[Brennan610]

How the motors been for the past few months.

I also snagged an entire 6 speed swap.

Last time the car drove before I pulled the 1.8t at the end of November.

 

[NeedingAnAudi]

Oh sh*t, now I feel bad

 

[Brennan610]

In the time that I pulled the V8 I moved shops and I also have been two other b5s in the background.
The one is my daily that I've had for almost 3 years. I originally bought from my friend after he hit a deer with it. It's a 2001 black 1.8t and 5 speed. My intent was to fix up, drive it for the rest of winter and then sell it. After a few failed attempts at selling it I just continued to keep fixing it. This thing has had a lot of work done to it and over the summer it was starting to misfire really bad every time I started it. Went through all the possible misfire fixes and finally figured it was the bottom end. My plan was to take the 1.8t out of my nice car and throw it in the daily, but it turns out that one had a huge score in one of the cylinder walls. I ended up getting a VW motor and using the 06A block with all my b5 parts. It works, but it's not exactly the same as a b5 06A.
Anyway, I'm working on finishing that up and it should be done with in the week.

(How I bought my daily)

(How it looks now)

The second one is a 2001 black 1.8t avant that I bought last year. It had a bad auto trans when I got it but everything looked fairly clean and stock when I bought it.
This car was supposed to be a quick flip and I was going to sell it to my sister to replace her 98 b5 sedan.
Instead it turned into a ****ing nightmare. In the past year I have put 3 automatic transmissions in it and finally manual swapped it over thanksgiving this year because I was fed up with putting auto trans in it.
Also after I put the first transmission in I did the timing belt and all the other normal maintenance stuff. After 100 miles the idler failed and bent all the valves in the head. Don't ever buy a timing belt kit from rock auto lol. I ended up going to the junkyard and scoring a head for $75 and slapped that boy on.
Now after the manual swap the car has been running pretty well and I've been driving it while my other two b5s are down.

(When I bought the avant)

Honestly I should have taken photos of all these projects but you live and you learn I guess.

 

[Brennan610]

It's kind of crazy to think I got my first b5 9 years ago and I still love these cars. I mean they've been broken for about 9 years straight, but I still do love them.
I think when the V8 is done I'm going to look for an S4 to replace my daily, but who knows. :wave:

 

[Brennan610]

 

[xdewaynex]

Sounds like youve been staying busy. Car is looking great. Im still debating on what Im doing with my B5, even though I have several items for it just sitting in the garage, but a lot I still need to purchase to finish everything.

 

[Brennan610]

Sounds like youve been staying busy. Car is looking great. Im still debating on what Im doing with my B5, even though I have several items for it just sitting in the garage, but a lot I still need to purchase to finish everything.

Thanks! The V8 swap plus all the other things I want to get done are starting to add up hah.

 

[Brennan610]

Over the past month or so I've been making some progress on the V8 swap. A lot of time has been spent waiting for parts to be honest.

I started with stripping most of the motor down and cleaning it. Everything was cover in a thick layer of oil.

All clean

I also got some new o-rings and pintle caps for the injectors since I broke a few when I took the fuel rails off.
I got this whole kit for $15 on ebay.

 

[Brennan610]

New diaphragms for the intake manifold.
I found these on amazon for $60 a piece. OEM these hundreds of dollars new. Crazy.

Waiting on the cam lock bar to do the timing belt.

 

[Brennan610]

While I was waiting for other parts I figured I'd knock out the heater core.

 

[Brennan610]

The engine bay currently.

I'm relocating my abs module to the battery tray.
When I had the dash out I rerouted the abs plug up through the abs box. I just have to find a grommet solution to keep the water out.

I power washed the 01E and the diff.

Does anyone know if S4 rear axles will fit into an 01 rear upright?
The A4 inner cv's are too small for the S4 rear diff.

 

[Brennan610]

I took the time to notch my s4 subframe. I've heard conflicting info about having to do this or not, but I figured while it was out I'd might as well just do it.
From what I understand, if you use A4 mounts it will sit the motor up high enough to not have to notch the subframe but it puts the driveshaft cv's at an angle where they could wear out a bit faster.
If you use the A6 mounts then you have to notch the subframe but the motor should sit at the right height for the driveshaft.
Again take this with a grain of salt because I found this info on some pretty old 4.2 swap threads. If I'm wrong, feel free to chime in.

 

[Brennan610]

Here's my S13 project that I've been working on with my brother for the past 5 years.

 

[xdewaynex]

Coming along pretty good. When I was growing up, I remember my neighbor having a mint maroon S13. Always like those cars.

 

[Brennan610]

After way to much work, 3 transmissions and a manual swap I'm finally selling my avant.
It was supposed to be my sisters car but now that it's manual she doesn't want it.

 

[Jettaboy1884]

The Avant looks great, it's a shame to let it go (assuming you haven't by now).

Just curious why does it look like it is sitting so high in the rear? Even a non-sport suspension doesn't quite look that tall. Are the tires slightly lower profile?

 

[Brennan610]

The Avant looks great, it's a shame to let it go (assuming you haven't by now).

Just curious why does it look like it is sitting so high in the rear? Even a non-sport suspension doesn't quite look that tall. Are the tires slightly lower profile?

It was a good car and I sold it to someone who will give it some love, but it was a struggle getting it on the road and reliable. It had went through 3 auto trans missions, a full manual swap and a snapped timing belt due to faulty parts among a ton of other things.

As for the rear suspension, it was just a non sport car. Not sure why it seems taller in the rear. The wheels are 15s and it could just be how it was parked when I shot the photo, not really sure.

 

[Brennan610]

I've been working away for the past few months trying to get everything on the car perfect before the motor goes in. A lot of time has been spent on fixing rust an restoring portions of the car. A lot of "well I'm already here, so why not" type work has been done.

These photos start at around the beginning of May.

Pulled the oil cooler off to replace the little plastic fitting with an aluminum one.

Painted the rear sway bar and brackets

 

[Brennan610]

This is when I started to do the timing belt/water pump/thermostat.

Everything was going well until one of the waterpump bolts snapped.

Tried to drill it out and royally ****ed up.

Started to clean it up to see what I was working with.

Smoothed it out

Luckily one of my friends TIG welds for a living.
He was able to help me out and fix my little mistake.

Good as new

It's a tiny bit porous but it should be fine. I put a heli coil into the block and everything tightened down nicely. I also put some grey rtv on that area just for good measure.

 

[Brennan610]

With that catastrophe avoided, I got back to some more maintenance.

Rear main seal cover gasket.

I also picked up some 034 egr block off plates.

I couldn't find just the rear main seal with out the whole cover and the whole cover/rear main is $300+.
Fingers crossed it doesn't leak.

Cam tensioner gaskets

Timing belt back on.

Finally all back together