Hey guys,

A friend is planning to convert a couple of Petrol [2.0L] MK1's into Diesel [1.9L].

Apart from the obvious like the engine, gearbox, their mounting and foundation are there any other significant changes that he will have to make?

Like modifications to the chassis, changing the suspension, wiring to the convenience units [power windows et al].

He wants to know if it is viable before he gets into it.

in India, people prefer to buy diesel cars as they give better mileage and the price of diesel is almost half that of petrol.

He's got a couple of 2.0 Liter MK1s and has a couple of scrapped Diesel MK1s, so most of the parts should be there.

Thanks

Why not just buy a diesel?

Yea why convert a petrol that is more in tax o a diesl that is less? Fair one converting a diesel into petol but dont see the point myself.

Fuel sysetem will need changing. Complete engine but muntings should be same if takint the engine from a mk4 golf platform car.

Lots of messing for no gain imo.

Babs has a point just buy a diesel?

he's in India folks, so a lot of the points above just do not matter

He has all the parts so why not?

If i could whack a 1.9tdi into my vrs i would

220bhp on a hybrid with loads of torque and 60mpg... Getting sick of my 1.8t

I think you could do it by basically building the diesel cars up in the petrol shell.

Can't he make a good car out of the two diesels?

Makes more sence now lol.

Basically swap everything over. Easy.

He has all the parts so why not?

If i could whack a 1.9tdi into my vrs i would

220bhp on a hybrid with loads of torque and 60mpg... Getting sick of my 1.8t

Would be cheaper getting the diesel and just putting the vrs interior in it and bumpers.

Not worth the money converting the vrs here as the pd130 will be around 150 tax? Where the vrs is 240 ish?

He is talking NON vrs mate. He obviously has petrol octys and can source diesel engines.

I imagine:

- loom: around the engine bag

- loom: under the steering wheel / 109 relay area

- loom: fuel tank (maybe)

- front shocks (engine is heavier)

- fuel pipes (even the filler hole will be the wrong size - too small to fit a diesel nozzle in)

- accelerator pedal mods (drive by wire?)

Engine mount points will be the same I guess.

I'm guessing a bit, but certainly transaxle including mounts and driveshafts, cooling system, frotn suspension, fuel system, engine ecu, wiring loom, instrument cluster (rev counter and temp guage are different). The RHF innre wing may also be different to accomodate the intercooler pipes.

Without knowing which petrol and diesel engines we're swapping, I can't be definitive about this either way, but the brakes may be different.

There's a rule in cars, that generally says, if you can buy it, don't build it.

would it not be easier to take the good parts from the ptrol cars to fix the diesels? Assuming the diesel scrappies aren't completely fooked or illegal to be on the road.

Thanks for the inputs guys. The thing is, here in India we have no car inspections like you guys in the UK do.

I drove my old car for over a month with no electricals [apart from the car starting, nothing else electrical would work. That includes horn, headlights, indicators, music system, wipers, AC blowers. Even the radiator fan wouldn't work].. used the car basically for short runs down to the cigarette shop and back. moment i saved up some money i got it completely rebuilt.

Also the resale value of a Diesel car over here is about 3 - 4 times higher than a Petrol car.

A lot of people want to [if possible] get their cars converted to Diesel, as the price of diesel is also substantially lower than that of petrol.

not a lot of people in India are familiar with Skodas as they are quite pricey compared to a Jap / Locally made car [tata ,maruti, etc.]

and the Authorised Service Centers are just ridiculous in India.. they are known to cheat people on quite a regular basis and themselves don't know much about the cars. So getting any help from them is out of the question.

This is the kind of **** Skoda in India does.

http://www.team-bhp....ed-4-years.html

While their cars are brilliant, the Customer Support is ****e.

The reason for transplanting Diesel into Petrol because a lot of people who have got the petrol MK1s [non vRS] want to convert to Diesel.

vRS owners are generally happy and wouldn't convert.

Also Labour costs in India are ridiculous [low] and most Skoda parts are sourced at a fraction of the price from the shady Authorised Service Centers and from Scrap shops, where cars are scavenged for parts.

So doing a conversion if it means only swapping out parts rather than modifications to the chassis as well would work out cheaper.

Edited 4 September, 201213 yr by Sprucegoose

Even here in the UK, I've known garages re-shell accident damaged cars and make a profit on the sale; I can't see any reason why it wouldn't make sense to do the same in other countries.

You do need a lot of parts to do a petrol to diesel conversion (or vice versa), but if you have a written-off example of the model you're converting to, and can absorb the labour on an opportunity cost basis (The conversion work only happens when the staff would otherwise be idle and their pay an overhead) it can make sense, particularly if the converted car will be worth significantly more.