[IceWorks]

Hi Hilly,

awesome project, been following it for a bit. Just got an ABZ engine for myself. was going to put it into the front of my '94 avant but after reading your posts and seeing the picturews thinking of mid mounting in the rear.

One question for ya mate, which gearbox are you using ? been onto AllAudi today to try and find a manual six speeder and i got them stumped.

Cheers

Martin

 

[hilly]

Hi Hilly,

awesome project, been following it for a bit. Just got an ABZ engine for myself. was going to put it into the front of my '94 avant but after reading your posts and seeing the picturews thinking of mid mounting in the rear.

One question for ya mate, which gearbox are you using ? been onto AllAudi today to try and find a manual six speeder and i got them stumped.

Cheers

Martin

Hi Martin

The gearbox I have got is a 01X from a 2004 A4 TDi. You should be able to use a 6 speed unit (01E or 01X in the newer cars) from any 2wd A4 or A6/100.

They are becoming more available now, infact there is one on eBay right now, just search for "Audi gearbox" and it will be listed.

Hilly

 

[a4kquattro]

excellent work. Space was tight for the alternator on my CQ v8 project and I ditched the AC as well, not a bad idea to move it over to the ex-AC spot.

 

[derracuda]

sweet alt. mount! i like that a lot i might have to find one of those tensioners to play with on my car. luckily i don't really need to move it from the pass. side.

 

[hilly]

sweet alt. mount! i like that a lot i might have to find one of those tensioners to play with on my car. luckily i don't really need to move it from the pass. side.

Hmmmmmm.....................

It looks like this alternator mount is proving to be popular, I'll have to post some more pitures of that when I get the mount back off the car after the gear linkage is finished.

Hilly

 

[Shawn M.]

nice progress, you're doing a great job!

 

[Statenheimer]

This project is simply incredible. You are doing fantastic job, and everything seems to be coming together, after a rough start with the other engine.

These are some great solutions you are coming up with... reading down through the one post i couldn't help but laugh:

"couldn't figure out how to do this... *scanning ebay*... oh that might work... yup.... ok, now where to put this... oh... left-hand engine mount... and this... oh, left hand engine mount..."

:lol:

anywho, great job, and I look forward to seeing what your next bit of progress is (and what else you manage to fit on that mount)

 

[123quattro]

Nice work! One of my favorite cars...and engines.

 

[hilly]

Update time.................

Got a bit more done on the gear change linkage.

Having made a mock up of the translator to get the lever throw correct I then machined a new one with a bearing to improve the feel a bit.

Now onto the hard part, the cross gate mechanism........
As the gearbox is now in a completely different position (ie at the very back of the car) the Audi cross gate linkage wasn't going to work, which is just as well as I didn't get that bit with the gearbox.

If I thought I spent a lot of time scratching my head over the alternator tensioner then I must have rubbed right through to my brain over this thing.

The tricky bit was coming up with something with minimal play as the cross gate cable has only 20mm of travel from one side to the other. Any slack in the linkage would make the gear change feel terrible.

So this is what I came up with after many hours on the mill and lathe........

Here you can see where the cross gate cable has to bend around the alternator.

It still works OK, but, the extra friction added by the bend combined with the fact that linkage is 3 or 4 times longer than original Audi unit means that the spring return on the lever to 3rd/4th position is pretty poor. Now I am not sure if the Audi gear lever has any springs in it or it just relys on those within the gearbox but I am going to have to add something to my set-up to get the feel right. More on that in the next update.

Moving onto the oil filter.
The ABZ differs from the PT/ABH as it uses a combined oil filter housing and oil-water cooler. Trouble is this thing is huge and sits just behing the alternator.

From my previous posts most of you will be aware that space in that area for me is zero, so the oil filter/cooler had to go.

The Lotus already had a oil-air cooler fitted so I can use that with a bit of new pipework. A remote oil filter housing solved the other problem. Drilling out and tapping the oil feed holes to accept 1/2 BSP hose fittings and a bit of copper pipe, the new oil system seems to fit around the starter motor, ta daaaa !!!

Hmmmmmm, looking at this update it looks like I haven't done much over the last 2 weeks, I think I need to get my finger out a bit............

Hilly

 

[WAUG0806]

great looking parts! you have been working hard enough to make me feel lazy...

 

[Shawn M.]

nice fab and design work!

 

[derracuda]

nice machine work on the shifter bits!

as for the oil cooler housing, i was hoping you made a nice .5" thick flange that was threaded for AN fittings and uses the stock gasket or whatever's there. that's my plan

 

[hilly]

as for the oil cooler housing, i was hoping you made a nice .5" thick flange that was threaded for AN fittings and uses the stock gasket or whatever's there. that's my plan

That was my initial plan as well, but I had to use some of the tapped holes for the engine mount on that side so I had to ditch that idea and go with tapping the block directly.

 

[derracuda]

yeah, i'm going to try and stick with the stock arms bolted to the block since i'm making a new cradle to hold my engine. the less things i have to fabricate the better

 

[vwhammer]

Just a note on the copper pipe for your oil line, It does not have the greatest fatigue strength.

I saw in an article or on TV somewhere where a well known engine builder used some copper line to build a oil line for his turbo and apparently the vibrations caused the copper to crack. This sprayed oil on the hot turbo and manifold bits causing a fire, which as you may know is not good.

Just letting you know that this could be a problem.

 

[hilly]

Just a note on the copper pipe for your oil line, It does not have the greatest fatigue strength.

I saw in an article or on TV somewhere where a well known engine builder used some copper line to build a oil line for his turbo and apparently the vibrations caused the copper to crack. This sprayed oil on the hot turbo and manifold bits causing a fire, which as you may know is not good.

Just letting you know that this could be a problem.

Hmmmmmmm, I kinda thought it was probably not the thing to do when I put it on, but couldn't think why, thanks for the input.

What I plan to do is cut the copper pipe and fit a length of hose in its place and this should prevent any fatiguing.

 

[hilly]

It has been nearly a month since I last posted something, so I thought I had better do an update. It's kinda light this time as there is not a lot to take pics of
Plus I spent a lot of time sitting in the car testing the gear change action and making broom broom noises..........

Well to finish off the stuff about the gear change I needed to do something about the lever spring return, It was OK from 3rd/4th to 5th/6th, it was the other side that was a bit sticky. Bit of metal and a spring fixed that......

Also had to had to make a mod to selector coupling as I over tightened the clamp bolts and broke it

Moving on, thanks to that top bloke Derracuda (see, I said it again....) I now have a nice spangley alloy flywheel and pilot bearing adaptor.

All was not good when I went to fit it onto the engine though as it would not go on. It was then that I noticed that there was a guide for the torque converter were the pilot bearing adaptor fitted. This thing proved to be a nightmare to get out as pliers, grips etc would not budge it. I ended up having to use a large tap to push the thing out.

With the guide out the pilot bearing adaptor and flywheel went on a treat.

I even tested that the engine turned over with the starter motor until I then spotted that I hadn't put an oil filter on and covered my patio in about a pint of used engine oil, D'oh!

Unfortunatly that is all I have got photos of at the moment, lots going on to post soon though...............

 

[3bAudios]

looks great to me. keep up the good work

 

[bpaar]

looks great. I am in the process of restoring an esprit S1 and am considering an engine swap too.

I know you went to some trouble to rebuild the lotus engine (the whole car), and then added custom fuel injection and other goodies. How did the FI work?
The rebuild was not that long ago, was the swap done for power or was the lotus engine not reliable?
Tranny, why the change to the audi unit?

Thanks, really admire you work
Bill Paar

 

[Jonathan]

This is a very cool project! Seeing stuff like this keeps me going on mine. It's also neat-o to see other people's solutions and store that knowledge for future problem-solving needs.