[urq] To 3b or not to 3b?

[Scott Justusson]

Corbs is alive!?  Welcome back old friend!
My .02, with more than a few btdt in both states of tune...  I say it depends.  Resale value focus IMO, tends to make you accept the quirks that become less tolerable as we age owning these cars.  Probably why your car has been sitting as long as it has.  A totally mint, original urq could fetch some good money I suppose, but it's not enough 'good' money to keep the WX, more importantly the CIS.  I still service about 10-12 of them in the midwest, and it's not an easy task to keep them going.

I helped your old buddy Rob Dupree rebuild his 84 urq (which was Rob's then Ingo's, then Rob's again) from the ground up, including an immaculate 3b conversion, and just recently, a swap 'back' to motronic from VEMS.  IME/O from a driver standpoint, there is no substitute for a motronic 3b.  Reach in the open window and twist the key on the hottest Houston summer day, she starts right up and goes to a 'predictable' (!) idle every time.  On his car we installed a RS2 conversion to the 3B, and the power was smooth and quite addicting.  

John, I also DD a 87 4kq with a 3B conversion in it.  I wouldn't own or even consider a 4k without it.  And it puts down about 26 mileage city, and 30-33 highway.  A 91 200 engine is considered ancient, but compared to CIS, it turns a quirky drive of a CIS car, into a refined powerful fun car to drive.  

Back to the choice.  IF you really want or think the value of the original engine is key, keep what you took out.  The broker in me says that's living for resale (or 'the next guy' as I put it), instead of living to drive the car.  I don't live for resale, but having brokered many urq's (including having owned 7 or so myself), just like in any market, the top cars get the top dollars.  The 10vt or 20vt engine choice isn't the factor there.  I KNOW a very quiet sale took place on a fully restored/converted 20vt that indicates the value of the 20vt motor install sure doesn't take *away* from the price.  In fact quite the opposite.

All that said, on 2 of my 'Steamboat' urqs (of 3 so relegated), I left the 10vt in them, but installed the 200 flywheel and k24 conversion, and they were pretty darn quick.  But, nothing like a well tuned 20vt engine.  I say just from your re-emergence and comments, it's time to put the 3b in, and enjoy the car again.  I know once you do that, more Corbs sightings will be reported too.  

I'm a couple urq restoration projects deep right now to take on another right away, but happy to discuss via PM any questions you may have.  In the meantime, you'll probably want to drop me a note anyhow, as I might be considered a hoarder of rear wings right now.  I have one that's NOS, and a couple minty's I paid top dollar for.

Good to hear from you and HTH/my .02

Scott J
83 urq
84 urq

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Glubrecht <daveglu at hotmail.com>
To: s.b.mills <s.b.mills at gmail.com>; John Corbishley <c.corbishley at comcast.net>
Cc: urq <urq at audifans.com>
Sent: Tue, Jul 9, 2013 12:40 am
Subject: Re: [urq] To 3b or not to 3b?


Unfortunately it takes a very well cared for car to have a value in the $15,000+ 
range so this only applies to very nice original cars.
I would not do a swap to a very nice original car, but absolutely would to most 
others.  In fact I will be starting doing a 3B swap to mine soon.  Having a 
200q20v daily and a UrQ I can't wait to get a 3B in mine.


  David Glubrecht
  

> From: s.b.mills at gmail.com
> Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 00:15:07 -0500
> To: c.corbishley at comcast.net
> CC: urq at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: [urq] To 3b or not to 3b?
> 
> I went through the same thing with my 85 recently.y original plan was to get 
the car sorted (it had been sitting for a while also) and then do an ABY swap. 
>