# 3.2 Head Swap on 2.8 24v Bottom End DIY!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



## 2003gtivr62.8liter (Sep 1, 2009)

Disclaimer: I am not an ASE certified technician and do not take any responsibility if things don't go right.

Your best friend on this adventure will be a BENTLEY MANUAL. Yes, these are around $100, but they are well worth it. They have everything you would ever need to know in them. This is a must have!!!!!

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the mate between the 3.2liter head and the 2.8 liter 24v block. I am here to inform everyone that this is possible. This is my second time on this adventure. 

What you need from the 3.2 is as follows: Cylinder Head, Exhaust Manifold Gaskets, Intake Manifold and Gasket, Throttle Body, Mass Air Flow, Fuel Injectors, Fuel Rail, Fuel Send and Return Lines and Head Gasket.
The engine harnesses from the 2.8 24v can be used for this swap. There is no need to swap anything over from the 3.2 harness wise. I did remove the coolant lines that go into the throttle body, as they are a little different setup than from the 2.8. 

I went ahead and ordered APR head bolts from 034 Motorsports. This was from several years ago back when they had their 3.2/2.8 turbo A4. The Item code I have is: ARP HSK, R32 11MM. The description is: ARP 11mm R32 VR6 Head Stud Kit, note block and head must be modified to accept. That last part did not need to happen. Everything has worked for 5-6 years with no problems. 

There is a different way of doing this head swap if you keep the motor in the car. I took out the motor and transmission due to timing chain install and clutch kit install. 

Here we go!!

First thing you want to do, pop open your fuel door and take off the cap, take out your fuel pump fuse from fuse box. Start the car until it dies out then repeat starting it a couple more times. This will starve the motor of fuel and help make things easier. 

Next, you want to do is drain your oil, coolant, and transmission lubricate (just oil and coolant if motor is staying inside car). 

After the above has been done, you will need to jack the vehicle up and support it on stands. Here you will be able to unbolt both of your axles from the transmission.








To make things a little bit easier before you take out your battery. Turn your ignition on the ACC start side and turn each wheel to help pop out the axles from the transmission. You can also remove the 3 bolts holding on the control arm underneath the brakes and pull the axle out by removing the brake from control arm.

Now, unbolt the battery and remove. (DO NOT PLACE ON CONCRETE!!!)

Here comes the fun stuff. 

Time to unbolt the front end. I love how easy it is to do this. 

First, take off your grill to locate the T30 bolts holding the bumper on. There are two more bolts behind each side lower grill piece. Next, there will be 4 T25 bolts inside the fender wells for both sides (8 total T25 screws). Once all of the bolts have been taken out you can remove the front bumper. 

Now that you can see the core support, it is time to remove it and put aside. There will be 4 bolts that sit on the outside wall of frame. They are ½” socket. There are two bolts holding the top section onto the fender frame (10mm).

When ready to take out, it is better to have 2 people. Unbolt the radiator from the core support by 2 bolts on each side (T30). With each person on opposite sides, hold the bottom and side of the radiator and pull off the core support. You will want to have something to place the radiator on until you are ready to completely remove the radiator to reduce the risk of messing up your hoses. 

In order to remove the radiator by itself, you must unbolt the fans or you can disconnect the 2 3-pin connectors near the bottom of the radiator on the driver’s side. These can be a pain in the ass. Take your time so you don’t break the connector like I did. Now you will probably want to disconnect the A/C cooler with 4 bolts total on the front of the radiator. Once these are off you can remove the whole radiator and fans together. You will want to have your refrigerant taken out professionally, if not take out a bolt to open the ac unit and run (this is not recommended and can be harmful to your health as the refrigerant is heavier than air and will sit in your lungs). Once you have come back to it, you can remove the ac components that sit in the front out and put aside.

Once you have achieved everything above take a small break. Never work on this if you are getting frustrated. It is best to stop where you are at and come back a little bit later. 

Now that we are back, here is the way to take out your motor.

Enjoy!!!!!


Take off your intake tubing and disconnect all connectors along it and at the throttle body. Once this is done unbolt your throttle body and set aside. 

You will need to disconnect all the hoses from the back of the intake manifold. These can be a pain in the ass. Don’t stress about it. Take your time. Things will break if your pissed.

To take off the intake manifold you will have 9 Allen head bolts to remove from the front, 6mm allen head tool. Now there are 3 bolts left at 1-rear of the manifold 2-each side. 

Disconnect your coil connections and set aside out of the way. Remove each coil before taking off manifold. Once this is done proceed to remove manifold. Watch out for the dip stick as it will hit and scratch up your finish on the manifold. Once done you will be able to see your Fuel Rail and the rest of your valve cover.







Once off, plug holes with something.









Take out your spark plugs and set aside. From here you will want to put the motor in Top Dead Center (TDC). To do this, you will need a long zip-tie, ruler and another helper. The zip-tie will be put down the 1st cylinder where the spark plug was. Grab your 27mm socket for your crankshaft. Rotate your crankshaft pulley clockwise while one of you put the ruler flat on the valve cover and find the highest spot the zip-tie goes. Now take it around again and stop once you reach that point. You can also take off your valve cover and look at the cam ends, opposite the chain, for when a cam locking tool can be inserted into the cam end. You will have the motor and cams at TDC if you can insert that tool.









CONGRADULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You now have your engine at TDC. 

Plug your spark plug holes so nothing gets down in the pistons. I used the Blue Shop towels you get at AutoZone. 

You will now proceed to remove the shifting cables from your shifter mechanisms by taking off the securing clip and removing the bushings. Right underneath these will be your speedo sensor. Disconnect that. Disconnect your power steering line from the transmission mount and from the starter.
You will want to take out your whole thermostat housing (housing mates to engine). There will still be fluid coming out. It shouldn’t be a lot. Plug with a shop towel or paper towel. 

Start disconnecting your fuel injector connections that are under your rail, these are very brittle and I would recommend replacement of these. Take off both the return and send fuel line. Take out the bolts holding the fuel rail onto the head. The rail can be a pain to remove. Take your time. My injectors came with the rail when taken off. Take your time. 

Take off your Alternator, A/C unit and Power steering from the carrier. Once those three are off unbolt the carrier. Do not let the power steering pulley hang. 

Take out your starter and set aside. 

Now you will be taking off all connectors that are attached to the motor and transmission. You can mark them if you want. Once you put everything back on, it is kind of self-explanatory. They can go on only one way.

Now take off your exhaust manifold heat shield. Once that is done grab your 12mm socket and take off the nuts on the exhaust manifolds. Don’t worry if the studs come out with it. You might want to have a small pry bar to help separate the manifolds from the head. 

With the car, still up on stands, go underneath and disconnect the dog bone mount that connects the transmission to the sub frame. 

Grab your engine hoist and hook up your engine.









Once you have your engine securely attached to the hoist unbolt your engine and transmission mounts. Once they are disconnected it is time to take out the engine. I found it best to have 3 people for this task. 1 person needs to be in charge of moving/jacking the hoist as necessary and the other 2 need to be on each side to help guide the motor and trans out. It helps to have a leveler with your hoist, as you will need to use to get transmission out first. 

I found it is easiest to place the whole motor on a tire. Make sure you place something on both sides to secure engine from falling. 

Draw a picture of the transmission and place holes where the bolt would go. This helps with making sure you have the right bolt in the correct hole when you put everything back together again.









Once you remove the transmission from the engine the motor will fit great in the tire. 

Congrats if you have made it this far!!!!!! Not so hard, now is it??

It’s time to remove the head!

If you took out your motor and transmission you might as well do your timing and clutch if needed. You will already be right there to do the job.

Start by taking off your valve cover. Don’t worry the bolts are supposed to stay attached to the cover. Unbolt all the bolts and nuts and lift off.

Since you are already at TDC you can take off the timing chain adjuster bolt.







Then start taking off the upper timing chain cover. You might have to tap it with a rubber mallet or take a plastic scraper and try to pry it off the head. Once you have this taken off it is time to take out the cams.

When you look at the cam you will want to find the spot to put a wrench. Should be near the 5th or 6th cylinder for both the intake and exhaust cam. 


With the wrench in place you will want to loosen and take out the cam adjuster bolt. There is one for each cam. These bolts will be hard to break free. Once they are out there will be 4 12point bolts that you will need to take out of the cam sleeve do hicky. Be careful taking this off. There is a screen that will pop out if not careful. Do not lose this screen!

Now you will need to take off your caps. There is a special order to take them off. On the Intake cam, you will want to remove caps 1 & 13 first then follow this order: 3 & 11, 7, Loosen nuts on caps 5 & 9 alternately and evenly to relieve valve spring tension. When all the tension is relieved remove all caps on the Intake Manifold and set aside. Now the Exhaust side, remove 2 & 14, 4 & 12, 8, Loosen nuts on caps 6 & 10 alternately and evenly to relieve valve spring tension. Once taken off and each cam is put aside somewhere safe, start taking out your head bolts. There is also a certain sequence for this.









Take off your head with a friend. 

Next you will need to take off your head gasket. I advise to replace your gasket every time you take off your head. 

Now, clean off the block surface. There will be residue from your gasket left on there. In order to do this, you will need to plug all the coolant and oil holes with a newspaper or paper towel. This is to prevent debris from fall in while cleaning. Once you have successfully cleaned off the block take a vacuum to the pistons, but be careful not to scratch the cylinder walls. 

Now it is time to put the R32 head on!!!!!!!

From here on out you are putting everything back together again. There is a different sequence to install the head bolts other than the removal and also the cam caps

Cams: Make sure you put the caps back on the same way you took them off. There is a small point on the end of the caps. This point needs to be positioned towards the intake manifold side. The numbers on the caps will need to be readable from the intake side. Install caps in this order evenly: 5 & 9, 1 & 13, 7 with sides lubricated, 3 & 11. Exhaust cam: 6 & 10, 2 & 14, 8 with sides lubricated, 4 & 12. Torque setting for this is 5Nm (44 in-lb) + ¼ turn. 

Head install pattern









I would look into buying the ARP setup head bolts for this build. There is nothing wrong with making sure everything is bolted down and stays bolted down. 

I said this in the beginning of this thread and am saying it now, BUY THE BENTLY MANUAL!!!!!!!

Hope this helps everyone out for this 3.2/2.8 setup. I highly recommend UNITED MOTORSPORTS for your tuning needs. They have never failed me after 8 yrs of service.

If anyone has something they would like to add to this please by all means message me or reply on thread.

Kris


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## V-dubbulyuh (Nov 13, 2005)

Detailed write up, any pics from your install?

And to confirm, no machine work (head or block) on either of the two head conversions that you have done?


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## 2003gtivr62.8liter (Sep 1, 2009)

V-dubbulyuh said:


> Detailed write up, any pics from your install?
> 
> And to confirm, no machine work (head or block) on either of the two head conversions that you have done?



You mean pics afterwards with everything together or pic with head off? I don't think I have any of the install but might have a video of it. 

No Machine work. After looking up the part # on the head I found out that it was from a Touareg I believe.


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## V-dubbulyuh (Nov 13, 2005)

2003gtivr62.8liter said:


> You mean pics afterwards with everything together or pic with head off? I don't think I have any of the install but might have a video of it.
> 
> No Machine work. After looking up the part # on the head I found out that it was from a Touareg I believe.


Of the build process itself, to supplement the DIY. Just curious. Again good to know that at least the Touareg head is a bolt on affair with no machine work required.


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## Dubcanuck (Jan 25, 2017)

2003gtivr62.8liter said:


> You mean pics afterwards with everything together or pic with head off? I don't think I have any of the install but might have a video of it.
> 
> No Machine work. After looking up the part # on the head I found out that it was from a Touareg I believe.


I too can say that the Touareg head is a direct bolt on. I did a 3.2 head swap as well. I used 264/260 TT cams and OEM 2.8 24v head bolts. You just have to bolt down the head before installing the cams. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Gary_808 (Jan 2, 2014)

cheers guys!

literally haven't logged on in a while thought i'd look for this as i want to do it.. and there it is a whole guide!


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## 2003gtivr62.8liter (Sep 1, 2009)

BUMP!!


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## V-dubbulyuh (Nov 13, 2005)

2003gtivr62.8liter said:


> BUMP!!


How significant was the performance increase (don't know if you dyno'd or have some other measure of performance that you used) when you installed the 3.2 head?


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## BdonCford (Dec 21, 2012)

Just picked up a r32 head for my rebuild. This swap is a game changer. Wish me luck


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## ExtendedBenis (May 23, 2021)

just want to say your the fking man.


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## ExtendedBenis (May 23, 2021)

BdonCford said:


> Just picked up a r32 head for my rebuild. This swap is a game changer. Wish me luck


Where did you buy your r32 head? I can’t find any in my area


2003gtivr62.8liter said:


> You mean pics afterwards with everything together or pic with head off? I don't think I have any of the install but might have a video of it.
> 
> No Machine work. After looking up the part # on the head I found out that it was from a Touareg I believe.


Question, when replacing the head did you get your block decked, And if so how much did it cost you? I have a guy trying to charge me $600 to get the vr6 decked. I know you have to do it at a 15 degree angle but $600!! I’ve had 4cyls decked for $180


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## Admiral_Stiffplank (Mar 3, 2021)

Holy smoke, very ambitious and impressive!


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## mouthforwar (Aug 18, 2021)

Would love to see performance results


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## ducatipaso (Apr 13, 2003)

also interested


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## swrider77 (Feb 7, 2013)

Silly question, but is this something you can do if your GTi is 12v???


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