Curious - Engine Conversion

[Alun]

Hi all,

I'm very curious about this. How easy/difficult would it be to put a TDi 130/150 PD engine into a MK3 Golf 1.9 TD? And how much would it cost to pay someone to do it?!

[Col]

It's do-able, there are people that have put the PD lump in MK2's.

You'll need to...

Get the engine and gearbox.

Get the complete wiring looms & ecu including instrument cluster for the imobiliser

Have custom engine mounts made (probably trickiest bit)

Have sundry metal work done (probably) so the engine & box will fit.

Sort out the hubs / driveshafts so the PD shafts will fit the MK3 hubs

Sort out the fuel tank sender

Sort out a custom exhaust.


I'd say if you were a keen diy'er to go for it, but if you need to pay for someone to do it forget it. It would probably be cheaper to buy a new(ish) MK4 with the PD lump in it already together with all the other mod cons that come with the MK4.

Saying that though, I'd absolutely love a MK2 with PD power !! ... I really would !!

[Alun]

Thats the thing though, I'd have no chance of doing it myself so I would have to hand it over to an expert, which would be costly. On the other hand though, how many MK3 Golfs have you seen with PD power? Especially in 150bhp form, and add to that a tuning box, theres 170+
bhp!! Not forgetting that the MK3 is 200kg lighter than the MK4 aswell. It'd be a right stormer! Now, wheres that Lotto ticket...........

[mojogoes]

Thats the thing though, I'd have no chance of doing it myself so I would have to hand it over to an expert, which would be costly. On the other hand though, how many MK3 Golfs have you seen with PD power? Especially in 150bhp form, and add to that a tuning box, theres 170+
bhp!! Not forgetting that the MK3 is 200kg lighter than the MK4 aswell. It'd be a right stormer! Now, wheres that Lotto ticket...........

You can buy my Mk3 1z tdi 90hp it will have a modest 250hp very soon and weigh's quite a bit less than a standard mk3 having know interia and carbon doors / bonnet etc............now what would you give me for her , and should run very low 14's high 13's 1/4'ers.

[Alun]

Hmm.........how about 50 pence and a packet of wine gums? :D Only joking! I can't afford to splash out that much money!;)

[vagjunkie]

If you want 180 from your mk3 get the turbo from a 130 bhp Passat 0.216 injector nozzles and a good remap, mine goes like stink. Shes goin on the market sonn as I'm lookin for a 2.5 tdi A4.

[Alun]

Wouldnt that cause an awful lot of stress on the engine though? At the moment it's standard with a very poor 75bhp. For £1500 though i could get it to near the 170bhp mark with an enlarged turbo, intercooler and a tune up.

Is that conversion easy to do with the 130 turbo?

[vagjunkie]

I'm sorry mate but I've got my wires crossed Thought you were driving a tdi version. my advice would be to spend your tuning budget on changing your car for a tdi even a mk3 these are getting very resonable now about a grand should pick you up a good gl version with full electrics. The turbo diesel has a weakness in the bottom pully which like the non-turbo diesel has a tendancy to sheer and destroy your crank aswell as bending valves.

[Alun]

I knew about that. I got it all replaced on the last cam belt change at 104K. It's now on 137K so it should be ok. I would prefer a later TDi as they are easier to tune in respect to chips etc, but I like my car too much to sell and get another one. How easy would it be to stick the TDi MK3 lump in?

[teccyjim]

You can buy my Mk3 1z tdi 90hp it will have a modest 250hp very soon and weigh's quite a bit less than a standard mk3 having know interia and carbon doors / bonnet etc............now what would you give me for her , and should run very low 14's high 13's 1/4'ers.

Hi guys and gals, forgive me as Im new on here and new to VAG's in general but ive just picked up a 1996 MK3 TDI (90) and would really like to give it some more power, can you recommend or do you have any links for reputable tuners of these engines, or if you've modified yours i'd love to hear how you went about doing it (i.e. in what order)

Many thanks and I look forward to using the forum on a regular basis!!! cheers!! :beerchug:

Jimbo

[devonutopia]

To get a reasonable 200bhp from a pd130/pd150 you will be looking at a lot of work. You will need every single fitting from the donor car in terms of wiring. That means the wiring from the engine bay and the interior as that's what the ignition barrel & dashpod attach to (and the ECU in the engine bay).

Essentially you need to rebuild the "brains" of the PD150 into the Golf - total strip down and rebuild job. You will probably need the fuel tank/pump too as that's likely to be different. Matching the driveshafts to the Mk3 could be fun due to differing wheel track (might be lucky) Then there's modding the engine to 200hp (which isn't too hard really)

As a guess, if I had to put a price on a complete PD swap into a Mk3 (or any other car really) I would say you'd be looking at around £6,000. Roughly this is about £2,500 for a low miler PD engine, and all the spares you might need (you might get lucky and be able to buy a complete unstripped wreck for £1500), £3,000 for labour/research/time, etc, and £500 for a custom remap at the end of it all (once it's running fine)

Personally, I would go out and find a high miler PD100 for around £3,000 perhaps, and spend £2,500 odd on uprated turbo and some other bits for a much better 180 to 200bhp. :)

BTW - This is coming from someone who converted their pd100 to pd130 recently. ;) I'm one person who does know exactly where they're coming from. :D