Updated 8/29/2019

This thread is to document the "07k" swap into a 944/968 chassis. The 07k engine is a 2.5L 20-valve inline 5-cylinder engine from VAG.

I started this thread over 5 years ago and I'm so glad that some great minds have joined together to bring this to fruition! Thank you to all of you!

Thread Directory:

• Introduction to the 07k
• 07k vs 951 engine
• Model Year differences for the 07k
• Potential of 07k
• Limitations of OE 07k components
• Upgraded engine internals

Useful Discussions:

• Spa Manifold with G25-660 reverse rotation CAD mockup
• Modifying a Lambo header to fit the 07k
• Working spreadsheet of all swap parts

Parts needed for swap: Further detailed descriptions are available on the NineX Engineering website

• Base swap kit from Boost Brothers Garage - $1250This kit is not a complete swap kit! More components are currently under development. The kit includes the following parts:
  • Engine Mounts - Right & Left w/ Isolators
  • Billet Valve Cover w/ Breather Box
  • Oil Filter Block w/ Gasket and Fittings
  • Power Steering Pump Mount
  • 1.8T Power Steering Pulley (Designed to mount VW 1.8T PS pump p/n 1J0422152G, NOT INCLUDED)
  • All Hardware and Insructions Included
  • OPTIONAL: Aluminum Solid Mount Pucks
• Bellhousing & Pilot Bearing Adapter from Boost Brothers Garage - $770
  • Designed specifically for the 944 / 968 to attach directly to the Porsche torque tube, this bellhousing mates up to the factory 07K engine mounting holes and alignment dowels. There is room inside the bellhousing for a 240 mm VW "02M" flywheel and pressure plate. An 02M starter bolts to the reverse mount face. Removable plugs are included for clutch disk inspection and slave cylinder hydraulic line installation or removal. A GM hydraulic release bearing (part number 24249824 NOT INCLUDED) bolts directly inside of the bellhousing, or a simple adapter can be made to mount a VW release bearing, if desired.
• 944 07k Swap Flywheel by Spec from Boost Brothers Garage - $400-500 depending on options
  • A flywheel and pressure plate made for the VW "02M" 6-speed transmission will bolt up to the 07K crankshaft. This is a larger diameter flywheel (240 mm) than what the 07K originally came with. The 02M starter location in our bellhousing will mesh with the 02M flywheel ring gear. These parts are available from SPEC Clutches and Flywheels:
    • 02M Aluminum flywheel with ring gear is part number SV81A
    • 02M Steel flywheel with ring gear is part number SV81S
  • Available in steel or aluminum, and 6-bolt or 8-bolt
• Clutch and Pressure Plate - $575-825 depending on torque rating
  • The NineX Engineering flywheel accepts 240mm pressure plates for a VW 02M tranmission
  • Clutch discs that fit are 240mm 944 Turbo (951). If a turbocharger is planned for your 07K swap, a clutch disk made for a high horsepower 944 Turbo (951) should be used. SPEC sells 951 disks with an extended 1.07" hub and spline for this purpose. The disk should be paired with the chosen pressure plate stage.
  • Complete SPEC Clutch packages for the 07K 944 / 968 swap can be ordered on the Boost Brothers Garage store for $575-825 depending on torque rating.
• Oil Pan - COMING SOON from NineX Engineering
  • The stock 07K cast upper pan will be modified to clear the 944 cross member and steering rack. A new lower pan will be fabricated to bolt onto the upper pan, and will have an enlarged sump and custom oil pickup. Design is in process.
• Intake Manifold - COMING SOON from NineX Engineer
  • Cast aluminum intake manifold designed for longitudinal 07K applications, and to fit under the hood and clear the vacuum brake booster on a 944 / 968. The stock 07K throttle body or a '96-'98 VR6 throttle body will bolt on. Designed to use the stock 07K gaskets at the throttle body flange and cylinder head. The original 07K fuel rail and injectors will bolt right on. Alternatively, 997 Turbo injectors can be used, but a different fuel rail will be needed in order to clock the twin spray pattern correctly.
• Exhaust Manifold
  • The NineX Engineering engine mounts have been designed to allow the use of aSpa Turbo TMW17 cast manifold$349 along with a Garrett G25-660 reverse rotation turbo
    • The TMW17 manifold is a GGG40 cast manifold, with a T3 turbocharger Flange; manifold accepts 2 bolt 38mm wastegates.
  • A left side Lamborghini Gallardo exhaust manifold (from a 5.0L car) p/n 07L253034A can be slightly modified to fit the 07k and provide a forward facing manifold (for turbo or N/A).
• ECU and Wiring Harness - COMING SOON
  • ​​​​​​​NineX Engineering has teamed up with Performance Electronics to provide an engine wiring harness and standalone ECU custom designed for the 944 07k swap.
  • There is also the potential of using the OE wiring/ECU with some modifications. VEMS is also a very highly used budget standalone ECU in the Audi I5 world with a wide user base and several 07k swapped cars running on it.

Other necessary parts under development:

• Rear coolant flange
• Thermostat housing

Parts the NineX Engineering Kit is designed to use but does not include:

• VW 1.8T power steering pump, P/N 1J0422152G
• 07k OE oil pressure sender
• GM clutch hydraulic release bearing, P/N 24249824
• 07k OE fuel rail and injectors
• 07k OE throttle body or '96-'98 VR6 throttle body
• VW 02m starter

Other parts you'll probably need:

• Fuel lines to reach OE position
• Custom radiator and cooling hoses
• Engine internals
  • Pistons
  • Rods
  • Bearings
  • Cams

Out of scope:

• Air conditioning

 

Introduction:
The "07K" is a 2.5L 20-valve inline 5-cylinder engine from VAG. It's most commonly found in the VW Mk5 and Mk6 Jetta/Rabbit/Passat. A turbocharged and direct-injected derivative is also found in the Audi TT-RS. The cylinder head was developed from the Lamborghini V10. The indirect-injected cylinder head has VVT on the intake cam. Compression ratio is 9.5:1 on the N/A motor, 10:1 on the DI turbo motor.
The 07K is completely different from the earlier Audi 20v I5's. The number of cylinders and bore spacing is pretty much the only thing they have in common.

Another overview in it's stock form:
By the numbers comparison of the 07K vs 951 engine:
07K is the same displacement, 2.5L.
07K has one more cylinder, I5 vs I4.
07K has 12 more valves, 20v DOHC vs 8v SOHC.
07K is an iron block with cast aluminum head vs all aluminum (alusil) for the Porsche.
07K can have a forged crank (early ones or TT-RS) with cast rods and crank vs the all-forged (crank/rods/pistons) Porsche.
07K can be had for <$500 for a complete engine with <50k miles vs $1k+ and lots of miles.
07K is 6.5" shorter from bellhousing to crank pulley.
07K block is 2.5" shorter.
07K is 4" longer on the rear of the motor above the bellhousing due to the timing chain/etc.
07K has VVT on the intake came vs one cam with none.
07K can rev to 8500rpm stock where the 951 doesn't live long at 7000rpm.
07K weighs ~20-30lbs lighter overall with turbo/manifolds/clutch/etc. AND the 07K places much of it's weight at the rear of the motor due to the cam-chain assembly and jackshaft driven accessories.
07K can make 400whp on stock everything (including cast crank/pistons/rods) vs about the same on the 951 engine (at higher boost and higher octane fuel on the 951).
07K cylinder head flows 230cfm (x5 cyl) stock vs 180cfm (x4 cyl) stock on the Porsche.
A plug-n-play standalone ECU will soon be available for the 07K harness where nothing of the sort is available for the 951 (and the 951 suffers from a 25 year old fragile degrading harness). It'll cost about the same as a MAF kit for a 951.
07K has a trigger wheel built into the rear main seal that's been tested to be reliable to over 9400rpm. Much better than the flywheel mounted sensors on a 951.

Engine year differences:
BGP/BGQ/BPR/BPS
These are the early motors found in MY 05-07 cars and are 148hp/166ft-lb. They have the early style timing chains which can have problems if you follow the VW prescribed 10k oil changes. If you treat them like a performance engine and change your oil at more frequent intervals you'll be fine. Forged cranks were randomly sprinkled into production with these engines and you can't tell without pulling off the pan. A forged crank has a much wider flash line than a cast crank. It might be possible to confirm cast or forged crank by the part number on the flywheel mating surface but this is only speculated. These engines have a 6 bolt attachment for flywheels.

CBT/CBU
These are the later motors found in MY 08+ and are 168hp/176ft-lb. These have an upgraded timing chain and use an 6-bolt flywheel attachment on the crank. No forged crankshafts are known to exist in these motors, however the forged crankshaft for the TT-RS drops right in. The TT-RS crankshaft can be bought new from VW/Audi for $1100-1300. The TT-RS also has an 8-bolt flywheel attachment.

A few more differences depending on the year, but most won't matter for this swap:

 

THIS I am interested in following.

Much more interesting than an LS swap

 

Great swap!!! I have been looking at this over the last few weeks as well.

Worth mentioning another couple of advantages:
- the 07K has the same diameter clutch as the 944 so the combination of a 944 clutch and an 07K pressure plate should work well.
- no need to modify the brake master cylinder arrangement
- should sound AWESOME
- the motor is half of a Lambo V10 so we continue the tradition of using "half a great engine" in our 944's!

 

i will follow this with big interest

 

Very Interesting. Please continue posting and thank you.

 

Also some great gains are available on this motor even without turbocharging: the stock intake manifold is restrictive and one supplier had dynoed a new intake at +48bhp with an ECU reflash. Plenty of people getting 200 horsepower at the wheels without cams or turbos...

 

Potential:
Here's the world's first longitudinal 07K in an Audi Ur-Quattro built by my friend Hank Iroz of Iroz Motorsport in Las Vegas. Motor is a build 07K with HTA3582r.


Solid line is the 07K with HTA3582r at 17.5psi. Dotted line as an Audi AAN 2.2L I5 with a Billet K26 at 31.5psi. Both on E85.
Attachment 1205098

And at 25.8psi and running out of fuel on 1000cc injectors with 85psi base pressure.


Progress is still being made with VVT control via VEMS standalone. Better spool is expected as more tuning of the VVT is done.

Aftermarket cams are in development right now, but not released. The stock cams get pretty bad above 7000rpm. With upgraded cams and springs the motor will continue to make power up to 8-9krpm with no problems. You'll need a 67mm turbo to flow enough at those RPM's, but you'd have pretty much an 850whp setup.

If E85 isn't readily available (like in Seattle where the nearest station is 45 min away) then these still have plenty of potential on pump gas. Here are some charts from the TT-RS motor with a GTX3576r which is close enough for comparison.

 

Just put a gtx4202 and be done with it

cannot wait to see this happen

 

How does it sit so much further back? Is the motor itself a lot shorter?

 

This is awesome.... Finally a real build. BTW this is nothing new for the ppl in Northern Europ. They do this all day along.
Keep posting. i might even put this on a 924 shell i have just begging for a something.

 

Amazing..watching this closely.

 

Placeholder for "Limitations of OE 07k components"

 

Placeholder for "Upgraded engine internal options"

 

This has some merit. Had I not gone so far down the road with these i4 builds I would have certainly given this some serious thought.