Bearboy, you're right. Give your mate a slap round the chops and tell him to get the idea out of his head. There are soooo many complications when you're either fitting turbos to N/A engines or doing engine swaps - it's hard, frustrating, expensive work.
Chances are, if he has a decent car at the moment, selling up and upgrading to a 1.8T would only cost a few hundred. It's all about getting a good price for what you've got and getting what you want for a good price too.
Let's say he gets 2500 for the 1.8. Then he bags a turbo for 3500. Yes he would have spent a grand to get it, but would he rather spend more than twice that on a time-consuming project that might not even guarantee a good result?
Turbo installs / engine swaps CAN be done, but it's only worthwhile if you can stomach the empty wallet and if you're creating a car that's not available 'off the shelf'. (Hence all the sodding supercharged Saxos / Corsas etc!!)
The fact that Audi already produce the A4 with the turbo engine ready to go makes it a much better proposal to sell up and upgrade.
Get him told!
Drew.
