I call my A4 Frank which is short for Frankenstein…  The rebuild of my existing engine and a couple of boxes of A4 parts purchased a couple of years ago produced an engine that may look a little different.
- Late model block (hot tanked, new rings, and a valve job) with an early model head (hot tanked);
- Pick-N-Pull wire set from a car that came to a stop far quicker than it was designed for;
- Early transmission guts installed in a rebuilt late model housing with a total oil recovery access port added and;
- Of course I had to use the early model flywheel cover with "UNIVERSAL MOTOR CO." casted on the front.
- Electronic fuel pump;
- A home built PCV System (the admiral can’t stand the smell of A4 blow-by) and:
- A modified automobile electronic ignition (about 50 years younger than the engine and $250 cheaper than the after market conversions currently available ;-)

I’m hoping that the hotter ignition will allow me to use hotter platinum plugs (already installed) that should require less maintenance. Of course, tune up time will require a rotor but that should not happen as often as the old distributor required care and feeding.

As an added touch to keep my bilge oil free (for a couple of weeks anyway) I replaced every gasket and seal (a couple were even replaced several times.)

I ran the engine on a stand for a little over 5 hours without any problems. Installation into the boat took about 6 hours (1 Hour from dock to mounts and about 5 hours to replace the heavy parts removed for installation, figure out where all those wires went and build a new exhaust system.) A wire bundle with plug and socket and a more flexible exhaust system would have been nice (maybe next winter ;-)

I also corrected the alignment problem that prompted me to start this project in the first place. While the engine was torn down I took the pan with just the rear bearing, seal and bushing installed and placed it on the mounts (very easy to work with without 350 pounds of metal and a block and head in your way.) I aligned the pan in place with shims and attached the bushings finger tight when they were perfectly flush with each other. After determining where the mounts should be, I enlarged the holes that held the original motor mount bolts then filled the holes with slotted oak dowels and thickened epoxy. The mounts were built back up to the required level with thickened epoxy and 1/16” oak shims. Sounds like a lot of work however, by using the pan as I did the entire procedure only took about 2 hours from start to finish which gave me time to go fishing ;-)
 
 

Step 1 - Swing by boom from dock to boat	Step 2 - Slide to cabin
Step 3 - Lower to mounts	Step 4 - Connect HW & Electrical