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Jcarrick's 1990 Lago 90 20v: Fix or Sell?

9K views 51 replies 19 participants last post by  jcarrick 
#1 ·
Hey guys,
So today i drove up to Bellingham Washington and picked up a new toy. I bought thuggin20v's Lago Blue 90 20v. This is going to be another slow build, but for now i am just going to be posting a bunch of maintenance stuff.

Heres some info on the car. It has 225,xxx miles, but runs like a top. The good: H&R springs, bilstien struts, poly rear diff mount, street density trans mount, stage 2 spec clutch, short shifter, exhaust, and a decent sound system. The bad: Clear coat is gone on the hood and the roof is very faded, but thats ok cuz i will have that painted when i do an RS2 bumber and b4 hood. Interior has a few tears, steering wheel needs replacing, quite a few lights out in the dash (already have the 2w bulb conversion), brakes are shot (came with hawk pads and new rear rotors), i hear a mild clunking sound in the front left suspension, front speakers are shot, and it has a mild oil leak.

Heres my list for the next week or two:
Timing belt kit (and fix front main seal)
Brakes
Dash lights
Possibly 034 injectors
Paint wheels black because i love black rims :)
Oil change
Trans fluid change
Diff fluid change
And check everything else while im in there.

As for now my plans for the car are unsure. I think i have a couple options though.
Option 1:
Holset hy35
Log mani and 38mm wastgate (which would mean the S4 getting a nice custom tube mani)
Ripchip or VEMS or Megasquirt
3B intake mani
Ebay intercooler
And the components that go along with that.

Option 2:
Find a 3B with a chipped ecu and harness and just swap that in.

Both options will keep the 01A for now because im not looking to make HUGE power YET and i will just run the 01A until it breaks. Then comes an 01E :D

So i think option 2 would be the cheapest with the most future potential, but im not really sure yet. Please tell me your theories and ideas.

Here's a quick pic from the ride home. It gets dark really early now so I will have to wait till this weekend to get more pics.

 
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#3 ·
A 3B certainly sounds nice but a AAN would be a lot of fun as well. I have never really looked into the 7A simply because most of the swaps use the 3B/AAN for big power which means that is what most of the threads are on. I guess it really depends on how big you may ever go, the 7A may limit you on really big power but that's about it. The current motor is getting up there in miles so you don't want to throw too many big power parts without making sure it can take it. If you don't need it running you could save all of the money on repairing the current motor and see if you can't throw that into a swap right away. If not that then put minimal work into the current motor and then fix everything else on the car around it while you drive. It is kind of a waste to throw money into something you may need to keep so check around for what you can get swap wise and then make a decision. Sounds like the car is in really good shape though, I live just over the border from Bellingham and our winters are really easy on cars so hopefully you don't have any rust. Post some pics when you get a chance, it would be nice to see what you got.
 
#5 ·
Sounds fun, lots of options and it all depends on the condition of the engine, how much power you want, and how much time you have.

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#6 ·
Well the stock AAN/3b or 7AT would just be for now. Im not looking for huge power with it, just something fun. Down the road i want to do a build very similar to my S4. So the plans for now are just for something fun with a little more power. And even this wont happen for a while. Im going to build the head on the S4 and drive this in the mean time.
 
#7 ·
I'd personally go ghetto 20vt running 3b or AAN engine management and or vems.
If you're not planning on building all out yet, the cast pistons will hold for what you're going for.
Unless you found a 3b/aan available. then go all out dude.
 
#8 ·
ChrisAudi80 said:
CorradoGuy said:
A 3B certainly sounds nice but a AAN would be a lot of fun as well.
If you go with option 2, I'd say AAN would be better, but use the 3B IM because of interference with side mount rad.

Then again, you are already building an AAN.
3B intake manifold doesn't work with the aan valve cover.
 
#10 ·
Hybrid_Hatch said:
3B intake manifold doesn't work with the aan valve cover.
Not sure where the interference is exactly, but would use of the phenolic spacer fix this?

It happened to conveniently allow the use of an ABY/ADU intake with a 3B distributor without any cutting/trimming/grinding.

...and who wants to use an AAN valve cover anyway? :p
 
#13 ·
jcarrick said:
Well the stock AAN/3b or 7AT would just be for now. Im not looking for huge power with it, just something fun. Down the road i want to do a build very similar to my S4. So the plans for now are just for something fun with a little more power. And even this wont happen for a while. Im going to build the head on the S4 and drive this in the mean time.
7at would be my pick.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#14 ·
My think with the 7at is engine management. It will cost 1400 for vems alone. I think I could find a 3b/aan with a harness and ecu for around 1500.. So right there it just makes sense to go that route cost wise. But I may be wrong, that could be low for a complete motor.

But if 034 came out with the rip chip...:p
 
#15 ·
1400 for vems? that is for the plug and play with the 55pin motronic connector that wouldn't plug into anything on your 90 now if you wanted just the standard box with a flying lead harness (which would probably be better in your case anyway) it would be under a grand
 
#17 ·
seanriv said:
What would it cost to take a stock 7a to full Vems? Parts list? Would make a good sticky...
IIRC, Marc has already made a package for this.

However, I am sure that if Jon can find an AAN engine with ECU, he could just go for the Stage 1+ chipset.
That would be fun in a 90, I think. :D

If you set the engine/trans back a little, you could use a B4 V6 rad and put a pair of Spals on the front.
 
#18 ·
Or just stay NA and get a Eurovan block, bore it to 82.5mm and go stroker 7A with the 034 big MAF kit. I am sure you could get 034 to write the chip for this.
Mild P&P job and 2.5" exhaust. hehehe
 
#19 ·
Added pic to first post.

Ah, I didn't think about that on the cost of the VEMS. Still, it seams like the swap could definitely be a fair amount cheaper. I recently saw a wrecked urs for sale for 1800 that ran good, just smashed up front a tad. Pull the motor and harness and part the car to make some money back. That is just an example, but we'll see. I'm really interested in the rip chip 034 is coming out with so if that's a fair price I may go with that and do a 7at
 
#20 ·
Dave went the urS route so he can speak to that.

Regarding the 7aT, to many combinations to really speak in exacts. I'd really like to play with a 3b harness and ECU on a 7at with compression dropping HG :D I doubt it would be any worse than a self tuned VEMS ;)

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#21 ·
Thats not a bad idea Ed. Ill have to keep my eye out for possible swaps or for the new rip chip or the 3b harness.. I also have to remember this thing is going to be a daily for quite a while, ha :p
 
#22 ·
jcarrick said:
Added pic to first post.

Ah, I didn't think about that on the cost of the VEMS. Still, it seams like the swap could definitely be a fair amount cheaper. I recently saw a wrecked urs for sale for 1800 that ran good, just smashed up front a tad. Pull the motor and harness and part the car to make some money back. That is just an example, but we'll see. I'm really interested in the rip chip 034 is coming out with so if that's a fair price I may go with that and do a 7at
The only "problem" with keeping that is you still need to figure out wiring. either you need to graft that URS4 harness into your chassis' harness, or you need to source a european S2 wiring harness.

Personally i think buying the 1800 URS makes sense, think about all the bits you can sell off of it. if it had a good front bumper that is a solid 500 bucks, if it has nice interior, another several hundred bucks, carbon interior trim, instrument cluster, nice non rotted suspension bits, front fenders, hubs, ect... You can actually MAKE money by parting out the urs and still keep the engine.
 
#23 ·
Exactly what I'm thinking Dave. I'll probaby just wait for either a 200 20v or an urs to come on the market and grab that.
 
#24 ·
Last night i got the timing belt, idler, water pump, cam and crank seals, and all new belts done. This thing had a HORRIBLY leaky front main seal that has plagued the whole underside of the engine. Tonight or tomorrow i will do the plugs and oil. Then i have to figure out what size rotors on on the front(?). I guess they came in two sizes. Can any give any input on this?
 
#26 ·
the front brakes had 2 versions, so you need to check. if they have the 2 piston calipers (g60s) which are the same that came stock on the urs cars, you need the 276 version of the rotor, if you have the g54 single piston, 256 version.
 
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