a4 engine swap??

[crye92]

Hey everyone, i'm new to the forums, but um I recently just acquired an audi a4 "If you can fix it you can have it" kind of a thing. So of course the next day it was sitting in my driveway.

It's a 1999 2.8l quatro v6, automatic transmission.

The previous owner told me she thought it was a head gasket problem, but i dont think so. I went ahead and put new spark plugs in which were baadly needed. The battery was completely dead so i switched that out. and it still had the original fuel filter from 160,000 miles ago, so i switched that out too. which was a lot more difficult than it should have been after those 3 things it's a lot closer to turning over now...
anyways rather than trying to find the problem and fix it, i think i would rather have fun with this car and see what else could be put in. i dont know too much about euro cars, i'm a lot more familiar with nissan, honda, toyota, mitubishi, etc... So what are all the possibilities out there for this car without too much fabrication required? Big fan of engine swaps. Also hate driving automatics so a conversion is in order.

Budget for this car is anywhere from 500-1000 per month, and i'm not really too concerned if it ends up being street legal or not but baby steps for now...

any input is appreciated

 

[obi_waynne]

I'm guessing the engine is fairly coked up and would really appreciate a decoke.

The best mods for a car engine are as follows.
Internal work yields the biggest gains, head work like porting polishing and 3 angle valve jobs will maximise the airflow and raise the power.

If you want to go to the max then cryo treat the block, get it rebored and look into blueprinting and balancing as well.

Bigger valves are an obvious addon but not all engines are suitable as it depends how close together the OEM valves are.

A fast road cam will yield good power gains, especially in the top end of the rev range. Don't go mad though a profile of up to 270 degrees will give the best gains without the engine becoming cammy.

The most popular power mods are induction kits (which are questionable as power mods but they can sound nice if that is your sort of thing) and sports exhausts with sports catalysts or decats.

To keep the car legal I'd recommend a sports catalyst rather than a decat.
The last mod should always be a remap as this will allow you to fully realise the power gains on offer from your mods.

It's worth having a read of the articles on www.torquecars.com/tuning/ for more information on these mods and what the terms mean.

 

[pgarner]

doubt it would be the head but might be worth pulling it off to check, also means you can dechoke the engine, fit lower compression pistons and forged crank. then when you bolt it all back up fit a nice little supercharger to it.


ohh and you could always convert it to manual

 

[crye92]

Ok sounds like a dechoke needs to happen soon.

I have an appt w the audi dealer for a diagnosis on saturday, i rather let them find out whats wrong w it, not a bad price either.

But i'm also gathering that fixing it instead of swapping it would be the best option. How much potential does the stock motor have? I'm not really getting much results through google XD

Thanks for your input, much appreciated. hope to get more

 

[obi_waynne]

You should be able to get another 20-25% power from the engine with the list of mods i've suggested.

 

[pgarner]

you could fit the the 4.2 if you wanted a bit more fun.

 

[crye92]

I think i'm going to consider that for sure