[Es2] "Cranky" (eS2 project report)

[Jimmy Pribble]

Last night was scheduled to be "start night" for the eS2, but unfortunately,
it ended-up only being "crank night."

We filled the car with fluids, double-checked some critical points, and
hooked-up the battery.  Our first step was to close the kill switch to feed
power to the fuse box.  I can't tell you what a thrill it was to see the
dash lights come on!  No electrical fire yet, so we moved to the next step -
trying to crank the car (no ECU).  Ken turned the key, but nothing happened.
After much frustrated poring over schematics and checking of the wiring, we
finally tested the #8 relay, which acts only as a bridge in the fuse box,
and it was dead.  So, we made a temporary bridge out of some wire and tried
again.  This time, the started turned.

Next, I felt brave enough to try the ECU.  A couple of months ago, Steve
Eiche mentioned somebody frying their ECU on an eS2 project.  Since I'm the
one who did the wiring for my car, I was exceptionally paranoid about
hooking-up the ECU.  Anyway, we gave it a shot, but the car just cranked.
We checked the fuel pump wiring and found it to be correct, but the fuel
pump itself was dead.  For those that don't know (this email is being
cross-posted), the fuel pump sits inside the gas tank.  Two years of sitting
around in old, nasty, funky-assed gas had killed it.  We never thought the
project would take this long, so we didn't properly deal with the gas tank,
gas, and fuel pump issue.  Ken said this was common with some Audis that sit
for too long, and the same thing had happened to his UrQuattro fuel pump.
He also said these fuel pumps are quite expensive ($300+).

Unfortunately, I'm out of money for the time being, so until I replenish my
funds, I will be stuck contemplating my next step.  If I can find a cheap
salvage pump, I might do that (Scotty D., help a brutha out?).  But, given
the cost of a new pump, I might think about a fuel cell, which I want for
racing anyway, and which will give me much more flexibility wrt to fuel
pumps.  I can go with an aftermarket pump, or maybe with something I can get
over the local Ford parts counter for cheap.  I have no idea, so let the
research begin.

Interestingly, I'm not all that disappointed.  Just seeing the car
struggling to regain consciousness was such a thrill (and no electrical
fires!) that the dead fuel pump did not dampen my spirits at all.  Besides,
unlike some of my UrQuattro's problems, this issue is known completely and
has at least one simple solution (R&R fuel pump).   The mission of "start
night" was a success in that the whole goal of rushing to start the car,
wasn't to drive the car (no seat, no belts, no exhaust, no lights, lots of
other issues), but was to boost our resolve.  Mission accomplished.  Now I
can calm down and continue with some of the other meticulous and boring (but
necessary) aspects of the conversion, while I research the fuel pump issue
and wait for my racing seat from England.

Cheers,         

Jimmy P.
'00 A6 2.7t "Bouncy"
'93 S4 (RIP) "Sparky"
'90 eS2 "Cranky"
'83 UrQuattro "Smoky"