mk3 golf engine swap

**avengedslayer** · 04-04-2008,05:47 PM

i currently have a mk3 golf 1.4 ryder! im wanting to upgrade my engine! wat is the easiest engine with a little umpht to put in this car? also what else do i need to complete the swap? gearbox ect???

**Captain Answer** · 04-04-2008,05:56 PM

Originally Posted by avengedslayer

i currently have a mk3 golf 1.4 ryder! im wanting to upgrade my engine! wat is the easiest engine with a little umpht to put in this car? also what else do i need to complete the swap? gearbox ect???

Depends just how much "umpht" you wanted? Are you planning on doing this yourself or paying someone else?

I'd think about just going out and buying a Mk3 GTI, you can pick em up for less than it'll cost you to get a re-con engine/loom and the ache of fitting it. Plus your 1.4 will have er well 1.4 suspension and setup which you'd ideally need to address

**Crasher** · 04-04-2008,05:58 PM

Never build a car you can buy.

**Captain Answer** · 04-04-2008,06:04 PM

Originally Posted by Crasher

Never build a car you can buy.

But do buy a car you can build

**Crasher** · 04-04-2008,06:06 PM

God no, a Nova!

**avengedslayer** · 04-04-2008,06:52 PM

thanx for the input i was considering a gti 16v

**RickT** · 04-04-2008,07:19 PM

Hi,

As said above, For the amount it will cost you in parts and labour time... remember time equals money even if you do it yourself, whenyou can buy one out there..

Remembers the dampers, springs will have to be changed.. plus the brakes... ideally disc's of rear from your exisitng drums.. then you will have to think about converting the rear axle to take disc's,...

Next major battle is finding a decent loom and ecu with all modules to fit..

Once you have done that you will be looking at getting a new cluster (speedo, rev counter) as the 1.4 will be the basic one without the rev's i would of thought...

Once you have done the above plus other jobs... you will have to then start looking into your options of Insurance...

To be honest... look at selling the 1.4 and buying one...

Rick

**BugsyMalone666** · 04-04-2008,09:31 PM

Im gonna agree with what everyone else here says about buying rather than building.

I have a 1.8 Driver and want loads more power, I upgrade bits as I go and my long term goal is to have more power under the bonnet, but more likely to be different fuel injection and turbo using factory parts so theres no real conversion factor.

I worked out, I`d want bigger brakes, for bigger brakes unlike some of the bigger models where its unbolt and swap over for the next size up, the 1.8 and under range need new front stup axles/calipers/carriers/disks. I upgraded my front discs to drilled but standard 239mm and i find the brakes are now to good at the front compaired to the back, so before I went bigger I want to get GTi discs at the back, when you start adding up the price of just buying upgrade brakes so you can cope with stopping your extra horse power its a few hundred quid, well thats cheap enough but it continues, you also need to think if you get GTi brakes which are 5 stud (unless you get the much sought after G60 brakes) you`ll then also need a new set of wheels.

You`ll need different speedo clocks, engine bay wiring loom, engine gearbox I think might be different and then when you look at price of an engine second hand once again another couple of hundred, so before you know it 4-500 quid has been spent, then you think about the interior/suspension unless you have fitted upgraded stuff then you`ll end up wanting bucket seats to stop you falling out your seat when doing spirited driving and also you`ll want better suspension to handle the extra power.

I personally like the idea of building something with uprated power but if there is something thats already that power then 9 times out of 10 for the agro and time its probably cheaper to go buy a ready built item.

If you start with a GTi/16v theres alot more potetial there to start with, the brakes a pretty big (288mm vented on the vr6 and i think 256 vented on the GTi) but you can apparently transplant audi TT brakes which are a whopping 312mm! so you can build an absolute monster.

**Crasher** · 04-04-2008,09:52 PM

Absolutely, if you are going to build a car, build it with something the factory never did so a Golf 3 is an ideal 1.8T transplant patient. If you want a Golf 3 GTI 16v, there are plenty for sale out there for around £2k that say 16V GTI on the log book. If you were to strip your car down to a bare shell and painstakingly rebuild the car to exact 16V GTI specification down to the last fine detail inside, outside and under the skin, it would still be a base model in the eyes of the law and when you come to sell it-just another moddded car. In the eyes of the insurance company it is also just a modded car and will never be the real deal and insurance companies get very nervous over heavily modified cars. I have seen numerous examples of modified cars being required to have bigger brake than the ones the car the engine came out of just because the insurance companies don't understand. One classic example was a Golf 2 GTI 8v someone fitted a 16v engine into, car and donor being 88 models and both came from the factory with identical brakes in 88. The insurance company insisted on the brakes from a G60 being fitted to the front, highly desirable but not what the original car came with.