Zingrox's B8 A4 Build

[kaz02a4]

Cool thread! I'd love to see this car in person; I'm out in WNY, and wouldn't be opposed to a track day or C&C!

[FlyPenFly]

Man, I hope this works.

[Zingrox]

Man, I hope this works.

*Nervous laughter*

[eljay]

Bump for an update! Amazing project and I'm very excited to see this come to life!

[Zingrox]

With any luck I will have a big one soon. Spent almost 4 months waiting for a new ECU to recode, which arrived Monday. Here's to hoping!

[eljay]

Excellent! I hope the ECU recode works. It would be huge for your project and everyone else.

[Party_Marty]

wow, super pumped to see how this turns out! Good work man.

[A4 Centaur]

Best Luck!!

[BMWManiac]

Love the thread....

So engine/trans....what about the driveshaft to rear differential? Once you get the coding of the ECU figured out, this seems like it could be doable for a lot of folks. Did you get a S5 cluster then too?

[Zingrox]

Love the thread....

So engine/trans....what about the driveshaft to rear differential? Once you get the coding of the ECU figured out, this seems like it could be doable for a lot of folks. Did you get a S5 cluster then too?

Driveshaft and rear diff had to be changed to one from a manual. Also, I'm still using the A4 cluster

[eljay]

What else is reusable from the 2.0T setup?
I believe the front core support is the same. What about the fans, cooling, A/C components, power steering items etc.?
Is anything reusable?

Does the V8 wiring harness work?

Thanks!

[Zingrox]

Fans I reused, but the fans are indeed different and if not for initial budget I'd get the S5 fans. I used the A4 fuel lines to the v8 since they mate up and I saw no real issue doing so

The AC lines from compressor and condenser to the quick connects going to the evap coil inside the car need replaced. You could make your own, but no real point if OEM will work perfectly.

Power steering, the a4 hydraulic version will mate up to the v8's pump lines.

The radiator, coolant tank, engine mounts, engine mount support plates and some hardware bits will need changed.

Oddly enough, the brake booster tank can be manual/automatic. The automatic have the feed line to the clutch master cylinder capped off. I cut that cap off, put a hose on the barb, works perfectly. The A4 harness will mate up to the S5 ecu, same pigtail connection. The body and engine harness are different plugs, so you don't have to mess with it past the ECU itself

For the manual transmission, the shifter assembly, rear diff, prop shaft, pedal mount assembly, and some harness pins will need replaced or added. The master cylinder has a place already cut through the firewall, you'll need to pull the little rubber square jammed in there out. The pins for the reverse lights need done, I think, I don't recall anything about it so I'll need to research again so I can do it

[eljay]

Fans I reused, but the fans are indeed different and if not for initial budget I'd get the S5 fans. I used the A4 fuel lines to the v8 since they mate up and I saw no real issue doing so

The AC lines from compressor and condenser to the quick connects going to the evap coil inside the car need replaced. You could make your own, but no real point if OEM will work perfectly.

Power steering, the a4 hydraulic version will mate up to the v8's pump lines.

The radiator, coolant tank, engine mounts, engine mount support plates and some hardware bits will need changed.

Oddly enough, the brake booster tank can be manual/automatic. The automatic have the feed line to the clutch master cylinder capped off. I cut that cap off, put a hose on the barb, works perfectly. The A4 harness will mate up to the S5 ecu, same pigtail connection. The body and engine harness are different plugs, so you don't have to mess with it past the ECU itself

For the manual transmission, the shifter assembly, rear diff, prop shaft, pedal mount assembly, and some harness pins will need replaced or added. The master cylinder has a place already cut through the firewall, you'll need to pull the little rubber square jammed in there out. The pins for the reverse lights need done, I think, I don't recall anything about it so I'll need to research again so I can do it

Thank you very much! That's extremely helpful. As you said as the beginning, it may be best to get the whole car to see and know what goes where.
Hopefully, sourcing those additonal bits wasn't too difficult for you.

[Zingrox]

Thank you very much! That's extremely helpful. As you said as the beginning, it may be best to get the whole car to see and know what goes where.
Hopefully, sourcing those additonal bits wasn't too difficult for you.

It was awful a few times trying to find proper part numbers and differences and specific routing of hoses and wiring. A lot of people also lump the 3.0t parts with the 4.2, saying they will work and are the same. Like the radiator, for instance. Ask me how I found out

If I where to do it again, I'd get a totaled car. No more staring at part logs and websites for hours trying to find the right terminology and part numbers for this single vacuum hose. The engine mount plates took forever, because everyone said the 3.0 v6 and the 4.2 v8 had the same plates. They don't, as I quickly found, and trying to source one when everywhere says 3.0 and 4.2 in the name and title was very annoying. Plus the 3.0 is more popular, so there are way more of those than there are 4.2.

Most stuff was fine, but a few things really irked me. Don't trust titles, and don't build a car by parts

[eljay]

Also, what is the exhaust solution? Custom or would any V6/V8 OEM exhaust from a B8/B8.5work?

[Zingrox]

Theoretically a v8/v6 exhaust will work for the most part. But the tips will not line up correctly with an A4 rear diffuser

I personally got a v8 resonator set, center muffler and then went catless. The rest of it will be custom but basically a muffler delete, so straight pipe back. Since the distance between the tips needs changed anyway, and I wanted a muffler delete, it is just easier

[LuigiR8]

Hey I need your help cause I'm doing a similar conversion in a different level though. I am youtuber: MotorHead Tech and my project car is a B8.5 2013 Audi A4 2.0T FWD with the CVT transmission with the EA888 Gen 2 CAEB 4 cylinder engine. I will be converting it to the B9 2018 Audi A4 DSG 7 speed automatic transmission with the B9 A4 Quattro EA888 Gen 3 Inline 4 cylinder engine & I will be converting it to B8.5 A4 or S4 Quattro AWD drive train. I'm going to need help with programming, tuning, flashing, coding the B8.5 ECU, B9 ECU, standalone ECU, DSG Megatronics ECU, the B8.5 modules, B9 modules, B8.5 sensors, B9 sensors, B8.5 PCM, customize my wiring harness etc. Could you produce me with more info on how your doing it, any advice or know whose doing the module reprogramming? My contact options is youtube.com/motorheadtech or instagram.com/motorhead.tech or [email protected] . My progress is currently occurring right now & it's all up on my youtube channel. I'm trying to figure out how youre doing it (did it). Also any updates since then? FYI I have my DSG transmission waiting to be installed & my B9 engine is currently being shipped to my place.

[JeZeus]

I'm glad you are still working away at it; I have been following your build for the past few months now. I have a 4.2L V8 out of an 2008 Audi A8 that I got for cheap that I have been slowly disassembling and machining/rebuilding. I plan on eventually possibly putting it into an Audi A4, but that depends on how your build goes lol.

Does the recoded ECU work now? You got the ECU from the 4.2L V8 recoded to match the Audi A4's instruments and clusters correct? How much did it end up costing you to get the ECU recoded?

[Zingrox]

I'm glad you are still working away at it; I have been following your build for the past few months now. I have a 4.2L V8 out of an 2008 Audi A8 that I got for cheap that I have been slowly disassembling and machining/rebuilding. I plan on eventually possibly putting it into an Audi A4, but that depends on how your build goes lol.

Does the recoded ECU work now? You got the ECU from the 4.2L V8 recoded to match the Audi A4's instruments and clusters correct? How much did it end up costing you to get the ECU recoded?

I'm using the S5 ecu for the car, the one meant for the v8. The car will think it's an S5, in a way. The ECU only really needs the body harness for start authentication, and otherwise only pays attention to the engine. So recoding takes care of that part. The guy who I was originally going to have recode the ECU has been really sketchy and difficult to get a hold of. The shop with my car, the one who was in touch with the guy to recode it, has also had enough of it. So the shop bought the software and jumped through the hoops to do so. He intends to do it himself from now. Now I have thus far told him to take his time, for the sake of cost, which is why this wasn't all done very timely

Anyway, long story short, same shop (av autoworx) intends to recode the ECU for me, and will be able to do so for anyone in the future. Virginization of the ECU, if from the same chassis, will allow it to work with whatever setup you have

It all would have been done much sooner, but the guy who was originally going to recode it spent a bunch of time wasting everyone's time

[Zingrox]

Well, gentleman, bad news.

The shop with my car has sunk a massive amount of time into getting it to start. And has had no results. Other people of the business have come down to take a gander, and still no luck. They have gone through quite a few options. The wiring checks out well, the modules have been coded every which way, the ECU has had an immo delete, virginization, fully replaced, safeties bypassed, still no luck

This is very disheartening information to me. I digress, the project shall continue.

[A4 Centaur]

Fingers crossed you get through this roadblock.

[eljay]

Sorry to hear that!
So, even a new ECU wouldn't fix it? Did the modules get into some kind of a protection mode?

[Zingrox]

Despite the ECU communicating and not having an immo issue, it refuses to pass start authentication. I don't have the full details because I'm not there with a multi meter and diagnostic system myself, but the garage will give me better details through email so I can investigate myself. If it comes to it I'll code my own standalone, but I'd like to use an oem setup so it all works like it came that way from factory. The garage would like to give it one last go before calling it there, so here's hoping on that. But otherwise if several professionals in the specific field with more resources than I have can't manage it, I'm not too sure what I'd personally be able to find. I suppose the ECU and immobilizer are now redone, which was part of the original goal.

We shall see, I'll keep you guys updated for anyone who would mess with something similar to what I'm doing

[JeZeus]

Jeez that sounds horrible. I'm sorry you are having such bad luck with things. Now a days it seems like unless you have a degree in computer engineering (and even then it might not help much); working on newer cars can be such a pain in the ass.

The main reason I still have my 4.2L wrapped up sitting in a corner, is because I could not figure out how to handle the A4 dash/ecu pairing. I was hoping you would be able to figure something out, but I will most likely now just use it with a standalone ecu in some random chassis. I recently picked up a bmw e46 that I plan on putting a turbo on, so that will fill my car fixing/building addiction for now. Best of luck to you with things though, I've been occasionally checking in on this post for the past year now so I can't wait to see it finally run.

[19birel]

You might want to talk to @Nollywood here on the forums, he's done a number of 4.2 swap in Audi platforms using OEM bits and while I don't think he's done a B8 if anyone knows how to go about it, it's him. Perhaps he could help set you in the right direction with the electronics

[whats77inaname]

Despite the ECU communicating and not having an immo issue, it refuses to pass start authentication. I don't have the full details because I'm not there with a multi meter and diagnostic system myself, but the garage will give me better details through email so I can investigate myself. If it comes to it I'll code my own standalone, but I'd like to use an oem setup so it all works like it came that way from factory. The garage would like to give it one last go before calling it there, so here's hoping on that. But otherwise if several professionals in the specific field with more resources than I have can't manage it, I'm not too sure what I'd personally be able to find. I suppose the ECU and immobilizer are now redone, which was part of the original goal.

We shall see, I'll keep you guys updated for anyone who would mess with something similar to what I'm doing

The main reason I still have my 4.2L wrapped up sitting in a corner, is because I could not figure out how to handle the A4 dash/ecu pairing. I was hoping you would be able to figure something out, but I will most likely now just use it with a standalone ecu in some random chassis. I recently picked up a bmw e46 that I plan on putting a turbo on, so that will fill my car fixing/building addiction for now. Best of luck to you with things though, I've been occasionally checking in on this post for the past year now so I can't wait to see it finally run.

You two could also try reaching out to this guy and see if he has any input that could help you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wVA52rRiv8

[Zingrox]

Thanks for all the tips, guys.

I'm taking the car home (finally) and will investigate a few options. I'm pretty adamant of there being a wiring issue, I assume from bcm 2. I'm using the a4's and the s5 may very well have a different pinout. I'm a bit disappointed that after a year the* shop wasn't able to start the car, but that's the way it is, and isn't worth them continuing it. I need to finish the headlights and map out a few other things regardless, so that'll be good to get done. I'm trying not to remove the entire dash, but if i need to swap body harness or modules then it'll likely need to come out. Stay tuned boys

[eljay]

Bad news, but you got your fan club here cheering you on! We do hope you make this happen! This would be a very nice option for the oil burning 2.0L population.

[Zodiam]

Thanks for all the tips, guys.

I'm taking the car home (finally) and will investigate a few options. I'm pretty adamant of there being a wiring issue, I assume from bcm 2. I'm using the a4's and the s5 may very well have a different pinout. I'm a bit disappointed that after a year they shop wasn't able to start the car, but thats the way it is, and isn't worth them continuing it. I need to finish the headlights and map out a few other things regardless, so that'll be good to get done. I'm trying not to remove the entire dash, but if i need to swap body harness or modules then it'll likely need to come out. Stay tuned boys

Yeah, dont be disheartened dude, once this thing is running you will have the most awesome B8 out there, and i am soooooo jealous.

[Zingrox]

Don't worry, guys. I am not demoralized about this process and I am extremely excited to get it running. So far a LOT of you have PM'd me, messaged me on Instagram, a few emailed me and someone messaged me on Snapchat about all this. Mainly looking for information, which on the ECU I'm not finished with I'm not adamant on. I'll post my information here when I'm done regardless. But I don't mind at all, feel free. I'll message any one of you at any point if I have a question, so don't say sorry. We're all people, if I can help I will

[Zingrox]

So more unfortunate news. I have had a heck of a day. I leave my house yesterday at 7am, get some supplies and the trailer by 8. Go get the car. The interior is absolutely destroyed, ruined. They left the windows down the entire time. Leather is hard as a brick, thick layers of mold and mildew on everything, it's a mess. I'm not pleased in the slightest, in addition to the service I paid for (engine = running) was not accomplished. So I spent all this time and paid them to basically just ruin the car and not get it running.

So I'll deal with that later, getting upset won't do anyone any good. I have the propshaft/driveshaft out of the car, so the rear diff is not connecting to the transmission. So I used a tow dolly to move it, it was the only thing I could find in the area. About 3 hours down the road the rear diff locks up at roughly 65-70mph. Que a massive burnout, huge ploom of smoke, scares the living hell out of me. I pull over, investigate, I thought it may be the electric hand brake at first. But that's not engaged, and the rotors can move when you move the car. So the (used) diff I bought for the manual conversion likely leaked and lost its fluid, or was bad from the start, and locked up.

So I had no choice but to drag the car off the road, unhook and leave it until I find a full trailer, which I already know isn't in the area.

What a day guys. I got home now at 7:45 am the next day. If anyone happens to know of any interior restoration services or cleaning services they can recommend, do let me know. Thanks for stickin around

[Zingrox]

The interior currently. Both windows down, battery completely dead and like ruined as well. Very disheartening, it used to be absolutely immaculate, it was a big reason I bought it.20191012_144251.jpeg20191012_144324.jpeg20191012_144146.jpeg

[Novarider]

It was left on the shops property with the windows down? If so I'd contact a lawyer. That interior is ruined. No way I'd try to save it. There is probably mold in the dash and behind the trim as well.

[eljay]

That is horrible.
It will be too much work to salvage that. See what you can get out of it. If there is water pooled everywhere, it may be more trouble to save it.
If the seats and the carpet soaked it up, it may be a good excuse to pull the interior and carpet, dry the carpet and find some sport or S4 seats to swap in. The shop should do all the work to bring it back where you left, although I wouldn't trust them to do "free" work properly after they couldn't close the windows.
Why would they leave the windows down in any car in the yard on even the nicest day to begin with?

[cuda2000]

What a kick in the nuts. Very sorry for you, that is just the worst. I would honestly give up on it at this point. Whatever you do with it, you have my respect for trying this far! That shop is retarded. Rediculousness.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Audizine mobile app

[Zodiam]

WTF, how does this even happen?

"Oh, i have a customer here who wants to pay me lots of money for an engine swap, let me just leave their car outside with the windows down for days, he probably wont notice.."

Sorry this happened Zingrox, i would be absolutely livid.. you need to demand at the very least they pay for the interior they ruined and the labor required to clean it up...
(And they really should not be the ones doing it, they seem incredibly incompetent..)

[4.2 prototype]

AV Autoworx left this shit outside!?!

[Zingrox]

I'll do what I can to fix the situation, but I'm fairly sure it has sent my entire project and all my work down the drain. I'd be lying to say I wasn't sad about it, I had a lot of hopes for this guys.

As for what to do with it if it totals the car, I'm not sure. Perhaps just part out everything, but that's not my style. Maybe do my best on a restore, perhaps an interior swap. But if it's absolutely boned, maybe I'll try a different engine swap with a standalone, gut the interior and go way over the top with the build.
The car was left with a healthy battery, working windows and they where indeed up, in addition to the fact that I have pictures of the interior before hand, when it was in great condition
I honestly just wanted it to be the way I've made it so far, but it seems it won't work out that way. Sometimes that's how life just is I guess. With any luck, I won't lose thousands of dollars over it. It has really put my spirits through the wringer, I don't even want to look at it. But being sad or angry won't help me or the situation, and it's not like they stole parts or even the entire car from me. I have the car back, it's in my driveway now. So I can at least move forward

[cuda2000]

AV Autoworx left this shit outside!?!

Just looked up av autoworx. Looks like they do Audi, Vw and Jeep. That's like a Mexican restaurant that also serves Bratwurst and Wienerschnitzel. None of it is going to be any good.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Audizine mobile app

[Zingrox]

They have done some neat projects, have some expensive cars and the owner has information and connections that are undeniable. They started from humble beginnings and grew.

I do not wish to trash their name, but regardless this is what happened to me. I'd never go back though, communication was terrible and extremely difficult in addition to everything else. I'm sure they'd be great at fabrication or something, maybe standard maintenance. Take that as you will.

I'm debating my options currently