Problem people are coming up against is the age of these engines they are looking for, AAZ motors hav`nt been made since 1995 ish, so they`re all at LEAST 12 years old, and most people buy a diesel car to do some serious mileages, so the decent low mileage engines are very few and far between.
I looked at it, and decided I didn`t want to put that time and effort into an engine with upwards of 100,000 miles on it, if not a lot more
Looking at the state of the inside of my 1.6TD motor with 130,000 miles on it, when I stripped it down was pretty shocking, and it was running great
The head was well seriously knacked, which seems to be the most common thing going wrong, also with AAZ motors. It`s no coincidence that there are at least 4 companies within 15 miles of me who all make a living from cylinder head work, so figure it out nationally.
Is it worth paying £300-£500 for a motor, that seems to be OK, but would really need a rebuild to make it good as after 100,000 miles it`s certainly had the best out of it, so budget for at least a set of rings, brand new head complete, injectors overhauled/replaced, etc. turbos suffer as well, so budget for a re-con on that as well. You`re looking at the thick end of £1000 at least to sort that lot out, plus the cost of the thing in the first place.
Don`t know what the answer is, but there are plenty of people doing proper VW TDI conversions now, so the knowledge is there for the electronics, different mounts etc, BUT you have to budget for having the gearbox or final drive ratios altered to make the use of the low down power and torque of the modern diesel engines, and gearbox`s will cost more than that £1000 to be right, plus the need for a lot stronger clutch to cope with the vastly increased torque.
Just my thoughts on it (I managed to get a very low mileage 1.6TD JX motor for the right price, so that`s what went back in)
