Swapping V6 with V8 on 96 Audi A4 Quattro

I believe that one of the tuning firms in Germany managed to install the V8 into a B5 version of the A4. However, it did involve extending the engine bay, requiring fabrication of many parts including front wings (fenders?), bonnet (hood?) etc. I'm sure that the conversion was far from cheap.

The problem here is that the V8 is longer than any engine which was fitted to the B5 at the factory. You can't just move the engine back in the engine bay because the drive to the front axle comes straight out of the side of the gearbox. Moving the engine back would require the gearbox to move back which, in turn, would put the front axle further back.

The only thing I would say is that the project was undertaken with the

4172cc V8. The newer, 4163cc V8, as fitted to allroad and B6/B7 S4 and the C6 A6 is slightly shorter than the older power unit, so if you can get hold of one of these, it might make the task just a little easier.

I suspect that this is an project which would be beyond 99.99% of private individuals.

Are you certain you can even fit an older V8 into the car? For the more recent V8 S4, Audi redesigned the engine (valve drive chains in the rear) in order to get it into the engine compartment. In any event, I think you are looking at a rather complicated and expensive proposition. Even if you could do the surgery, have you thought about the impact on other systems (transmission, suspension, brakes)? I think that by the time you address all of the issues, you would be better off (it would be cheaper) buying a used V8 S4.

- Charlie

04 S4 MT6 06 A4 2.0T Tip Avant

Doug, You might want to hang out on the motorgeek forums - the swaps folks are doing there are amazing. As Peter said, the swap is alot more than just shoehorning in a different engine - lots of custom stuff needs to be fabricated, etc. You could probably find an engine by posting to Audifans or on Audiworld, that would be the easy part. As cost is a concern, possibly you should be searching for a supercharger for your V6 (PES?) Cheers! Steve Sears

1987 Audi 5kTQ 1980 Audi 5k 1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes (SPAM Blocker NOTE: Remove SHOES to reply)

I think da-rock's come to his senses!

Chris

"darock" wrote

Neither will be buying a 2004 S4. The earlier S4s did not have V8 engines. Alas, at least you'll have better reliability compared to a '96 A4 with a swapped V8 engine.

Cheers,

Pete