Well I never really found a smoking-gun, but I put it all back together with a different set of spark plugs (new one's soon) and changed the spring-rate in my blow off valve. Runs just as good, if not better than it did before. It's amazing what a little maintenance can do.
My suspicion was confirmed that my blow off valve has not been working as i designed. However, it makes a terrible "ricer" noise now.
I did start to take apart my idler box and it seems to be ok. I also didn't have a way to separate the joint, so I gave up on that job for now.
I finally got everything back together because my wife said she would "buy" me a new toolbox for my birthday/christmas and the one I want won't fit in my A4. I've been seriously eyeing the US General (HF) 42" base box. It's on sale right now for $369. Quite a few guys at work have them and have no complaints - the only one being that it's not a snap-on. I've been pretty diligent looking on CL for used boxes, but they are either crappy craftsman boxes like I have or $3000 Snap-on's.
In other news, I no longer live in the (inland) North West. I moved out to Eastern Iowa in June, but my stuff moved out in May with my wife when she started a new job while I finished up school. Before I started school, I had bought a 20' shipping container to put my cruiser and associated stuff in, knowing that it was not practical to move all of that up with me for four years, it stayed in Boise. My brothers in-law drove out from Iowa in this jalopy to move us.
They drove first to Bosie for the important things, then up Nort' there to Moscow for the rest of it. To say it was a snug fit was an understatement... thought about moving the Cx500, but we never really a serious connection so I sold it to another broke college student and netted some $$.
From front to back on the flat-bead are: my welding table with 2x cruiser axles, 2x minitruck axles, 1 3rd gen axle and a few drive shafts; the cruiser packed full of crap, my Xr600 and my 4runenr packed full of crap.
Saved us a lot of time having to them come out, but I think I've indentured myself to them inadvertently for "putting so many damn miles on my truck". They have a love for their Duramax's like I do for my cruiser and 4runner. Now being 2hrs away means that i'm only a call away... But I guess I get to drive heavy equipment and such so it's not all bad.
We Found a great place to live 30 miles out of town. Dare I say we found it on
facebook? There's really no one around, so I can shoot my gun, have a bonfire and generally do American things without people watching me. Total contrast to our last place in Moscow - it was a popular walking route and my yard was not enclosed.
Because I have a legitimate commute I bought a "commuter car". '02 A4 Quatro with a tiptronic (so the wife can drive it when her car dies).
It snowed 6-8 inches before thanksgiving and I took the car out for a shakedown run. For summer tires it did pretty dang good. Would easily drive through the 6 in snow with a little speed and blasted through probably a foot deep drift at our driveway. I got stuck in my driveway trying to turn into the garage. Clearly I couldn't get a run at it and the front left hit a deep spot. I'm convinced that if it had all seasons or winter tires there wouldn't have been a problem. So far it's been a fun car, but time will tell if the Audi stereotypes are true.
