Nollywood

There were different colour schemes for the Audi A4 Touring Cars, but I'm opting for the silver livery as used in Britain for the 1996 / 1997 season. This is the look I want to get close to, ignore the 2,0 16V engine shot, as it won't be applicable to me. The external rear wing won't be available commercially, so I will have to construct mine out of lightweight aluminium. The same applies to the front under-bumper valance.

The Audi A4 Touring Car during the 1996 season:

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20th January 2012:

Audi S8 4,2 V8 2 x DOHC 32V engine being delivered on Sunday, very hard to get hold of. I wasn't actually looking for one, but when I heard of this car being parted out, it was a steal! It would have been rude to have turned it down. This triggered this project.

The search is now on for an appropriate base car to build upon. Luckily Audi A4 Quattro B5's are easier to get hold of than Audi S8 engines! Watch this space.

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And of course, the Audi 80 Competition, the Audi A4 STW's predecessor. The 2,0 16V engines were carried over when the Audi A4 STW replaced them in the Touring Car Championship. I did consider using an 80 Quattro as my base car, but feel it's fairly dated by modern standards. I can actually purchase an Audi A4 Quattro for as little as £400, sell all the parts I don't need, and achieve up to £700 in sales, meaning the car costs me nothing.

Pictures of the older Audi 80 Competition, as used in the Touring Car Championships:









Here's one minus the rear wing, and pretty much stock front bumper:

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My reasons for using the 32V 340 bhp motor as opposed to the 40V 360 are simple - the 32V S8 runs solid inlet tappets, so more reliable at high rpm. It's also non-VVT, unlike the 40V motor. My daily driver is an '01 S8 40V, which replaced an older '98 S8 32V. Despite Audi's figures of 360 bhp for the 40V motors, it hasn't got the edge my 32V 340 bhp car had. Possibly the cable throttle makes it responsive, the valvetrain, or the 5V motors are that less responsive at low-end, I don't know.

The valvetrain is lighter too.

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08th February 2012:

After several missed appointments, my S8 4,2 V8 32V motor was delivered last night, complete with ECU, wiring harness, air box, MAF, Lambda sond x 2, immobiliser interface with matched transpondered key.

I also pulled my old twin 12" cooling fans from the loft, from an older car.

I've done three V8 conversions previously, but every conversion is different, so will be studying the Bosch Motronic ME engine management system. I'm familiar with Motronic, but I'll be integrating this with the wiring in the Audi A4 B5 platform, where obviously the V8 wasn't an option.

Pictures to follow!

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The main unit, the heart of the project. 4,2 V8 2 x DOHC 32V. It makes 340 bhp and 420 Nm torque in stock trim. More importantly, this motor revs to a heady 7,000 rpm, pretty high for a V8. There are plans to squeeze more out of the S8 motor, but later. Pictures:

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Bosch Motronic ME ECU:



Bosch ignition POS (Power Output Stage) x 2:





Audi S8 immobiliser interface:



And the mathing transpondered ignition key, to make it all work:

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Haven't had a lot of time on my hands, but I pulled the AHC motor out of the garage.

I had fun (not!) removing the torque converter and flexi plate. One of the three torque converter bolts had had a rough time - it had been gotten at by someone with the wrong sized tool. It's a T55. In the end, I removed two of the bolts, then by sheer brute force, levered the torque converter off with a massive pry bar, enough to get to the 10 bolts that secure the flexi plate. I then removed these bolts and pulled the flexi, with the TC still attached.

Tomorrow I'll tackle the TC-supporting bush in the end of the crank, just need to buy a pot of grease. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Nollywood

Audi V8 engines, manual and auto share the same crank. The only difference being auto models have a steel bush pressed into the rear of the crank, to support the torque converter.

A manual transmission will not bolt up to an engine from an auto, if the TQ support bush is left in place. It will interfere with the nose of the trans input shaft. So it needs to be removed. Unfortunately, it's an interference fit, so extremely tight. I have not removed this bush from a V6, but have certainly removed quite a few from I5 and V8 models. These steel bushes won't come out easily with a pair of vise grips.

Some have attacked the bush with a chisel and hammer, and eventually got the bush out. This tends to make quite a mess of the crank; it's worth noting severe shock can cause crank bearing failure, maybe not immediately, but possibly later down the line. Another issue which could arise (possibly) is imbalance issues, especially if the chisel takes chunks out of the crank, which will require finishing.

Some have mentioned applying heat to the bush, but in my opinion, that's a no-no. At best, the transferred heat will ruin the rear main oil seal, worse case scenario, distortion could occur, either in the crank rear face, the rear oil seal housing, or both. Either way, not good!

I remove them with just one method - good old hydraulic action. I'm going to list the procedure, the tools required, with photographs. The model in the following photographic sequence is a '98 AHC 4,2 V8 32V, (S8) though the procedure is the same for I5, V6 or V8. I removed the TQ support bush today, and it took me 6 minutes.

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Tools required are:

01) A sledge hammer.
02) A suitable steel drift.
03) A pot of grease or Petroleum Jelly.

The principle is simple - hydraulic action. In laymans terms, the recess is packed with thick grease, though I used Vaseline (Petroleum Jelly). A steel drift which is just short of being an interference fit in the recess is then driven into the grease-packed recess with a sledge hammer. Naturally, the grease will resist the drift going into the recess, and actually acts as a shock absorber against the hammer blows, so the crank is not "shocked".

The grease then needs to be displaced by the drift, and the only way it can do so is to force the steel bush out. You may need to pull the drift out and re-pack the recess a couple of times, as some may escape. If your drift is too small, it'll take longer to do the job. The closer to interference fit it is in the bush recess, the more effective the hydraulic action is.