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I am not into the whoosh bang turbo effect, reliable useable power floats my boat. I am old enough and wise enough to know that 18 t bam engine conversion will make the fun not fun and dangerous if driven hard. Parts for full gearbox overhaul has turned out to cost me £100 and it is very easy. Engine next, with a bit of polish work head skim new bearings guides and rings I reckon I will be knocking on the door of 100 plus hp that will be useable and reliable. Was going to fit a 1.4 16v AFH. ECU but in reflection probability not a good idea. Who would be good to discuss getting a metal head gasket?

Stripped my replacement one today and it was easy, no excessive wear 5th gear nut and gears. interestingly Skoda fit a doughnut magnet inside to collect the wear and give a good indication of the wear level. It is obvious that this gearbox has been designed to be repaired/ overhauled by any competent home mechanic. A good tip is to use a vice with soft jaws on to help you along, also I found that a bahco 10" adjustable spanner was the perfect tool to use the handle as a wedge to effortlessly split the box open (unlike the video). I am impressed with the robustness of the components and the choice of Torrington bearings in manufacture. I will be finding and ordering the new bearings and seals over the next few hours. I will list all the numbers and sizes and give a overview on how long it takes and any other tips I have. Please be patient as I only get one day off a week and I have the wife's ragtop to finish off before it goes to the paint shop (Skoda que jumped today prior to bidding on a estate felly on fleabay). Wat is the maximum permissible skim on a AEE cylinder head anybody?

Ken, Many thanks for your sage advice. Appealed to the ever increasing old man in me! To update you I have managed to source a rough looking 1.6 box, inspected the 5th gear assembly and it hasn,t started to come loose or chatter yet so the plan of action is to split it clean it out, fit new final drive bearings, rebuild utilising locktite on the 5th gear nuts and rebuild with new seals. One thing for sure with oil present on my drive the original box is beyond repair for sure. (no fifth gear, worn out selector rod and a loose final drive). ENGINE Head skim .010 thou new stems and seals internal polish. A bloody good hone, new rings, polish the rods (weak point according to Teflon Tom) new little and big ends, oil pump. Metal head gasket if I can get one and maybe autumn time Tango7 will ride again. All other parts on the suspension, steering etc, including the driveshafts are top notch due to my OCD servicing regime and silly motorway mileage accumulation. Hopefully that will give me another 100k of visiting every power station in the UK with my kit of tools on the back. Also restore the grunt that came with a 60mm throttle body, diesel exhaust VW polo 4 branch manifold and a 3.5 bar fuel pressure regulator. (It would out pull a BMW 316d up "the windy hill" eastbound on the M62!)

T735BHP has stood awaiting a replacement gearbox for far too long now, cannot get one for love nor money. truth to tell after 300k running all sorts of power inducing mods the AEE in it is starting to show signs of bore and valve stem wear and was getting a bit numb around the time the gearbox imploded on the A1 on my way home. As it is mint everywhere you look due to my car OCD I cannot bear to part with my fun addiction and am truly lost without my trusty steed despite my stand in daily hack being a cracker of a golf mk3 estate. I have a very decent mk2 golf 1.8 engine and 5 speed box sat doin nowt I have done a lot of measuring and I reckon it is possible to utilise this using mk1 golf engine mountings fabricate the brackets on the inner wings position and set these utilising the wifes mk1 golf as datum for angles of driveshafts etc. My weakpoint however is the old electrickery, now I have also a frick all mileage golf mk3 2.0 AGG cylinder head and plenum chamber leftover from the build of mk2 Golf GTI project (weekend car) The 60mm throttle body off this is currently on the felicia. My question is a huuuugggeee one, does the ecu fire the injectors from a signal sent from the distributor so theoretically allowing the AGG/ PB vw golf engine hybrid to utilise the stock AEE engine management system? Any comments no matter how derogatory will be gratefully recieved.

Ricardo, once again many thanks for your help. Update is this afternoon I am going to remove the 5th gear housing and inspect the 5th gear assembly for wear and chatter on my spare. This will help me decide if I am going to hold out for another box or possibly donor car. I will take pictures and write something up as I go to give something back to the Briskoda community. (One of the most helpful forums out there!) Anyone got any tips like "Watch out for the giggling pin falling out of the laughing shaft upon removal"?

Thanks to my daughter sat at the side of me here you are! No good at dancing, no good at fashion, no good at computing but I am a f@&?er with a spanner!

Well my Skoda Felicia Fun (T735 BHP) gearbox has finally given up the ghost (5th gear nut fell off at speed). Seen a you tube vid on stripdown and it looks quite a lot simpler and quicker than tackling a vw gearbox? Spent a month trawling the adds to find a low miler box with the right ratios to no avail. Question is are the bearings inside easy to get a hold of here in the UK i.e. not Eastern bloc specials? I have a spare box that has done 120k but will require at least new bearings for me to trust it. Whilst there new rings, engine bearings, head skim and stem guides + seals as with all on here life without my truck is not fun! Help, advice and comment most gratefully recieved.

Forgot to ask are the rear beam bushes the same as a Mk2 golf? If not are they std felly items.

Ricardo to answer your question it was the parent material that wore within the OEM driveshaft cups that fit in the gearbox I reckoned with constant mileage pointing forward it caused point loading failure at dead ahead. New ones are well worth it still real tight even though I have play in the final drive.

Hi all, yes indeedy it was the driveshafts, been a busy boy knocking up 30k in it this year seven days fixing power stations all over the place! Did some further subtle changes to the fueling and the inlet and it has gone like the wind (I mean really made the 100+K AEE reeally fly reliably and economically) After fitting the diesel to the 4 branch exhaust and bedding the driveshafts in it was only marginally more free breathing. I reckoned it needed to bed in (and it probably did). Whilst looking for a vacuum leak I decided to fit the 1.4 16v 60mm throttle body by making a spacer plate (25mm) and new gaskets so it worked spot on with no fouling. I fitted the original elbow piece to the filter box with external pipe. On test it really gave it some real pull from 2.5k to 4k rev range (Even though the hole in the inlet manifold was slightly bigger than the original throttle body). Having done some miles in it I then realised the difference it made to my golf increasing fuel pressure to 3.5 bar after it was mapped and a bigger engine. EEEBBBBAAAAAYYYYY 3.5 bar Saab pressure regulator. Done 27000 miles in it without touching anything and loved every minute of it. Pulled away from some quick motors on a daily basis up windy hill over the M62 looking as rough as it does. Anyway my trusty steed has been made sorn due to operation and six months enforced sick leave (work kills horses FACT) but my physio treatment involves overhaul of my Fun Addiction, paint job to get done cash in bank and now got the time (Gulf racing Blue and Orange) some 15 BBA RAs to go on with a nice offset (ET20) and to top it off I am after a low miler 1.6 felly rusty damaged dont care. I need a new battery, screen, back stub axles, rear drums (bigger brakes) new clocks, steering wheel, and engine and box cos I ain't doing that lot for it to go pop as soon as its done! FACT I have never known a 16 year old vehicle do delivery van miles driven as though it has been nicked day and night and never miss a beat. Anybody got one let me know.................. Thanks Again Ricardo and Teflon Tom by the way there is a blown KR and g/box on flea bay...............................shall I do summat really stupid??????

Finally fitted driveshafts and fully tested them. Verdict is it was the driveshafts! The old girl drives spot on so far managed to do around 30 miles under various loads and road surfaces. The fully assembled driveshafts from Europarts seem quite good but time will tell. For the price I cannot complain at all. I am going to get the spare head I have got out tomorrow and strip it down for inspection and overhaul if suitable. I am going to get a price off Cat cams for higher lift one if the head is not clapped out. should be okay for just new guides, stem seals and a skim of around 0.15. maybe a touch of parent material removed from the outlet and inlet ports! To help this along I do have a "like new" AGG 60mm throttle body that could be adapted to a spare 1.6 plemum I have. I reckon that would help it along the motorway with a remap. A diesel exhaust 50mm diameter would mate up with the Polo 4 branch thats on it lovely. (I fitted this in 2011 to replace the cracked and tiny standard item). Ricardo I used indusrial paint after the resto works to the floor and keep it well coated in wax seal. I will take some pics tomorrow. Many Thanks for your help with this problem as it was not a very obvious one.

Thanks Ricardo, Certainly whizz round (no suprise there it is something we all do take for granted) Been on a breakdown at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station and had to take the Mrs's Mk1 Cabriolet for a "Carbon Buster" this morning alas upon my return no frickin driveshafts! Any how the Peril has has all the floor protection blasted off as well as all the gunk on the mechanical parts all the grease off the the brake lines and the driveshafts taken out of the hubs in preparation! All the inner wings, floor and oily bits have come back up nice shiny Skoda green (inner wings and floor) black (suspension components) and silver (sump, driveshafts, sump guards and pipe on crossmember). All ready for the new driveshafts next week. Upon stripping them out I do think that it is one of the outers has gone, it is unusually stiff when turned to a tight angle (ie full lock). Heres hoping that box has plenty left in it. Merry Christmas all.

Many thanks for both your help. Tom I reckon a bonnet bulge with the diesel heater box would sort it as you say. Having built an AGG/TSR hybrid engine and fitted it to my mk2 golf I can stand testament on how much taller the agg is in relation to a 1.8 unit no sure about the 1.9 diesel though. The golf throttle body just touches the bonnet off the gass. Ricardo indeed the Czech Republic is a great place to visit, I once travelled through it on my way to Poland to fix a Power Station! The driveshafts should be here tomorrow so I will keep you posted with the quality of them plus results of the high speed test run (Ill be lucky on Christmas eve).

Right Gents, Once again many thank for your attention with this matter. The gearbox oil has no contaminants whatsoever and the only better method I know of is spectrographic analysis at Wetherby but my method has never let me down with gearboxes from diesel locos to 900 ton rotating airheaters over the last 20 years. Anyway in light of your confidence of the Skoda transmission I have bought two brand new non oem driveshafts from the ebay £41.50 each at the mo with 23% off. Obviously these will not be about forever. In my opinion any failure of the transmission would have resulted in aluminium/ brass or steel within the oil none of which seems to be present. The crown wheel viewable from the oil drain plug does not move at all with a DTI gauge on it whilst the output shafts are shook. I will fit these and test the Peril out down the A1 once fitted. One tip I do have is the brake guider pins are exactly the same on vw Sharan rear discs and thus easy to get hold of unlike typing in "Felicia". But the mondeo route does make perfect sense. If successful I will remove the cylinder head and fit a new gasket as maintenance fit new stem seals skim head etc just to keep the old girl up to speed, may even remap it to boost the performance some what. (Does any one know if a steel onlyhead gasket is available for this engine?) Do not fancy a hole in the bonnet to accept the AGG plenum chamber! Still I could fit a 1.8 mk3 with a GTI cam and single point fuel injection? In the chase of economical quick turnaround power and ditching the Skoda box, I reckon the easiest transplant route would be wv MK1 Golf engine and box modded engine mountings MK1 driveshafts and the single point fuel injection off a mk3 so the cat could go back in? But there again my AEE is still pulling like a train and who knows if a Polo GT camshaft fits, and lets the bugger rev a bit more freely with a remap. Many thanks for you help and I will keep you informed of the results. I did not spend six weeks with the MIG and grinder for the dealers to tell me it is obsolete!!!!! By the way that green four door Felicia down in Southern England is a right creation, I bet it is a right buzz zipping past much more expensive hardwear!

Gents, Firstly the brakes are sound new guide pins free pistons (the offside caliper was changed not long back cos the original got well stiff). Secondly the internal drag in neutral seems a but much and takes some stopping and holding it whilst running. Yep would fully agree with the noisy transmisson (I work on huge David Brown radicons sometimes.) Which leads me on to inspecting the oil thoroughly as is has the colouration of a Radicon that has a failed brass carrier in it! Will report back shortly on its contaminents if found.