[V8] Newbie here

[Joe Hoff]

Hello everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself. I am a new owner of a 1990 
V8 and am enjoying it thouroughly. I love everything about it except the 
time I spend at the pump. This is my first Audi though I've been an avid VAG 
fan and have owned and raced several VW's and am actively involved in a VW 
club. Searching the web for V8 info was turning up slim until I came across 
this list. It seems by far the most active and recourceful list around. 
Reading the archives I'm very impressed with custom work and conversions 
some of you have done. I live in the Denver area and would be interested in 
meeting local owners here if there are any.

So being new to this big monster of a car I have a few questions. If any of 
these things are well covered in the archives just say so and point me in 
the right direction.


I would like to lower it but am torn because I like the forgiving nature of 
the stock suspension. Is anyone running the H&R lowering springs? What do 
you think of them? Is there a lot of scraping or things like having to creep 
through dips and such? It's mostly a pleasure cruiser for me but Colorado 
roads are filled with potholes and wonder if they would make it ride more 
like a lowered  rabbit :kidneypuncher:

I would also like to minimize some of the bodyroll and understeer on this 
heavy beast. Possible? I'm sure springs help with roll but can increase 
understeer on some cars. What about swaybars? Anyone have results/opinions 
on swaping sizes of those? I've heard certain S car bars fit.

I want to put in the adjustable steering column in from a later model V8 and 
have been told by a local Audi salvage yard that it would fit right in. Any 
experience with that?
The salvage yard has at least a dozen V8's and lots of S and later model 
cars in it. If anyone has a hard time finding parts I would be happy to 
check with him and ship out for you. Be warned though that this guy is 
pretty proud of his cars and seems to charge a lot for a junkyard. Maybe I'm 
just too used to VW's
FYI he also showed me a V8 with a vortec v1 supercharger in it. It was 
mounted on the passenger side above the wiper res. He is developing it for 
his A8 and wanted to see how far he could push it before blowing it up since 
the V8 motors are much cheaper for him. The motronic and injectors handled 
the mixture fine up intil a huge 18 psi when it threw a rod. Just some food 
for thought for you guys.

The only big issue I have is with the power steering. This is the second 
power steering pump to be on it recently and it still stiffens up at low 
revs, especially when it's cold outside. I bought this car from a fellow VW 
club member that has a shop. He got a hold of the car from a customer and 
drove it through the winter. The first pump he replaced failed and he sold 
it to me shortly after putting this latest one on. I was told it takes time 
to break in, but it seems to have stopped getting better. Is there some sort 
of bleeding process or adjustment I can do to help relieve this, or does it 
need to be replaced again? The part is still under warranty but he has done 
so much work on it for me that I only want to do it as a last resort.

There some other things I'd like to address but it's getting long and don't 
want to scare anyone off. I would like to mention with all the brake 
postings lately that I have S4 brakes on the front of mine. They work 
AWESOME! He put them on before I got it so if you like I'll get more details 
on the swap from him.

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