Well this is long overdue. I finished the 4.2 swap a little over a month ago, then two days later started a new job in PA and put 2700 miles on the swap already in just one month. I'm very impressed/lucky how reliable its been. Only issue was the battery needing to be replaced. There is a tensioner that is getting a little noisy now too, but I will talk about that a little later. To be honest, I did a terrible job documenting everything as far as pictures and such goes. I was on such a tight timeline, I didn't even think about it most the time. I finished the entire swap in about 3 weeks.
Important notes from the swap:
- AEB to ART wiring is not well documented anywhere, but is almost exactly the same as AHA to ART which has been documented relatively well. The wiring takes a while and kind of sucks, but it's not terrible.
- Prefacelift cars need the entire pedal assembly swapped over to facelift for drive by wire. Honestly, this was probably my least favorite part of the entire swap, it sucked so bad lol.
- Radiator. I used the same setup that was on the red donor car. Apparently it is a 4.2 A6 radiator. I did not have to trim any headlights or anything to make it fit. Obviously the core support needed trimming, but that's the sam with any 4.2 swap essentially.
- Air conditioning. I am planning on installing air conditioning. I have everything installed except for the condenser and AC lines from the compressor. This is because I couldn't find the lines anywhere, but its going to be a very tight fit. I will make a post about it when I do it.
- Clutch and flywheel. I am currently using a stock 2.8 setup due to funds before starting the job. Honestly, haven't had a single problem with it. Seems to hold very well even when full throttle at high RPM. I'm sure the setup is very bad for launching the car, but I don't plan to be doing launches maybe ever. That being said, eventually if I replace the clutch, I will probably go with something a little stronger.
- Transmission. I am using the stock 1.8t 5 speed. Honestly, its not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Obviously it would be nice to have a 6th gear, but it would have been nice even in the 1.8t. Again, its one of those things that would be nicer to have, but definitely not necessary. The lower gears are pretty aggressive for the 4.2 and its kind of fun. Would prefer a 6 speed though, but doesn't bother me at all.
- Flywheel spacer. Make sure you have one if you are doing a dual mass flywheel.
- Check engine light code. Currently have like 12 lol. 4 are because of no cats and bad O2 sensors, but there are also codes for secondary O2, which I deleted, vehicle crash signal (tuns on flashers and shuts off engine is event of accident. Prefacelift never came with this feature apparently), EPC warning lamp (not sure what to do about this yet), right and left engine mount solenoids. These are all the CELs you can expect to have if you do what I did to a prefacelift car. You will definitely need to get the car tuned for manual trans, and have some of these coded out.
A final look at this neglected 4 cylinder engine bay
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Radiator setup from the red car
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Both engines pulled
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
These are electrical noise reducing grounding points that unfortunately broke off the wiring harness due to fragile wiring. They are a ground for the ignition coils and bolt to the fuel rail. I just replaced them with normal grounds because I could not find any cheap replacements to save my life, and apparently they aren't even needed. Didn't notice anything bad without them
Capacitors by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Wiring pictures credit goes to a couple guys on Audizine for a lot of the wiring.
V8 swap wiring by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap wiring by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap wiring by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap wiring by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Fan relay wiring
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
ART wiring harness
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
The flywheel/clutch situation was a little less than ideal. Originally, I had just planned on reusing the clutch and flywheel setup from the red car because it was brand new when the swap was done to that car, and *apparently* it only had like 3k miles on the setup. Which may have been true, however it doesn't look like these were easy miles. The car had three owners after being swapped and I'm pretty sure the car was not gone easy on.
Flywheel face not looking very well
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
New vs. old clutch disk
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
So turns out, whoever swapped the car or did the flywheel never put a spacer in between the flywheel and engine block. The flywheel was actually rubbing away at the rear main seal housing to the point where there were some tiny cracks and oil was leaking into the trans housing.
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
I decided to just make my own flywheel spacer since it was such a basic part and I was on a very strict timeline during the project and could not wait for one to come in.
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
New flywheel with spacer
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Rear main seal gasket came torn from ECS so that set me back a day or two which was touch on my tight timeline
New flywheel installed
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
New head gaskets. Inside of the engine doesn't look bad for 140k miles
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Did all new timing belt, water pump, etc
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Accessory belt tensioner was a different story. The one on the bottom is the original tensioner. As you can see, the pulley is smaller. Apparently this part went out of production in 2001 and they replaced it with the above tensioner with the bigger pulley. Obviously, with a bigger pulley, the stock ART belt no longer fits, you need to buy a belt that is apparently 32mm longer (which the part number is 077903137Q)
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
AWE twin 2 exhaust with x-pipe that came from the donor car
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Milltek 4.2 downpipes heat wrapped (mostly because I was worried about heat in the engine bay and close to the wiring and such)
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Had to buy a new DTS since the one on the car was bent up in the accident.
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Also swapped to an early S4 cluster (wiring was a huge pain) and added the new stalk with buttons
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Cluster is not in great shape apparently
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Engine in
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
How close the belts and everything are to the core support
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Car would start, but would not rev at all after initial pedal press. I chased this problem down for days and it turned out to be a poorly repaired cam position sensor that was on the motor
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
Engine in and semi-buttoned up for a quick shakedown
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
V8 swap things by
Spencer Kohli, on Flickr
More pictures and videos to come of course. A lot of changes to the engine bay to clean and dress it up. My only goal was to get the car running and driving reliably before I had to start work so there's lots of room for improvement. Valve covers are getting powder coated currently, and red top coils and adapters are in.
1 month review on the swap so far - I absolutely love it. Its a perfect amount of power for a B5 IMO. Even though I have an exhaust leak currently, the sound it SO good. Having torque is awesome. Its just so much fun. It just feels very cool to have a V8 swapped Audi too finally. Its not the fastest engine out there, but I think there's a cool factor to it. I'm so happy I was able to do it after all these years. Some of the little things I like are that I don't have to put 93 oct in it like I did for my tune on my 1.8. Gas mileage on the highway is about 21, which isn't bad I don't think. No worries about turbo problems, boost leaks, etc. Obviously there are some downsides too. Allegedly 124lbs heavier than the 1.8, gas milage isn't as good, and 4.2 parts are expensive man, lol. Also it hurts to buy things like the ignition coils and adapters because there's twice as many. Oil changes are more expensive too since this thing takes 8qrts of oil lol. Overall though, very glad I did it and it puts a smile on my face every time I drive it. Very excited to clean it up a bit and work out some of the little issues.
I'm sure I missed a bunch of things in this post, but if anyone has questions about the swap into an AEB or preface lift car, just let me know, I'd be glad to help.