Van

So, some of you might know that I picked up an Audi A4 parts car about 18 months ago with the intention of doing a 1.8T swap in one of my 944 track cars. Anyhow... drum roll... I'm finally making progress on the project!

I had the engine machine work done about a year ago, and I'm just putting it together now (since I've been home because of the pandemic). I've started the measuring to figure out how to do this - right now my thoughts are: custom flywheel, bell housing adapter plate, custom oil pan (or modified oil pan), custom engine mount brackets, custom exhaust manifold, and possibly a custom intake manifold.

I've been making some videos of my engine build progress (which you're welcome to watch on my YouTube channel), but I thought you guys would like to specifically see some of the design work that I'm putting into the conversion:

87944turbo

Great video and cool project, thanks for sharing!

V2Rocket

There may be some parts you could borrow from the 07K 5-cylinder swap kits, to make life a little easier.
Bellhousing among them.

Zirconocene

Spencer is right. If you haven't seen this thread, I think it's pretty cool: https://rennlist.com/forums/944-turb...ap-thread.html

I don't know how I got turned on to it, as none of my cars are turbos, but I love the work they're doing and I think there must be some good ideas to be mined for your project. I mean, I'd love to see what you come up with on your own, as well, don't get me wrong.

Van

I'm friends with some of the Boost Brothers Garage guys - so I know the route they're taking, too.

It's my intention to use a custom flywheel and the 944 bell housing, clutch, pressure plate, ring gear, starter, throwout bearing, clutch fork and slave cylinder.

V2Rocket

Van - I think that will work great.
Curious if there's any benefit to using the VW clutch package and TOB and adapting the 944 starter + ring gear?
VW has much wider options for clutches and cheaper parts.

Van

The VW clutch disk won't fit on the drive shaft spline... so you'd need a custom clutch disk - and by the time you buy that, I can't believe it's cheaper than a stock 944 one. Also, I'd think most people doing this conversion have a complete 944 with a dead engine, rather than a complete A4/Passat... so they probably have a clutch disk with their car, and unless it's shot, they can reuse it.

V2Rocket

ah, right. gotcha.

looking forward to seeing this. i love the idea of the 1.8 swap especially because of the room it opens up under the hood.

Brockoli

Cool project! I am working on the same thing for my car. I have measured up an adapter plate for the 944 bellhousing. Havent got the test adapter plate made yet to see how close my measurements are. My plan was to use the adapter plate to the 944 bell housing, 1.8T flywheel, pressure plate and then get a custom clutch disc with a 944 splined center section and 1.8T friction material. Sounds like SPEC clutches can make that clutch disc but I havent heard about pricing yet. Nice part about using the 1.8T flywheel is you can bolt the VW starter to the adapter plate on the engine side. I am still figuring out how much room I have for a hydraulic release bearing. Might not have enough room which may lead to a thicker adapter plate and a pilot bearing spacer like the LS swaps use.

I have seen one swap on here (Lapkritis build thread) that used a cast iron top mount T3 flange SPA turbo manifold. Depending on how big of turbo you plan on using it looks like it fits. Bigger turbos may hit the passenger side strut tower....not sure though. This the manifold I bought. https://spaturbousa.com/products/spa...5b2f24e1&_ss=r

MWR seemed to use the 1.8T tubular manifold found on ebay. Their Castrol tribute car has this type of manifold that doesn't look modified with a K04S turbo. The first BOSS tribute car configuration also used this manifold with a GT28RS turbo. And some of their other cars it looked like the same manifold with an adapter or modified tubing to get the turbo out in front of the engine. The Martini Tribute car has the modified ebay tubular manifold with a GT2871R mounted out front. At least that is what I think I see on the pictures from their website.

Only one MWR car that I have seen used a IE manifold or similar (SEM, Grams) and kept the stock brake booster. That was the Gulf tribute car. I have seen other swaps just cut down the runners on a stock intake manifold so it doesnt interfere with the brake booster.

V2Rocket

Re: clutch, it looks like plenty of VW 1.8's used a 225mm clutch - which is the size of the 944 disc.
so could you use a 944 disc in VW FW/PP?

Brockoli

V2 - thats a great question! I think I have both at home that I could compare

Noahs944

I heard that the VW / AUDI engine swaps are sometimes complicated by the requirement of something in the donor instrument cluster... part of the integrated security security system. Can you share information relating to this? (What I was told was you need the key and ecm and instrument cluster to communicate happily or something like this).
Many 1.8 T engines are plagued with problems. I overhauled one that wouldn't start & was thoroughly impressed with the casting of the 5 valve head, but when researching the engine, it was clear it can fail in several ways.

Van

That may be true - I took the engine harness, ECU and instrument cluster from the donor car. However, I'm putting it in a race car that'll have a standalone ECU - so none of the security system will be my concern.

T&T Racing

California Clutch maybe can help on custom clutch disc and flywheel, contact Brandon. CC machined a lightened steel flywheel for my 944 and they make in house clutch discs.

Van

Yes, I've already reached out to them (and Spec, and a few other machine shops) to give me quotes.