bcdavis

Here is a better idea...

If you love the body kit so much, why not swap that onto a nice s4?

Most bodykits are designed to fit both s2 and s4.
So you could swap the fenders, front and rear clips, repaint, and you are ready to go...
It would be a lot easier to swap the wiring on the body kit, and deal with some blending,
and it would be a lot cheaper than the engine swap...

drnick

bc, have you priced a repaint? i think the prices for that vs a repaint must be comparable.

i am going to re-engine my 86 with a GTS powerplant, its currently in pieces with my mechanic having the rings and gaskets replaced for good measure. im not sure of the differences between an 86 and 81 but im sure there must be a few which would add to the difficulty ie the engine mounts and electrics. the 86 has LH injection so its not toooo different to the 87 and up... time will tell and i will post more as i go!

i do echo the sentiments of others, this will cost a sum of money and you still may want more BHP - but dont we all!

bcdavis

I'm not saying swapping the body kit would be cheap.

But in the end, you would have a stock s4 under the new outer skin.
Ready for whatever mods you wanted...
If the 316HP is not enough, you can bolt on a supercharger, etc...

I'd say the best bet, for that car, is to wait for one of the supercharger groups to get their systems
perfected for the early cars. Then boost it until it dies. If it blows up someday, then you can
swap the body kit to an s4, or do the engine swap at that time...

928944

Well I reckon the 81 isnt gonna take forced induction and I have a complete S4. So I am interested in engine swap. If you changed all the parts over from the S4 like cross members, fuel pumps would they all fit in or would things like mounts have to be redrilled?

bcdavis

Search the archives.
Someone in San Diego did it.
I know they had to swap out a lot more parts than planned,
but they said as long as you swapped it all out, it worked fine...

The people that had more problems, were the people who
started with just a raw s4 engine, put it into an old car,
and then had to slowly backtrack, and get all the extra
parts, computers, etc... But if you have the s4 there,
swapping all the parts should not be a problem...

BC

My mechanic did it on an 83. 88 S4 engine into the car, switched the wiring - car still runs great nearly every day.

928944

now thats what i wanted to hear coz i will swap everything necessary. The body kit would have to be ruined to take it off and i love that car.

BC

Another option is screw the wiring and do an SDS or other aftermarket EFI. Maybe woul dbe cheaper then paying for the wiring swap, etc, and more power would be had from the same engine.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Which proves that if you ask a question long enough you may get the answer you want. What Brendan did not post was the number of hours the "swap" required. If you are doing the labor yourself it may not matter. BUT if you are paying a mechanic by the hour the task should cost thousands of dollars. Plus the value of the parts. Unless the S-4 was free ........ Nearly anything can be done. The question is should it be done? So if you want to do it , do it . One shop Owner I knew liked to tell customers .." Sure,I can do that no matter how much it costs "

Rich9928p

the 86 has LH injection so its not toooo different to the 87 and up... time will tell and i will post more as i go!

There are major differences between the '86 and '87 LH and EZF/EZK spark control. The wiring harness is COMPLETLY different. The '87 LH units have 10 more pins than the '86. The EZF uses engine vacuum as a load signal, the EZK uses two spark knock detectors. Pretty much apples and oranges, however they do use the same MAF sensor.

So, beware, there are major differences between the two engine control systems.

bcdavis

That's why you need to extract the donor engine, along with everything it is attached to...
Wiring harnesses, computers, fuel pumps, the whole 9 yards...

drnick

rich, im updating to the later control modules and i have the engine harness for the GTS. apparently there are still some tricks to splicing the existing loom and grafted harness but im told its fewer than 10 wires all up. i spoke to a guy over here who did put a GT engine in an 85 and he didnt think it was too much of a drama. as jim points out it does cost some..

i am really looking forward to seeing a GTS engine under the hood. id bought the SE over christmas while the 86 was in the shop being resprayed. the SE really hauls a** down the road and after a little while i decided the 86 car HAD to have more bhp!

i looked at supercharging before deciding the 16v unit was unsuited due to both its age and higher compression ratio at 10.4:1 of the options at that point re-powering with the later generation of engine seemed to my mind most sensible.

i can completely relate to having a large emotional attachment to an earlier car and wanting to keep and upgrade it although it makes little monetary sense!

sharkmeister85

Rich,
Don't mean to hijack this thread, but where exactly does the vacuum signal originate from on the EZF version engine and what would be the symptons exhibited by the engine in the event of a vacuum leak here?
Glenn