A tale of woe

[Jenny Curtis]

Well Q-listers I've waited a while, but I think I'm sufficiently far
along in the grief process to relay this tale of woe to you:

I took my Ur-Quattro to the track in Iowa as part of the Quattro club
driving school.  The first day went really well for me and the car,
despite the fact that temperature on the track was 101 degrees.  The
last run of the day came up and it was a 40 minute session.  I was late
starting so I didn't much listen to the warnings from Kent Anderson that
I needn't run the whole time because it's hard on the car and driver.  I
was too intent on improving my driving of the difficult, technically-
challenging track to much notice when my instructor told me there were
ten minutes left and asked if I wanted to go in.

I thought I felt fine, and perservered.  Within a few minutes I noticed
a sudden lack of power on the straight away, upon breaking the car began
to make some disturbing noises.  I stopped as soon as I could and waited
to be towed off the track.

The verdict the next morning from Keith Anderson, was that I had cooked
my engine.  Detonation and pinging had caused the top of piston #3 to
melt.  That was just the most cursory assessment of the damage.  It
could likely be worse.  Yikes.

The car now sits awaiting a new engine.  I have a line on a 5000 (for a
cheap $500) with a rebuilt head and all the extra donor parts that would
be necessary to make the conversion.  Graham and I have been kicking
around the idea of doing the swap ourselves.  He has done swaps before
(true it was on an 70s era Fiat) and feels that as long as we aren't
opening the engine up, we will be up to the challenge.  Since the car is
not my daily driver, the time it takes to do the swap, is not an issue.

My question is this is a doable job for amateurs?  Bare in mind that I
haven't had the car long and have not wrenched on it all in that time.

Secondly, I know there are other engine possibilities out there for the
Ur-q (the 20 valve, the 3b).  Am I making the right choice, going with
the MC?

Thanks for listening,

Jenny Allan
874kq: The Eurotrash Princess
84 Ur-q: Helmut, RIP