bosmass

Ok, so I have had this car for going on 12 or 13 years. I do really love it, but I have been having plenty of problems in the last year with it. I had a friend come by today and take a look at some smoke which was coming from the engine bay. The smoke appears as if it is actually coming from oil lines leading to or from the turbo. A lot of oil has coated these lines and we were guessing it was just burning off, hopefully. While he was here, we also took a look at a few other things which could tell us if there was a problem with the turbo.

What we found is that there is definately coolant on the oil filler cap. Does this mean that my engine will be needing a new head gasket or turbo? If so, I am thinking of four possibilities. One is to fix the head gasket and hope that fixes an engine which is already at 135,000 miles. Second is to rebuild the engine which is currently in the car. The third option is to install a 20v. Lastly, the fourth option is to put in a v8.

I really do not know what the range of difficulty is for each option or what the costs will be. I have been wanting to refurbish a lot of problems which have popped up over the years. Not the least of which was paint, upholstery, e brake, cracked dash, etc. Overall, the car is in good shape, but it is showing its age in some unflattering ways. I want to get your guys opinion on the situation so I can get an idea of time and costs involved.

So I am asking... which engine choice and for how much? Full resto or not? Can I really trust someone else to do this work for me? Who even takes on this type of work? My post is a bit winded, sorry. I do respect your opinions and would like to get some different viewpoints. Thanks..

quattro v1.0

One thing you should determine very early on in the project is your goals, in both cost and results. This will establish up front how much you really love the car.

Another thing is how long you are willing to have the car immobilized. If you start an engine swap, then decide to detail and paint the engine bay, and then convince yourself you want to go ahead and do a complete paint job, and while you are wiring behind the dash for the harness / ECU upgrade you start looking for new dash parts and tear the seats out and have them recovered too - you see how that turns into forever.

The best suggestion is to break it into smaller projects which allow you for some seat-time and a sense of accomplishment after each stage. On another forum we talked about a 4 month time frame for any project. Anything after that and you run the risk of losing interest and it dragging out forever.

I would start with pulling the head and doing the head gasket and get your head checked. If it is warped or beyond minor labor - stop. You didn't mention a year, but if you have a WX engine, the heads are very hard to come by and later heads are not easily mated to your WX block. This would be a good time to make a choice between 10v / 20v / V8. If you decide on a 20v buy yourself the first clapped out '91 200 you find and pull the engine and harness out and then part out the rest of the car to recoup as much $$ as you can. You WILL WANT the 3b engine rather than the AAN (S4 / S6) to make your life easy.

If you want to see detailed examples of all of these options go over to www.motorgeek.com and read thru the many posts in the projects section. I promise you any idea you have had about what to do to the car has already been discussed or completed by someone there...

The important thing is keeping one on the road, don't let it fall into a extended state of disrepair.

gmbchef

THAT is very well written. Mostly because it is the way I did my urq. Although I didn't really think it out that far, I ended up doing it in smaller projects in the winter months so I could drive it in the summer.
and..I started off by doing the head first! If you get past that stage, decide which project is next and begin collecting parts and knowledge.
This forum, the "list" and many other German car forums are excellent resources.

cegerer

Sage advice for all urq owners! Oh wait, you were talking about the engine head - never mind.

bosmass

Well I checked the typical things and found little evidence of a coolant leak. Only on the underside of the oil cap did I find anything. However, the coolant gas check fro hydrocarbons proved negative. I think I am in the clear, but I still have to check my turbo and the oil lined for leaks.

Thanks

bosmass

I forgot to add....Cegerer if you get a chance, I sent you a pm.

hotrodur

In diagnostics from afar I would have you to clean the bottom and top of the engine with t high power water and some spray digresser. Then you should run the engine until you identify the leaks. I would start with the valve cover and oil and water lines. You need to complete a compression test and leak down test before you start pulling your head.

• If you have white smoke coming out of the exhaust it would be a head gasket
• If you have some milky white in the oil it could be that you’re just driving short distances and not heating the oil up, so you should change the oil.

Good luck

hotrodur

Also look at the used oil in a clear container. Oil and water don’t mix so if you have lots of water in your oil it will separate in the container.

Sharktrainer