[urq] RE : WR Aluminum Engine

[audijim at comcast.net]

 Yes, the Audi 100/Avant taxi from 8/81-08-82 had a WH engine code (S 712 option code) that was a 5 cylinder, carburator engine with an aluminum cylinder block. 1.9 ltr and 74Kw (100hp) 

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Steve Eiche <seiche at shadetreesoftware.com> 

> FWIW, the block was used in some early ur quattros, as well as some 100 
> taxis in Germany in a carburetted short-stroke 1.9L configuration. I 
> will let you guys find the engine code yourselves. :) One of the 
> complete taxi motors with super low km sold on ebay.de last year for 176 
> Euro. The buyer then stripped off the head, and re-advertised it as a 
> Sport quattro block. It sold for over 1000 Euro. I missed out on 
> getting it the first time when my bidding program failed to get the bid 
> in in time (rrrrr) and didn't bother at 1k Euro. It would have been 
> worth experimenting with for the $400 or so that it would have cost to 
> buy and ship the first time, but at $1300 it wasn't worth the risk to 
> me. I still have the picture from the listing if someone is interested. 
> 
> My guess is that the taxi block would be a good one to get if you could 
> find one, as it was likely to be the least stressed in it's life. I 
> _think_ that the deck height was the same as the 2.2l, and the bore was 
> 79mm, so using a 86.4mm crank and 81mm pistons should work assuming that 
> the sleeves were thick enough. 
> 
> Rumor has it that there are also (at least) two different aluminum 
> production version blocks out there used in the ur quattros and Sports. 
> Some are prone to cracks and are to be avoided, while the other 
> "improved" version is very strong. I have no idea how to tell the 
> difference... 
> 
> Steve 
> 
> Jim wrote: 
> 
> I totally agree with you on that one Brandon. All of my info came from 
> Aelred Smith, the original owner of Dialynx Performance in the UK. He 
> and I are friends, and what I wrote is what he told me a long time ago 
> when I was hunting for one of these blocks. I would think that Audi 
> would have complete engines ready to transplant with little down time 
> for the customer. From what I understand, the alu engine was replaced 
> with an iron engine. That might account for there being both an iron and 
> aluminum block designation for the WR. Historians, please chime in!