[Biturbos4] Manual swap

[Keman]

I know of at least one tuning shop that's done it, as well as stuffed a
manual behind an S6's V8. The latter was some... $30k of custom work. New,
the 6-speed trans itself is $12,000. I am not kidding. Your automatic is
$8500.

If you're serious about this, line up a person who wants to do the opposite.
Find someone of the same year who is tired of rowing his own gears in
traffic and wants to install an automatic.

Then, you just yank the engine/trans combination and do a direct swap,
swapping ECM's at the same time. Remove the trannys when the engines are out
of the car.

Since no money is spent yet, now might be a time to have those turbos
checked out. Bring them to a turbo rebuilder. Think diesel engine/turbo
specialists. They're very skilled in this area and can rebalance the wheels
to perfection. It's real easy to do this with the engine/trans sitting on
the ground.

Then you just start swapping parts. Take the other guys center console,
pedal assembly, wiring harness bits and pieces, and his secondary air
injection system. The latter will need to be retrofitted onto your engine,
the airpump is in the passenger front fender. Manual trans S4's don't have
secondary air injection. You can recode your instrument cluster to look for
an automatic and display it's gear selection.

It won't be easy. But it could be done and has been done. Good luck!

- Keman


> My 2001.5 S4 avant has a tip tranny, and I was wondering if anyone has
> ever swapped in a 6 speed - or if it's even something that is possible.
> If so, where could I find a used 6 speed?
>
> thanks,
> Mike Kuriger