Club 80-90 Forums

Evening all.

Could 80/90 ers in the trade, or otherwise super clever teckie types please give me a price (ball park if that's all you can do) to fit either a subaru or a 1y diesel engine into a T25. Im about to purchase a van and will be looking to get a new engine fitted straight away. The donor engine will be supplied in its original car. The happy recipient is likely to be a I.9 petrol van. I'm leaning towards a 1Y but would like to get some idea of price before I take the plunge.

Pm me if preferred or reply here.

Many thanks

anaconda wrote:Evening all.

Could 80/90 ers in the trade, or otherwise super clever teckie types please give me a price (ball park if that's all you can do) to fit either a subaru or a 1y diesel engine into a T25. Im about to purchase a van and will be looking to get a new engine fitted straight away. The donor engine will be supplied in its original car. The happy recipient is likely to be a I.9 petrol van. I'm leaning towards a 1Y but would like to get some idea of price before I take the plunge.

Pm me if preferred or reply here.

Many thanks

Unfortunately this is a bit of of a "how long is a bit of string" question, as a successful engine transplant depends on the condition of all the other bits and pieces, e.g the clutch, the radiator and front-to-rear pipes. Going from a petrol to a diesel means a few more parts will be needed e.g. diesel bell-housing for the gearbox, sump, exhaust.

Here is a price I found online for a 1Y install (though for a diesel to diesel conversion), including recon 1Y (I haven't used these guys, but they are the only place i've seen putting a price publicly on conversions like these):-

http://www.t25direct.com/19-1y-diesel-e ... -298-p.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That includes a year warranty, which is a very nice thing to have on an engine transplant.

FWIW I paid a fraction of that for someone to supply and fit an old 1Y in my van, which lasted a year (down to bad luck on the engine, they are a good economical choice for a T25, i'd have a GOOD 1Y again without a doubt).

Can't comment on subaru.

Just avoid going to Elite, their engine conversions are crap!!

I'm with Drucifer. I've had 6 Elite "refurbed" engines under warranty. No exagerration and every one has broken down or seized. I'm beginning to think they just put in old engines and spray them blue.

A Subaru will be nicer to drive than a 1Y. If you're starting from a petrol van you'd have none of diesel bits, and can use the petrol gearbox as-is.

It wont be a cheap option going Subaru... I am just doing this now myself, Engine and wiring harness ( modified ) £750 , if you have the car already then allow an additional £200-£250 to get the wiring loom modded , RJES conversion parts ( bell housing , engine cradle, reversed coolant manifold, water pipe kit, induction kit, throttle cable kit,Vehicle speed sensor loom , Subaru and VW clutch parts, ) £1200 , exhaust £700 ( if you can actually find someone to make it ! ) Modified sump £100- £350 , Then the service parts for the Subaru engine, Cambelt kit, oils, filters etc £250 plus any labour for fitting.... but it should be worth every single penny, blood sweat and tears that it has cost me ...I hope !

Thanks for the replys.

The 1Y may be the best option and is something most mechanics will be familiar with for maintenance etc. If I go with this I'll need to get a 1.6td rather than the petrol version. I've been told it's possibly the best of the original engines.

Thanks again

anaconda wrote:Thanks for the replys.

The 1Y may be the best option and is something most mechanics will be familiar with for maintenance etc. If I go with this I'll need to get a 1.6td rather than the petrol version. I've been told it's possibly the best of the original engines.

Thanks again

If you get a good 1.6td (JX) engined van, you won't need to change it to a 1Y, performance will be similar. The logical upgrade from a JX is the 1.9td AAZ engine as you'll have a td exhaust and sump.

My van has a Golf GTI AGG conversion. I can't recommend it enough. Conversion was performed by Oliver at T25Direct. The van runs absolutely amazing. I can go up to 100 mph or maybe more (I didn't want to go beyond that), and cruise at 70 or even 80 mph nicely. No slow down on hills. The AGG I think is the ideal conversion as the engine fits really well. It has 120 CV which is the same power the top of the line 2.1i T25 came with, so you are not actually over powering it with this engine. You don't have to change your gearbox if you have a 5 speed one. Not sure about the rest but ask Oli he'll let you know better than me.

Some of the not so good features are, Is a noisy engine, but I recon not much more than the original one. I have no sound insulation so that might be the problem as well. mpg is not amazing but not too bad, I can do 27 mpg at 50/60 mph on flat roads but expect 22 to be the average while travelling. Conversion is not cheap, expect to spend around 4k, but they have done it so many times that be sure it'll be a top quality one.

We had it for 1 year now and we are very happy.

juanbrein wrote:My van has a Golf GTI AGG conversion. I can't recommend it enough. Conversion was performed by Oliver at T25Direct. The van runs absolutely amazing. I can go up to 100 mph or maybe more (I didn't want to go beyond that), and cruise at 70 or even 80 mph nicely. No slow down on hills. The AGG I think is the ideal conversion as the engine fits really well. It has 120 CV which is the same power the top of the line 2.1i T25 came with, so you are not actually over powering it with this engine. You don't have to change your gearbox if you have a 5 speed one. Not sure about the rest but ask Oli he'll let you know better than me.

Some of the not so good features are, Is a noisy engine, but I recon not much more than the original one. I have no sound insulation so that might be the problem as well. mpg is not amazing but not too bad, I can do 27 mpg at 50/60 mph on flat roads but expect 22 to be the average while travelling. Conversion is not cheap, expect to spend around 4k, but they have done it so many times that be sure it'll be a top quality one.

We had it for 1 year now and we are very happy.

I would probably go this direction if I ever need to swap my engine again - sure the mpg's aren't as good as a diesel, but the figure i'm concerned about at the moment is miles per engine

If you plan to go 1Y, best to start with a 1.6 CS or 1.7 KY non-turbo diesel van. It is by far the most straightforward, and therefore cheaper, conversion to do. The base van might also be cheaper to buy as they're slightly less desirable to some. My wife's caravelle has a 1Y and we just towed our caravan over 500 miles to Scotland and back with no problems at all. Try that with a CS!
The AGG is a great conversion, powerful and smooth, but much more expensive. Fuel economy wise, if you lpgd it you could match or beat diesel economy, but you'd be a long time recouping the total cost over the diesel.
In summary; if you want the best result regardless of initial cost, AGG with LPG conversion.
If you want "Best Value", 1Y (or AEF) gives excellent result at minimal cost.

pionte wrote:It wont be a cheap option going Subaru... I am just doing this now myself, Engine and wiring harness ( modified ) £750 , if you have the car already then allow an additional £200-£250 to get the wiring loom modded , RJES conversion parts ( bell housing , engine cradle, reversed coolant manifold, water pipe kit, induction kit, throttle cable kit,Vehicle speed sensor loom , Subaru and VW clutch parts, ) £1200 , exhaust £700 ( if you can actually find someone to make it ! ) Modified sump £100- £350 , Then the service parts for the Subaru engine, Cambelt kit, oils, filters etc £250 plus any labour for fitting.... but it should be worth every single penny, blood sweat and tears that it has cost me ...I hope !

With regard to the exhaust, I have found a one man band bespoke exhaust guy near Ashford Kent. His work looks top notch, all stainless.
He is going to be doing mine at the end of this month. I'll put up some pics later.
http://www.zeroexhausts.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are no cheap options, other than a straight swap for a runner of the same type, which is always a gamble.
With any engine conversion consider the following:
Is the replacement rebuilt or used? Rebuilt to blueprint standards or just a "freshen up" (whatever that may entail)? If used was it cared for all of its life or was it abused once it got to the third owner?
I cant understand why anyone would go to all the effort of changing say, a wbx to an inline or subaru and blindly fitting an unknown engine thats already done the better part of 100k (if you have the donor vehicle to verify) possibly under several owners.