I found my unicorn-1991 Audi 200 20v Revival

The exhaust manifold is on, and the turbo is mocked up. Took a minute to figure out the proper way to clock it. I'm waiting on a few gaskets before I can bolt everything down for final assembly. Gotta remember to run some oil through the turbo before then too. 
 

I ended up finding a good deal on an OEM RS2 manifold, so I picked it up. I'll run it for now. These seem to have a tendency to crack with age, so I'll keep the STR around just in case. 
 

At this point, I've got nearly everything I need to get the car on the road, other than a clutch. That'll be a big expense, so it might be a minute. I've got plenty of other things to work on in the meantime. 
 

I'd also like to have functional AC. Not sure if there's a way to convert my R12 compressor to run R134, or if I'll need to source a different compressor. I'll also need a new drier. Hopefully one will turn up 

That looks pretty freaking good.

I don't know about the audi setup but on my e30 when I converted to r134 I used the same compressor. I later replaced it when I had the engine out for something else but it was still totally functional. I think  I replaced the expansion valve with a r134 version though.

In reply to iansane :

Thanks!

Unfortunately, I kinda made this difficult for myself. The compressor I've got is from the earlier 3B engine, which used V Belts. The AAN that I'm swapping in uses serpentine belts. My thought process was that since I'd have to find the right clutch and pulley, I might as well just try to find the right compressor.
But maybe there's a newer and more common Audi or VW product that uses the same pulleys. I'll have to do some searching. 

New post, new side quests. 
 

I planned on doing a full black interior swap, but I found a set of Platinum urS seats locally and picked them up. These are pretty rare, and even though the driver's side is a little tougher than I'd hoped, I'm still stoked about them. 

So while these will technically bolt up to the C3 chassis cars, the floor pans are slightly different. The floor pans are raised in the front on the earlier cars, meaning that these seats would sit up too high. On the advice of some Audi forum guys, I modified the height adjust linkage 

You can see the linkage here. 
 

And here they are post modification. Not pretty, but they'll work. I really need to invest in some real fabrication tools lol

I also need to figure out a way to delete or relocate the memory seat module on the driver's side. It's just free floating for now. Doesn't bother me too much at the moment, but I'll get to it eventually. 

I also finally found a set of v8 Quattro tail lights. So much cooler than the red/amber tails these 200's came with

Unfortunately, Audi mounted these to the car with butyl tape, so I've got a bunch of residue to remove before I can get these mounted. It's a mess 

I actually like the stock tail lights with the heckenblend.  Very time period correct

In reply to docwyte :

They've grown on me a bit over the years, and I think I'm going to keep them in the garage in case I change my mind, but I love the all red look. Gives it a bit of a DTM feel. To me, at least 

In reply to Turbine :

There is a bunch of unnecessary amber in the stock lights. The V8 stuff looks more... purposeful?

Stoked about these. 
 

What should've been a 5 minute job turned into something much more annoying. Audi, in their infinite wisdom, decided to use butyl tape to seal the tail lights to the body, and whoever installed them went absolutely wild with it. I'm not quite done yet-the trunk latch isn't totally hooked up yet, which is why the body lines look a bit messed up. 

Out in the sun for the first time since September 2021. Unfortunately, it's about to go right back in to be disassembled again. Last time I worked on the car, I didn't have the torque specs. When I went back, I noticed the ball joints were riding higher in the uprights than they were supposed to be. I pulled them and tried to tighten down the pinch bolt, but it didn't do anything. Turns out, there are two different ball joint sizes for T44 Audis and I bought the wrong arms. E36 M3. 
 

but on the plus side, I got one of the seats installed

UrS on the passenger side, stock 200 seat on the driver side. 
 

And hooked up a battery for the first time. So far, everything seems functional and the car didn't immediately catch fire. I'll call it a win. It's reading 2.6 bar of boost and the turn signal lights are both permanently illuminated, but I'll leave that problem for future me. Hopefully it'll resolve itself when the engine and front end are back on. Stay tuned. 
 

finally, one last picture of the v8 tails because I'm still excited about these

So for anyone still following along with this thread, all that I need at this point is:

-flywheel resurfaced

-locate or buy new bell housing bolts

-the correct control arms (ordered, currently en route)

-a clutch. Woof. Didn't realize how expensive they were for this car. 

-tires. I'm thinking Conti ECS currently, unless there's a more budget friendly option somewhere?

Hey! This project's still alive. I just got mad at it after the balljoint fiasco and let it sit for a while. And then I bought my Alltrack and that took my all time and attention. But with the Alltrack about where I want it to be for now, it's time to get back to the Audi. 
 

Last time, I discovered the ball joints were the wrong size (18mm vs 19mm), so I put the car back up on jackstands and ripped the subframe back out. After double and triple checking the part numbers and stud size, I placed another order. A week later, my parts arrived. Great! One problem though. They sent me two right side LCA's. Not their fault, the arm was packaged in the wrong box. Still frustrating.

But finally, after ordering yet another control arm (thankfully the right part showed up this time), I got the subframe back in. Still don't have the ball joints installed in the uprights though. That'll be next weekend's project. 
 

I also finished up my seat swap. 
 

If y'all remember, I'd installed the passenger's side before I took a 4 month break on the project. I figured the driver's side would be just as straightforward, but nope. The forward/reverse motor was completely siezed. Thankfully, I had a spare seat that I robbed a working motor from and was able to install that and get everything working. No pictures of this, since replacing the motor in the car was such a PITA. I should've just pulled the seat back out, but my pride wouldn't let me so I fought through it. Eagle eyed viewers might notice the memory seat module hanging off the front of the seat. With the shortened linkages, there's not enough room for it to sit where it's designed to. The floor pans are different between the T44 and C4 chassis. One of these days, I'll get around to deleting the module, but that's a problem for future me. I really just want this thing back on the road. 

That seat swap must have been a back breaker but it sounds like it paid off, nice work!

In reply to trumant :

Thanks! It was extremely not fun lol

Going through all that effort for a seat with a torn bolster kinda sucks, but I'll live with it for now. Hopefully I can find some kind of temporary patch to cover the torn area to get a bit more life out of it in the short term.

Front suspension's back in! Took less than an hour this time. I feel pretty stupid for letting it sit for this long considering how little time it actually took. Regardless, we're back in business. 
 

Also got the flywheel resurfaced. Wasted a lot of time trying to extract and replace some broken dowels. Turns out the two that had broken aren't really needed as they're only used with some factory diagnostic tool. The 3 that are present are all that are necessary. So I wasted a lot of time. Oh well, live and learn. 

I also picked this up to install at some point. Really high quality piece

Love the audi!  Glad to see your working on the car!

Those JXB bushings are super cool, I've got one waiting to put on my awd mk4 golf

Also, I see you are in Logan Co., Ohio....I grew up in Marietta and went to college in Athens, small world!

In reply to fouckhest :

I could've sworn I typed up and posted a reply already. Sorry! But thanks! Hopefully it'll actually start to take shape soon.
Small world for sure! Several of my friends went to college at OU, so I"ve spent a decent amount of time down in Athens. Tons of great driving roads! I'd like to take the car down there to hit the Hocking Hills area once I get it broken in a bit.

Turbine said:

In reply to fouckhest :

I could've sworn I typed up and posted a reply already. Sorry! But thanks! Hopefully it'll actually start to take shape soon.
Small world for sure! Several of my friends went to college at OU, so I"ve spent a decent amount of time down in Athens. Tons of great driving roads! I'd like to take the car down there to hit the Hocking Hills area once I get it broken in a bit.

No worries at all, love the back roads is SE Ohio....if you ever get down past athens, Ohio St Route 26 is a fantastic road!

I can't explain to you how insane it is seeing you do all this, I have the exact same car from the exterior color to the interior (except mines is an avant) and it's going through EXACTLY EVERYTHING you've done to your car. From Verkline bushings, a 92 subframe with sway bar, 18z calipers, thicker front sway bar, Bilsteins with H&R's, JXB mount, EVERYTHING is the same! it is unbelievable to see someone across the country doing the exact same thing on the same car, at the same time. I originally had to replace the fuel tank and here I am now 2 years into ownership and I have never driven the car! I understand the complexity of finding parts, overtime you get really good at finding spare parts for them. I sourced my clutch from California Custom Clutches, Brandin the owner, helped me out a ton I ended up going with a stage 3 kit made custom for the car, It was a very good deal compared to the south bend kit you can spec the clutch however you'd like. I may have bell housing bolts, I have a S4 parts car so I can help out there. You're thread is really helpful, not a lot of this info is out there, and it sure has helped me! Thanks for that, I really hope to see you're car on the road soon, Hope we can cross paths sometime, it'd be nice to see the cars side by side one day! Cheers!

In reply to MFZOOM :

Oh man, what a coincidence! That's awesome. Glad to hear the thread's been useful, and I hope your build's going well too! I'm hoping to hit up a bunch of the regional Audi/VW meets once the car's done, and eventually make it out to the West Coast, although that might be pretty far down the road lol but hopefully our paths do cross at some point.

Thanks for the tip on the clutch! I'll check them out! Currently shopping a SB Stage 4 vs Ringer Stage 3, but it's always nice to have options.

saw this f/s listing on FB and thought of this thread.  Looks like there are a lot of good pieces on this car:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/876271187546365/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_general&referral_story_type=general&tracking=%7B%22qid%22%3A%22-3051827217528319814%22%2C%22mf_story_key%22%3A%227479259344137209227%22%2C%22commerce_rank_obj%22%3A%22%7B%5C%22target_id%5C%22%3A7479259344137209227%2C%5C%22target_type%5C%22%3A6%2C%5C%22primary_position%5C%22%3A6%2C%5C%22ranking_signature%5C%22%3A6462213755830826181%2C%5C%22commerce_channel%5C%22%3A501%2C%5C%22value%5C%22%3A0.00030874353671276%2C%5C%22upsell_type%5C%22%3A3523%2C%5C%22candidate_retrieval_source_map%5C%22%3A%7B%5C%227220868041277349%5C%22%3A805%2C%5C%2224039988349035463%5C%22%3A805%2C%5C%226999826786743336%5C%22%3A805%2C%5C%226569627779825894%5C%22%3A805%2C%5C%227103875869635072%5C%22%3A805%2C%5C%226695548730493571%5C%22%3A3502%7D%2C%5C%22grouping_info%5C%22%3Anull%7D%22%2C%22lightning_feed_qid%22%3A%22-3051827767461009421%22%2C%22lightning_feed_ranking_signature%22%3A%227651993557168946558%22%2C%22ftmd_400706%22%3A%22111112l%22%7D

Just gonna cut to the chase for this update, but I've finally got a clutch! Southbend stage 3 daily. Should be overkill for this application and give me a little room to grow. 
 

Basically it was now or never. I'd lost a lot of momentum and my "6 month project" was starting to stretch into its 4th year. I've just gotta get this on the road. 
I made a list of things standing in the way of my first start and actually knocked a couple of them out today. New clutch slave cylinder, rear main seal, and the JXB driveshaft carrier are all installed now. I also started torque checking the front and rear suspension. It's really not too far off. 

Bonus pic of the new rear main seal. God I hope I did this right lol

Hey man. Just found this thread recently and I just wanted to comment to tell you that there are still people keeping up with this thread so keep updating us! Love what your doing here and it is really inspirational. I personally have a '90 200 Turbo that I've been trying to fix up but my car mechanic skills lack severly. Looking through what you've been doing is really cool and I would love to see where it goes. 

In reply to elliotjarnit :

Thanks! Glad to hear some of this info is useful to another Audi enthusiast! My skills aren't anything special either (obviously), and most of my knowledge has been taken from the old forums (Motorgeek, The Project Pad, and Quattroworld). I'd definitely recommend checking those out if you haven't already. There are still a handful of active Facebook groups that have been great for sourcing parts and info. Start a build thread here too if you'd like! I'm always down for more pre-95 Audi content.

Along those same lines, here's the list I made to organize myself. Most of this stuff has been checked off by now, with the exception of the shifter bushing (happening this weekend, hopefully) and the flywheel (happening immediately before putting the engine in the car). I don't really have any pictures of this stuff because it's mostly straightforward and uninteresting stuff, but progress is progress.

Unfortunately, I ran into yet another snag, but thankfully it's not quite as bad as it could've been. If y'all remember a few months (years?) ago, I'd converted the car to a vacuum booster. Part of the process involved removing the pistons from the portion of the two stage hydraulic pump that fed the hydraulic booster. Anyway, I'd been sitting on that for a while, and finally finished it up over the past weekend. Mounting the pump back in its bracket presented an immediate problem. The lower radiator hose and the pump want to occupy the same space. Some rough measurements revealed what I'd been afraid of all along- the AAN serpentine belt accessory drive isn't going to work with the Type 44's side mount cooling stack.

I'll have to convert my AAN to the earlier 3B V-Belt accessory drive, which is fun since Audi Tradition hates its US customers and refuses to support us. Thankfully, I've already got the snub mount bracket (that also doubles as the alternator support), power steering pump, and AC compressor, meaning that I'd only need to source the AC compressor bracket, a small piece of the power steering pump mounting assembly, a 3B crank damper, and an alternator. After a few frenzied days of scouring 7Zap for part numbers, checking ebay, and phoning up contacts in the Audi world, I think I've got everything I need either in my hand or on the way. At this point, I think my plan of attack will be to remove all of the AAN accessories, install the engine bare, then attach the 3B stuff as it arrives. The engine's immediately going to need a timing belt service anyway, so that'll be a perfect time to get that crank damper swapped over.



The only part of this that could really derail me is if the AAN timing components don't clear the V-Belt drive, but we'll cross that bridge if/when we get there. Hoping to have an engine in the car in the next month

 

Minor update:

Had a few extra minutes before work this morning to get the flywheel on. Still have some minor cleaning to do before mounting the clutch disc and pressure plate. I sprung for the fancy ARP flywheel bolts this time just because

Also, I've got all (i think) of the parts I need for the 3B accessory drive. Classic Audi ownership is cool because sometimes you get to spend $200+ on a part that looks like this.

Life's crazy at the moment and the next 2-3 months at work are going to be nonstop, but I'm hoping to steal a few hours in the next few weeks to at least get the engine set in place.