Re: Urq questions

[John Karasaki <johkar@teleport.com>]

At 04:50 PM 3/15/97 -0500, you wrote:
<snip>
>I have either an exhust header gasket gone bad or an exhust header crack.  We
>have been able to determine it is one of the two but are not sure which as
>the problem is right under the turbo.  I have not had the turbo removed yet
>so I can't  tell you exactly what is wrong.  Supecting the worst I want to
>know the problems/difficulities/challenges/expected costs to replace the
>exhust header pipe.  I know this won't be cheap and I have heard that this is
>a fairly typical problem with Audis.

Well, besides being annoying, the exhaust leak won't hurt anything.  It
probably affects performance, but not in a noticable way.  I have a new 1
piece stock exhaust manifold on my urq.  It was installed by the previous
owner when he had the new head installed.  If I had had this done, I would
have gotten the new two piece manifold that comes on the '91 turbo,
non-quattro 200's or the Dialynx performance manifold sold in the US by TAP.
Either option is expensive, but you only want to do this once, so why go
with the stock part that WILL fail again?  I think the 2 piece is about $600
and the Dialynx is about $750.  Removal/ replacement is not challenging or
difficult, just time consuming.  My mechanic has a 90 deg. angled drill so
that he doesn't have to pull the head to drill out the broken exhaust studs
(you are bound to encounter this).

  My second problem is a cold start
>problem.  I don't know if it is aggraveted by the exhust problem.  When cold
>the car will turn over just fine but will not hold an idle.  The only way I
>can get it running is to hold the revs at about 1500 to 2000 rpm until  it
>starts to warm up.  Once warm it runs and idles fine (about 900 rpm for
>idle).  When I turn it off and then restart it warm it starts fine.  I
>understand there is a cold start sensor at the back of the block.  Could this
>be whats wrong?

Possibly, but I have the same problem and think it is related to the cold
fuel pressure (controlled by the warm up regulator) of my car.  Now that my
urq is a daily driver, I don't have the time to tear into that system.  I
just have to live with it for now.  When I fix it, I'll post the results.

Last question, for this round at least.  How do you know if
>the turbo is either going or is already gone?  Any suggestions for the best
>replacement for this?  Additional info for you to consider.  The block is an
>87 5K turbo block.  It was put in at about 60k miles.  Original block thru a
>rod.  All parts of the original engine were used when rebuilding the engine.
> Only the block was replaced.  I still have the dual oil filters.  The only
>other modifications are blue lite spark plug wires and a superchip from
>Superchips Inc in FL. 

Others on the list have similar engine swaps, for similar reasons.  My only
thought each time I heard about it is, WHY?  That is, why would someone
replace a dead urq engine with the updated one, but not update everything
else?  The old head won't just bolt to the new block and work.  The water
passages are different.  A friend has the inverse (a '87 head he tried to
bolt to a urq block), and after much machine work, he has a $1000 paper
weight!  Think about it, '87 turbo engine with 2.2L displacement, higher
compression, etc.  Why go backwards?

But, I ramble.  See Scott J. (QSHIPQ@aol.com) for turbo questions.  He's the
man!

>
>Any help you can offer is much appreciated.
>
>Follow Urq owner
>Don Gray
>graysan@aol.com   
>
>
Regards,


John Karasaki

Audi Quattro Fanatic