Rs6 manual swap! Single turbo sauce

[Bowers155]

Hi guys!
Finally decided to go for it and do a manual swap!
A little bit of history...I’ve owned the rs6 since around late 2014 and enjoyed owning it very much. Every since buying it always been keen to do a manual swap and this is what she looked like when I first got her...


Being on the spanners as a mechanic it didn’t stay standard for very long, within a few months I had an exhaust built completely straight through no silencers or underfloor cats but opted to have them on flanged so they can be reinstalled. Shortly after that my better half bought me some kw coil overs and still being in my early 20s it had to be Low

Not long after this invested into some wheels and at the time a set of Porsche lobsterclaws came up at a good price so put them got bored quite quickly, made the car drive terrible!

Then just continued to just actually use it daily up untill the last 6 months where a change of job means I’ve now got a works van and no longer needed to use it everyday...
Here’s some photos of it actually being used




Loads of other stuff happened but on to the 6speed swap
So about 3 years ago I managed to pick up a donar car for a steal. Car I managed to bag was a 2.5tdi quattro a6, the reason for this is from what I’ve read the 2.5tdi boxes have the longest 6th gear. Here she is when I first picked her up with MOT for £260



Now with this swap I’ve sort of just been doing it in my lunch breaks and Saturday mornings and I haven’t managed to take that many photos but I will do my very best to fill in any gaps or if anyone wants so see anything more in-depth.
So the Saturday morning 21st dec I removed the engine and gearbox from the rs, not my first time!

With in about 3 hours... she was out

Then got annoyed with faffing on the floor so I decided to get involved with the forklift


That’s a far as I got up as a couple hours were chewed up by taking the recovery lorry to go pick up the donor car from a friends farm and bringing it back to work.
I’m my lunch breaks I got the turbo and manifold removed from the drivers side of the engine to remove to auto box.




I also removed the Sai system as the pump hasn’t worked for ages.
The following weekend I got to donor in and removed the following:
-gearbox with linkage and slave
-both front drove shafts
-propshaft

Photo you can see the flywheel and clutch:
Ttv flywheel and rs4 clutch kit, the clutch kit I’ll be swapping out to a ringer racing stage 4+ kit once I’ve got everything working and I’m happy with everything.
Got my rocker covers back from the powder coasters and got my new plates through!



So hopefully the 4.2 s6 starter will arrive with the correct size gearbox shim tomorrow so I can redrill and grind for the starter position.
List of things to do!
-jb weld intercoolers (new ones when I come back from newyork)
-starter mounting
-various gaskets and seals
-tensioner pads
-fit rocker covers
-gut down pipes
-remove pedal box from donor and slave line
-wire pin39 for clutch pedal switch
-wire reverse light switch
And loads more

Follow me on Instagram for day to day updates on my story
(Bowers_rs6)
Took a while to do this on my phone so sorry for the lack of grammar

[Mark-RS]

Awesome awesome thread !

I have been toying with this idea myself after my TC has started to slip a little. I have a friend who's more than capable given the right amount of time and I'm guessing this is going to be a cheaper option over an Auto box rebuild, especially if not paying someone to do the work.

Might be something I look into as it gets a bit warmer !

Will be keeping a very close eye on this thread, thanks enormously for starting it !

[Jayjay101]

About time you put this on here mate!


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[rs4wagon]

great!! hope more ppl will keep them that way instead of breaking,look at my thread,i think we used b6s4 starter with spacer that work well,In mine we put custom flywheel with 3.0tdi dual plate clutch,so far in 3 cars good up to 850nm.Good luck and keep posting

[Covkiller]

Great work. Subscribed

[Bowers155]

Right so little update got some more parts turn up at work


It was the spacer and starter had turned up!
Got on with starting to grind the block out to get the starter motor in correct position...

Not far off getting it all lined up for the correct engagement...

Just need to grind a little more off the little threaded piece on the block and drill a hole here!

Then it was pub o’clock at work and we’ve all sodded off to the pub to play some darts!
Hopefully get starter and hole drilled before the weekend.
After that’s done it will require some washers to space the starter and going to fabricate a bracket to hold the rear of the starter nicely.
Plans for Saturday is:
-removed the pedal box and slave from donor
-final fit of flywheel and clutch to engine
-mount gearbox and starter
-clean the whole engine down as the rocker covers were horsing the oil out
-start the timing chain pads etc

[ian_rs6avant]

what flywheel are you using, and how are you going the box to the engine? are you using a spacer plate?

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[Bowers155]

what flywheel are you using, and how are you going the box to the engine? are you using a spacer plate?

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See the first post I did say what flywheel I’m using and it’s a ttv flywheel.
In terms on spacer/adaptor... I think people make more of a big deal about using an adaptor to use all the bolt holes and here’s why:
-original 01e uses 10 bolts to secure to engine
-I’ve used 6 out of the 10 bolt holes
-the three bottom bolt holes in gearbox originally boleted through 15mm piece of Alu of the sump of the engine attached (not really holding a great deal due to the structure of what it’s actually attached too in my opinion.
-that leaves one decent bolt hole I haven’t used and I’m happy with that
-original 01e spacer I’ve used is 11.2mm thickness this makes the crank sensor position and clutch throw is correct

At a later date I might use the spare upper Alu sump I have and re-drill the spare to accept the remaining 3 bolts
Hope this helps getting an understanding of my point of view...

So now for an update
- Got the hole drilled and starter aligned:

Starter motor meshes perfectly with flywheel

So I set about tackling probably the worst bit in my opinion about the swap and that’s pedal boxes... reason for this is one the donor car is vile inside and two it’s not a two minute job being stuck in there aha
Here is how vile it is:

Getting on with it... I weighed it up and taking the whole pedal box out over removing pin and replacing pedals was going the be easier as the hydro pipe runs under the brake booster so all that had to come off!

I also removed steering column made it so much easier to get out!

Then set about doing the same on the rs...
Got the column out brake booster etc and she now has brake a clutch pedals..

Here’s the a good picture of where the hydro line runs at the fire wall..

And booster master and res back in with the clutch master res pipe installed all needs a clean but I’ll get round to that when everything’s back together or get time to push it over to the wash bay...

Finished all that and before I put the column back on I’m going to change it for the a6 one as it’s got a little play in it and gives a slight vibration over harsh bumps.
Also changing the pedal box also means I’ll have no brake pedal vibrations!

I also managed to get the gearbox mounted to the engine for the last time! The a6 also has these cool wiper arms so there going on the rs6:



The list is now a little smaller next weekend I hope to:
-refit turbo and manifold
-fit engine back into the car
-fit prop and hydro lines and gear stick to car
-wire the clutch pedal switch and the reverse light switch
Beyond that is going to be a few bit like chain tensioners pads etc but I’ll do that with the engine sat back in the car. Driving me mad keep tripping over it by my ramp

[Shoppinit]

What are you doing about the ECU and ABS controller mods for manual?

[ian_rs6avant]

awesome update mate great info, I'm currently rebuilding mine from.the ground up and was going to refurb my gearbox but am seriously considering swapping to a manual whilst it's in bits if I can get a doner car for the fight money.

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[Bowers155]

What are you doing about the ECU and ABS controller mods for manual?

Everything will be stock rs6 components..
A chap will be remotely coding everything. I’ve bought all the cables and got all the software needed to write and log files!

awesome update mate great info, I'm currently rebuilding mine from.the ground up and was going to refurb my gearbox but am seriously considering swapping to a manual whilst it's in bits if I can get a doner car for the fight money.

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Just keep trawling gumtree eBay etc that’s what I did managed to find mine on eBay as a non runner went to the guys house got it running and drove it around for a week before parking it up at my mates farm!

[Bowers155]

another little update
Few set backs today but a lot achieved...
Very little in the way of pictures but got the engine and gearbox mounted together for the last time...


Gutter precats and welder ran out of gas
Managed to finish them not the neatest job but going to change them at a later date...

Here’s a photo with the downpipes and everything on ready to go back in... tried to save the one stud but was unsuccessful so had to make do with a bolt in there untill I change the down pipes.
You also need to grind the engine mount down to use stock down pipes...

Set about getting it all in and was successful

Other bits completed:
-front suspension back together
-front manual shafts installed
-prop and rear diff installed
-gearstick and linkage to the tunnel and into the car
-bled clutch (feels great)
Photo of the inside... it’s a state everything’s filthy

Interior is in pretty good shape although it doesn’t look like it there...
Need to try and find a flat bottom wheel and new gear stick, might even go down the coolerworx/cae shifter style

Going back into work tomorrow to do some more

[ian_rs6avant]

I may have missed it but what you doing about the electronic side ie adding a manual file and sorting abs side out? only thing putting me of.

EDIT just re read any info on the guy in Germany, software required?

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[Bowers155]

I may have missed it but what you doing about the electronic side ie adding a manual file and sorting abs side out? only thing putting me of.

EDIT just re read any info on the guy in Germany, software required?

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Yeah he’s remotely flashing it all for me using existing rs6 abs block.
Clutch pedal switch needs to be wired (easy) one 12v feed into switch other side to pin 39 on ecu
Reverse light switch needs wiring, that’s easy too...
Leave tcu unplugged he will do the rest.
I’ve had to buy 2 cables and download some software for logging etc

[Bowers155]

Update time! It runs and drives but a lot of chasing my tail today...
Got engine in and got it to a stage ready to start it with no front end on to make sure it’s all good...
this is where the head scratching started. Went to crank, no crank. After a lot of messing around I removed transmission control module and after scuffing around with a multimeter finding starter lock relay I got her bridged and she cranked (this is how the bridge should look if you attempt to do the conversion!

After getting it cranking it wouldn’t fire and had no tach
I used the 2.5tdi crank position sensor becuase it was the right size and the rs6 one is to long so set about seeing what the crack was with that, found some broken wires at the top right hand side where the extension for the crank sensor is:

After a little temporary repair I checked I had continuity across all 3 wires on the extension lead and bingo!
But still wouldn’t run and still no tach. It’s at this point I realised the it must be the tdi crank sensor, although it worked fine and the tdi was running before I chopped everything out of it I’m guessing the sensor is wired up to the 3pin connector differently or something.
After the most painfull removal of a crank sensor ever and believe me it’s a dick! I just poped the rs6 sensor in to see if she’d go... bang! Fired into life... so order up a 2.7t crank sensor tomorrow and we should be good to get the car completely back together!