Does Audi Recognize the 5000?

[Steve Sprague]

George Harris writes:

> In the same book there was a write up about the TDI. It started out in an
'88 with 80 hp, and was listed last in an A8 ('94 I think) with 140hp. I
would love to have the economy of the diesel but can't live
> without the get up and go of the gas Turbo in the 5000. Anyone who
> commutes on high speed highways knows what a life saver the ability to get
up to highway speed is when merging.
>
> Has anyone seen the higher horsepower TDI's available on the used
> market? Can they be fit into the 5000 Quattro retaining the running
> gear? Can the older TDI's be upgraded to the higher power?

Audi did not ever sell a TDI engine based model in the US market.
It would be very difficult to source such an engine, and it won't be
legal since none of the Euro engines are certified for US emissions.

Ti,
	I'm not totally up to date on the details, but if George was to tinker, is
it possible to do a TDI conversion?  Say take a Passat TDI engine and graph
it to a 5k or A4?  I would think almost all the parts would convert to the
A4 most easily.  I don't know if the blocks would fit in a 5K but since the
later model Passats are essentially A4's they a lot of the parts would cross
over.  Of course George, you would need to have a very large budget for
parts.  I would think the parts availablity would not be as great but are
there.

	I did learn to drive in a '78 Rabbit (Golf) Diesel which had tremendous
torque off the line and died as soon as I got through the intersection!  And
it still delivered 30+ miles per gallon!  A fun car. (Sorry, I divert).

My 2 pence,

Steve
84 4kqs (315K miles, soon to be 316k)