Syncro engine swap - DJ to AGG

[syncropatrick]

After being anointed with coolant, engine oil and petrol, saving gearbox oil for tomorrow, its time for a hot bath.
Leccy bits behind light clusters removed, throttle cable off. Protection bars off, propshaft and half shafts disconnected. Gear linkage and reverse wire to do.
I'l leave starter cables offing until the engine starts to come down, it looks a pig to get to and I don't want to be taking the lock actuator off insitu as never done one before.
Ian - thanks for PAS tip.

Glad I'd run fuel down before emptying tank - nearly filled my 20l jerry can though!
Coolant and oil bottled up for trip to council recycling centre.

Spilt coolant hosed down and greasy CVJs and gearbox ears covered up, to save the cats.

I'm planning to flush the coolant system of both the van and the AGG. The van had a new radiator 10k kms ago. Is it best to do them before mating or after? Case of opening two ports and plugging house water hose into one and draining from the other?

Exhaust for AGG - what do Syncro people do?
The DJ has a Baxter SS one which is nice and high. I want to keep ground clearance. If its relevant, I'm going the Syncro diesel parts conversion route, not bell housing adaptor route.

[silverbullet]

My only thoughts re: downpipe would be to make sure that the pipe lengths are about the same as the donor, otherwise it will compromise the torque band. I have seen some that were little better than a Y pipe to keep it simple/easy/cheap. Best that I can recall recently was "booted" 's inline conversion on BY and that had a proper length downpipe iirc.
But you will have to tow the wagon to an exhaust maker or bodge something up just to drive there.

[Cyrus]

Following this thread.
Good work.

BTW Elvis can supply a stainless fanimold with lamda hole, not sure how it'll work on a Syncro.

[ELVIS]

This is them, £125 , TIGd up in stainless, just need the flange from your down pipe cut off and posted.

As brother Bullet says, primaries need to be as long as possible to keep torque delivery lower down but despite not being as long as standard down pipe, it doesn't give any noticeable difference IMHO.

Without sounding like a stuck record as I've said it numerous times, 268 cam is an awesome upgrade for these engines

[silverbullet]

If it works, it works.
268 degrees? Not too wild, sounds tasty.

[garyd]

Elvis,
what do you use for the rest of the exhaust after this special piece?

My system has a custom piece similar to this but with longer, curved primary pipes. It continues right to the back, includes a gauze flexi and finishes in a flange which bolts up to a 2.1 DJ silencer. The silencer sits in JX silencer mount brackets bolted (no rubbers) to the engine.

[syncropatrick]

Complete DJ exhaust removed. I'll either sell as is or break for the parts I need.

Until I took it off I didn't realise you can leave it on when taking the engine out.

I guess this isn't good news - crack around the unused Lambda boss.


Had my first hold-up today - best part of 2 hours taking expansion coolant tank out. In the end bumper came off so I drill out the 2 studs into its side. Inside of engine bay will need a clean and some rust proofing when its empty.

Done as much as I can on the van without an engine crane. Have to decide soon if I can't find one locally to borrow, or 2nd hand locally to buy, its either buy new or spend best part of a day driving to borrow one. Decisions, decisions... Money or time, money or time??

While thats turning over in my head I moved onto the donor.

His and his.

Although the Golf was in a neighbours garage and therefore I could work undercover if it rained, it was yet further to carry tools and the garage was very narrow making movement inside a pain. While it still had its own power I drove it out into the open where is easy to get to all sides and underneath. More car ramps, backed up with axle stands.
Another day of baptism in fluids - gearbox in van, engine oil and coolant from Golf.

Tools of the day - Plus Gas, new quality drill bits, multiple socket extender bars and all things 13mm - especially if a ratchet is involved.

Bedtime reading tonight - Haynes manual on Golf engine removal.

[garyd]

Patrick,
have you investigated hiring an engine crane? I think that's what I did years ago when I did my engine swaps.

[dumbo]

theres one for sale on brickyard surrey £155 if still stuck just an idea
simon

[Syncrobaz]

I swapped a 1.6 d on my 2wd some time ago and dropped it down on a sturdy trolley jack, is this not possible ???

[silverbullet]

I would buy a crane. You have two big lumps to remove, the Golf one to separate (so much easier on the hook, even at gound level)
You will use it again.

[Syncrobaz]

Just trying to save Patrick's beer tokens

BTW Patrick I wonder if that crack round the lambda socket was causing that odd misfire ??

[axeman]

Crane makes life much easyer when working alone, if you have body's too help then it's a viable option to use a jack(s). Think of it as 3 or 4 hours labour if you were paying a garage to do the job.

Neil

[syncropatrick]

Yeah, a crane. Hire prices for a week get close to buy price.
SGS do special price if you collect from their works. I can get there and back in half a day.

[silverbullet]

Proper tools make life easy. If you hurt yourself by doing your back, then cant work... that crane starts to look pretty cheap in hindsight.