DangerBoy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2010
- Location
- Calgary
- TDI
- 2010 BMW X5 35d, 1997 A6 Wagon AEL 2.5L TDI quattro 01E Six Speed Manual (Salvaged 2018)
Hello everyone!
A while back I did a swap with my AEL into a C4A6 Avant. It was a fantastic car in many ways but it was physically quite long and I wasn't a big fan of the handling.
Late last year I was hit and the rear of the car was damaged to the point that the car isn't really repairable although the diesel specific parts and driveline are fine, in fact the car still can be driven just the whole rearmost portion of the car is crumpled.
I have a chance to pick up yet another C4 Wagon to swap again and this would probably be the easiest route but I also found a 1991 90 20V quattro 5 speed that has a body in good shape. Granted this car isn't all that common as it is in it's own right but I figured it could be really fun to throw the AEL in.
The 90 sedan according to my research is one of the best handling 5 cylinder cars Audi made in that era (1980-1997), and is a bit lighter, narrower and shorter than the A6 I have now.
I've seen a B4 90 AEL swap on another Audi site but that car had the V6 so a bunch of custom fab to the sheetmetal was needed and I would prefer to not go that route. I have extensive CNC machining equipment so machining brackets and such is preferable to burning paint and worrying about messing up the Galvanized coating these cars have.
5 cylinder to 5 cylinder seems at least initially more favorable, though the battery looks like it would need to be relocated elsewhere. I understand the RS2 has it in the rear trunk anyway so I may be able to even find the parts from a euro salvage yard. I met a guy locally that has a 90 20V that is being worked on, I'm thinking of dragging my 3D scanning equipment to his place and scanning the engine bay to compare it against the C4 to confirm there is enough room with the AEL having the VE pump drive coming off the back of the cam.
I guess the RS2 had a 01E so the mounts to make the 01E from the C4 may be possible to find as well as suitable shift linkage assuming I can't make the C4 work. The C4 linkage is adjustable in length.
Anybody have any feedback on this project? I notice the hubs are 4 bolt on the 90 and I assume drivelines will need to be modified to work with one another. The C4 TDI has tripod inner joints on the axles so I'm not sure if I can swap hubs from the C4? I can only assume it runs larger splines and bearings? My C4 cluster comes apart inside so the extra gauges don't need to be attached to the main board but I don't have a 90 cluster to compare if the C4 could fit in the same housing? I would prefer to keep the all digital setup with autocheck from the C4. It would seem likely the B4 and C4 share the same main boards and the B3 and B4 share the same housing at least on the exterior so with enough messing around I could make a clean solution.
I picked up a 2010 BMW X535d and although that car is really fast for such a large vehicle it doesn't get anywhere near the economy the Audi did and it's an automatic, a pretty good automatic... but automatic all the same. Mine has had the alphabet delete and it is the most putrid smell I've ever seen come from a car. The Audi would smoke a little when cold but it didn't smell anything like what the BMW does.
I hope everyone is enjoying 2019 so far!
A while back I did a swap with my AEL into a C4A6 Avant. It was a fantastic car in many ways but it was physically quite long and I wasn't a big fan of the handling.
Late last year I was hit and the rear of the car was damaged to the point that the car isn't really repairable although the diesel specific parts and driveline are fine, in fact the car still can be driven just the whole rearmost portion of the car is crumpled.
I have a chance to pick up yet another C4 Wagon to swap again and this would probably be the easiest route but I also found a 1991 90 20V quattro 5 speed that has a body in good shape. Granted this car isn't all that common as it is in it's own right but I figured it could be really fun to throw the AEL in.
The 90 sedan according to my research is one of the best handling 5 cylinder cars Audi made in that era (1980-1997), and is a bit lighter, narrower and shorter than the A6 I have now.
I've seen a B4 90 AEL swap on another Audi site but that car had the V6 so a bunch of custom fab to the sheetmetal was needed and I would prefer to not go that route. I have extensive CNC machining equipment so machining brackets and such is preferable to burning paint and worrying about messing up the Galvanized coating these cars have.
5 cylinder to 5 cylinder seems at least initially more favorable, though the battery looks like it would need to be relocated elsewhere. I understand the RS2 has it in the rear trunk anyway so I may be able to even find the parts from a euro salvage yard. I met a guy locally that has a 90 20V that is being worked on, I'm thinking of dragging my 3D scanning equipment to his place and scanning the engine bay to compare it against the C4 to confirm there is enough room with the AEL having the VE pump drive coming off the back of the cam.
I guess the RS2 had a 01E so the mounts to make the 01E from the C4 may be possible to find as well as suitable shift linkage assuming I can't make the C4 work. The C4 linkage is adjustable in length.
Anybody have any feedback on this project? I notice the hubs are 4 bolt on the 90 and I assume drivelines will need to be modified to work with one another. The C4 TDI has tripod inner joints on the axles so I'm not sure if I can swap hubs from the C4? I can only assume it runs larger splines and bearings? My C4 cluster comes apart inside so the extra gauges don't need to be attached to the main board but I don't have a 90 cluster to compare if the C4 could fit in the same housing? I would prefer to keep the all digital setup with autocheck from the C4. It would seem likely the B4 and C4 share the same main boards and the B3 and B4 share the same housing at least on the exterior so with enough messing around I could make a clean solution.
I picked up a 2010 BMW X535d and although that car is really fast for such a large vehicle it doesn't get anywhere near the economy the Audi did and it's an automatic, a pretty good automatic... but automatic all the same. Mine has had the alphabet delete and it is the most putrid smell I've ever seen come from a car. The Audi would smoke a little when cold but it didn't smell anything like what the BMW does.
I hope everyone is enjoying 2019 so far!