RE: Cooling questions ....

["Glen Powell" <gpowell@acacianet.com>]

He has an RS2 turbo installed in his car ... but it turns out that I can
keep up with him fairly well with a relatively unmodified QTC.  He says 
that he has been told that the limiting factor in his set up is the stock
intercooler.  I told him that AFAIK most urQ owners used the OEM IC (how's
that for acronyms!).  He was thinking about getting an IC for an S4 and 
trying to work it into his car.  He said he knew of someone that had moved 
the oil cooler to be in front of the Rad & A/C condenser so that they could 
fit a larger IC ... sounds weird to me.  Anyone willing to divulge their 
secrets?  :-)

Sounds expensive and/or a plumbing nightmare. I have heard of a larger IC that fits the stock ur-q location and plumbing, it was like $1500-$1800 from Europart, gulp, I think.  619.743.3377 Too steep for me!

[as an aside, he was also told that the Euro fuel distributor was necessary
to be able to crank the boost up much without worrying about lean-out prob-
lems.  Does anyone know about any differences in the FDs?  Is it possible 
to swap in a FD from a newer 5k/0.2k motor?]

I've heard that the stock FD is good for like 300-350 HP. I run a mixture display and I've never seen any hint of leanout at 17 Lbs boost with the S4 turbo, IA Stage II, open exhaust but stock (very stuffy) cam. Additional fuel provided by the Callaway MIcrofueler was of no benefit whatsoever with this setup.

On a similar vein he was wondering about eliminating the aux radiator that 
the urQ has in front of the engine ... I told him that he would probably 
need to increase the size of the standard radiator.  Any tricks that anyone 
has used here?

I've been running without the aux rad for 5+ years with no observable increase in temps, including running the AC on 100 F days from 0 to 80+ MPH, no overheating problems a-tall.

Last, but by no means least, he had heard that someone had added a ventila-
tion port to allow heat out of the left side of the engine compartment.  He 
was not aware of exactly what had been done, but it sounded like this person 
has added some cut outs in the firewall and hood in front of the windshield.
I told him that it seemed to me this would be a high pressure area ... so I 
wouldn't think much air would be coming *out*.  I told him that the better 
candidate would be to add any exhaust vents behind the wheel wells ... Has
anyone heard of someone who did such a mod to a QTC?  

The way I see it you'd have to be NUTS to cut up the body on a even halfway nice ur-q, IMFO.

It sure seems to me that the person that is providing advice is mainly try-
ing to get this poor urQ owner to pay big bucks for stuff that is relatively 
untested ... 

I'd be more worried about my wallet leaning out.....

     Steve Buchholz

-glen