Re: 90 questions

[Chris Newbold <newbold@telerama.com>]

johnc@together.net wrote:

> I am about to return to the Audi fold (former '87 4kcsq owner, traded
> early due to extreme stupidity), through the purchase of a 1995 90Q.

Welcome back.

> I have driven a number of the 90 cars now, but find some variance in
> power from car to car.  Most have a typical Audi diminishing return when
> revving past 4000 or so.  Then I drove one recently that was much more
> free revving, showed a steady power increase high up the dial, and
> overall seemed to have much more than any of the other cars I have
> sampled.

The latter car sounds more like the V6 that I know. It starts pulling
around 3500; it should give you a little shove in the back just over
4000, where it gets serious. It should charge hard up through about
5500, where it softens a bit, but should still smack the 6500 cut out
pretty quick.

I'd bet that the "weak" cars you drove have something wrong with the
variable intake manifold cut-over mechanism. The manifold has two
sets of runners: long, narrow ones for low-end torque and short, fat
ones for high-RPM breathing. A vacuum actuator is supposed to 
uncork things just over 4000RPM...

-Chris
1993 90CS 5spd 71k miles