I have been working on VR6 swap, I was going to originally start with my B5 S4. I decided that I missed the niceties of my old B6 S4 but I wanted an Avant. So, I picked up my wagon in November-ish and sold the S4 a few months later, I would have loved to kept it, but I had three Audis in the garage plus my wife's car, I wanted the garage space and the money from the sale would be a healthy boost to the VR fund.
old S4:
older S4 (my first Audi), but inspiration to go back to a B6:
Project Stormtrooper. 03 A4 Avant Tip.
I kept the Bremmerkraft wheels from my Nogaro S4.
I wanted to do this project differently than ones from the past. My old Talon took years to come to the final result. That was a combination of being very expensive and spending many many years in Iraq. For this project, I wanted to accumulate the overall majority of the parts for it and then start. As of now I have been buying parts for over a year.
I picked up a used 24v VR6 last summer, a buddy and I went up to Denver and pulled it out of a Jetta. When I finally got around to pulling the cylinder head off a few months later, I found out that the block was cracked in the main oil return from the inside out. Bummer.
Here is the old VR6.
So I started looking at picking up another VR6. They are in short supply and I could only find a couple of 24V blocks in the US. They were priced really high and the shipping was ridiculous on top of that. I had already that a full B6 01E drive line to swap to manual, a 6765 and an FX850.
So, I did the next logical think in my eyes. I picked up a APB V6 from and a 01/01.5 S4.
I started looking at prices for twin "discos" and started talking to Guru about single turbo and Markuu about manifolds for both applications. Either setup would have been nice and I could have just got some ebay manifolds and threw a set "Franks" on them. That is just not me and the custom manifold prices are quite spendy. I figured with the amount of money needed for a custom manifolds and downpipes, twins and everything else, it would still be cheaper to pick up another VR6, rods, pistons and finish everything.
I highly recommend putting everything into a spreadsheet, it makes life so much easier.
Fortunately for me, In my opinion, I scored a sweetheart deal on a brand new 0 mile 24V VR6 from Issam. Thanks Issam.
I picked up a set of JE pistons and Tuscan rods.
After I received them, I decided to not use the rods and pistons on a brand new block just yet. I called Chris@C2 and talked over my plan with him. I decided to pick up a headspacer to start with and use the rods/pistons later when the tuning is sorted out.
Head off:
Head stud install:
Head gasket and head spacer on:
Flywheel:
Installed:
Twindisk:
Installed:
Starter, Oil filter housing, crackpipe, water pump and pulleys installed:
After this, it was time to turn my efforts towards the car. I finally started taking the Avant apart the last month.
Engine, tranny and driveshaft out...time for foamy engine bright to clean up the engine bay.
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Originally Posted by nefkntym
HTA3582R 1.8L 
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