90tq update -- all problems solved ! (almost)

[ed armstrong]

Hello gang,

Thought I'd update audifans on the latest good news
with my Audi 90 quattro turbo project ! (...on this
very tragic weekend).

My last post about 4 weeks I mentioned that the turbo
motor ran out of breath around 4-5K rpms. It just hit
a wall. I originally though the problem was due to
mixture. With fellow lister Mike Gough we spent the
better part of a Sat last week going over everthing,
mixture, timing, vacuum to no avail. Later he emailed
me with the thought that there was definetely a
restriction in the intake somewhere.

After thinking about my setup I came to the conclusion
that the most likely candidate was the intake plumbing
from the Saab turbo boot on top of the CIS meter and
the inlet to the cool side of the turbo. What I had in
there was making three 90 degree turns. After
replacing this "Home Depot" setup with another one
that only made two 45 degree bends, Holy Cow ! what a
difference it made ! The first time out the motor
cleaned revved to the red line in second gear making a
decent amount of boost !

I guess chauk it up another problem to newbie
inexperience.

The turbo motor has now totally transformed the car !
It actually _amazing_ how smoothly and linearly the
boost comes on. I had orginally heard that the MC-1,
with the K26 turbo in the 5000 was a little bit of a
low end dog. Not in this car. I guess the lighter
weight of the car and the 8.5:1 compression of the new
motor makes a big difference. I can honestly say the
car feels  it has as much low-end power as the old NG
with 10:1 compression. It just amazing (yes I said it
again) how early the boost starts spinning up. I'm
talking about boost coming on as low as 2000-2100
rpms. By 2600-2700 rpms its fully spooled and I'm
running through the tiny stock exhaust system. The
response is really instantanous. I can't imagine
better turbo response, the car is now truely a blast
to drive. Third and four gear are especially fun.

As far as the amount of boost its about a tame 4-5
psi. I can wait to start cranking it up a bit! Today I
discovered another minor problem. The intercooler is
probably leaking (oil found and such). There are few
other things to still sort out, but I guess thats what
these projects are about.

Well, its been a long hard road to the (almost)
conclusion of this project. I actually started about
1.5 years ago when I first bought the junkyard MC
having been inspired by the 80/90q turbo conversion
projects by D. Close and Javad.  I'm envious of those
that had the knowledge and stamina to finish such a
project in the time scale of weeks ! To my credit I
had a lot of downtime assembling the totally rebuilt
MC with a new head and pistons etc. and I did almost
everything myself with just some final help fitting
the new engine in the car. To be truthful there were
certain times when I almost threw in the towel, but
now that everything is done I glad I kept going.

Future plans include upgrading the boost to around 6-7
PSI with the stock CIS, bigger tires and brakes (found
some nice 15" BBS rims at the junkyard for $80 bucks
today !), and eventually megasquirt EFI

Thanks to everyone on the list who at one point or
another helped me out with a post or word of advice
and special thanks to Mike Gough for helping out at my
home base a few times.

....turbo land is great, I'm (finally) a happy
booster!


=====
-ed

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