It's ALIVE!!

Well, this may be my 2nd to last post about the car, but never fear, I will continue to keep this blog running as long as I have a project going, which will be...forever basically, I guess.

The car is running. I have only run into 2 mishaps since the first time it ran. The first one was my camshaft sensor. This sensor determines where the camshaft is and when to give each spark plug a spark. With no sensor the engine computer has no data and doesn't send a spark at all. The other problem that I still have is a vacuum accumulator that I don't exactly know how to explain how it helps the engine run but it helps it run much smoother. It is a tube that comes off the intake manifold and runs back to the brake booster. The tube has a small nozzle on it that connects to the Mass Air Flow indicator and this nozzle is broken, which means it will run but not smoothly. The dealer wants $112 for this part. Other than this, all i need is a another tube that connects the airbox to the valve head cover on the driver side (dealer wants $97) and i should be good to go.

My last post about the car will be all about the interior. I still have not reinstalled the headliner and there are some wires hanging around. I have not hooked up the radio either, because I still need to do a mod so that I can have an auxiliary jack for an mp3 player or something.

Until i replace the vacuum accumulator I will not register it or insure it so I won't be washing it or posting too many pics of the outside. I will try to post some engine pics of the completed job and the interior so far, it might be awhile since we are going on vacation next week for two weeks.
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Glass Sunroof, Carpet, and the seats. Oh and a baby!!

I took the headliner out and transferred the glass sunroof from my 93 to the 92. Surprisingly it took less than an hour to do the whole thing (take both down and install the glass one). Everything fits snugly and no leaks.

The carpet was a huge pain. Taking it out of the old one required a lot of work to get all of the lower dash pieces off because it is like a large square of carpet with two narrow rectangles running down the middle for the center console and then the gear shift and front console. I ended up cutting just one section so that I would not have to take out all most of the front console. I did leave the entire dash so it is black on top and gray on the bottom, but the center unit and center console are black so it has a unique look. The dash from the 93 has some minor cuts on the top and it has the passenger airbag and I didn't want to mess with it at this point. Maybe in the future.

Last but not least are the seats, I have the rear seat and the driver seat in, but until I have the headliner installed I won't put the front passenger seat in. I will post pictures as soon as I can. By the way we are at the hospital now and about to have our third baby. The doctor just broke Kayla's water and things are moving...slowly. I will update you in a few hours.

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My New Russian Wrench!

Look how bad those are bent compared to the straight ones in back. I finally got around to getting the valve assemblies apart thanks to my new Russian Wrench! I had looked over and over at different "audi" specific tools that cost from $70 to $200 when all i needed was already in my garage. I give you the infamous russian wrench. This baby is good in any situation.

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The belly of the beast

Well, now the interior is completely gutted and before I worry about putting it back together I am going to get this thing running. I would hate to waste my time making the interior nice to find the engine is toast. So to get an idea of how the V-shaped Audi V6 is a few pictures and of course a great description by yours truly. Up top is a picture of it, not mine, but you can get an idea. Up top is the intake manifold and the plastic covers cover the V shape for the most part. The crankshaft is in the bottom center and three cylinders go up on each side in a V shape, hence the V shaped designation. After you take off the intake manifold, you have access to the valve trains which are above each of the cylinders with an intake valve and an exhaust valve per cylinder. You may see in the two top pictures there are 6 valves on each valve train. On one, all 6 are bent. On the other at least 3 are bent, but I have not tried to turn the camshaft to see if the other 3 are bent as well.

This is at least a turning point in the engine repair process because it should be the last I have to take off of the car, next is replacing the valves and doing a minor rebuild job. But everything is being put back together from here on out.

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Gutting the interior

My next step I took was gutting the interior. The rear seats are a cinch, the front seats are held in by two bolts, the carpet took some work. The hard part I haven't quite figured out are the front seat belts and the door panels. The front seatbelts are hooked to a cable that winds its way from the column by the door, under the carpet to where your feet rest under the dash and wraps under a hook on the transmission and back in on the other side of the car to the other front seat belt. I found out how to disconnect the seatbelt from this cable but it requires a funky bit that is an oval shape, not sure yet where I will find one of those.

One thing I haven't started on is the sunroof. It currently has a metal body panel as a sunroof, but my other audi has a glass one which I am waiting for a good day to do the full transfer, first I need to take down the headliner on the red audi so I can access the thing then it should be a snap, a few bolts here and there, leave the whole thing together, make some preliminary measurements beforehand to make sure the bolts lie in the same place and we're good to go. Before I do any rebuilding on the interior I need to get the engine running. No sense in putting something back together that doesn't drive.

I only put two pics up at the moment of the gutted interior but I'll get some more by the weekend.

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What a piece!

So there were a few things that have led up to me looking for a new car. One, I set my last car on fire by not installing the fuel injectors correctly. Two, I made about $1500 from parting it out but I still have over half of it left. Three, I found out about this auction in Sumner. Fourth, the end of may is my birthday and Kayla was gone on vacation. So I found this 1992 Audi 100 CS Quattro at the auction with a broken timing belt and mold inside. Never have I seen an Audi, let alone another car with this much mold. I won the auction on May 31st, yes, it was on Sunday, but I didn't pay for it on Sunday, does that make it not as bad?

Towed it home with the trusty minivan and now here it sits in my driveway. I can tell this is the start of a long project. Why you ask? Well, Audi engines are interference engines, which means the valves feeding the fuel and taking the exhaust can potentially occupy the same space as the pistons. And when the timing belt breaks, they will hit one another bending valves and possibly breaking pistons. The other half is the interior which has mold and is very dirty and besides, it is a black car with a gray interior. How lame is that? Good thing my old Audi has a black interior (with no mold). I'll update you as I go. Oh yeah, and did I mention its a 5 speed?

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