HI,im looking for advice on how easy it would be to put a 1.9d into my felicia,i found one in my local scrappy thats got 72,000 miles on it and i know there good for at least 260,000miles it starts and runs great,my car is a 1.3 mpi so a diesel engine would give me more mpg and i could run it on bio-diesel,would i need the driveshafts as well?,engine + box £150,so any advice would be great.thanks

shafts are the same. there are some detailed changes to the electrics between petrol and diesel, I believe (although I could be wrong), and you'd need to sort out the immobiliser or disable it by changing the cutoff in the diesel pump), and of course the difference in the fuel supply to take care of.... worth doing if you can do it all yourself though, I'd think.

shafts are the same. there are some detailed changes to the electrics between petrol and diesel, I believe (although I could be wrong), and you'd need to sort out the immobiliser or disable it by changing the cutoff in the diesel pump), and of course the difference in the fuel supply to take care of.... worth doing if you can do it all yourself though, I'd think.

cheers,the fuel supply is no prob as my petrol tank has a return on it so i would just drain off the petrol and remove the electric fuel pump and fill it with diesel!,ive got a haynes manual so most of the electrics sould be no problem.ive got a frendly machanic who owns a garage so i might just do it.

Theres a lot of hoops to jump through to make it work sadly, is it really worth it when you can just get a whole car with a diesel already in there to start with?

Theres a lot of hoops to jump through to make it work sadly, is it really worth it when you can just get a whole car with a diesel already in there to start with?

what are the main problems?,my felicia is in very good overall condition,ie no rust,so i thought dropping the diesel in would be a good bet as my mate makes biodiesel so its only about £20 to fill my tank,and ive heard the 1.9d is a good engine also my car only cost me £160!! so another £150 on an engine seems like a bargain.

You need the entire central electrics loom and all of the wiring from the engine bay too... Good on you for wanting to try it, it's not impossible by any means but it is a lot of work considering that you can buy the car with the engine already in place for peanuts.

You need the entire central electrics loom and all of the wiring from the engine bay too... Good on you for wanting to try it, it's not impossible by any means but it is a lot of work considering that you can buy the car with the engine already in place for peanuts.

thanks for the reply.

engine bay wiring is easy i'll just take it from the donor car,but why the central loom? can i not just plug the engine bay wiring into the back of the fuse box as everything else should be the same,also the diesel engine is simpler to run its all mechanical,no engine management or ecu,so basicly a wire from the back of the imoboliser to the fuel cut off solinoid,alt wiring is the same as the petrol as is the starter.

the diesel does have an ecu, and the immobilizer unit is built into the injection pump on those engines

Yes, but while its out then its easy enough to fit a standard stopl solenoid from a transit and then just give it a live feed.....

ok, i bought the whole car for £130 today so i can strip out all the bits i need,i had a look through the haynes manual but it doesnt say anything about an ECU in the diesel,it does talk about the diesel control unit but this only controls the glow plugs and the egr valve(this will have a blanking plate fitted)!!,thought i could just connect the feed from my imobiliser to the shut off solinoid(manual states that this is just a shut off solinoid)doesnt mention anything about imobilisers on the diesel....also would i need to change the front springs/struts or are they all standard?.

thanks in advance.

The manual is wrong.

The immo unit is on the diesel pump, a small black plastic/metal device. It connects to the cutoff solenoid via captive wiring. Easy enough to replace, but you have to remove the diesel pump to do this, and modify the steel shield to fit a standard cutoff if that's the route you want to go. I've done it on my mum's Diesel Fel as she was having problems with it occasionally and I had the pump off anyway (for something else).

However, it's quite possible you could code the immo to the car, OR if you've bought the entire car just fit the whole lot - immo box from the donor car, and then I think it should just run. Tom's done far more work on stuff like that - all my rally cars obviously haven't had the immo unit in.

Front springs are uprated, I believe the dampers are too - the engine is massively heavier than the light ally unit you're replacing.

The manual is wrong.

The immo unit is on the diesel pump, a small black plastic/metal device. It connects to the cutoff solenoid via captive wiring. Easy enough to replace, but you have to remove the diesel pump to do this, and modify the steel shield to fit a standard cutoff if that's the route you want to go. I've done it on my mum's Diesel Fel as she was having problems with it occasionally and I had the pump off anyway (for something else).

However, it's quite possible you could code the immo to the car, OR if you've bought the entire car just fit the whole lot - immo box from the donor car, and then I think it should just run. Tom's done far more work on stuff like that - all my rally cars obviously haven't had the immo unit in.

Front springs are uprated, I believe the dampers are too - the engine is massively heavier than the light ally unit you're replacing.

cheers for that,do you know where the immoboliser unit is on the diesel no manual i can find says anything about them or how to remove them,also where is the one on the petrol.thanks

There's an immo box which reads the code from the key, it's attached to the steering column or thereabouts, it's a brown box with two cables attached, one goes to the ring round the ignition lock, the other into the loom (to connect to the ECU on the petrol, and the immo unit on the diesel pump).

Manuals won't tell you how to remove them, for obvious reasons. However, it's physically difficult enough to do on the diesel that it's not a "theft" option, it's a "workshop and a few hours" option.

hi there your best bet is to take the dash out off your donnor car and and strip it all take all the looms and fuse box and put it in yours i would even take the tank as well but when you take looms out plug them back in to where they come out off car

you will need the exaust too

you will need , front struts and springs, fuel sender unit and either rewire to work with your dash or change the loom and fit diesel dash, you will need to change the fuel filler neck too as a diesel filler nozzle will not fit in it!!!! (bet you forgot about that)and at least remove the petrol fuel filter from the system.

diesel X member is stronger and has exhaust mountings on it.

body would need 2 captive nuts welded into the drivers side chassis rail for the mounting (unless you have a 1.6 already)

fuel pipe work comes into engine bay in a totally different place and I think is different size to the petrol pipes,

wiring as said easy way is to change the steering lock and immob unit for the diesel one (also if you don't have power steering already you will need the column to match the power rack) petrol immob unit will NOT match to a diesel engine.

complete exhaust, the petrol rpm counter will not work with a diesel, the diesel coolant fan wiring is a seperate loom so easy to swap as is the glowplug relay unit, the diesel heater unit is totally different to the petrol one and the engine will not fit with the petrol one in place.

think thats about it a good weekends work then you have the fun of trying to persuade DVLA that its now a diesel and needs to be taxed at the higher rate(otherwise you can and will be done for tax dodging) and may need to have the conversion checked at a vosa place?.

you will need , front struts and springs, fuel sender unit and either rewire to work with your dash or change the loom and fit diesel dash, you will need to change the fuel filler neck too as a diesel filler nozzle will not fit in it!!!! (bet you forgot about that)and at least remove the petrol fuel filter from the system.

diesel X member is stronger and has exhaust mountings on it.

body would need 2 captive nuts welded into the drivers side chassis rail for the mounting (unless you have a 1.6 already)

fuel pipe work comes into engine bay in a totally different place and I think is different size to the petrol pipes,

wiring as said easy way is to change the steering lock and immob unit for the diesel one (also if you don't have power steering already you will need the column to match the power rack) petrol immob unit will NOT match to a diesel engine.

complete exhaust, the petrol rpm counter will not work with a diesel, the diesel coolant fan wiring is a seperate loom so easy to swap as is the glowplug relay unit, the diesel heater unit is totally different to the petrol one and the engine will not fit with the petrol one in place.

think thats about it a good weekends work then you have the fun of trying to persuade DVLA that its now a diesel and needs to be taxed at the higher rate(otherwise you can and will be done for tax dodging) and may need to have the conversion checked at a vosa place?.

ok cheers,a lot going on there!!!,ive been on other forums and found out about immob removal,simple on the diesel you just cut the wire to it and join both ends together at the pump,the immob from the petrol wont go anywhere so just leave it,fuel pipes are in the same place and are the same size,diesel X member?,mine looks the same as the diesel one here and doesnt have exaust mountings on it!,front struts are easy 4 bolts and there done,was going to remove the fuel filter anyway,just the top of the filler neck needs changed,got the full exaust from the diesel although will only be using it up to the middle section as its gonna be side exit,dvla wont be a prob section on V5 lets you change tax class(ive done this before,1.6 to V8).

Don't underestimate how much of a ball ache it will be notifying the dvla... The nice little box on the v5c document makes it sound oh so easy it used to be easy a few years ago because they didn't ask questions, they changed the rules about 2 years ago, they will want engine numbers, receipts, chassis number of the donor vehicle, a copy of the invoice from the garage that fitted the new engine etc etc, then at the end of it all they will tell you that you haven't supplied them enough info and they can't find the engine type and cc listed on their databases.. Trust me, I know, I've been there.. Utter bunch of ****wits at the dvla.

Don't underestimate how much of a ball ache it will be notifying the dvla... The nice little box on the v5c document makes it sound oh so easy it used to be easy a few years ago because they didn't ask questions, they changed the rules about 2 years ago, they will want engine numbers, receipts, chassis number of the donor vehicle, a copy of the invoice from the garage that fitted the new engine etc etc, then at the end of it all they will tell you that you haven't supplied them enough info and they can't find the engine type and cc listed on their databases.. Trust me, I know, I've been there.. Utter bunch of ****wits at the dvla.

ok thanks,ive got the service history book from the diesel and it has the engine numbers and chassis numbers,reg number also,and my mate will give me an invoice if i need it(although i'll be doing the work myself).ive started the work today but as i need my car for work every day im just doing the bits that can keep my car on the road,front struts have been changed over and i'll be transfering the glow plug releys and the wiring 2morrow(wont connect it up obviously)and the blower intake.