My shop "Blog"

Well, earlier this year I finally bit the bullet and rented out a single bay shop in Lancaster with a few friends. Being as “ADD” with cars as I have been in the past year; it obviously makes sense to have one condensed thread containing multiple documented projects.

The shop:

As it stands I currently have 2 vehicles I’m working on.

1. 2001 Audi A4 1.8t

Previous owner overheated the car extremely to the point just ridiculous destruction. I bought a new motor for it and assorted other goodies and I intend on using it for a DD.

The car when I bought it:

Front clip removed:

Front axles removed:

Wiring harness disconnected:

Up on jackstands:


Cherry picking:


Pulled:



Removed wiring harness and exhaust manifold:




Engine put away Spilled some oil lol :


Transmission out:

2. 1984 Mercedes 280GE

Bought this back in feburary I’d like to say. The 5 speed manual transmission blew up on the way home from Pittsburgh leaving me with the choice to either try and rebuild it or replace it with an auto. Seeing as auto transmissions cost $150 and manual ones cost $6100 and break all the time, it was a clear choice.

I picked up a 300SD and tore the tranny and assorted goodies out. Being as the transmission was absolutely disgusting I decided to clean it up a bit.


722.3 aka good for 290ft/lbs of torque

Seeing how there is no transmission cooler previsions on my manual transmission radiator, I ordered a transmission cooling kit with some fittings off of jegs. I decided to spend a bit more and buy some baller AN fittings.


I had to wait for some overnight parts from Quebec, and a few adapters and what not to make the transmission cooler work out so most of my time has been about putting the audi together.

Till next time, enjoy!

very cool man, that a4 will be a sweet daily.

Good stuff. Think we can marathon install everything in the A4? Lets find out. :slight_smile:

I didn’t exactly go into details with what my plans were for the A4, but I actually bought some parts I found dirt cheap online for it,

The first of which being:




A chinese knock off K04-15.

I have 386CC injectors, Audi TT225 MAF, and a new N75 valve coming in very shortly.

Now, I know these projects may not seem as cool as some of the 1000hp builds on this same forum but I’d like to keep this chock full of information and pictures eventually for people to read and pass time with.

Hopefully I’ll be able to this project up and running for this weekend so I can focus my full attention on the G-wagen.

lol,what is it with Audi owners and neglect? I work with a guy who bought a 97’ A4 3 years ago,needs a bumper,fender,mechanical work and he still owes $5K on it :lol:

Me: Why did you buy the Audi?

Him: I fell in love with the interior.

Nice projects :tup:

I was gonna comment about changing the turbo’s out while it was all apart. glad to see the upgrade!

Nice to see this. I admire the work that some people can do on here and can only wish that someday I’ll have the knowledge and skills to do some projects or builds of my own.

did you do any research on that knockoff turbo? just curious to see how they hold up…

:tup:

Good stuff…

Yeah there really wasn’t any reason not to upgrade. The old motor was overheated to the point where when I undid the intercooler piping a surge of muddy brown coolant oil mixture came out. Ouch!

I actually decided to try a chinese turbo for myself. There are too many band wagon fggts online and another issue is that audi people think their cars are worth their weight in gold which I don’t. I do not understand paying $750 for a Borg Warner turbo when I can buy a gt35r for that price .

I know f-body guys run chinese turbos with no issues, I know that there are certain vendors that sell Chinese turbos but as a “high quality” model with a warranty for a significantly higher price. I bought this one for $290, if it breaks I’ll buy a better one.

However that being said, the quality from what I can tell is right up there with the best. There is no shaft play and the blades spin nicely. No rough casting or anything. I don’t see why this turbo wouldn’t last as long as any other turbo would with the right oil.

hell yeah man!

a lot of dsm ppl run ebay 16g’s , theyre pretty decent. and its not like this car will be making an insane amount of power or pushing a lot of psi. nor are you keeping it, so who cares lol. only thing i would be “afraid” of is the wastegate. but again thats just speculation

looks like a nice place to work

just an fyi, I think the biggest issue most people have is with the compressor housing splitting where they join the two halves together. I hope it works out for ya :tup:

Well, NFG. It’s $290. IF it blows up I’ll just bite the bullet and buy a real one or something. This thing feels fairly solid though.

yeah, I don’t blame ya. I’m curious to see how it does.

Got some misc parts in.

Audi TT maf, injectors, green coolant sensor, etc.

Then proceeded to get the new motor ready for installation:


Torque converter installed on new motor

Exhaust manifold and turbo installed

Putting tranny back on

Tranny on, turbo on, cat on, wiring harness on. Almost ready to be installed back into the car…

Yum.

I’ve been pretty busy I had to do a clutch on a Cummins Turbo Diesel pickup the other day which took almost 12 hours due to having only 1 friend to help me move that Goliath transmission around. Also didn’t have a clutch alignment tool… and the truck dumped 100lbs of mud onto my nicely swept concrete floor that took an hour to get straightened out. >.>

I’D RATHER BE CUMMIN THAN STROKIN

Picked my shit it up

And put it in the hole it belonged in.



progress:tup:

Progress is always good. If i wasn’t so busy today closing loose ends up (Running vehicles from point a to b and whatnot) I’d probably ahve the car ready for start up today.

Thanks for looking!

:tup: awesome thread lots o knowledge here, and are you running a oil restrictor on the turbo, i heard that if you run a restrictor on a knock off turbo it extends the life of them.