S2 with A8 transplant

[Ryss]

After having written off my A8 when a dilly woman did a u-turn in front of me, I purchased the scrap car from the salvages for a very good price. I then started looking for a body and even considered transports parts in my 1985 four door Audi 90 Quattro, but decided against that as it would ruin a good car.





Eventually I found a S2 body on four wheels with no engine or gearbox. A bit of surface rust and original left hand drive configuration not considered a problem except that I will need to find a RHD dash. Came with new and two used front fenders and new bonnet. LHD dash that can not be used.


Plans are to fit the engine, Tip gearbox, wiring, ECU, ABS, etc into the S2. Front and rear brakes will be ex A8 and A8 rims. Seats to be sourced ex A3 or some other coupe. I loved the gearbox in the A8. Fast and smooth.

Body prep will be full sand blast and respray. You can see why...







I have stripped most of the A8 and a few observations and comments. The engineering is amazing and a very neat wiring loom. Have labeled so I can put it together again.

Seats (all electric. Front and rear fitted into my 1994 S4 AAN) and floor, firewall insulation are very heavy items.

Under the Dash there in an aluminum cross member that runs between the front door posts. This is one very robust and heavy piece, and can only assume that it is for structural strength in case of a side impact. Will use it in the S2.

Things I am not decided on are if I should :-

give the car a wider track and flare the fenders.

fit a roll cage. (may use car in street events, hill climbs etc)

color scheme. Current idea is white with red, gray, black decals over the front fenders.

S2 subframe to be extended to front of car and new cross members fitted, with engine mountings for V8 attached to subframe instead of body.

if A8 diff parts will fit into a S2 diff , so I can keep the diff loc.

Any comment suggestions welcome. At present just lots of planning and research.

Regards
Ryss

[quattrostyle]

pics of the 90 quattro please

and good luck with the project

[Jamo]

The projects of wabtheking and a4kquattro will be of great interest to you

Good luck certainly wish I had the skill to pull of something like this

[s2_bo]

Are you planning on leaving it Normally Aspirated?

[Ryss]

To answer question to date.
One step at a time. I am an old man and my reactions may not be as good as they used to be. Cone filter, 8 throttle bodies, after market ECU come first. I like the ecomony and the tip tiptronic box. Turbo will mean heavy fuel consumption, manual box, fly wheel, clutch and ecu change.

I think I have enough challenges in front of me. Also budget is not unlimited.

Car should fly with 220KW on tap.

Pictures of the 90?? - when it looks a bit better and I have got the motor in. Thought this was an S2 forum. LOL.

As to the skill. That which I do have comes from years of playing with conversions like 2lt Ford V4 in VW Beetle, Land Rover with Nissan 2.8 engine, 5spd gearbox, power steering etc (no - no pictures... LOL)

Thanks for the comments and replies.

Regards
Ryss

[Jamo]

It might be called S2 forum but unlike other forums most cars of the same brand are appreciated except the A2 which frankly looks the **** of Susan Boyle

[gedu]

An observation from other audi platforms with automatic/tiptronic gearboxes. Gearbox ecu needs communication from engine ecu in form of atleast "load signal" signal being "fuel consumption" signal. That's for older non-tip boxes, I'd say newer boxes might need more data to perform as designed.

[quattrostyle]

Pictures of the 90?? - when it looks a bit better and I have got the motor in. Thought this was an S2 forum. LOL.

yeah but I'm a type 85 addict

It might be called S2 forum but unlike other forums most cars of the same brand are appreciated except the A2 which frankly looks the **** of Susan Boyle

ROFL

[Gazjen]

A picture of mine in progress to get you started. coming soon

[pnanassy]

Hi!

What ECU will you use?

To answer question to date.
One step at a time. I am an old man and my reactions may not be as good as they used to be. Cone filter, 8 throttle bodies, after market ECU come first. I like the ecomony and the tip tiptronic box. Turbo will mean heavy fuel consumption, manual box, fly wheel, clutch and ecu change.

I think I have enough challenges in front of me. Also budget is not unlimited.

Car should fly with 220KW on tap.

Pictures of the 90?? - when it looks a bit better and I have got the motor in. Thought this was an S2 forum. LOL.

As to the skill. That which I do have comes from years of playing with conversions like 2lt Ford V4 in VW Beetle, Land Rover with Nissan 2.8 engine, 5spd gearbox, power steering etc (no - no pictures... LOL)

Thanks for the comments and replies.

Regards
Ryss

[Ryss]

Hi all,

Plan is to use the standard engine gearbox and abs ecu's, all wired up on the standard A8 loom. Will it work..... I seriously hope so!

Gazjen , are you doing a V8 transplant as well? I have collected all the V8 transplants that I have been able to find to-date. Were will I find yours?

Regards
Ryss

[Gazjen]

Mines not documented anywhere I'm not really into posting progress etc but happy to help if i can hopefully mine should be done fairly soon ( fingers crossed)

[Ryss]

I thought it was time for an update. I am still very much in planning stage and the car body is still in Johannesburg and still needs to be transported to Cape Town.

Have managed to locate a right hand drive dash board and the latest idea is to transfer both the front and rear subframes from the A8 to the S2.

Rear is relatively easy as apart from the four mounting points which, from preliminary measuring, are within range of the existing mounting points on the S2. A8 shocks and spring to be replaced with coil overs. On the rear all control arms are mounted to the subframe, so its one complete unit.

I was worried about the front strut mounts but realize that because of the top control arms, the mounting points are closer together than the existing top shock mounts on the S2. So plan is to weld the A8's, two top shock mounts together and then cut them out the A8's chassis. This will ensure original orientation is retained. Refab out of steel and fit to S2. Sure to need some help from a suspension expert on this.

All new mounting points then be integrated into a full roll cage.

I will then end up with a track width which is 7 Cm wider per side, than the original S2. So I have been collecting pictures of various fender flares, in an attempt to work out what will look best on the S2. Any idea would be appreciated.

Next thing I need to check is the steering rack from the A8 and compare that to the A4. I noticed that the A8 turning circle was poor, and I felt this was because of the travel achieved from lock to lock, in addition to the fact that the A8 is a big car. Could also be an impression caused by the ratio and number of turns required to achieve lock to lock. Anyway, I have both the A8 and an A4's rack available. So just need to decide which will be best.

That's it for this update.

[Josh-stateside]

I very much doubt the transmission will fit the tunnel. Expect to do some changes there. Have fun. I can picture some of the stuff that you want to do and I certainly wouldn't be doing it.

[Ryss]

Josh-stateside - You are quite right. Existing tunnel will have to be cut out and replaced with a fabricated one.

Bearing in mind the car is totally stripped, no dash, steering, seats wiring or upholstery. So I am starting from scratch. Lots and lots of work but thats part of the fun and sense of achievement one gets at the end of the day.

Secondly what makes a big difference is that I have I complete car that I am stripping, to transfer parts over to the S2. So at least I have some reference to refer to.