nice writing too. I've been entertained by the posts you made in the past few days! How are you jacking that thing up in the grass? Are you winching it up from the tree or something? lol

I think the mustang wheels could look pretty sweet, hope to see them on there one day. Best of luck with the MS. Seems like you are mostly on the right track. Just keep moving along!

[vt10vt]

Dana, at least we didn't take the Corrado into that 4AM blizzard. Without snows. Remember that that was the original plan!

Hey man, nice build thread and nice writing too. I've been entertained by the posts you made in the past few days! How are you jacking that thing up in the grass? Are you winching it up from the tree or something? lol

I think the mustang wheels could look pretty sweet, hope to see them on there one day. Best of luck with the MS. Seems like you are mostly on the right track. Just keep moving along!

Thanks Loxx! I like reading threads where the owner imbues a bit of their personality into the build so I try to do the same. I think it brings project threads 'to life.' I've read your 20v's thread at least twice start to finish and I have to say you have the most ludicrous T44. It's an inspiration, like a bunch of 200's on here, for what I want; a brutally fast, smooth riding, comfortable flying couch. Yours just takes it to a level I can't imagine playing on! I eventually want to do a similar vacuum brake assist setup using yours as a guide, and I cannot wait (like most everyone I think) to see what EFI Express gets done with it! And the car is just on jack stands although it's settled a couple inches since it's been sitting, the tree only functions as an engine lift :-)

It poured all day here today and is supposed to keep up all night. Oh well, I have stuff to do in the morning so hopefully the pond that is our lot will dry out a little by noon or so. I got sidetracked building a license plate bracket for my friend's 'new' GSX-R 600, I'll put some pics up when it's done but it's coming out pretty clean I think. I got a couple things done inside today, nothing too big but MAN do I need some real tools.

Center marked out on throttle body side


Cut out


This is the amount of offset I have from throttle to manifold side of the adapter plate. It's not ideal but I really can't afford to do anything else right now so it will have to do. The amount of (or lack thereof) clearance with the throttle body, fuel rail, and intake manifold makes everything so difficult. I wish Audi had made a crossflow 20v like VW did on the ABA


Then it was ghetto coolant temp sensor time! Some scrap AL, a bung and a few minutes of my welder's time only would have only cost like $25-$30 but this solution cost $1.91, still just $7.xx if you include the cost of my 3/8" NPT tap which I already had! It's an uber cheap Amazon special, only planned on getting a use out of it but it's holding up surprisingly well. The 'bung spacer' (?) is a 1"x1"x3" piece of galvanized something. It's thick enough that I'm confident the sensor has enough engagement not to leak and from what I read the galvanizing (again, right term?) will play nice with coolant, I was worried about that.


About how it will look installed. I'll take a razor to the coolant lines to make sure the cuts get cleaned up


And a picture of my workshop. I'm like 6'5" (why I LOVE T44's) and it doesn't really show but the tables and chair are like 7/8" scale cause it's really just a big shed but I feel hilarious working in there. We need to put a new roof on it before winter, it pretty much just rains through half of it, and hopefully at that point I will get to set it up more to my size/liking. I want to move the bike and lawn mower to the other little shed so I can have the whole thing but the roommates aren't as on board with that idea I'll keep trying. Anyways, please excuse the mess, I'm a wrecking ball


I'm standing in the center and taking the pics each direction, it's a really long but not that wide or tall.


Sorry for any headaches induced by iphone pictures!

[a-talk]

Us 200 folks are watching. Avants rock. That is all 8)

[Rallyfreak202]

Shawn, awesome stuff. You really have been chugging away at this. You are going to be happy with your refreshed front end and megasquirt. It will be a bitch at first (like mine was) but you'll love it. I recommend Tunerstudio over Megatune. I have the purchased version I'd share with you.
As far as the ISV control integration, I am not sure. I wish I had an answer for you. The only thing I can say is to post on the msforums or I can PM you an email address for a guy that builds/installs/tunes MS for a living.
I like that you put the relay board in your MS. I wish I did that on my 16v. Oh, and your tb adapter looks great. It shows that you have a lot of time on your hands. haha.

I'm looking forward to seeing the wheels with tires on the car. Keep up the progress.

[Justin517]

I'm watching... my buddy who has my old avant will likely go to MS when he runs out of overhead with the chipped mac-11 for timing and old-schol 034 fuel only for fuel.

I think the 'stang wheels look pretty sweet to be honest.

keep up the good work!

[ktownboostn]

Awesome build man ! Great to see more 20vt builds popping up ! Avants are kickass too !

[death 4kqt]

Dana, at least we didn't take the Corrado into that 4AM blizzard. Without snows. Remember that that was the original plan!

holy shit, i forgot that was the plan. That would have made that trip mega retarded! (and thus better?)

ps, a g60 nonetheless...im sure that would have made the drive there and back nonstop with no problem right?

[vt10vt]

death 4kqt wrote:[/quote]

ps, a g60 nonetheless...im sure that would have made the drive there and back nonstop with no problem right?[/quote]
I guarantee if you don't consider long distance towing a problem it wouldn't have had a single issue

[vt10vt]

Thank you Nick, a-talk Justin and ktownboostn for the encouragement, you don't know how nice it is to have some support from people who know what the process is like and how hard and frustrating it can be :-)

I have been talking with a local shop owner about getting a part time gig at his place and although it won't be steady enough to consider a real job, I will have part time work with him for a little cash and place in his 'storage' bay which is the door behind his primary shop. It has a lift and REAL tools (hydraulic press, drill press, air tools etc.) next door and a paint booth across the road which the owner is a part owner of. Needless to say I will be working there and the 200 will have a new home as soon as it is a roller again It will have a MINT, blown 10sec foxbody, a 9 sec trans am, and a Model A (I think) for company. I'll get pics next time I'm over there!

Anyways, I got the rest of what I needed to finish the front end. And then I broke them :dur: I pressed in the rear subframe bushings, and then on the fonts I couldn't get a great angle on them with the tools I had (I have serious tool issues, can you tell?) and ended up folding one during its attempted installation, so now I have to wait till my GAP order gets here to take the press to the shop so I can then get the car there. For what it's worth here's my successful bushing install.


Turns out the exhaust donut is the PERFECT size to press the outside of the bushing


The tin foil is to cover the balljoints from rain although they got ripped in the course of doing the bushings! I think this is how professionals press in bushings right?!



Also, I dropped off some parts to my welder yesterday. I met him randomly because his bay is right next door to the old moon bounce delivery place I worked at (seriously). Found out today he happens to be NASA certified and a bunch of other things. He has a $15k TIG machine in his shop and spends $6k a year just maintaining his certifications. This guy is a MACHINE.


My camera doesn't do it justice. I have been blessed (in the fortunate sense, not the religious one) to have access to incredible welders both here and in VT


IAT sensor installed


He beveled this edge for me on his mill as well, that wasn't nearly as pretty, but just as effective. This is after I cleaned it up with a die grinder.




And then it was either wiring and assembly. I got the whole harness back in and replaced an incorrectly coded wire with a correct one, but I didn't spend any time trying to get the MS fired up, just trying to get things physically closer to starting. Electronics later (read: procrastinating). Both needed to get done, but I felt like I was at the point where I needed to be finishing some parts, so I started with hard parts. I got the intake manifold, throttle body, fuel rail, and fuel rails in for *hopefully* the last time. They have been in and out an unbearable number of times.






The camera angle throws the center of the intercooler off a bit (the core is pretty much centered). Like I've mentioned, I only have an iphone for a camera, but on top of that I got it for free because the back was shattered and is now gorilla taped over so I have to take pictures with the screen facing what I'm photographing. The no look confusion maker! I'm about 1/5 on usable pictures/pictures taken




And in the vein of tying ends up, I got the coolant system 'back together.' I think it could be more offensive... but that's about all I can say. If the project goes like I want it to there will be a free port where there used to be a banjo fitting on the coolant outlet flange on the side of the head I can tap and use... H1C's are oil only :wink:


Thanks for following along everyone! It's great to have other Audi people see what's going on

[vt10vt]

Shawn, awesome stuff. You really have been chugging away at this. You are going to be happy with your refreshed front end and megasquirt. It will be a bitch at first (like mine was) but you'll love it. I recommend Tunerstudio over Megatune. I have the purchased version I'd share with you.
As far as the ISV control integration, I am not sure. I wish I had an answer for you. The only thing I can say is to post on the msforums or I can PM you an email address for a guy that builds/installs/tunes MS for a living.
I like that you put the relay board in your MS. I wish I did that on my 16v. Oh, and your tb adapter looks great. It shows that you have a lot of time on your hands. haha.

I'm looking forward to seeing the wheels with tires on the car. Keep up the progress.

I've been more than chugging hahaha in fact I'm spending a little too much time with it. The thing with the refreshed front end is that once that's done the rear end is still going to be it's 280k self until I have money to get it squared away. The front end has already eaten a tire (corded it on the inside edge). If you can send me a file via email mine is Christianson802 at gmail, if not no worries, once I get it running and get a job I'll probably buy a version if I can't get it from you, it does seem to be pretty superior to megatune. On the ISV, I'm going to assume that it will work with an idle switch, I don't see any reason it would fail to function if the factory ECU is seeing all its inputs. I guess we will see!

And on the adapter plate, I definately have more time than money right now!