Which engine to choose

[ermie571]

hi mate,

can I add another ingrediant into the mix?

invetigate the 2lre gti from a golf mark 3.

if you Facebook there is a page vwt25 gti conversion. Similar sort of price you are looking at to have it done. Find a cheap golf, gather the required desiel bits, and pass it all to your garage. There are instructions and everything on that page too. Also read up on the alternative engines thread here. Hutch will give you chapter and verse....

and if you wear that engine out...there are more golfs than 25s out there....
regards

[123-jn]

I rebuilt my own waterboxer and to be honest they are a bit unusual but not complicated. Mine had done 115000 and blew a head seal. I managed not to break any studs but it was more luck as 4 studs had to be replaced due to corrosion.
However The crank after polishing was still within spec for a new set of bearings. The rods were straight and bolts could be reused (some can't). Liners were within spec, and pistons were ok so a new set of rings and small ends sorted that. The only duff part was the camshaft which was breaking up on the lobes so I sourced a new one from TES with the old style gear which then necessitated a heavy duty old style oil pump. With a clean of the case and reassembly all I needed was a GASKET SET after that. All in all about £500 in parts and a long dark christmas holiday. I decided to fit a new set of Hydraulic tappets but I wish I had converted to solids as even the new ones aren't quiet!!!
The heads were serviceable as were the valves with a light regrind but one head susequently cracked and had to be changed for one off ebay.
So yes if you can do it yourself or have a friendly mechanic with 2 days free you can do it for under £1000

[Wesley]

Thanks for all the help/advice. Will let you know which way it goes and how it all turns out:)

[ajsimmo]

Just to reaffirm that reconditioning a WBX cannot be done cheaply, but sometimes repairing a known good engine is a viable option. We put well over £2,000 in new parts into our full rebuilds, before labour and any machining costs, so that's something of a benchmark to have in mind when comparing the budget builders. Check their list of parts they claim to renew and figure out how they do it for the money, let alone make a profit!

[Sir Brixalot]

Just to reaffirm that reconditioning a WBX cannot be done cheaply, but sometimes repairing a known good engine is a viable option. We put well over £2,000 in new parts into our full rebuilds, before labour and any machining costs, so that's something of a benchmark to have in mind when comparing the budget builders. Check their list of parts they claim to renew and figure out how they do it for the money, let alone make a profit!

Budget builders-anyone in particular?

[Wesley]

Hi All,

Just wanted to say thanks for all the help and advice re the engine- sorry it's taken so long to post the results!- by the time it all got sorted it spent most of the time under cover through winter and haven't had much spare time this summer.

Ended up with a 1.9 Dg engine. Darren from Vw Airfix sorted it for me and has done a sterling job. Running great and hope to be using it much more from now on.

Once recovered from paying off the credit card will be looking at some bodywork and maybe a re spray - any recommendations?

Once again cheers for all the help and advice.

Wesley

[kevtherev]

Good for you, a good replacement engine...like you get from any other replacement engine suppliers.
Happy days