Audi 80 TDI Avant

Hello all, firstly thank you for all the kind comments!

Update… the latter part of last year got real busy, real quick! 

first up, we got to Audi in the park, I’ve been infatuated with Audis from about 14yrs old, two reasons, purchasing a supercar monthly magazine with paper round money and seeing an RS2 as a centre fold, and, my uncle having an Audi 200 turbo avant with the rear silencer removed😍

for about 8yrs I’ve wanted to get to AITP, but life.. 

getting there in Emma’s car was extremely nerve racking, down right stressful actually!! 
previously we had driven maybe 20 miles in stints, covered a total of 100 miles, hardly a shake down😬

anyhow, we got there in one piece! 












It’s was a great show, we loved it! Emma’s car went down well…
1/2 way through the day a steward popped over (tangent but, I recognised him as he I, turns out we used to ride Bmx together 20 odd years ago! Small world!) anyhow, he said not to leave early😬 we were in the runnings for an award…. Oh no


I’m not a crowd person, at all, happiest listening to 80’s music in the shop, spanner in hand and, alone, unless Emma’s with me!
Anything else, especially if it’s in a unfamiliar setting around people I don’t know, I don’t really like, or enjoy😬

Good job they had a stage to stand upon in front of everyone then🤦‍♂️

Considering the cars there, both Emma and I were extremely happy and blown away we qualified for top ten!








Packed up for the day and headed home😎

emmas daily is her beloved mini, 04 Cooper, it was getting tired and with her Audi needing a shake down, it being summer, we decided she would daily her Audi while I got on with her mini…. 

this is where everything got a little bit hectic🤦‍♂️

Thank you strikey 

Talk about the bodily solids hitting the rotary cooling device all at one time!!!

Boom tish....

More interesting???!!!

Have you changed the Crank Pulley bolt? I have had a few 1.9TD and TDIs my B3TD estate blew a head gasket, 5k after it was repaired the crank key sheared, later I was told the crank bolt was a stretch/yeild, bolt which was not changed on the gasket replacement

gentlemen, start your engines ….

if only🤦‍♂️


I kinda rushed the last update, got a little ahead of myself, I’ll start with some more of the engine assembly stuff!

Initially I decided I was just going to leave well alone *ain’t broke (the new motor😅) don’t fix it, but as said previously, I got carried away, so I removed the head, sent that away for cleaning, testing and a skim, once I got it back, I umm’d a arrrr’d if I should port it, procrastinating for far too long! 
the head was assembled, obviously to port it I’d need to remove everything, I really wanted a quick turnaround so….
I stripped it🤦‍♂️

I marked out the offending material with 3 sharpies, they really don’t like aluminium!
then carefully got busy with a die grinder..









I then ported the exhaust manifold to the head and then to the turbo! I’d previously had the manifold ceramic coated, it was a long time ago, it hadn’t faired well at all, I’d say less than 200 miles, so once the butchering had been completed I sent it off to Matt at coast racing near us, he re-coated it and did an outstanding job!




At the same time I shipped the turbo back to turbotechnics to have it checked, I explained the occurrence and asked if they could check it over, they stripped it, reassemble it, updated me they’d found zero issues and sent it back with zero charge, oh actually, they also collected it! I didn’t ship it🤦‍♂️
Anyhow, Outstanding service! Brilliant guys to deal with…

I then carefully assembled the long motor, fitting a few bits just to look pretty!

Onto the fuel pump, so my motor is a 1Z,
(previously I’d fitted an AHU, the now vented engine, basically the same just a few holes and threaded fixings missing)
Anyhow I’m back to the trusty 1Z’s!

The first 1Z Bosch pumps are I believe the first that were fly by wire, I don’t know the specifics on part numbers and ranges or indeed updates through the Audi 80’s, but in the golfs they did mess with them slightly, on the A4’s and MK4 golfs the none PD’s used the AHU engines with updated pumps, again not overly familiar..

The pump that darkside sells is for the ALH, but it gets retro fitted to AHU’s as an upgrade, no reason why it can not be fitted to a 1Z? Surely…

To mount the pump, it’s actually pretty simple, the 1Z pump bracket needs opening slightly and the pulley needs to be faced simply to allow the cover to be fitted..







This part was time consuming, a ballache to be honest, normally I’d send a message to Mr Johnny, but he was real busy moving and such, I didn’t want to burden further, so I painstakingly opened it up with a die grinder😅
The pulley was a doddle, I’ve a little large and it handled it well, luckily the material was reasonably soft too!



Now, there is changes to the wiring that’s required, darkside supplied a link to a forum where a reasonable description could be found..
except - Audi 80, not a MK4 golf or the like…
And, the wiring diagrams are on how to modify the cars harness, not the pumps😬
This lead to many, many many late nights researching, these pumps wiring harnesses use all black wiring, they are numbered though!
The ALH pumps use a D shaped plug, the 80’s use a round plug, I need to swap those out, so, I’ll just modify the harness on the pump? Right?
Loads more research, nothing..
By modifying the harness on the pump, I shatter the warranty on a pretty expensive item…
At this point I’m exhausted and annoyed…
I de-pin the plugs and go all in!

Engine built up, wiring kinda, hopefully, please dear goddess!

better get it in the hole then!
All assembled, sat into position, ready to fire up😬
By now I’d sunk a fair portion of my goat fund (Audi 90) into this!
I was nervous, fuelled/stressed on caffeine, ready to rip!

Crank it over to build oil pressure…
Time to shine, let’s run it up !!!

Nothing, cranking over and over, not even a hint at trying to start😩

Get the diagnostic head on, I ran the lift pump wiring from the fuse board, I jumped it from the second stage accessory circuit, I think😬 reading up, I wondered if I was pulling to many amps not allowing other circuits to become live (I was adamant I’d nailed the injection pump wiring!!)
The lift pump was draw through, meaning if it wasn’t running, it would still allow fuel to pass, so I removed the fuses to that, still nothing, I’d fitted the huge nozzles, maybe they were too much?
Back to standard on those! Nothing…
I’d previously had an issue with some *additional wiring under the dash by a previous owner that I’d rectified, so I thought, so dash out, find loads of dubious previous repairs, still nothing…

This photo sums up where I was, cheekily taken by Emma [




Ok… perhaps it is the pump wiring, maybe, more research, numerous emails to the guys at darkside, who were incredible!!

I’ve a bunch of spare injection pumps (luckily!)
I fitted one, nothing, then spotted an error🥳
One of the fuel banjos wasn’t the correct type! Yes!!! Simple error, let’s fire it up……..
Nothing!
Days passed, sleep deprivation pursued, if I’d have found straws, I’d have duly clutched at them…
The daily was sat all broken, wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, there was a known good pump just sat there!
One morning I just sat coffee in hand staring at it, “we’ve had some good times girl, I need one last thing from you, I can’t promise you’ll make it out of this, but I love you”

She gave up her heart willingly!!

Fitted up to Emma’s, primed and oil pressure up, then an unenthusiastic turn of the key… it fired!!!
Start reassembling everything I’d removed in the hunt for the issue just to be sure!
Lift pump, nozzles etc, all good!

Ok we’ve a running motor, what’s up with the pump, I’m absolutely positive the wirings correct!

More research, this time a little more enthusiastic, then one evening I stumbled upon a thread of guy fitting an AHU keeping the later pump in an 80, he mentioned swapping out the ecu? Thinking back, I’d used the 80’s pump when I’d fitted the AHU!
So, are the ecu’s that different, both the injection pumps are round plugs? 7 black wires….
Some investigation needed!
As stated I’ve a few spare pumps, and luck would have it they are from both 1Z’s and AHU’s! (The 1Z’s had failed at some point I’d just hoarded them, lucky!)

I decided to dissect two to get a better idea of what I’m dealing with..


Followed the plug/wiring feeds into the PCB boards, referenced them against the numbered wires, all exactly the same…
Further reading😅 this time about the ecu’s…