With the rear differential still out of the Avant I’m beginning to run short of things remaining that I can do with the car.  Today I straightened up the garage and swapped in this part:

With the underside of the rear absent of the exhaust and rear differential I had clear access to swap out the differential carrier.  In place of the stock part is the 034Motorsport cross member.  Installation was an easy job.

With the rear differential still out being worked on there’s not a lot of urgency to get the Avant put back together quickly.

After reinstalling some of the top end components I am ready to begin refilling the coolant.  With having two engines out simultaneously I’ve had to expand my coolant reclamation efforts.

Three funnels with coffee filters in them are straining out the dirt that inevitably finds its way into the coolant while I am draining it out of the car.  This process proceeds at a reasonable pace and I will intermittently stop what I am working on to refill the funnels so they can resume draining into the “filtered” jugs.

Adding a new upgraded part to the S4 is something I look forward to doing.  This shiny new piece arrived, a 034Motorsport billet aluminum rear differential carrier.

I don’t expect this part to make any difference at all in how the car drives, but it will give me a smile when I work under the back end of the car and see it.

Also, with the car not yet ready to be driven I’ve decided to take the opportunity to have the gauge cluster replaced.  My Silver S4 had a gauge cluster that was removed to be replaced by a sentimental favorite from my original Santorin S4.  Interestingly, even though the Silver S4 only had 43k on it the LCD was showing bad pixels.

The Avant’s cluster now has 290,000 miles on it with a failing LCD display and intermittently the backlighting goes out on the tachometer side.  I was advised to try a lower mileage cluster if possible and the Silver S4’s cluster was a perfect candidate.

I plan to ship this unit off to Tom at Speedosolutions to perform the repair.  Previously Tom replaced the LCD panel on the Santorin’s cluster and also took care of adjusting the mileage to match that of the car.

Just a little progress today on the Avant.  Tightening up some of the bolts underneath the car and one axle.  Installing the SRM intercoolers was one of the more apparent completions.  Luckily this car had SRM IC’s on it when I got it, although they were the stock size inlet pipes where I use the RS4 size inlet, but having some of the frame already trimmed was nice.

I’m moving the entire radiator support over from the Silver car since I had purchased a new radiator when I converted the Silver car from a TIP to 6-speed.  That radiator only has about 4,000 miles on it.  Additionally the lock carrier is trimmed for the SRM IC’s that I’m using.

I did decide to pass on installing the water-methanol injection system for now.  Trying to move it over is a job unto itself and there are still a number of other things I have to do, but WMI is not one of them.

I’ve also decided to go without the Achtuning Oil Cooler for now.  It’s not essential and just introduces more work and more potential complications.  The area where the Oil Cooler heat exchanger sat was loaded with dust and debris so I took a vacuum to the fins.

Even if I get this all together soon my rear differential is still out having the MFactory limited slip differential installed.  While doing work on it the shop found some more parts that could stand to be replaced, reasonable considering the car has almost 290,000 miles on it.  So we’re waiting for those parts to arrive so they can continue with the conversion.