91 200 tqw project

["TOM NESTOR SR." <tnestor@cyberportal.net>]

Rob -
	The project evolved from a minor cylinder head freshening and minor sheet
metal work to a full blown, tear it all down and make it right as rain
project. I bought the car with a light hit in the nose from Foreign Auto
Recycling Tech (FART), in  Kingston , NH. It had been written off by the
insurance appraiser apparently because he thought the motor was junk. The
cam drive gear had been damaged in the shunt, causing the cams to jump
timing and bending intake valves. The hood was creased, grille cracked,
bumper gone, intercooler and aux radiator gone. Sooooooo, sent the head to
R&L machine in Dover, very expensive, very good. They did everything;
spring heights & pressures, reseat valves, new intakes, matched chambers
and so on. I then decided that while the motor was out I might as well do
the bottom end. The block was great; no taper, no ridge, no scoring. I sent
crank, rods, pistons, and flywheel to R&L. Bead blasted and gram matched
the pistons and rods. Rods had the big end resized. Crank and flywheel were
balanced. Reassembled using all OEM seals and gaskets. Strange rod
bearings. It seems the upper shell and the lower shell are of different
composition. BBBBig price diff from upper to lower too. One shell, I don't
remember which, was over forty $ each ! Total Seal rings for the pistons
completed the bottom end. I saw a post about a week ago regarding Total
Seal rings as being suspect in a drivability problem. Something about them
raising the static compression ratio and causing lean surge/stumble @ 3500.
No problem here. Not being one to let good enough be good enough, I
polished all the aluminum on the motor; valve cover, intake, various
brakets.It actually looks very nice. Painted the block with Wurth black
epoxy. All in all, a very nice looking and running motor. You have to be
very careful to avoid hitting the rev limiter. It is sooo smooth and rev
happy. Bolted a Sachs sport clutch package and rebuilt trans to the back of
it and a 
rebuilt center drive shaft to that. The intercooler is a stock unit on loan
from Chris Sanborn until I can get an all alloy unit made. The exhaust is
stock, though I may remove either the center or rear muffler in the quest
for better flow. Bone stock for now. I'm thinking IA and rs2 exhaust
manifold and maybe a k26.
	The body........well the body is kinda personalized. Again it's that good
enough thing. I figured if I was painting the hood, bumper, and fender I
should probably take care of the shopping cart dings. And then I wondered
how it would look with the side moldings and bumpers all body color.
And....I thought wouldn't it be cool to louver the hood, maybe install euro
headlamps and polished alloys. So I did.
	The result is a car that looks like a 200 wagon that was built along side
the S4. It's a lot of fun watching the Audi owners staring and scratching
their heads. I'd really like one of the rare front spoilers like Sarge has
on his 200. I do know where there is one......now how to barter it. All in
all, a very different looking 200. If you like I can send you a jpeg of it.

					Aren't you sorry you asked
Tom Nestor
Tilton, NH

91 200 tqw
88 Merkur xr4ti
82 Jetta Diesel ( ya need something that always runs)