Tales of clutches,heater cores and turbos, Part 1

[Dave Lawson <dlawson@ball.com>]

Hi all,
Thought I would share some information I have gained when searching out 
clutch options for my 83 TQC. I still have not decided which route I will 
take. As for a DIY job, a few fellow q-netters have performed this 
operation, not particularly difficult, but takes time. Need to get the car 
high enough so bellhousing can be slid out fom under the car. We are 
thinking of putting jack stands on cement blocks. Also need 1or 2 floor 
jacks to lower/raise tranny.

Clutches and associated parts
>From Kent Anderson:
He doesn't know of anyone putting a TORSEN into a TQC or a 4000. He says it 
should bolt right up, but has not done it. I know there is at least 1 TQC in 
the US which has a TORSEN center diff installed. When asking him about what 
clutch options there are, they haven't done many clutch jobs. But recently 
they have begun lightweighting the flywheels. They have done this on a 
4000q, they remove 6 lbs from the flywheel and balanced the entire rotating 
mass. As would be expected the engine spins up and down much faster, 
prognosis is the car accelerates quicker. They said there are no negative 
aspects to this. I asked about a shortened lifetime and he said no. BTW, the 
stock 4000q flywheel weighs 22lbs and as mentioned, they take off 6lbs. They 
are also installing tranny and rear diff from a 4000q into a TQC, which 
changes the final drive from a 3.79 to a 4.11. This mod trades off top speed 
to get quicker accel.

>From Ned Ritchey:
He says to go with a 200 flywheel, the std TQC flywheel weighs in at 36-38 
lbs, the 200 comes in at 14-15 lbs and his aluminum flywheel is at 11 lbs. 
He says that there are no negative aspects of a light weight flywheel, 
although problems start to arise when you get down around 6 lbs.

>From TAP:
They only source a Sachs replacement clutch for the TQC, this should be 
identical(or is) to the OEM clutch.

>From John Bekius at Sport Wheels:
He says the stock TQC clutch is good up till 250-300hp, stock clutch price 
is around $450 for disk/pressure plate. When going above 300hp, he offers a 
centerforce package for $750. Centerforce gives additional clamping force 
without affecting the stock hyd clutch system. Everything works great with 
little additional peddle force. The TQC flywheel is dished and the disk fits 
into it. The 200 flywheel is flat and the disk goes against it. He mentioned 
that the TORSEN center diff by itself won't bolt onto the older tranny 
boxes. He knows of no one who has performed a TORSEN swap. He says the 
5000TQ tranny is to large to fit into the TQC/4000q center tunnel. He knows 
of someone who has tried it, but gave up with clearence problems. When 
changing a TQC over to a 200 clutch, the 200 flywheel must be machined for 
the correct placement of the engine reference and engine speed sensor pins 
when being used with the TQC engine computer. He has installed 89 200TQ 
engines into 2 TQCs, but these are running with the stock TQC engine 
computer. He knows of no one  who has integrated the updated engine 
management stuff. These 89 engines are a nice swap with the increased 
displacement and compression ratio.

Also learned:
A 944 quaife ltd slip differential will work in the audi gearbox and replace 
the front open differential. Any thoughts on how a quaife LSD would affect 
the quattro drive train and handling?

Hope this is of interest.
 -
Dave Lawson  dlawson@ball.com