Hello Everybody,
Recently I lost oil pressure (donno the reason yet) and after a few km of very slow driving (so slow that the oil pressure error went away) the engine developed rattling. I KNOW ITS MY FAULT..so no need to put salt in the wound:( ! I am aware that something wore out. I took the oil filter to the mechanic and found alot black sand (that's what we compared it to..its not actually sand). This is not magnetic and crumbles between the fingers. Also we found a few flakes of metal (not alot). I went to 3 mechanics and all of them say the same thing: "Swap the engine!", the main idea is that the cranckshaft is affected. The problem with this is that I cannot find many matching engines in my country (Romania). I found 3 candidates. The problem is that no information is available about these engines and it's like "pandora's box".
I've got an offer for an ACK engine (same displacement) from an A6. My main question is if the ACK engine is just a plug and play in place of teh AAH? My main concerns are ECU, Tranny, Exhaust Manifold, Alternator, AC etc... since these pieces will remain from my engine.

Other suggestions and help on how to solve this issue (its becoming a crysis for me) is very welcome.
NOTE: All mechanics refuse to open up the engine to say exactly what was affected. Everyone goes by what is in the filter and how the engine sounds.

I'm getting a bit desperate.

So sorry to hear of your issue Alex. I believe on most vag cars of the era if you swap the engine you need the matching clocks, ecu etc or have it all coded. As such it's probably advisable you speak to an auto electrician as I think this is where your issues will arise. 

As you say the engine should bolt straight in, but you'll need to keep the a8 engine mounts. 

It might be worth having the engine stripped to see if it is salvageable as you don't really have anything to loose in my opinion. 

Cheers

Steve

Thank you for the information, I've searched around and found a shop that could trip it to see if it can be saved. At least I now know that if I am to swap I need to look into ECU/clocks. Thank you