Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all, i have a 1990, 1.6 td jx bus and i have decided from my research that the sensible engine conversion for me to increase the power of my van is to go down the mk3 golf gti route, i have a good mechanical aptitude but not a great deal of money, all i need is a link to the definitive guide to doing this conversion and any other links i might find usefull for wiring etc, don't get me wrong the jx has been good to me but i am a bit of a petrol head and after driving my missus v6 audi from time to time its makes me want more from the old bus, also the amount of kit i drag around on holiday is growing, any help will be great, many thanks in advance................

jump right in with a big ask! search on here for info, introduce yourself first perhaps ?????

Sorry......Hi my name is Alex and i've been a dubaholic for many years now, i have been endlessly searching for info on your great forum for a couple of years but only now have i hit a "brick" wall, i just need to be sure on what i am doin, cheers.I have added some pics of my van from when i first bought it home till quite recentely, so you can see what i've been up to

diesel bellhousing mounts straight up to the block, use the flywheel, sump and engine mounts, all will fit..

fuel pump, get a mk2 GTI golf pump, mount close to the tank

fabricate exhaust section and use JX back box and mountings.

Wiring isn't hard, get a complete donor car. ECU easiest to mount behind rear bulkhead inside the van.

8v will need a slight hit with the manchester spanner on a chassis rails, the 16v head is taller so go for the 8v - better engine as well, engine code 2E.

Great, sounds almost too easy, thanks for that, just need to find a donar now which hasn't been hammered!!

look for a B3 passat - MUCH cheaper and usually led a better life than the Golf GTi's, engine you want is 2.0 petrol code 2E

I bought two this year, one with MOT and Tax for £120, other no MOT but FULL stamped service history for £170

Tried to find a rear ended Golf GTi and everyone wanted £500 + for a totalled car!

Good luck

Ok, cheers thats sound advise, i forgot about the ol passat, you sound like you speak from experience, any tips or things to look for? thanks again, Alex.

morning mate...

Yes, trying to get my project finished for vanfest! It was a 1.6 diesel panel van with a knackered head.. I was going to stick another turbo'd 1Y in it, but having helped my mate do a 2.5 scooby conversion over last winter I changed my mind and decided to go petrol

Toyed with the idea of a porsche 944 / VR5 / VR6 engine and then found out that the BLOCKS from all the 1.9 diesels are basically the same piece of iron that the 2.0 GTi lumps are made from, the internals are obviously different but from a "how the f**k am I going to fit that in there" point of view it seemed like a no-brainer to me...

I bought the first red passat with tax and mot, and ran it around for a bit, and really liked the car - I've had a B5 1.8T passat before and loved that. Realised that with a major house rennovation, and four spaniels that an estate car was bloody useful I bought the second one, white, with no tax or MOT but immaculate condition and FULL stamped service history!

I ripped the engine out of the white one, bought a petrol T25 gearbox (the 1.6 gearbox is far too low geared) and changed the bellhousing over to the diesel one, and changed the input shaft from petrol to diesel

Mounted engine up to the gearbox and lifted the whole lot into the back of the bus. Diesel engine mounts bolt straight up. All plumbing is where it should be, only the oil cooler had to be turned slightly to avoid fouling the thermostat outlet.

When taking the engine out I labelled up EVERY connection on the engine. then stripped the loom out of the front of the passat and the ECU (which I eventually found under a plastic cover on the bottom of the windscreen area, under the bonnet).

THis is where it started to get a little silly... At syncro25 I got chatting to syncrodoug who has got the PD diesel engine in his crewcab. He used the dash clocks from the donor car, and as I have never liked the T3 clocks I decided to try to mount the passat dash. So passat clocks removed along with all wiring loom from the front dash..

At this point there was a LOT of wires... The loom was cut where the main bit passes through the passat firewall, and then again behind the dash.

so at the moment I have 2 fuseboxes, the T3 box powers lights, wipers etc... and the passat box powers ECU and clocks and MFA (on board computer - the main reason I wanted the passat dash )

Both fuse boxes have power from iginition column.

At the moment I still have a fair bit of panel work to do on the bus - it was far beyond saving really! and mount the exhaust - already fabrivcated brackets to hang the backbox - I had a nice stainless petrol backbox I wanted to use rather than the smaller 1.6 box. Last night saw the beginings of the exhaust manifold - backbox section being made - remember there is a lambda sensor in there, and I will have another lambda to allow the LPG system to be installed in the future.

Engine needs filling with oil, so does the gearbox, then she can try to be started.

If you are not going silly, and using the original clocks on the dash then it would be a LOT easier!

this is a great site translated from german, they love this conversion on the T3...

]http://translate.google.co.uk/translate ... 26prmd%3Dv

If I can be of any help then PM me and I'll give you my number mate.

have fun.

Hutch

Thanx so nuch for your help, no doubt i will be contacting you when,sorry if i get stuck, thanks again, Alex.

Alex,
I am just completing a conversion of my syncro from JX to MkIII Golf Gti - the AGG 2 litre engine. This again bolts up to the diesel bellhousing, mounts, flywheel, clutch, etc and has an even smaller inlet manifold than the 2E giving more space in the corner of the engine bay where the black relay box is positioned. I originally tried a 1.8 MkII engine (PB) but the amount of conflict with the chassis rail made it a no go as far as I am concerned. (Engine sits 2" lower in the syncro body shell).

Mechanically the change is very straightforward and now, having worked out all the electrics (and recorded it in detail) I would say that doing it again would not be a problem. Referring to comments made above, I have used a waterboxer silencer, mounted to the diesel mounts on the engine, and had a stainless front pipe made up to come from the 4 into 2 cast manifold. This gives a nice subdued sound. If you want to sound like a boy-racer then go for the JX box.

I have been driving the bus a for a few weeks now and I am well impressed with the engine. As mentioned above, the 1st & 2nd gears are a bit low but third is really flexible. It will very happily sit at 70 mph and stay with the traffic on main roads. It has returned around 25-26 mpg on the first 3 fill ups. One of those was mainly 70-75 on the motorway from Telford to Oxford. My bus is a syncro and currently running on 205x14 tyres. I am intending to change to 215-75x15 all terrains which are a little bigger so will bring the gearing up a bit more.

I have posted some pictures on the Brickyard forum (I haven't worked out how to get them up on here, yet!). I will also be at Vanfest in the alternative engine display on the Saturday.

cheers
Garyd

Nive one! It seems that all i hear are success stories with this conversion, will check out your pics do you have a link to them? many thanx.

The pictures are on page three of this thread. ..
http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/mkiii ... 52300.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Garyd