This afternoon I finished putting the major components back onto the Avant and drove it out of the garage under power from it’s new 47k mile engine.
The instrument cluster is out with Speedometer Solutions having the LCD replaced with a new OEM unit so I’ll hold off on driving it until I get the gauges back.
With space freed up in the garage I pushed the Silver S4 in.
Now I’ll be turning my attention to putting the accessories onto this engine and installing it into the Silver S4.
A couple of days ago the Avant’s rear differential came back from the shop where it was having an MFactory Helical Limited Slip Differential installed. I set about installing the differential as well as a slightly newer Apikol rear differential mount.
I may finally be at the point where I can begin to put the remaining parts back on the Avant, most notably the exhaust, and start it up with the newer engine.
This round of upgrade work at the rear of the car has seen a set of Stasis Öhlins Motosport Coilovers arrive, 034Motorsport adjustable swaybar endlinks, 034Motorsport rear differential carrier, MFactory Limited Slip Differential, and Apikol rear differential mount, to go along with the already present Neuspeed rear swaybar.
The project today was adjusting the 034Motorsport rear sway bar endlinks.
It took a little while for me to determine the best way to go about doing this as they are supposed to be adjusted so that when the car is sitting with weight on the wheels that the sway bar is not under tension.
I decided to raise the rear so that tension was relieved from the sway bar and then disconnected the end links with the wheels off the car. I then put the wheels back on and lowered the rear of the car onto blocks so there was weight on the suspension but I still had some room to work in underneath the rear.
Next I adjusted the top fitting so that the bolt would insert straight into suspension upright while there was no tension on the sway bar. This was repeated on the other side and then all of the bolts were tightened up.
I also noticed that the Avant’s Neuspeed sway bay was set to the firm setting, more than I feel is necessary since the Avant is now going to have the Stasis Öhlins Motorsport coilovers. I changed the Neuspeed sway bar to the soft setting.