Audi 2.7 in a 996

[john walker's workshop]

Maybe some hope for that 996 with a blown engine that ain't worth much as is.

[fanaudical]

Hmmm...

Full disclosure: The 2.7 is my least-favorite Audi engine.

They are right about one thing: There are lots of used Audi 2.7 V6's available. Junk yards and recyclers have tons of them.

I do see one advantage of having a 2.7 V6 installed in a 996 (versus one of the original vehicles they were installed in): It's got to be easier to drop the motor out of a 996 than pulling the front clip on an Audi sedan or Avant. And I guess motors are cheap enough you could have a spare ready to go...

You might be swapping IMS issues and scored cylinders for timing belts/tensioners that like to go, top-end seals that are prone to leaking (valve covers, variable valve timing seals), coil packs short quickly, oil consumption, etc. But certainly less expensive to rebuild.

The kit details are interesting. They were smart to go to a single turbo:

https://www.renn27.com/about/forced-induction

https://www.renn27.com/about/parts-and-serviceability

Some interesting claims about the electrical integration in the kit:

https://www.renn27.com/about/electrical

Is that an Arduino Nano on the circuit board?

[Jeff Alton]

Piece of **** engine.....

Now, a 4.2 in a 986 Boxster......

Cheers

[mikesarge]

As one who recently said a final, bittersweet goodbye to 14-ish years of tuning and driving 380awhp Audi wagons powered by the 2.7t, this is interesting to me. In my experience (over 125k total miles between 2 cars, including most recently in an allroad I rolled over to 280k mikes), the turbos are the weakest link (I’ve blown one set of k03s and 2 sets of k04s in my time). Single turbo makes that better. Would probably be a hoot, and I love how that engine sounds.

It’s a decent platform, easy power, and honestly fairly reliable, but at the end of the day, for me, I’d rather just deal with the IMS and keep a flat 6 in the back. On the other hand, maybe I’m just tired of tinkering with all of my modified cars right now!

[Fly911]

Builds like these are always interesting. I love the engineering and the end result. However, the kit is $10k (plus labor), and an excellent 2.7L Audi V6 is about the same price. So $20k if you do everything yourself. For that amount of money you can do a whole lot of things to the original M96 engine. But not the 450Hp they claim here...
An Audi RS4 4.2L in a 986 sounds like even more fun!

[2.7RS]

I've seen some LS something conversions.
Cheap reliable plentiful

I also got my 997 rebuilt not too long ago, the full monty for around 15k
And the car is reaching 200k miles.

I wouldn't do the audi thing. Just me.

[pampadori]

I think the issues that the 2.7 have could be addressed during the swap - turbos, egt sensors, oxygen sensors, all of those pesky items that keep an audi allroad or b5 S4 in the shop.
You can find complete B5 S4 sedans and allroads for $5 or so if you look. Actually seems like a pretty logical swap.