I pulled my valve covers last night, and dropped then at the paint shop this arvo. They should be ready by Thursday.

In the meantime, I'm going to start cleaning up the aluminium components. I would normally have to sand down rusty steel components, and then paint them. Or even replace if badly pitted. In this case though, there's no rusty steel, the engine is pretty clean. The only steel parts that need attention are the crank pulley, and a couple of the idlers.

Even the starter motor looks like new.

 

Update: 24th July 2015.

I got a call from the paint shop, whilst still at work, that my valve covers were ready. So it was a bit of a crazy rush to drive there during my lunch break, to pick them up.

I'm pleased with the finish and colour match. These will be refitted tomorrow at some point. I am going to start on the aluminium components on the engine. I figured if I buffed them to a clean state, it won't be long before they go dull again. So I have opted to paint them in the original aluminium silver once they're cleaned.

I was also lucky to stumble upon a set of front and rear brake rotors and pads. The rears are no good to me, being for a FWD A4, with bearings, ABS rings and pads. I'll sell them on.

However, the fronts are a bit more interesting - the rotors are D2 A8 312mm items. I just need to purchase a set of Audi A6 C5 or TT 1st gen. front caliper carriers, then they're ready to bolt up to my B5. These are temporary, as I will be running B5 RS4 360mm front rotors, with Brembo 4/6 piston calipers.

Some pictures:







D2 A8 312mm front rotors, and OEM B5 V6 pads:

 

Update: 26th July 2015.

I have just installed my freshly-painted valve covers, cleaned and painted some of the aluminium. I have not bothered polishing the air con compressor, as I won't be using it. The D3 A8 aircon compressor is the variable displacement type, while the B5 A4 V6 is fixed displacement with a conventional magnetic clutch. So I will be installing the B5 compressor in the same location.

The same goes for the D3 A8's combined oil cooler and filter housing. The D3 runs a paper oil filter element, while the C5 A6/S6 is a conventional metal spin-on canister, which I prefer. More importantly, the C5 V8 A6/S6 housing integrates the right hand side engine mounting bracket, so I'm going to use one of these.

Some pictures:

 

Colour matched pretty well, considering the car is 15-years-old:

 

Update: 27th July 2015.

Today, I discovered how different the 4.2 V8 from the D3 A8 Quattro (BFM) is more different than I thought.

It IS an 077 series V8, on the surface, it appears to have more in common with the 079 series V8 in the B6 S4, obviously without the B6's garbage multiple chains. Similar intake plenum, fuel rail, coil packs, exhaust manifolds.

But this is where the similarities end.

The 4.2 V8 block from the D3 A8 is actually based upon the 4.2 V8 Biturbo from the C5 RS6. The RS6 V8 has a block which is unique to it's application. At least it did until the D3 cars were produced.

The RS6 C5 V8 has a larger block, where it bolts to the transmission bell housing, to accommodate the much larger torque converter, which is shared with the W12 Audi A8 and Volkswagen Phaeton. I spent the day comparing the RS6 and D3 V8 motors, and the rear ends are the same. Down to the casting marks on the sides of the blocks, they came from the same cast. Same bell housing bolt patterns that need some fettling to mate them to an 01E.

I will be posting pictures as I proceed, this will be of help to someone else here who is also looking to run a BFM V8 in his B5.

 

Update: 04th August, 2015.

I ordered an engine cradle, and it arrived today. My A8 4.2 V8 has been on my engine stand. Fine for working on just the motor, but it sucks if you wish to bolt the transmission to the engine.

I need to bolt the engine and transmission together, to sort out some of the bolts. Remember, the BFM motor shares its basic block structure with the 4.2 Biturbo from the C5 RS6, meaning some work is required for 3 bolts that don't line up with the mounting holes in an 01E 6-speed manual.

I also purchased a scissor transmission lift, and it was delivered today too.

Engine cradle: you can actually use it as a test rig, if you wish to run the motor out of the chassis.





Transmission scissor lift:

 

As I have stated previously, I have extensive experience with the 32 and 40V 077 V8 engines, including swapping them into various VAG chassis. But this motor is different. The V8 from the D3 Audi A8 continues to reveal surprises, and other unexpected attributes.

As many may know, the 4.2 V8 40V from the C5 S6 is very different from the 4.2 V8 40V from the C5 A6. The same differences exist between the same V8 engines from the D2 S8 and A8.

Besides the obvious differences between the standard and S cars - bigger injectors, more aggressive camshafts in the S engines, the variable intakes were also different, 3-stage in the non-S engines, dual stage in the S engines.

Now, with the D3 V8 engines, there was no S8. Pre-2005 (FSI) the V8 engines were split into two. 3.7 and 4.2 40V. At first, the differences between the 2 engines is their capacity. This is what I also assumed. However, the differences are greater.

The D3 A8 3.7 runs a 3-stage variable intake manifold, in much the same way as the C5 A6 / D2 A8 4.2 did. The D3 A8 4.2 is different, and the variable intake plenum is the same dual-stage unit that was fitted to the C5 / D2 S engines. This effectively means the C5 / D2 S engine ECU's can be used for the D3 4.2 V8 40V, opening up more flexible tuning options.

I'm going to check the camshaft specification between the C5 / D3 S engines, and the 4.2 V8 40V from the D3 A8.

 

Update: 10th August, 2015.

So this weekend, the remains of my 2005 D3 4.2 Quattro Sport was picked up by the junk man, and for the first time since we acquired this property, I could actually see all the walls. Lots of storage space too.

My D3 loaded up, on it's final journey. I was surprised these guys didn't get busted by the cops when they hit the road, so much over hang, made worse by the fact their truck was NOT built for picking up cars. As the front suspension was all gone, it was a battle wrestling the shell onto the back of their truck. Uber overhang! [eek]



And my workspace:





























Assorted engine harnesses, ranging from 2000 B5 S4, 1998 D2 S8 and 2003 B6 S4:

 

As some of you guys may remember, I mentioned the D3 A8 BFM V8 shares cylinder block dimensions with the C5 RS6. As in it's larger at the rear, where it bolts to the transmission. Many RS6 owners who have looked into converting their cars to 01E 6-speed have also had issues when it comes to a bolt-in solution.

After examining the rear of my D2 S8 AHC motor (32V) and comparing it with my D3 A8 BFM (40V), bar the starter motor hoop, the BFM block is no larger. What the RS6, and D3 A8 engines have is an extra set of holes to mount to the much larger Tiptronic bell housing. These holes are on the outside of the ones that would usually accept an 01E. The 32V S8 motor also has these extra holes, though they are not used in an S8 with Tip.

I am going to bolt my 01E to the BFM engine, using the 5 bolts holes that DO match, then drill and tap the extra holes.

The BFM flexi plate, like the C5 RS6 is larger than the regular 30/40V items, so the starter motor will not work on an S4 B5 / 40V flywheel. I have ordered an S6 C5 starter motor. I am going to make a template from my 32V block, then drill / machine the starter motor area on my D3 4.2 V8.

Starter motor should be here sometime this week.

The three holes in the upper oil pan do not mate to the 01E either, so I am constructing an adapting bracket, not to be confused with an adapter plate that is commonly used for manual swaps in the C5 RS6, but also has the added disadvantage of pushing the big V8 further forward than I'd like.

I will take pictures of the process.

 

I spoke to a shop that has made me one-off Carbon Fibre parts in the past. I would like to get the front and rear top engine covers made out of the good stuff.



Just waiting on pricing.