im working on rebuilding my 1982 audi 4000 sedan. i realize its God's gift to car design, but its my first car, and my dad's OTHER baby (bought the car cuz they had me). it was dads first brand new car, and is still one owner the car came with a 1.7 liter 4 banger with a 5 speed...now i need to know what to do. 3 options: 1.8t audi/vw motor...more initial cost, easier to increase power, fairly civilized, tranny swap required...chipped to 250-280 hp 2.2 audi motor...more work, a decent cost but lacking power most of the time, tranny swap required...would be all motor 1.8/2.0 16v vw motor, less weight, less moving stuff in the engine bay, can use same tranny, but will likely be switched for a close ratio...tons more aftermarket, and would be all motor this vehicle is gonna be fixed up by me, but is intended for my dad. he is a prominent figure in the community, and as such typically is up tight about stuff. im telling this because im basically considering mostly the 4 cylinders due to space limitations...but with the 1.8t it would be a daily drivable car that would be nice for traveling. with the 16v, it would be totally impractical, but a good car for my dad to let loose and be obnoxious. im just not sure what i wanna do. my parents do have normal cars, so its not an issue of must have a practical car. any ideas?! eric
oh yeah, and if its NA 16v i decide on, i gotta figure out how to make it crackle and pop like a race car when ya let off the throttle eric
*shameless attention garnering* come on...somebody's gotta have an opinion besides josh yeah yeah i know its an import, but at least i can work on the darn thing...unlike those rice cars! eric
Eric, I know you asked for my opinion, but I really don't know much about European cars. I will list a few things I would consider: Cost. Always cost. Initial installation cost, modification costs, maintainance costs etc. Reliability. Key issue and consideration here. Who cares how fast it goes if it never goes anywhere Want to. I know you can do, but do you really want to? So many people begin these massive projects only to get 1/2 way into it and lose interest. An engine swap is 1 thing, but an engine, tranny, axle, hub, gearset, computer, and harness swap including all modifications to make it work is another. Parts. If it breaks how hard is it to find parts for it? Weigh all the options out before you jump into this. Sometimes we find the simplest methood of developing a bit of umph is also the most desireable... and the most often overlooked .
well, i HAVE to do a swap of some sort...i killed the motor, and its not my car. i feel that this is an obligation to do this--plus its a good learning experience since i havent done a swap before. the tranny has a problem as well...though it is usable. i just need to change the fluid in it, clean it out real good and change the shift mechanism busings. i think what ill do is do it a bit at a time (as little changing stuff in/out repeatedly as possible), so that it is drivable if it HAS to be. that being said, even though im looking at doing a vw swap into my audi, the only difference in the motors is displacement and orientation. vw's are transverse, but my audi is longitudinal. i know that sounds like a big issue, but the blocks are physically the same on the outside, or at least close enough that it wont be much trouble to swap stuff. the other thing is that with either the 1.8t or the 16v is that parts are pretty easily available--especially the 16v...as it has a major vw following worldwide. that helps part cost as well...the 16v parts are dirt cheap for the most part. and most of the stuff on the vw's swaps directly over, and even the tranny swap i am considering is a bolt in affair. the only real difference is that the tranny swap would be from my current wide-ratio to a close-ratio box. as you said, the problem comes in the wiring, but thats why im just gonna rip out all the stock wiring in favor of an aftermarket setup...audi's are notorious for electrical problems, and i know there would be less headaches if i ran all the wires myself rather than trying to troubleshoot wiring problems that are pre-existing. the biggest thing is that it more or less boils down to the 1.8t vs a 16v, and the turbo on the 1.8t is nice, but its more complicated, so i was thinking the all motor 16v might be the best approach. i could go turbo, but taking into consideration how my parents maintain vehicles, i think NA is probably the best approach. its easier to tune and maintain, even though its just gonna be a toy car. i guess it kinda appears like ive made my mind up...but im still open to other thoughts on doing this. OH YES, i also just found out my best friends cousin sells amsoil, so i can get synthetic oil cheap :ss: eric
Turbo turbo turbo, if you are going to do it. It's not really a complicated addition to the motor, in and of itself. In fact, there also really shouldn't be too much above and beyond the turbo and the intake/exhaust manifolds that are unique to the turbo motor to make the installation or maintenance any more complex than any other motor. And that's not to say that the 16v motor has the same parts as the 1.8T motor, or that they cost the same... I'd suspect that the newer 1.8T will cost you more money, and the replacement parts will likely mostly be more expensive also, compared to the 1.8T... But consider what makes parts more or less expensive... How common is the motor? VW and Audi have been putting the 1.8T in just about EVERYTHING. In that sense, it's hardly a rare motor. In fact, I'd guess the only thing the 16v has over it, is more years in production. If it truly is financially feasible, I'd do the 1.8T, since you are talking about a whole engine/tranny swap at any rate. How do the driveshafts compare? That would be THE sticky-point, IMO...
