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Ben's '94 Cabriolet build

35K views 72 replies 21 participants last post by  grillage 
#1 ·
I am now a multiple audi owner! My 93 90Q has a friend - a 94 Cabriolet
Brought it home yesterday from northern Ohio.



I had trouble finding the right combo of rental truck and tow dolly but I think I found the best scenario with Enterprise Truck Rental ($80 per day unlimited miles) and a UHaul tow dolly $50 or so. UHaul wanted $0.99 per mile for their pickups and at about 500 miles it was a no go.

Anyway, it was advertised as a cab with a seized engine so I found a direct replacement 2.8 12v v6 (AAH) last week and pulled it before anyone could monkey with it.

It came from a 93 90s FWD with 105,000miles that was in pretty good shape.
I got it out of the truck at home by way of my tree...


It is now in pieces in my basement for disassembly and a thorough cleaning...



Today I got the new car unloaded and started taking it apart. Once I got the radiator and fans out I was able to access the crank bolt. It does turn though it's not easy.

I can only assume that there is something wrong internally but that the engine isn't actually seized. I'll find out soon enough. I plan to pull the whole thing this week and do some further investigation.

I should mention there was an accident loading the car onto the dolly. We steered about 3 inches too far left and ripped the underside of the bumper off. What a great excuse to find a S2 or RS2 bumper. That's why there is no bumper in the photo

If there is any interest I'll continue to post. I'm fairly new to this stuff and this will be the first engine replacement I've done.
 
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#2 ·
I nearly took on a similar project when a Cabriolet with a bad motor and a 90 FWD with a bad automatic transmission, both 1995s, turned up on my local Craigslist the same day for about $1500 combined. I opted not to take the project on, because I was possibly going to be moving soon. I wouldn't mind seeing what I would have been up against. So you have at least one person interested in this thread. :)
 
#3 ·
I'm interested to see what the engine problem is. I can't see the crank mark but the cams don't look too obviously out of wack?

And yes, you say S2 or RS2 bumper now.... next thing we know it'll be quattro and bi-turbo lol!
 
#4 ·
Please continue to post, it will be interesting to see how this one works out. Before doing anything I would set the motor to TDC and make sure everything lines up. If this checks then pull the plugs and see if they look good and try turning the motor over again to see if this makes any difference. Then check all of the tensioners and coolant pump to make sure they are not part of the problem. You may find the motor was run without oil which could damage the motor and increase its rotating resistance. There are a lot of things that can stop it from running but the fact that it turns over a bit is a good thing so now you have to figure out where the problem is.
 
#5 ·
I put the motor to TDC yesterday and everything does line up -- I can see the intake valves through the holes from the IM and they appear to be moving and undamaged.

The PO said his son was driving and the oil light turned on - then the motor died and wouldn't turn over at all. His thought was that the oil pump died and killed the engine.

I hope to pull the whole thing this week if I can find the time but may pull the heads beforehand to see the pistons and their condition. Or I could take the camshafts out and rotate the crank to see it it's easier without the camshafts in play.

As to the Plugs, they were REALLY tight in there. I don't think they'd been removed in quite some time and were NGK tri-electrode plugs with the Audi symbol on them. They were crusty but not oily crusty. Certainly needed replacing but no obvious issue.

I will continue to post - thanks for the interest! I was a little worried no one would care about my simple project unless I did a V8 turbo quattro cabriolet (which does sound like a good idea now that I think about it...)
 
#6 ·
I think most people around here are happy to read anyone's project thread, I know I read most of them. I always liked the Audi Cabriolet but it is too bad they don't make them in quattro or standard on this side of the world. How is everything else with the car? From the few pics posted the car looks really nice and should be great once you get it going. Does the roof and everything work? I don't know about the V8 part but a nice turbo 5 cylinder with quattro would be a fun project depending on how you want to use the car. There is a 1990 Audi 90 quattro sedan close to me that is down to $500 but I have to fight myself not to buy it as there are already 6 cars in my driveway.
 
#7 ·
I forgot to mention that my very first Audi was a Cabriolet, which is another reason I like this thread. I was shopping for an Audi about nine years ago, and I was mostly looking at 90s and 100s (S-cars and A4s were too expensive for me back then), but I found a '94 Cabriolet for a great price. I must say that it was a nice driving car for what it was. It went down the highway very smoothly while getting 26 mpg with the top down, the power top worked great, and it's a great looking car to boot. The biggest drawback is the lack of a manual, or at least a "fun" automatic. I wouldn't mind finding a Cabriolet with a blown automatic, and a cheap 90 FWD 5-speed, and converting the Cabriolet to manual. It's not difficult at all from what I've read- pretty much plug and play. It would be a nice third car.
 
#8 ·
Doing a manual swap into a Cabrio or fwd 90 is cake. Remove the slushbox, shifter, and pedals. install your donor parts. recode the ECU with vag-com. That's how I did the Cabrio-Q Nightmare project...doing the "Q" part wasn't nearly as easy but I'm glad I did it. Might even do another one, I still think a boosted 12v Cabrio-Q would be an awesome summer car.
 
#11 ·
Ok, good, wasn't aware of that fact. I just know it would be a serious bummer to get the motor back together and the transmission does nothing but make funny noises. I do have to say a gutted Cab-quattro with a cage and a silly 4.2/01E combo would be about as much fun as you can get.
 
#13 ·
RockinV8q said:
Doing a manual swap into a Cabrio or fwd 90 is cake. Remove the slushbox, shifter, and pedals. install your donor parts. recode the ECU with vag-com. That's how I did the Cabrio-Q Nightmare project...doing the "Q" part wasn't nearly as easy but I'm glad I did it. Might even do another one, I still think a boosted 12v Cabrio-Q would be an awesome summer car.
thank you!
i was looking for this. a b4 90 fwd as a donor would work?

Thx again.
Chris
 
#15 ·
Sadly there is no manual conversion in this cars future. The only way my lovely wife would allow the addition was if she could drive it - and her learning a manual trans is not really an option.

The car is in pretty great shape. I'll take some more photos tomorrow. The top supposedly works but the battery is out of the car presently so I can't test it out.

As for the bumper, the actual bumper is fine, it's the surrounding that is toast. Are the fronts the same as a b4?
 
#16 ·
I got the alternator and starter out today to get to the torque converter nuts. I was able to rotate the crank bolt to get to the first and then it wouldnt go any farther. There is most definitely something broken or seriously screwy in there. Can't wait to find out what it is.

Here are some pics from today. It's in pretty darn good shape





 
#17 ·
I'm glad you're posting this, not enough good project threads out there on them. I think they did a good job in not sacrificing too much to go topless. I was going to buy one awhile back that was cheap, but the transmission was already going out and I wasn't sure I wanted to dig into a manual swap. Too many cars anyway...

Looking forward to seeing the rest.

-Rog
 
#18 ·
I'm in the midst of cleaning the heads in preparation for the port and polish procedure and I am looking for guidance on the lifters and valves.

How clean do these valves need to be? It seems like as long as the rim on the outside is clean and free from gunk it should seal. I had them soaking in degreaser for the last week and cleaned them up today.



Also, while inspecting the lifters I noticed that only 3 or 4 of the 12 had any give in them. What is the best way to test them? Is it as simple as using the ones that compress when I push them? Should I soak them in Marvel Mystery Oil or something to try to free them from the gunk that has them stuck?

 
#19 ·
You want to make sure the valves are clean and there is no buildup on them before they go back in. You can clean them lightly with a wire wheel but keep on the head of the valve and away from the shaft. You just want to remove carbon buildup but you don't want deep scores in the valves. Check the manual and see how much valve movement you are allowed with the valves to see if the guides are worn at all. Now is the time to get all of these things done if you think you are going to leave the car in its current configuration for a while. As long as the guides are good you can lap the valves and put new valve seals in it and off you go. The lifters on these cars do wear over time and start to tick so you may want to change them out now to avoid the problem later. I believe these lifters are the same as the VW ones which are about $120 or something for the set so they are not too bad. I'm not sure how they should feel, the ones I have played with were all new and had no movement with finger pressure but that doesn't mean yours are bad. I typically err on the side of caution and just replace them. I rebuilt my G60 motor not too long ago and I replaced all of the lifters and I will be rebuilding the motor in the Corrado and it will also get new lifters.
 
#20 ·
Found a weird thing when I took the rear flange off to change the gasket and rear main seal.

Where the coolant drain plug is screws in was completely clogged with green gunk. Also, it had eaten away at the flange cover.




You can see the space under this razor blade...
 
#21 ·
It has to be coolant, there isn't much else green that can east aluminum like that. Although coolant itself won't eat aluminum it can allow some chemical reactions to start which can. VW and Audi had to switch coolant to the pink stuff (G12) to stop head gaskets from being eaten so maybe this is what you are seeing.
 
#22 ·
Well I got the heads off the engine that's in the car and they are in way better shape than the ones from the junkyard. No sludging and cleaner valves. I'll be using them for the rebuild



I started the gasket matching on the heads. It really is amazing how badly the audi folks engineered this connection. The amount of air is greatly reduced by the poor match of the intake manifold to the head. The red will be removed...


I still don't know what's wrong in the block but removing the heads made no difference in the difficulty of rotating the crankshaft so I am assuming the heads are okay. I'll still be taking them apart to replace the valve stem seals.
 
#23 ·
I started disassembly on the "better" heads and found the first signs of the damage from the cab's original motor.

The front camshaft bearing cap on both sides had some pretty serious damage.



The PO said he thought that engine lost the oil pump and that's what destroyed the engine. This would seem to be evidence of running with no lubrication.
 
#26 ·
ChrisAudi80 said:
I'll read any thread involving use of the 12v V6. Cool you are doing the port matching work. Are going to open the IM and clean/port that, too?
I probably will eventually. For now I wanted to do the work on the heads and get the car running. I have a spare IM now so I can port that at my leisure. It's so much easier to change that out than the heads.
 
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