It's official, a 2.3 4000 quattro is amazing....

[Dwight & Tina Varnes]

Brendan/Coolian wrote:

> "Wow" is one word for the engine transplant.

Yeah, pretty much. I'm a little late here with my input, but glad I'm not the
only one who figured this out.
I wouldn't give much credit to the rebuild vs. the different engine. The 2.2's
are just lame, they run out of breath too early in the rev range. That
compression boost with the NG/NF is what makes all the difference.
The seat of the pants feel is much improved. The dyno results (well, read my
story and see) aren't as impressive. With thousands of dollars, Schrick,
exhaust, flywheel, etc I've only improved upon the stock engine by about 15hp,
proving once again there is no substitute for hanging a 'snail' on an engine
and blowing in more power. But the end result is very nicely balanced to the
chassis, and the annoying lag and abysmal bottom end performance of the MC
isn't there.  Get some exhaust on your car, Brendan, and you'll love it even
more ;)
The NF and NG engines are really identical, what little is different isn't
worth mentioning. Probably mounting bosses for different things is all I can
figure. Mine came from a 5000 and I had zero problems just bolting the stuff to
it.
As for the fuel, you do need to run 93 octane (at 12 deg advance).  I can stick
89 in there for a highway trip and be okay if there are no real mountains to go
over. The knock sensor system would be nice but the work to put it in isn't
worth it.  I have a used J&S I thought about using but it's still in the box as
it didn't come with a Bosch sensor.
You can read all about the 2.3 swap to my CGT on my web site. If you use
Netscape some of the pictures may be misaligned.

Dwight Varnes
86 CGT 2.3
http://www.mongrelmotorsports.homestead.com