Skoda Felicia TDI conversion

[liaar]

Hi guys,

This is my first post here, so be gentle.

Just found this forum while searching for something about about my Felicia 1.9d LX...
This car was bought by my father, in 1999, directly from a shop, here in Sarajevo, as soon as the car launched.

He was a taxi driver, so he took good care of her, and took her to a mechanic every 2 weeks. Since he died, car isn't very much treated as she was before.
Anyways, we had a lot of problems with her, probably spent like 500€ since January 2016, just on mechanic trips.

She had a faulty BOSCH Pump, twice fixed. Lately we're expirienced some problems with temperature and gas gauge, they both stop working for some time (gas gauge goes to 0 and gas light lights up, like the tank is empty) than after some time, it starts working again.

90% of mechanics we went to said that the engine is soon to be dead, there isn't much to do to her.

 

My brother, mother and me are very attached to the car, so we don't want to sell her, so we're thinking about getting a different engine, a newer one.

Is it possible to fit a 1.9 TDI engine, from something like Golf MK 4, and what else would we require to purchase and swap ?

We wouldn't do it ourselves, but by our mechanic, because we know nothing about cars, other than driving them...

Thanks in advance everyone, and cheers from Sarajevo 

[RicardoM]

Welcome to Briskoda!

 

Before condemning the engine, let us know what mileage has the car.

 

Now about having little knowledge about mechanics. It is a big disadvantage. Not necessarily because you can't repair the car yourself. That would be ideal, but not everybody has the skills to do that. I'm talking about basic theory of operation, maintenance, and repairs. When you go to a (certified) mechanic, unless he is very honest, they have the tendency to take advantage of people with less mechanic knowledge.

 

Having said that, a basic test to decide if an engine is dead or not is the cylinder compression test. Give us the numbers and we'll see what is what because unless a Felicia is abused and neglected (which doesn't look to be in your case) the engines are pretty strong. My guess is the mechanics you went to don't really know how to repair a Felicia and they want you to buy an engine that they are more familiar with. Not to mention they make more money that way by selling an engine and charging a lot of labour fees. An engine swap is a tricky, costly job. So I would think twice.

 

The gauges issue is just bad contacts in the instrument cluster, fairly common to old Felicias.

Edited 16 September, 2016 by RicardoM

[liaar]

Hi there.

Car itself has gone over 300.000 kilometers, and probably even more, because the clock was reseted (don't know the phrase...).

Acutually the mehanic that first said that about the engine, was working in Eastern Europe in Skoda factory, in late 90's...

I will do the compression test, and post the results as soon I get them...

[KenONeill]

"Reset" is both the present and past participle of the verb "to reset".

 

Also, subject to you keeping your present manifolds, mounts and throttle linkage, I think the Golf 3/4 non-turbo engine will be a straight swap if you actually need a new engine. Having said that, if it's had oil changes to schedule that engine will go on to more like 800_000 km.

[RicardoM]

... if it's had oil changes to schedule that engine will go on to more like 800_000 km.

Agree. That is the highest mileage with the same engine ever recorded for Felicia. Not sure if it was a diesel but nevertheless if proper maintained they last 500k easily. It's the body that fails first.

[liaar]

My friend, I need your help...

I need the name of engine part I circled

[RicardoM]

Injection pump.

[liaar]

Injection pump.

Any chance you knowing what other car models have the same injection pump ?

[RicardoM]

VW Caddy-PickUp 1999-2001.

Code 028130081D

[DANIEL73]

the injection pump is brand Lucas and is also on ford mondeo 1998