Pick up something not as old (another 90..)

A few months ago, Eddie and I went to Virginia and picked up another 90. This one is Pearl White, V6, 5 speed and of course Quattro. The plan was to make it a daily.





Its pretty dang clean, the paint is scratched up and it needs some interior love.

Did a few things and this is what it looks like now.



Deciding on what color wheels to go with. Thinking some quick plasti dip, Bronze, Gold, a darker silver?

Ive since fixed the ride height issue, update on that later.

 

The car was advertised as needing a lot of work. But from the questions I asked the seller, it didn't really seem like it. The car was in Fairfax, VA, right near DC. Eddie and I went down on a Saturday morning, paid for the car and headed home. The 90 got nearly 30MPG and drove great. A slight vibration at higher speed but thats really all the mechanical issues. The interior does need a bit of help. Each door card has a leather panel and the glue has failed. Shouldn't be too bad to make right.

After driving the car here and there I decided to dig into it a bit more. First was repairing a bad CV boot. There was grease everywhere. Still had the OEM axle, so I was happy about that.









I also picked up some new sway bar end links and threw those in too.

 

Next on the to do list was suspension. I was planning on a set of lower springs and nice struts but wasn't actively looking to buy. That is until Eddie and I were scumming through the jy and stumbled upon a B5 with some goodies underneath.

Sport struts and lowering springs.



B5 and B4 Audi rear ends are very similar. They are not totally the same but most big parts can be used. The only difference on these is that the spring perch is 15-20mm higher up than on a B4 strut. I didn't want to modify anything too much so I just cut on coil out of the spring. Apparently that one coil equated to a huge drop and I'm nearly tucking tire in the back now. #bagsand wheels

For the fronts, I used some H&R springs, which I also modified and a set of used Bilsteins.



So now the car handles well, really well actually. But sits weird. Oh, and I still had a vibration.

The front brakes needed and overhaul, but the drivers side needed pads more than the passenger side. Maybe a stuck caliper or somthing causing the rotor to warp?

Since I have 90 parts everywhere I took a fresh rotor (but very rusty) into work to clean up. Ready to go on.



I exercised the piston a bit, and cleaned/greased the sliders as well. With everthing back together the brakes felt better and the vibration was reduced, but its still there. Might be a driveshaft thing too, not sure.

Next stuff on the list is figure out vibration, raise up rear and fix door cards. Oh and passively look for a 2.5 to swap in.

 

Sounds reliable.

 

Surprisingly I have been working on this thing, it now has about 1.4 more liters of engine than before.

 

4.2

 

I killed myself to get this thing to H2O and failed. Mainly because I'm an idiot. Last September, I made motor mounts, custom spacer for the flywheel to get the pilot bearing spaced correctly, relocated the oil filters, welded vbands to the exhaust manifolds and a bunch of other small stuff.

I decided to get back into it a few weeks ago. Eddie came over one day and we both easily figured out some dumb problems and got the engine to run. Since then I've been working away at getting this thing on the road. Lately working on accesories and most recently the exhaust.

With my radiator setup, I neede to move the alternator. I was nearly done a few nights ago just to realize the smaller alternator I wanted to use won't actually work. The pulley uses a smaller belt than the ABZ, and I figured I could just swap the factory one on, but I didn't check the backspacing before swapping/making the mount. :shame:

Good news is, the mount was still usable and it only took a bit of tweaking to make work.



Cooling system is well on the way, here's pic of the modified fan assembly. I want to use the factory radiator and shrouding. I bought some 10" fans to mount on the rad and cut the back of the shroud up. Gained at least 2" of much needed space. I also got the coolant port on the side of the block tapped for 1/2" NPT and intalled a fitting.



Finally my valve cover gaskets came in, and the victor reinz gaskets suck ass. The don't fit tightly on the valve covers, which make them horrible to install.



Exhaust is coming along too.

 

Not as light as one might think. Its around 3400 right now, if I had to guess. When comparing it to the lolroad, it is light though.