What did you do to your vehicle today?

[daval]

CCA-DAVE is there a build thread on the Audi Coupe? Would love to see more pics and see what had done to it.

[CCA-Dave]

Originally Posted by Mr.Money

^ i'm not sure you would since it wanted to light its self up!...if that went unnoticed any longer,or having nothing to put it out

Meh. That's what insurance is for. If it had burned longer, it would have started to take out the wiring harness on the engine. That probably would have clued us into a problem pretty quickly :P #alwayslookatthebrightside

Originally Posted by daval

CCA-DAVE is there a build thread on the Audi Coupe? Would love to see more pics and see what had done to it.

I'm afraid not. The Coupe started as a project I really enjoyed, and then slid into a project I just needed to finish. So it was more work than fun in the end.

[CCA-Dave]

Got a few hours in the shop yesterday, and managed to rough-cut most of my repair panels. Turns out the inside wall of my parts piece was rotten, so I won't be able to fix the inside panels I cut with metal from this car. Hmmmm...that was a mis-calculation on my part.





Hopefully tonight I'll start shaping the pieces, and maybe start tacking them into the car. At this stage I also need to decide if I'm going to run trim on the car, or weld up the holes. My gut reaction is to weld up the holes, and run vinyl trim if I want the look. But the front quarter panel has that seam and an indent under the trim that I would then need to deal with. The easy way out is to of course keep the trim...

[adrnlnrush00]

Installed some custom mud flaps for the M3. I would have preferred OEM ones but BMW doesn't sell mud flaps for the M3.

They're functional and they don't look too bad either. Helps to keep the side of the car clean from crap being kicked up from the front tires.

[Matsuda]

Installed an intake with a friend

[adrnlnrush00]

I ordered these earlier this week from Denmark. Took three business days to arrive door-to-door to Vancouver. Can't wait to install them over the weekend.













For those who don't know, these are the OEM BMW Euro Black-Line taillights.

EDIT: Added before and after pictures of the installation.

[BIC_BAWS]

Originally Posted by adrnlnrush00

I ordered these earlier this week from Denmark. Took three business days to arrive door-to-door to Vancouver. Can't wait to install them over the weekend.

Looks awesome! Did you end up getting charged duties? And did you end up going to that BMW meet?



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[320icar]

Damn, those must have cost one hell of a pretty penny. I ordered a set of cheap coilovers for he RS just to scavenge parts and camber plates to run on a different set of coilovers lol

[adrnlnrush00]

Originally Posted by BIC_BAWS

Looks awesome! Did you end up getting charged duties? And did you end up going to that BMW meet?



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The taillights were coming from Denmark so I was expecting to pay duties upon import.

Cost was $605USD from Denmark plus $140CAD upon importation. The $140 included duties, GST, PST and DHL's customs handling fee. All in it wasn't bad for OEM BMW Euro taillights.

Regarding the BMW meet, if you're talking about the one at Spanish Banks on June 24, then, yes, I went there. It was a good turnout and I met some great people. I believe that you were the one that told me about it that meet so thank you very much for connecting me.

[asian_XL]

somehow I like the red tailights more

[mekaw]

...

[320icar]

Originally Posted by asian_XL

somehow I like the red tailights more

Girl you crazy

[CCA-Dave]

Went down to Victoria for the VW show today. Hilariously, the Rally Bug won best late model beetle. I only entered for the parking with group, but I'll take it!

The Rally Bug thanked me by dropping a valve seat on the way home. Readjusted the valve, considered the likely possibility of grenading the motor before getting home, and then went for it. So, after getting home at 8:30pm, I pulled the motor. Valve seat confirmed, don't know if I did any piston damage. Carnage photos tomorrow night once I pull the motor apart.

[adrnlnrush00]

Spoiler!

Originally Posted by CCA-Dave

Went down to Victoria for the VW show today. Hilariously, the Rally Bug won best late model beetle. I only entered for the parking with group, but I'll take it!

The Rally Bug thanked me by dropping a valve seat on the way home. Readjusted the valve, considered the likely possibility of grenading the motor before getting home, and then went for it. So, after getting home at 8:30pm, I pulled the motor. Valve seat confirmed, don't know if I did any piston damage. Carnage photos tomorrow night once I pull the motor apart.

Gee, at 2030hrs, I'm settling in to watch some TV before going to bed whilst CCA-Dave pulls a motor out of the Beetle. You make it sound like it's just another Sunday evening.

[320icar]

To be fair, takes like 20 minutes to drop an auircooled motor

[CCA-Dave]

Originally Posted by adrnlnrush00

Gee, at 2030hrs, I'm settling in to watch some TV before going to bed whilst CCA-Dave pulls a motor out of the Beetle. You make it sound like it's just another Sunday evening.

That's not a normal Sunday Evening? You sir, need a TV in your shop :P Mind you, I only ever play races (F1, Nascar, etc) or movies I've seen and love and can recite on the shop TV.

Originally Posted by 320icar

To be fair, takes like 20 minutes to drop an aircooled motor

Hahaha. My dad and I used to "race", every time one of us was going to pull a motor on our cars we'd call or text each other. A stock beetle is an honest 45min to pull, dad and I got it down into the low 20's (including putting the car up on axle stands) before he conceded the win.

The rally bug is far more complex than a stock beetle though. The fuel injection adds a tonne of complexity, and my dry sump oiling system and breather system is a battle. Not to mention everything you do under the car has be done around the suspension bracing. Last night's pull was 1hr 30min, not including putting the car up on axle stands. Not my fastest, but it's been long enough that I had to think about the fuel injection stuff, instead of working on auto-pilot.

[CCA-Dave]

Sadly, the piston got the kiss of death from the valve seat. That's my last set of forged German Mahle pistons. I have a new set of pistons and cylinders on the shelf, but they are cast units. Sad Panda. The new heads will be CNC ported and shaped, as my usual head guy who hand did this set isn't available in 2018. Since I will need to spec the combustion chamber size, I installed a new piston and cylinder and measured it all up. The cylinders are a slightly different length than my old ones, and the cylinder heads will be slightly different as well...so I'll have to do all new pushrods and valvetrain geometry on the rebuild.

If your valve train ever makes horrible noises, and you decide "I can limp it 2.5hrs home from Victoria", be sure you're making an educated decision. I knew the moment the seat dropped the head was garbage and the piston was likely done too, and so I figured it was worth the risk. Not sure if you can see the aluminum melted all around the valve seat from combustion gases escaping up the intake. It's in the parts washer tonight...will be clearer when clean.



Unfortunately my end play (crank movement forward and back) was out of spec. It wasn't a shim problem, the thrust bearing has pounded out the case .005". So tonight I tore the whole motor down to a bare case so it can head to the machine shop. That's a two and half hour job with cleaning 50% of the components, and measuring everything before disassembly so I know what's in spec and what needs to be replaced. It'll get new main bearings, new cam bearings and maybe new lifters...but everything else is in spec. I'm super, super tempted to switch to an aluminum case (vs magnesium)...but the $900usd is NOT in the budget.

[underscore]

4 hours total to remove the engine and do all that work? I'm far from a Beetle fan but that makes a hell of a case for owning one.

[CCA-Dave]

lol. If you do it as frequently as I do, yeah. But things like the Crank comes out of the case with the rods attached, and stays that way. And, knowing I'm not saving pistons and cylinders they were handled quickly and not necessarily carefully.

[320icar]

Time to just swap in an ej20?

Edit: if I had time, And money, And skill, And a garage, I’d make a Formula Vee racer with a Subaru swap. Google turns up nothing, but someone must have done it before

[CCA-Dave]

Nah, Rally Bug will stay air cooled. The German Look project I've started will get a Subaru motor.

I checked, the motor was last apart in November 2017, which means it has between 17,000 and 20,000km on it since I had it apart. My notes suggest the endplay was questionable back in November. You're supposed to use three shims to get to 0.004" play. I had to use four shims. So the endplay issue isn't a surprise. The heads have roughly 150,000km on them...so again, I'm not overly upset about it.

[hud 91gt]

Sand out those marks and stick em back in! Lol what kind of compression were you running?

[Hondaracer]

dat german engineering

finally made somthing easy/simple under Hitler lol..

[CCA-Dave]

Originally Posted by hud 91gt

Sand out those marks and stick em back in! Lol what kind of compression were you running?

Considered dropping all the pistons into a lathe and skimming the tops. I could change the barrel shims and keep the compression the same (9.5:1)...but it was clear the rings are nearing the end, and these barrels have already been honed once for new rings. So, it just makes sense to move onto new ones.

-Dave

[FAWKER]

CRX painted and getting put back together. Need to get this finished so I can move to the ITR