Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all,
I have really enjoying driving my van since I bought it about 5 weeks ago. I pretty much decided from the off that I was going to be doing an engine swap at some point in the future. However if it does happen its probably not going to be any time soon due to the financial outlay of buying the van in the first place . I have only ever driven my van so I have no other benchmark to compare it against. I do find it struggles up hills and if your not quick on a hill start between first and second gear I find myself outside of the power band (if it can be call that on one of these vehicles ) causing the van to really labor until it creeps towards a portion of the rev range its happier with. To be honest I wouldn't consider an engine swap if it weren't as critical through the rev range in situations like that. It cruises quite nicely at 65 70 mph with no big issues.

So I have a few questions. I am not naive enough to think that this engine can be turned into something its not. However, would it benefit from a few bolt on parts like a Stainless steel sports exhaust from Brickwerks? Also, the van has different wheels on and I have heard that this can be used as an easy way to increase the speed of a vehicle that has had an engine upgrade to make better use of the extra power. Now I can understand how this would work. However, I can also see how it may be detrimental to a vehicle that has not had any increase in bhp. I was wondering whether this may be the case on my van

The old JX suffers a bit in these buses but can be tweaked.
An oil cooler is a must if you are going to try and raise the ps - brickwerks has them.
You can fit an intercooler if you can find one (not cheap) or have a go at building one.

There are a few members that run the VW GTd injection pump.
There is also a wide bore collector pipe to be had.

The big killer for these motors is heat, you've got a 1.6 turbo diesel pushing a 2 tonne bus - it's got to work hard.

The best and easiest performance boost is to fit an AGG or ADY motor in.

I had a decent jx for 4 years.

I dont think there is anything you can do to alleviate the problem of labouring on hills.
Bigger wheels will definately change how the power is delivered....adversley.

I swopped to a tdi.....chalk and cheese. Mine eats hills now

keith wrote:I had a decent jx for 4 years.

I dont think there is anything you can do to alleviate the problem of labouring on hills.
Bigger wheels will definately change how the power is delivered....adversley.

I swopped to a tdi.....chalk and cheese. Mine eats hills now

Did you do the conversion yourself Keith? How much did it cost? Did you do it yourself?

id just save up for tdi conversion. but if the jx is in good nick i would do the following
oil cooler
intercooler
rover boost pin and pump mod. If your lucky you may reach 90bhp with that.
i wouldn't do any tuning without the intercooler or oil cooler

nordberg wrote:

keith wrote:I had a decent jx for 4 years.

I dont think there is anything you can do to alleviate the problem of labouring on hills.
Bigger wheels will definately change how the power is delivered....adversley.

I swopped to a tdi.....chalk and cheese. Mine eats hills now

Did you do the conversion yourself Keith? How much did it cost? Did you do it yourself?

No...way beyond my capability.

Mario at mv engineering....telford and Aidan Talbot box

Just been swatting up. Would the AAZ engine be a good (economical) swap for my van? Initially I was thinking that the TDI route would give me the better MPG that I would want from a van. Obviously this would be the case but I must admit I haven't been shocked with the amount of cash I have put in the fuel tank since I have had it. However, as the main reason now for wanting a conversion is driveability, would the AAZ tick the boxes without having the expense of wiring looms plumbed in etc?

Our JX is running very nicely at the moment and has had quite a bit of money spent on it to get it to that state, so we're not thinking about an upgrade for the foreseeable future. Our next steps are likely to be, as lloydy suggests, an oil cooler and then a charge cooler instead.

Don't know anything about the boost pin and pump mods mentioned so would be interested in finding out more about those if anyone has any links.

jx and aaz will both be in the 30's mpg wise, tdi same but 100 x nicer to drive but costs and you need to make sure the gearing is correct to make use of it
as for tyre sizes , i matched my wheel tyre size to the engine so it will just rev out, as said too big and it wont pull top out and will make a mess of the lower gears, too small and be a bit like an old age whippet up an incline and run out of speed on the flat as well +mpg would die a bit.
i can make an air air intercooler but have zero idea how much it would give you, that said it would also work nice if and when you do tdi conv etc.
60mph cruising with a jx will be happy for it
mm

We've got 215/70 R16 on our Syncro with a 5.43 final ratio which gives us roughly 65mph at the engine's sweet spot at 3000rpm. An oil cooler will give us better life for the engine, a charge cooler some extra hp up hills. I'm not sure what mpg we get but I'd be surprised if we get 30mpg.

My head is fried. been looking at the prices of some of the intercooler s etc on brickwerks and although I am not shocked, is a good chunk of cash when that could be put towards another power plant that could have a better spread of power I don't know. I think my engine is in pretty good nick. How much would the upgrades make a difference if I decided to buy the bolt on options if I spent a stack load of cash on the upgrades and it didn't work out it's money down the drain I

HELP

the simple way of looking at it is, if your jx is a good working unit a AAZ will not make much difference, It only has about 5bhp more. Most people fitted the AAZ when their JX went bang, not for a performance upgrade.
Any performance mods you do to the JX or AAZ will make it run hotter, and they run damn hot anyway!
If you want to be nice to your little JX, fit a oil cooler. It will really help.
You will be lucky to find a AAZ that isn't as worn as your JX, keep your money in your pocket and enjoy the frugalist of frugal T3 engines

keep your money in your pocket and enjoy the frugalist of frugal T3 engines

I'd agree with that love my 1.6 and I've got the non turbo version !

whatever you do DONT drive a well sorted TDI....especially on a long climb

Make sure the diaphragm on the LDA wastegate is working - it makes a huge difference going up hills.