OK the SPI to MPI conversion thread

ok guys i have seen it asked on here a few times.. swapping the single point injection engine for the more responsive multi point injection engine..

well i went and got a felicia spi at the weekend for a cheap road rally / track/anything car.. was a L&K too so found a home for the leather seats in the missus car for some brownie points

car had a broken timing chain so i dropped the whole engine+box out and fitted the nerw MPI engine and box (box is the same so can reuse)

you need the whole engine with flywheel as its different, the engine wiring loom (simple and self contained) the ecu and ecu carrier as its different and the fuel tank from an mpi (or just the pump if you fancy swapping the pump over into the spi housing which is fiddly and not recommended)

the MPI throttle cable and clutch cable

mpi air box

some fuel injection pipe ( 4 ft to be safe) and clips

the 1 heater hose

some patience

vagcom to realign the immob and ecu

as i had erm .. a few spares it was simple enough to get the right bits before hand or as needed..

the engine fits as it should and all the coolant pipes are the same except for 1 heater hose which goes from the rear of the stat to the heater on the mpi

the wiring loom looks like it should be simple.. its not both the spi and mpi use the same multi plug from car loom to engine 6 pin but use the wires in a different order and different colours so it takes a while to work out which is which, i ended up cutting both male and female plugs off another donor car and making up a short fly loom connect the 2 together which i might get around to putting up on here how to do at some point.

the throttle cable is different so needs swapping as does the clutch cable (spi will fit but wont clip into the cable holder by the exhaust)

i had to swap the fuel tank as the newer mpi pump will not fit in the older tank , if you get an early mpi pump it should fit as long as it is a twist out one (if you have removed one you will know what i mean otherwise just use your imagination)

the fuel pipes need extending to reach the fuel rail and it was a good oppertunity to relocate the fuel filter to the engine bay too

the exhaust is the same (mine isn't it has no cat or centre box now :wonder: )

then the immobiliser just needs to be told to be friends with the engine ecu and vise versa and it should be ok.

now bear in mind i did all this on sunday after a 300 mile round trip on sat to get the car, i started at 10 am as i had a hangover :( and road tested it at 9pm so as long as you have the bits its not bad job,

mind i do have access to a 3 post lift and engine crane etc which helps.

the result is a nice torquey motor that is better on fuel and flies along.. mine will do 3 figures on the speedo (on private ground of course) which is 5K rpm where i have not driven an spi that would get even close and i've driven a few

i may get some pics up if/when i can find time and i have almost certainly missed out something off the list of parts needed.. anyway first event is a navigational scatter weds eve so we will have to see how it goes..

ramble over your turn now