Expedition Allroad - The New Engine is In

by "Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
Published 01/16/2017 at 10:35

Tags: expedition allroad ; audi allroad ; allroad ; audi ; engine swap
STARS: 16

After about 9-10 hours of work, the engine is in. It’s not really hooked up to much, but it’s on its own mounts, so I’m counting it. Man this thing is a tight fit...

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Started off taking the last few things we needed from the other engine and getting everything ready. Cleaned up the timing belt covers, which ended up being a mix between ones from both the new and the old engine (they’re kinda brittle), threw on the rest of the accessory belt pulleys, and then cleaned and hooked up the inlet pipes.

Then separated the transmission from the old engine, which was a pain in the ass:

Still had the OEM stamped clutch at 165k miles. Not too shabby. Luckily the transmission is light enough to move by hand with two people, so we set it aside to change the slave cylinder (the boot had disintegrated on mine, luckily my buddy had a spare), the throwout bearing, and lubed up the engagement fork:

Hey, another nice shot of the old, shredded timing belt:

New clutch and flywheel on:

After transferring the old engine off to its new home on a few blocks in the back of the garage and mounting the new engine on the hoist, came the extreme hassle of mating the new engine to the transmission. This took at least an hour in itself, with some careful maneuvering of two floor jacks and many, many expletives:

Luckily we remembered the bell housing spacer, which I probably wouldn’t have even noticed on the old engine if my buddy hadn’t pointed it out and told of some horror stories of his friends who forgot it before. No thanks, I only want to do this once.

After that we hooked up the downpipes, O2 sensors, crank position sensor, vehicle speed sensor, and everything else that I’m forgetting:

We also took a little bit of time to get the harness sorted out and made sure all the mess of cables was routed somewhat correctly for when we attach everything to the firewall, as rerouting these things when the engine is in is a much bigger pain in the ass than when its out.

Time to drop the new engine in! People always say it like that, like it’s as simple as just setting in, but it’s a fucking pain. It was probably in the mid 50° range in an open carport, and I was still sweating by the end of it. No wonder you have to pull the engine for every little service...

And this is how we left it. Now we just need to hook everything up, which is just way too much crap to list, and will probably be another day in itself, but we should probably have it running by next weekend, barring any big road blocks. Fingers crossed.

Replies (11)

"Nibby" (nibby68)
01/16/2017 at 10:41, STARS: 7

Here we see a used Audi in its natural habitat.

:D Congrats and hopefully all your hard work pays off

"Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
01/16/2017 at 10:43, STARS: 0

Hahahaha thanks!

"nerd_racing" (nerd189)
01/16/2017 at 11:03, STARS: 0

You should throw a Fluidampr on there. They really smooth the engine out. 651211 is the part number.

"Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
01/16/2017 at 12:30, STARS: 0

Hmm, I’ll look into that

"nerd_racing" (nerd189)
01/16/2017 at 12:35, STARS: 1

My co worker has one on his B5 S4 and likes it a lot.

"Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
01/16/2017 at 12:54, STARS: 0

Nice, is it pretty stock or has he done some things to it?

"nerd_racing" (nerd189)
01/16/2017 at 12:58, STARS: 0

Stage II .5 Stage III maybe soon. He doesn’t work very fast, unlike how he drives.

"Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
01/16/2017 at 13:00, STARS: 0

Hahaha, nice. Damn, these are expensive! Probably not a huge need in my application, but if I ever built it up for bigger power I’d consider it.

"nerd_racing" (nerd189)
01/16/2017 at 14:26, STARS: 1

I think if you shop around they drop off some?

I know they do work well. I’d consider adding it to your next timing job down the allroad.

"Zachary Oberle" (zacharyoberle)
01/17/2017 at 07:18, STARS: 1

They are spendy, but worth it. Have one on my VR6 Jetta. It really smooths out power delivery at lower RPMs, evens out idling characteristics, and even makes clutch engagement feel nicer. It is also a significant durability upgrade. It will reduce wear on internal engine components, especially oil pump, timing chain, and crank/rod bearings.

"Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
01/17/2017 at 11:25, STARS: 0

Interesting. I’ll keep my eye on those for sure