Hello folks, I will be getting a W reg 2000 model Skoda Fabia 8v today. Head gasket has failed on the car, and the garage that has diagnosed the head gasket failure are also concerned that because the engine has wet liners, that the block may have suffered damage as well. In any case, the head is junk, its been cracked.

I picked up yesterday completely unconnected, a Skoda Felicia 1.3 MPi on a T reg.

The Felicia is very tatty but the engine is spot on.

I know that the Fabia 1.4 engine is based on the 1.3 engine in the Felicia, but how much of it can be used in the Fabia?

Is it possible to swap heads from the Felicia to the Fabia?

In peoples experiences, is the block likely to be damaged on the Fabia due to the head gasket failure?

Is it possible to simply swap the complete Felicia engine into the Fabia?

The Felicia isn't worth the effort to keep on the road, interior is disgusting, and its very rusty, something i'm quite surprised about for a T reg, the Fabia however is a nice looking little car.

Any help would be appreciated.

Not sure about the Felly... I'm betting with a fair bit of work it would be able to be put in... To my knowledge the mounts are even the same.

However, you may get a closer match with the Favorit/Forman if you're talking about heads, as the 1.3 engine from that was bored out for the Fabia. I'd not be surprised if the head was interchangeable with a bit of work.

As for the block - it'd require the engine to be out to get a real good look at it, which whilst you were doing an overhaul of the engine wouldn't be a bad time to do it.

It just depends how much work you actually want to do on it really - for the amount of effort that is going into this, it may just be quicker to find another 1.4mpi wreck to donate the head and block.

Give TeflonTom a PM.. He'll know!

I doubt heads would be a straight swap. Also swapping the entire engine would no doubt require other work, mostly electrical wiring and mounting the ECU etc. If the engines been cooked I'd opt for dropping in an engine from a scrapper as suggested above.