I found my unicorn-1991 Audi 200 20v Revival

clutch is on. Managed to spill a bit of loctite on the friction disc somehow. Still kicking myself a bit for that. Hopefully it didn't shorten the life of the clutch too much lol 

Welp, project complete. That was fun

Alright, so to elaborate a bit, one of my friends and I got together Friday night to work on his wife's Element and ended up getting the engine in the Audi. It was an adventure.

So to start, there's not really a great way to pick this engine by itself. It really seems to be meant to remove/install with the transmission as one unit. I didn't want to mess with removing the ancient Procon-Ten cables, so I just left it in, but for next time, I'm doing it the way Audi intended.
Anyway, I don't have any pictures of the early install, but we rigged it up like this. If it's good enough for Dave, it's good enough for me lol

Got the input shaft splines lined up with the clutch disc surprisingly easily, but ran into issues after that. First, we had to remove an extra dowel from the engine. I'm guessing this was only an issue because I'm using this with an 016 rather than the 01E it was designed for. Also, I had to remove a few bits that I'd installed on the engine early due to interference issues with the firewall as we were lowering the engine in. Nothing major, just the PCV hose, a coolant hardline, and the IACV. Only one IACV hose had to be sacrificed here.

The real issue happened once we tried to get the engine to sit on the mounts. Definitely didn't see this coming. But long story short, I had to swap from a 3B engine mount arm on the driver's side to an AAN arm. The difference can be seen below. That extra bit of offset and a slightly larger opening made the difference. Hopefully that won't come back to bite me.

So next up, it's time to start removing the AAN accessories, then do the timing belt, install the 3B accessories, then start plugging everything back in. I also need to investigate the shifter and bleed the rest of the air out of the clutch. Pretty sure I knocked one of the stabilizer rods loose while shimmying everything around. There's a hilarious amount of play while in gear now. Hopefully it's nothing more major than that.

A couple minor updates, nothing too major.

- Fixed my shifter issue (the stabilizer rod had popped off at the transmission end). The shifter still needs adjusted a bit, but I'll need a second pair of hands to do that.
- Got new tires: 235/45 Firehawks. Pretty excited about these after the reviews they get around here. Just waiting for the OZ specific centering rings before mounting them up. I'm also planning on installing longer wheel studs. The ones currently on there have a little less thread engagement than I'd like after installing some spacers for fitment purposes. What good is going fast(?) if you don't look good while doing it?

- Slowly getting everything hooked up in the engine bay. I haven't had much time in the garage, so I've been trying to make a connection or two per morning with the 10-15 minutes I get before I need to leave for work. Once that's all done, it's timing belt time.

- Ran into an issue with the compressor housing on the turbo interfering with the turbo drain line. Neither the v-band or hose clamp housing would fit. I don't remember having this issue on any of the UrS4/6 cars I've seen with this turbo, so it must just be an issue for the T44 and the way it's intercooler piping is oriented.

I shipped the hose clamp style housing to a friend to cut and weld. This more closely mimics the stock orientation. I may still need to convert to AN line, but I'll cross that bridge if/when I get there

1/2 step forward, 3 steps back.

Got the modified turbo compressor housing back over the weekend and mocked it up. The outlet clears the drain line now, but the drain line interferes with any hose I try to connect to it. I'm just gonna go AN lines at this point, I think. 4AN feed and 10AN drain seems to be the way to go.


Most of the wiring harness has been hooked up at this point. A few connections still have to be made as I install various things (radiator, fan, alternator, AC compressor, etc), and the harness needs extended to reach the AAN Cam position sensor. I'm still collecting some materials for that. With wiring on hold, I tried to move on to vac lines and immediately hit another snag.

Looks like I either missed the fact that one of the vac ports on the back of my intake manifold was missing beforehand, or it broke off during installation. Either way, I need to drill it and tap it for a new fitting. So the intake's off again. Finding a new fitting has been a bit of a pain in the ass, but I think I'm finally on the right track. Also planning on redoing the current vac hoses with 4mm OD silicone line.

And finally, because I got tired of looking at it, I'm doing something about the headlight harness. PO spent $1000 on euro headlights for this car, then wired them in by twisting wires together and covering it in gorilla tape. I don't get it. Still determining sizes, quantities, etc. of wire and connectors here so I can put in a bulk order along with the stuff i need for the cam position sensor harness. I'm no automotive wiring expert, but whatever I make will be at least 1000% better than this E36 M3 lol

In reply to Turbine :

Awesome, thanks for the tips on forums. The direction for my Audi has completely changed in the last few months as I am now converting my engine to a 20V and a bunch of other mods to make this hopefully a reliable car. It's always awesome to see someone in the same boat as me as looking online it feels like I am alone in working on this car a lot of the time. If I have time for it I definitely will make a build thread as I have a lot planned for this car. Right now it is very far from getting anywhere close to starting but hopefully will make more progress soon.

Just a couple of minor updates. May was a busy and difficult month between work and a personal loss. I lost motivation to work on the car for a while again, but I've slowly pulled myself out of it -

- Intake manifold is back on with a new vacuum fitting. For reference, if anyone runs into this issue, Aeromotive p/n 15630 works well. Just need a "C" drill bit and a 1/16 NPT tap.
- Vacuum lines are mostly hooked up with the exception of the inlet to the vacuum reservoir and the turbo related stuff.
- Still waiting on parts to make the AN feed/drain lines - it took forever to find a block side 10AN drain flange, but finally sourced one from Ultra Performance Engineering.
- Extended the factory 3B wiring harness to meet the AAN crank position (G40) sensor. Nothing crazy here, just 3 wires.
- Discovered that the factory PS reservoir interferes with the vacuum brake booster, so I bought this generic reservoir from ChaseBays and modified the original bracket to accept it.

- Continued collecting parts and tools for the timing belt swap. Hopefully happening in the next few weeks, depending on how work goes.
- Found my old Motorsport Hardware lug studs that I removed from my Passat TDI prior to selling it. Installed them on the Audi and mounted the OZ's with their new tires. Rear fitment looks nice, but the front is still a little monster truck-y, which brings me to my next point.

- A forum member made a limited run of these camber/caster plates and I got in on the group buy. I'm hoping to get the car running and driving on the current Bilstein B8/H&R 29800 setup first, then build the coilovers over the winter and have them ready to go by next spring. We'll see how that goes.

Timing belt is halfway done. Water pump, tensioner roller, crank gear, cam and crank seals, and 3B harmonic damper are all installed. 
I also had to modify the coolant feed and diverter valve vacuum reference line to accommodate the 3B power steering pump since this was originally an AAN. This required a bit of trimming of the rear timing cover. 

I also decided to change the G40 sensor since this is one of the main failure points on these engines and requires the cam gear to be removed. Unfortunately, I managed to break the mounting bracket while drilling out the rivets on the old sensor. I've got a new billet bracket on the way, but this stalled me out for the day. Here's how it's sitting at the moment. 


I used the rest of my time in the garage to plumb and install a boost gauge

Some pictures from the day. Belt was definitely due to be replaced

And some gnarly cracks on the original crank pulley. This is another pretty common failure point, and I'm glad I went with a billet replacement after seeing this

Timing belt's done! Well, almost. My 1/2" torque wrench only goes up to 250ft-lb, and the crank bolt needs 338. Seems like a waste to buy a 3/4" drive for a single bolt, but even renting one locally is $300. Gotta pay to play I guess. 

Also, bonus tool review. I bought a cheap Amazon borescope. It kept me from getting up and down a hundred or so times as I lined up the timing marks. $25 well spent lol 

Looking good!

3" Downpipe from EFI Motorsport came in. Shiny. 
 

Mostly installed after work today. The last nut on the turbo flange sucks to get to. Last time I did one of these, I modified a wrench for better access. Guess that wrench got lost. 

I know that nut. Terrible! Especially with a bigger downpipe.

That thing looks beautiful!

In reply to iansane :

It's awful! Honestly, it's making me regret not going big turbo off the bat. Something with a v-band hotside at least. But then this project would take another 5-10 years at the rate I'm going lol

Almost ready to attempt a first start! Needs coolant, power steering fluid, and one more fitting. Hopefully all of that comes in tomorrow and I can try to fire it up this weekend. But at least it's starting to look like something!

I created an account on here just to respond to your thread.

I'm building my silver 200 20v right now. Same clutch/downpipe from EFI Express. 
Same forum member camber plates (did you have to hammer the strut housing out a little)?
Was your vacuum brake conversion from the guy in Poland? How'd it all work out, any fitment issues?
Looking forward to see how your project progresses. Cheers!

In reply to steve_3b :

Hey! Welcome to GRM. Nice car! what are your plans for it? To answer your questions,

- I haven't installed the camber plates yet. Still on stock style struts/springs at the moment, but I'm planning on doing a coilover build and installing the plates over the winter (hopefully). I do anticipate having to massage the strut tower a bit. Blake made it sound like I'd need to bend the edges of the mounting hole up slightly.

- Yep, I've got one of Mateusz's kit. I'm pretty happy with it overall. Granted, I haven't driven it on the street yet but it went together pretty well, and the pedal feels solid. There were some minor fitment issues which I expected since this kit's primarily for urS4 and urS6's. I had to bend the fuel hardlines out of the way slightly (still need to clean them up a bit), and relocate the power steering reservoir. I cut the mounting wedge off of the PS bracket and added some nutserts on the bracket base so that I could mount this Chasebays reservoir. The worst part of the install by far was fishing the new clutch MC line through the firewall, but overall, not too terrible.

Also, is that a strut tower bar on your car? Where'd you get it from? I've been looking into getting one, but I've held off so far due to worries about interfering with the camber plates.

 

In reply to Turbine :

Appreciate the response re: Mateusz's kit and the camber plates. 

I do have a strut bar for my 200. I found a used 2Bennett kit for less than half price. I had to replace my brake master cylinder a while back with a newer one from the c4 platform which moved my brake reservoir back, so the strut bar no longer fits, which is why I have been looking into the vacuum conversion kits. I have a spare c4 strut bar I had planned to adapt originally if you are interested.

Regarding my project goals, the 200 20v was the first Audi I bought, and I loved it. I ended up with a few more, including an UrS6 Avant that had a full RS2 package on it. After selling it to a friend, he ended up building a motor and putting a Garrett G25 tubo on it.  I decided to go a similar route and wanted something more modern, along with the experience of a project like this. While my motor is being built at Four Rings Performance I am working on all of the supporting mods (brakes/exhaust/fueling/intercooler) to do it right. Turbo for my project is a BorgWarner EFR 7163. To be run on a VEMS standalone.

Any chance the serpentine accessories (idler bearing, tensioner assembly) from the AAN are for sale?
My buddy has my old UrS6 avant and would be interested.
 

In reply to steve_3b :

Good find! 2Bennett's stuff is nice, but their prices are wild. I may take you up on that c4 bar assuming I can get the car running this weekend. I'll let you know.

Nice! That'll be an awesome car when it's finished. Definitely jealous of the FRP engine build, and I'd eventually like to go 7163 as well. The realities of adult life and responsibilities have made me scale back my eventual goals a bit, but I'm still hoping for a mild build engine for this car's next stage (rods, bearings, valves/springs, 7a cams), and a 7163 or similar turbo. I'm hearing good things about the SX-E 252 and 257, as well as a few of the SX-R series. For now, hopefully I'll get some fun out of the 7400.

Regarding the parts, I know I've got at least one good serpentine belt tensioner, as well as a handful of other AAN and C4 specific parts. Maybe there's an idler in there? Let me know what all he needs and I can look through my stash.

In reply to Turbine :

Said friend here, I'm always interested in stashing away AAN parts, since Audi has very little interest in acknowledging things > 5 years old.  Let me know what you've got and I'll see if I can swing it :)

In reply to Jehannum :

Awesome! I'll try to round it all up. My garage is currently a disaster, so this'll give me some motivation to organize things a bit. 
 

And yeah, not sure why Audi Tradition hates its US customers so much. In between my blue urs6 and this car, I had an e36 m3. Definitely got spoiled by the aftermarket and OEM support. 

Mounted the PS reservoir, filled the car with gas/oil/coolant/PS fluid and tried to start. Super weak and slow crank after the first attempt. Had the battery tested (it was bad, not a big surprise), so I got a new one and threw it in. Strong first crank, then immediately back to struggling.


Started digging in. Found that the negative cable had seen better days.
Also started checking grounds. Finally found the culprit-the engine side of the ground strap bracket was filthy. Cleaned it and got the car to crank consistently. Still no start.

Read the codes and got this

Up until now, I'd been running an AAN G28, which mounts to a bracket which is then bolted to the engine. I replaced this bracket and the G28 with a spare I had lying around. Pretty sure these were from the original engine in the car, which would've been a 3B. Not sure if there’s a difference between the two, but if there is, it’s not obvious. Either way, switching to the other sensor got the g28 code to clear.

Onto the CPS (G40) code. I replaced the sensor when doing the timing belt, repinned the ECU connector when adding the COP harness, and extended the harness and repinned it to work with the AAN style sensor. Assuming the sensor was good since it was brand new, I checked wiring at the connector and immediately found the issue. I’d swapped power and ground somehow. Rookie move, but at least it was easy to find

Managed to mangle the old connector attempting to depin it, so I ‘borrowed’ one from an AAN coil harness. I’ll need to replace it with a weathertight one. But with that done,

[this is where I'd post the video of it starting if I knew how to embed videos. It did start though lol]

Unfortunately, I’m dealing with a pretty severe PS leak from the pump. Tightened down a few fittings, but no change. Might have to pull it to investigate further. Ah well, I’ll take the win for now

Turbine said:

[this is where I'd post the video of it starting if I knew how to embed videos. It did start though lol]

Hell yeah! That's awesome.

Is the PS the only leak to sort through? That's encouraging too. I mean, not that it's leaking but there's only one leak to deal with.

Regarding your battery terminals, there's concern (and a few small fires to back up that concern) about the battery posts on newer/taller batteries hitting the seat cushion support rails and shorting out. I strongly recommend swapping out both to the Knuconceptz Ultimate Battery Terminals to everyone with a type 44 or c4 for this reason and they're ~$15 on Amazon. Also extremely easy to add an audio amp power/ground to later if you're so inclined. Unfortunately, the stock battery terminals are garbage.

In reply to iansane :

Thanks! Yeah, as of now it's just that PS leak. I haven't let it run long enough to get fully up to temp though. 
 

Pretty sure I've tracked the leak down to this x-plug. The OEM o-ring is NLA (surprise) but I replaced it with one that others have found to fit. It didn't fix the leak, so I've either got a warped x plug, or I just need to tighten it down better. Either way, I've gotta suck it up and actually pull the pump. 

In reply to steve_3b :

Nice! Thanks for the tip! I've used a rubber flap to cover the battery in the past, but this is a much cleaner solution.