W8 engine conversion - what you guys think?

[skinthespin]

Morning chaps,

I have recently bought a Quattro Coupe 2.2 as a basis for a little project car after selling my track only MR2 turbo, I think its a mid life crisis and have a urge to put a v8 engine ina car, so a 4.2 v8 conversion on the coupe was the plan.

Thing is I have been offered a w8 engine from a passat at very reasonable money and wondered what you guys thought about it.

The engine is very compact, actually shorter than a v6 and narrower than the v8, it is however very complex, with variable cam timing, 4 knock sensors etc etc, so not sure if its beyond what i can achieve in my garage!

Also does anyone have an inkling if it would bolt up to the gearbox? it does also 'only' have 270 bhp and is tuned for refinement, so not sure if its appropriate for what I want anyway (a snorting road car - not a track car).

I know it would be interesting but with my work I dont have whole weeks and hours and hours to spend in the garage so didnt want to mate up an incompatable engine and box.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!!

Skinner

[S2central.net]

Welcome... The V8 conversion has been done before. I suspect you might be first with a W8 notion. If it is a smaller physical package than the 4.2 V8 then I see why not - assuming the engine bolts up to an 016 or 01E gearbox as you say - I don't know about that one but I'd be reasonably hopeful - expensive enough to develop a funky engine such as the W8 - would seem daft to need a special gearbox for it !

[Rusty]

I'd have thought you'd need something like the 034 VR6 to quattro ring for the bellhousing. Should be a nice project, compact engine means better weight distribution and 300bhp isn't to be sniffed at. As to the rest of the conversion, you'd need to use the right place if you haven't got the skills yourself...

[S2central.net]

Oh and I hope you aren't afraid of some electrical wiring - grafting the W8 engine loom into a different car is going to be fun fun fun !

[Rusty]

fun fun fun aka nightmare

You'll need to look into the immobiliser side of things too, newer ECUs usually have a chip coded key so you have to sort that, strip out all the crap from the loom for everything that isn't essential and rebuild it.

[Prophet_dlx]

IIRC the syncro in the 3B Passat is a torsen quattro system from the b5 so it should fit witout funky additional stuff.
It is a great engine but it is f**king heavy, completly destroyed the balance in the passat.
On the + side you cant fit 4 turbos to it

[skinthespin]

the weight thing does bother me a bit, although like you say the distribution will be much better.

I am happy to do the work (I have an automotive engineering degree and am head of design at Norton) so getting things fabricated etc is no problem, and fancy doing something different.

Electrically I am not bothered as I would use a standalone ECU and map it from scratch.......

[Rusty]

I doubt that a W8 is much heavier than the I5 turbo and all the associated gubbins, it'll also be a touch shorter maybe?

[skinthespin]

Its a LOT shorter, they claim shorter than the 2.8 V6.......and lighter than the IL5 which is cast iron, the w8 is all alloy....