Engine Swaps (1.8 n/a -> 1.8T)

[au_sjo]

Hi all,

I'm fed up with the dire performance of the 1.8 n/a in my A4 avant. I'm investigating swapping the engine out for the 1.8T variant.

Too assit me, perhaps someone could answer some/all of the follows:-

- Which i4 engines & codes were available on this chassis

- Issues with fitting/converting a transverse engine (eg TT)?

- Anyone actually done such a conversion, thoughts?

- Any ecu/immobiliser complications?

- Gearboxes? The ratios/final are short/crap in mine.


The logical thing to do would be change cars, but too much money in this one so a swap would work out cheaper most likely.


Thanks all

 

[jcb]

AJL and AEB codes but depends on your car year. facelift or non facelift? quattro or not (guessing not)

Transvers has lots of different parts for mounts, sensors, looms etc which would all need to be sourced. more bits you buy seperately the more you spend IMO. get a long one first off.

someone here did (BYzan?) can't remember.
if you get the correct ECU for the engine and full loom then there shouldn't be any complications in that department.

 

[au_sjo]

My car is pre-facelift. Were all the 1.8T's 150bhp in fwd cars?

 

[Broken Byzan]

Been there done that, the easiest option is the AEB engine from an A4 or Passat. You will need the entire engine with manifolds and injectors, exhaust, cat, intercooler, IC pipework, some water pipes. The Emissions control will carry over as will the fuel pipes.. You also need to swap the engine looms, ECU and altitude sensor.

I did mine over a long period of collecting parts and it still costed around £800-£1000 in parts to complete. The car however was much better, and once chipped flew !!

The other problem is then that the brakes and will need changing, and then you will need modified insurance as its a full engine swap, and DVLA won't let you change the designation to a 1.8T so you can insure it as one.

Easiest way to do it would be to have a complete donor car to hand.

 

[au_sjo]

Byzan A4- thanks, that's useful. Insurance won't be a problem but i'm slightly concerned over why the DVLA wouldn't change the designation? Do you have any more detail on why that was?

What needs to be changed regarding the brakes? I'm about to put a 312mm conversion tommorrow.

Did you need to re-code the ECU for the key/immobiliser?

Thanks!

 

[Matt82]

how about get a normal 1.8t and swap your bits over?

 

[Broken Byzan]

the 312 conversion does it come with calipers? As the 280mm brakes currently fitted are of a different type of carrier/caliper and will not fit the TT carriers. DVLA wanted written authorisation from Audi to change it, and Audi said they dont have a problem with whatever i want it called but they wouldnt give written permission as the designation is the DVLAs dept. It went round and round for nearly a year and i gave up.
The dash will need recoding to a)tell it you now have a turbo engine and 2) to tell the immo you have changed ECU too.
What age is your car? As things change depending on Immo1 or 2

 

[au_sjo]

how about get a normal 1.8t and swap your bits over?

Probably because if I did that i'd just go out and buy an S4 or something


There are chances that i'd rebuild the donor engine, spec up a turbo and put it on aftermarket management.

 

[au_sjo]

the 312 conversion does it come with calipers? As the 280mm brakes currently fitted are of a different type of carrier/caliper and will not fit the TT carriers. DVLA wanted written authorisation from Audi to change it, and Audi said they dont have a problem with whatever i want it called but they wouldnt give written permission as the designation is the DVLAs dept. It went round and round for nearly a year and i gave up.
The dash will need recoding to a)tell it you now have a turbo engine and 2) to tell the immo you have changed ECU too.
What age is your car? As things change depending on Immo1 or 2

The brake conversion comprises of 1.8T calipers with Golf 4motion carriers with Passat 312mm discs

I have some friends at Audi so perhaps it wouldn't be a problem getting some kind of document produced. I also work for an automotive OEM which may carry some weight.

Dash recoding shouldn't be a problem. Infact i'm contemplating doing some custom dash interfacing if I do go aftermarket management.

 

[Broken Byzan]

Well good luck in what ever you decied to do. The brake swap should be fine by the sounds of it.

If you manage to interface with the DIS i would be interested to see what can be displayed there.

I wanted to have boost and oil pressure on mine, but the company that does the "box" don't seem interseted on giving us actually useful information on the dash. Oil temp is already on the dash, why would i need it in digits,lol

 

[Siena]

DVLA will NOT change the designation of your original car, regardless of whom you work for. All they'll change is the engine code and number, if you supply it.

The original designation is like your car's birth certificate, it remains the same for life. A bit like you changing your name via deed poll - 100% legal, but your birth certificate will ALWAYS carry your original name.

Think how many A4 quattro 12/30V's would then be passed off as genuine S4's, just because they had a transplant! I don't get why you'd want to change the designation anyway - just do your conversion, notify DVLA via the "changes" section in your V5, and enjoy your car.

 

[jcb]

how soon are you looking to do it?
I will have an AJL engine with 110k on it with inlet and exhaust mani, KO3s and a few bots and bobs for sale within the next month or so

 

[au_sjo]

DVLA will NOT change the designation of your original car, regardless of whom you work for. All they'll change is the engine code and number, if you supply it.

Actually i've found that not to be the case in the past. I've even seen Ford Escort vans registered as "RS Turbo Van"'s!

Anyway, I don't have any particular passion to change the designation, just want to inform the DVLA of the new engine number.

 

[au_sjo]

how soon are you looking to do it?
I will have an AJL engine with 110k on it with inlet and exhaust mani, KO3s and a few bots and bobs for sale within the next month or so

No major rush. I assume the AJL engine is the later one? You say "KO3s" but I assume you mean one?

 

[docurley]

AJL was the engine fitted to the facelift 1.8T Quattro with 180bhp standard and the bigger K03s turbo.

 

[au_sjo]

AJL was the engine fitted to the facelift 1.8T Quattro with 180bhp standard and the bigger K03s turbo.

Thanks. Do you know if this is likely to cause additional headache installing into a pre-facelift car?

 

[docurley]

If you get a loom and ECU then you should be fine but then your saying you might go Standalone which means it wont matter but fitting will be the same and bolt up the same as they did not change the mounting point or gear box mountings.

 

[au_sjo]

If you get a loom and ECU then you should be fine but then your saying you might go Standalone which means it wont matter but fitting will be the same and bolt up the same as they did not change the mounting point or gear box mountings.

To be honest, if I go down the big turbo+aftermarket management route i'm then going to run into things like fuel system, flywheel+clutch etc so probably not worth it on this car.

I'd like the swap to be as simple as possible. Preferably in/out same day if at all possible, but could live without the car for a week. Might go for a complete AEB swap but with a larger intercooler and turbocharger and a custom remap down at AmD to my spec, until whatever limit is hit (det, fuelling, etc)

 

[aragorn]

The insurnace issue would be my biggest concern here.

As an example, you might be quoted £200 for a 1.8SE and £300 for a 1.8T Sport but a 1.8SE with an engine conversion to a 1.8T will almost certainly rule out a LOT of the mainstream chaps, and then your on modified insurance costing £600 (or whatever, just an example not real numbers)

The reason getting the DVLA to change the designation is useful, is that if the V5 says 1.8T, then you can probably blag the insurance as to it being a factory 1.8T, hence making it cheaper.

Personally, for such a swap it makes sense just to buy a turbo car. As mark says, by the time you get everything (its all the little bits that cost the money) you'll have spent more than it'd cost to buy a complete car. And once you've baught a complete car it makes more sense to swap everything onto the turbo car, rather than swapping the turbos engine onto yours. That way you also get the nicer interior, sports suspension etc.