Quattro Pilot

New to the forum, but not new to Quattros (current daily is a TT).

So I bought a "starter" S8 some years ago, really nice almost perfect cosmetic condition, 3rd owner, higher mileage, always a California car. Just really wanted to see if I would like Audis, and I've always has a soft spot for the "All Aluminum" nature of this beauty. Well, my collection has grown since then, so the S8 sat almost unused for the better part pf two years. The S8 needed a little love, so detailed it and smogged it, generally got things up to date and looking sparkly. Only one minor problem, the timing belt broke on the way home from the smog station.....

So the question is.... do I put an engine in it?, rebuilt or salvage? or does a 173K mile S8 in near perfect cosmetic/functional condition silver on gray / all alcantera have any value as is?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

jfrahm

Value as-is $1500?
Used motor $2500?
Install $?
Value if running $4500?

It's pretty thin. Maybe as-is it'd be a good deal for someone who has a car with bad cosmetics, hail damage, etc. If it was my car I'd repair the engine with A8 parts from a junkyard or part-out engine. Update the trans while it was out. Replace all the driveline seals, CV joint boots, etc.

JAA 4.2

Damn that's tough. If you can do the labor yourself then maybe it makes sense to swap on a set of A8 heads. If you can't I'd cut your losses and sell it for whatever you can get. My guess would be $1000. Paying a shop thousands of dollars to buy/install the parts would most likely cost you more than just letting it go as is.

Oxnardo Ring

You in SoCal?

You might be able to save some $$ by getting creative with the head swap. Even a normal 5V engine will move the car pretty well with the Short Gears in an S8

Quattro Pilot

Does anyone know if the next generation (2004+) A8 or S8 engine will plug/connect to this chassis? It appears they are externally very similar with the valve covers the only obvious difference. I would imagine the valve covers could be swapped (?)

Thanks guys

I am also entertaining offers on this, if interested.

BrianC72gt

Termpting, but as my once daily, now project, ,A8 is up on the lift for surgery my dance card, one car garage, and HOA scrutinized driveway are all full. Sooooo tempting.

jfrahm

The D3 S8 engine is a directed injected V10, if you had the time money and skill to undertake that, you would not be concerned about damaging a $2000 D2 S8 engine.

The early D3 4.2 V8 is possibly an option but I doubt it's worth the bother. car-part.com shows some S8 engines for around $2K or S6 engines for $1500. If the S6 engine is close enough to drop in then it's hardly worth considering even trying to get a $350 D2 A8 4.2 from the pick-n-pull and swapping whatever parts are needed across, obviously that'd be a lot of hours.

Have you looked to see if you just have some bent valves or if you have broken-off valves and bore damage or ?

silverd2

The D3 engines are also hooked to a 6 speed trans, which as I understand (from past posts by Tozo) cannot be swappped into a D2 ... so don't know if a D3 engine can be hooked to a 5HP24a trans (D2). (?)

Cheers

Oxnardo Ring

Over on the swap forums (guys were putting D3 BFM engines in Boxsters... yeah, people do that) there was some hope that the ECU from your D2 might successfully (with some VAGcom magic) control an early BFM motor code.

This is only conjecture from "internet gurus" and we know they are never wrong. /s/
However if you search BFM Audi engine boxster swap it might give you some ideas. At least a couple of people seem to have gotten (immobilizer issues notwithstanding) a D3 BFM running on a D2 ECU or an A6-4.2 ECU.