I have been wanting to start a post regarding my Audi conversion for a few weeks now, but have been running round like a headless chicken. Since Spa, I have either been in my garage working on the car, working at my job, or driving somewhere to pick something up for the car. So where did this all start.
Well it was Friday night at Spa after the Qualifying day and we were in the Hotel bar. It is amazing what becomes a good idea after a few beers!!! Myself, John from Plans, Wayne and Tony (my two loyal mates) decided that after the demise of the �K� that we would give it our best shot to get the Audi engine in for Brands. We were going to do it straight after Brands anyway, and we thought that even if we didn�t make it for Brands, we would have given ourselves four weeks head start on next year.
So we got back to the UK and the first week was spent travelling round collecting all of the bits I had on order to do the conversion. As far as engine mounts go, I was using a similar setup to Wayne (Pro Alloy) on the engine side and the rear mount, but as I am using the 5 speed box, rather than the 6 speed like Wayne, we did our own mount for the gearbox side. Getting that gearbox mount right took a while and the engine probably went in and out of the car about twenty times, making sure that everything was where we wanted it.
We have made the engine as low as possible and I reckon the under tray will sit about an inch or so from the sump. We have sat the engine and box quite far back towards the rear subframe so as to make the drive shaft angles as nice as possible.
Whilst at Pro Alloy, I collected most of Wayne�s hand me down parts, such as charge cooler, boost pipes etc etc as he had made new ones for his latest install. I also talked the guys into having my car for a few days to fab up an exhaust and gear linkage and a load of other odds and sods like breather tanks and water tanks and stuff.
Back in the garage, the wiring wasn�t looking to bad. I am using the Emerald and I have basically used all of the K series wiring, the plugs for the injectors and air temp sensors are the same. I am using a 52mm K series throttle body, so the TPS is the same, I am also using the K series water temp sender, so that is the same. The only wiring I have really had to do is for the plug top coils, the Crank sensor, the Map sensor and the boost control valve.
This little lot got us to about the 29th October, and I loaded the car on the trailer for the trip to pro alloy. We had already fitted as many parts as we could so the Pro Alloy boys could do there thing. So I spent the 30th and 31st at Pro alloy where Wayne and Alex basically stopped there business and worked there nuts off on my car. Alex has made probably the worlds most sexual exhaust, the quality of the welding is just awesome and it totally looks like it grew there!! Wayne dreamt up and manufactured the gear linkage, so that the standard Lotus gear change cables would work with the 5 speed Audi gearbox. The gear change is completely different to the 6 speed box, so he had to start from scratch, but what he has come up with is absolutely great. We were thwarted by my gear cables being absolutely knackered, but I have ordered new ones and that is actually what I am waiting to arrive while I sit here typing this.
Whilst Wayne and Alex did there thing, they got one of there guys to basically do what ever I wanted as far as tank fabrication, making brackets, changing existing tanks, welding bits on here and bits on there, basically the guy didn�t stop for two days and stayed late on both nights to make sure everything was done. I can not praise the Pro Alloy guys enough and if anyone wants anything fabricating you do not need to look any further than these guys. They are both Lotus enthusiasts and are already used by the like of Scuffers and Bernard for parts for there conversions.
So whilst all at Pro alloy were beavering away I remade the engine wiring loom as even though all of the plugs are the same, they are in different places, so chopping and soldering took most of the first day. The second day was spent mounting the various tanks and running pipes for the charge cooler and water system etc.
It was a long drive home, late on Wednesday night from the other side of the world that is Cambridge, but I was up and in the garage at 9 ish the next morning writing a three page shopping list for things like hose clips and vacuum pipe and nuts and bolts and this and that, it just seemed to go on and on and on!!! The rest of the day was spent driving around collecting everything.
In the background over the last few weeks, I took my dampers off and sent them back to John at Plans so that he could re spring and re valve them for the heavier engine. I don�t want to talk too much about weights yet as I haven�t weighed the finished article, but I am pretty sure it wont be too much heavier than the K series install (the Audi engine is surprisingly un-heavy especially with the 5 speed gearbox bolted to it) and I reckon it will be lighter than a super charged Honda install, although I may be totally wrong and it will weigh three tonnes, so that is why I want to wait until its all done before starting the weight debate. Dampers were expected to be two weeks, but there was a hold up at Ohlins, so John packaged up a set of dampers they had at Plans and sent them to me so that I can get the car driving. John has also sourced parts such as the gear change cables etc and got them out to me in super quick time, so thanks again to John and Plans.
Another big thank you has to go to Bernard as even though I have not bought anything from him for this conversion, he has been only too pleased to be there on the end of the phone to answer my stupid questions and freely give advice along the way. Top bloke!!!
Another HUGE thank you has to go to Chris (Posts as Pegbox on here) as without him I would not be driving anywhere. One of the first things I did after getting the engine where we wanted it, was to take it to have it measured for its drive shafts, well to cut a long storey short, my drive shaft place let me down. That�s probably a bit harsh actually, but basically no one could make me a one off shaft to fit an Audi lobro at one end and a Lotus motorsport CV at the other to my custom length within a couple of weeks. So I called Chris as I knew he was using the 5 speed box and his car was running. No sooner had we started chatting and he had offered me his drive shafts and anything else I needed off the car. His car was still in Carlisle at the mapping place, so he went and fetched that last night then at about 10:45pm he called me saying he was on his way home from Carlisle (just north of Manchester) so we set off from Brum to go and collect the shafts. By the time we got there, took the shafts off Chris�s car and got home it was 3 am this morning. Properly knackered man, but again, a big thanks to Chris!!!
So during the evening of the 1st and throughout the day on the 2nd and into the evening until we left to fetch the shafts was spent piping and clipping and making brackets and generally having a total nightmare getting everything fitted up around the engine. Obviously everything has had to change, including the fuel pipes, the pump location, the throttle cable run, the engine breather piping, the cooling system, there is now a bloody great charge cooler system that has a rad in the front, pipe work running the length of the car etc etc. We have also changed the oil cooling as I can no longer fit the oil cooler rad in the front due to the charge cooler rad.
So here we are with a week to go before qualifying and what a bloody week its going to be. I reckon the engine will be running by the end of Sunday, I have a few family things going on over the weekend, so I doubt much will get done, but we don�t think there is that much to do before we push the button now.
Monday and Tuesday will be spent trying to put a few miles on the engine with the start up map I have from Wayne, and obviously trying to fix any teething troubles we are bound to have.
Then Wednesday morning will be the start of my race weekend as I will pack the van and everything for the weekend and start out on my way to Emerald. Dave Walker has very kindly fitted me in at less than a weeks notice, so a big thanks to Dave!!!
From Emerald I will drive to Plans for a Thursday fitting of my new dampers and a full Geo and hopefully a bit of testing on the track
Friday at Brands for the test day, then Saturday and Sunday qually and two races. As easy as that!!!
I will post up some pictures when I get time, but its now back to the garage to get this thing going!!
Could everybody please cross there fingers as it isn�t going to take much to go wrong for everything to end in tears. Lol!!!