Apologies to Tom for cluttering his 1.8T Build thread.

Started this thread to talk about options for Felicia engine conversions.

I've recently returned to a Felicia (1.3mpi), after 1st owning one (1.6 glxi) around 10 years ago.

I've got some mega rose tinted glasses on and instead of buying something faster next year like i'd planned i'm musing the possibility of an engine conversion into the Felicia to satisfy my needs

Tom has successfully put a 1.8T into a Felicia, i wonder how long this would take a reputable, experienced outfit to complete?

What about the 1.6 16v from the polo/lupo gti?

The 1.4 tsi/tfsi is a newer unit, would this be a possibility?

Any thoughts?

Please no why would you, it's not worth the cost, buy a faster car, etc

Edited 7 May, 201313 yr by ClarkE_123

Honestly? Hideously expensive. You're talking thousands in labour - anything like this takes a LONG time as there are problems to solve, which will involve lots of time and money sorting them out. More than likely, custom driveshafts, a cooling solution (you may get lucky, but most companies that would take this sort of thing on would be dealing with bespoke solutions to fit into the space provided, so you're talking £500+ for a radiator, maybe £500 for a pair of shafts), gear linkage to sort out, fabrication of mountings (and probably subframe and even chassis mods to suit, as the engine bay isn't that big), etc., and then prep and paint once it's all in place. Lots of hours, and if anyone's charging a decent rate, I'd guess you'd be looking at £5k plus the cost of the engine/box? Bear in mind you will be paying for them to get the knowledge of how to do it. The second/third/fourth conversions would take a lot less time as all those things would have been worked out. They could, I guess, nick Tom's ideas, but there's still a lot of nuancing that's needed to get an engine where it's not supposed to be.

Tom's done the 1.6 16v (check out the later parts of his 1.4 16v conversion thread) - mates to the standard Felicia gearbox, making things much easier. As soon as you change the box on a FWD car, it gets complex, and unless things are right, it'll also be unreliable as the shafts need to be at the right angle and indeed the right lengths or else things will go pear shaped very quickly...

Either take an AEE and mod it, as described in many, many Polo and Golf threads, or fit an AFH.

I understand your wants mate, but do a simple search and you'll discover the many, large obstacles to overcome when fitting a something like a 1.8T or other bespoke engine. I wouldn't even consider the TSI, I'm mainly thinking of all the electronic problems that may arise.

If you are serious about something like this you need to evaluate what exactly it is you want from the car and think how deep your pockets can go, are you after a reliable 100bhp, a screaming 150bhp from some bike carbs that won't last 5 miniutes, a 300bhp monster? Also think about what you will use the car for

I do like the idea of a tsi engine, I'm the sort of plucky chap that could make something like that happen too, the electrics arent that complicated on them, at the end of the day it's just a box with wires attached to it!! it's such a sad shame thy are such unreliable units what with all the stories I've heard of them chewing up their piston rings and drinking their own blood.

I have looked seriously at some cross-marque transplants in a felicia, even vw group engines are difficult to get in a felicia because they are designed to take the engines they came with from the factory and nothing more, before I went down the 1.8T route I looked quite closely at using a volvo t4 engine, also I like the idea of a 2.0 ford zetec transplant too.. Darren is dead right above, it's easy getting the engine to sit in the hole at the front of the car, any old muppet with a hammer and a welder can do that, the skill is understanding the electrical systems, controls, geometry, cooling, hand/foot levers etc and how they interact with each other and how to integrate them into the the car and make them reliable. and then adapting or custom making bits to make it all fit together and work.

I get people ask me all the time about engine transplants and most of them are dreamers, I've had people ask what I'll charge to do it, and when I tell them they are like "well my mate says it's easy and he can do it in a week for £350" or some other retarded claim similar, my response is something like " tell you mate I wish him the best of luck"

Thanks for the replies.

I wouldn't classify myself as a dreamer. I've had my share of performance models over the years, and certainly don't expect this to be a cheap/easy project.

I am from an engineering background, more specifically i've worked for a first tier automotive supplier for the last ten years (subframe, axles, tvl's, etc). Now while this doesn't put me in a position to take on the conversion myself, necessarily, it does give me an appreciation of the engineering details and some useful contacts for when it comes to design and manufacture of bespoke components

My current, hypothetical, thoughts are.

I would want to use the car daily, so reliability is a major factor.

I'd like the conversion to use a VAG engine.

200bhp/tonne would be nice, utilising an LSD, if feasible.

It would be much easier for me to go buy an ED30 Golf / S3 next year.

But i think i have some unfinished business with the Felicia and won't get another chance, i have found a really clean 1.3mpi

I'm going to have a read throughTom's 1.4 16v thread, I didn't know how much of an option the 1.6 16v was. Obviously if it was a big headache you're much better off putting a higher powered lump in it's place.

Was thinking of 2.0 tfsi, but reading between the lines and without doing much homework think it's probably too large for the Felicias bay. I'm intrigued by the possibility of the 1.4 tsi, would certainly be something that hasn't been done. But as said reliability seems to be a bit sketchy....

Runs off to do some homework

V5 engine, interesting.

Are you DIY'ing?

I'd be interested in your build thread, if you document it.

You can report troublesome pm messages to the moderating team..

anyway, the v5 engine, they are 2.3 litre, 170bhp as a turnkey solution, I must admit I've never driven a v5 powered car, the engine is very similar to the vr6 engine, good choice for a transplant... There is more than one way to tackle a transplant like that, might be more beneficial to use a mk3 golf vr6 gearbox with it

you will need the ecu and loom etc, there are companies out there that can do an immo defeat program on them

try to get the engine as far over to the drivers side as possible, it will make it more likely that you can find an oem driveshaft/s that are the right length.

VR5 - I'd start by asking AwesomeGTi very nicely; they've done a VR6 and might be able to help with conventional or CAD drawings for stuff like mounts.

i've also got a jig that i made for the position of the engine mounts if you were to use mk4 golf engine mounts for it which is entirely possible.

in my opinion you'd be better off modfying the subframe to take both of the rear engine mounts from a golf vr6, that way you can position the engine laterally wherever you want, and that also means you can try out a few different oem driveshafts from vw group cars, it's the passenger side driveshaft you will struggle to find the right length!! then fabricate a pedestal to sit of the front crossmember to take a front engine mount from a golf vr6, like i said before the v5 and vr6 is virtually the same externally and the mountings are interchangebale..

one potential problem i see is that they are fairly tall engines, and they are fairly heavy too, you need to estimate the nominal ride height then place the engine at a height in the bay where the driveshafts are as parallel to the ground as possible at nominal ride height.

back to my vr6 gearbox suggestion, the vr6 gearbox is an 02a type which is also the same type of box used on the 2.0 16v gti model except the vr6 has a different bellhousing pattern, anywho on the seat ibiza with the 2.0 abf engine there is a little adaptor that allows you to use a clutch cable instead of the hydraulic slave cylinder and this could save you the hassle of converting the pedal box over to a hydraulic system, the gear linkage from this type of box is the same type i'm using on my 20v car so it is known to fit in the centre console with a bit of plastic surgery on the console..

well i am going to be choping car on a pillers across floor so i would end up with just the front end if you know what i mean.... so that way i should get every think needed ie ecu loom engine gearbox dash clocks

they sound sweet as V5

mates got a old vr6 lump went to scrap and it put my car on its arse to heavy the V5 are alloy i think mate called me and said about the v5

Anyone know how similar/disimilar the 1.3 mpi and polo g40 (1.3 8v - s/c) engines are?

I have no idea, still exploring options...and saving

The g40 engines are very similar to the 1.6 aee engines, in fact the engine block was just an evolution of it. All the mounting holes are in the same place etc.. good luck finding one that's not fubar though, the g lader superchargers on them need to be rebuilt every 40k miles so for that reason I wouldn't bother with it. You would also struggle to get it through an mot emissions test as well.

I was thinking (well dreaming again) that i would overhaul the engine and go turbo instead of s/c...to get towards 200bhp

I'm trying to come up with a "sympathetic" conversion option, as the 1.8t route as you've shown requires a lot of grinder to engine bay partcipation.

I didn't think about mot emissions though hmm...

Some food for thought

Thanks Tom, really appreciate your input!

personally I would go with a 1.6 16v conversion first as a simple bolt together job the AVY motor from a polo gti bolts straight up to the felicia gearbox if you have a 1.6 spacer plate and flywheel and the engine mount itself is a doddle to do they way our 1 rally car is. wiring is simple enough if you can get the whole loom and you will need to fit the polo throttle pedal as it is electric.

takes the 1.6 felicia from 75bhp to 125bhp in a weekend and possibly for less than £400 depending how cheap the donor engine is.

We have a felly here with a 1.6 16v on jenvey tb's and sc 6 speed box etc and it is more than quick enough really.

other option is the 1.4 AFH which is 100bhp and same work to fit which makes it the car Skoda should have made really.

other engine conversions are always going to be hard work and as said above the drive shafts are critical and with the way the felly suspension x member is mounted up it gives little scope for getting the engine forward away from the bulkhead.

My 2.0 XE filled the engine bay on mine to the extent I even had to chop the heater unit away to get it all in and spent quite a few hours with bits of string and a tape working out angles for the shafts etc (worked too I did 10 rallies before I broke a cv) I hate to think how many hours I spent actually getting the engine side of things just right and then the cooling side played havoc for a while with simple things causing big problems.

would have made a cracking sleeper road car tho it still brings a smile when I think of the first road test with gps on the windscreen so we could see exactly how fast it did go at 6000 in 5th  .

Personally I think it is the kind of job that you need to be able to do yourself as paying for it to be done would just be silly money, for instance just the gearstick fitting and making it work took me around 6 hours on Boxing day    imagine a bill for that at say £30 hr   .

Something different here

Struggling to find any build / bay pics. Not exactly an oem finish to the bonnet

yeah seen that vid before, it's a real screamer

 

think simpler! save yourself a lot of hassle and go down a tried and tested route or it will get stupidly expensive in a short space of time.

oh yes, uma1998... what happened to your v5 plans?

I'll hopefully have the Felicia off the road soon so i can park it up in my garage to work on.

I agree on the tried and tested route, not sure which direction i'll go with the engine, if any. I'm just going to start with the bits i've got and are waiting to be fitted and see where i end up...

I'd be interested in the v5 progress too

One thing to keep in mind is insurance, assuming you intend to declare your mods.

 

I really like my 100bhp 1400 AFH conversion but immediately you put a different engine in my experience you're looking at 100% + more cost for insurance,

 

As my insurers didn't ask about anything other than cubic capacity before quoting It seems that would be true even if you fitted a 60bhp AEX 1400! 

I have skoda felicia 1.3mpi petrol engine.  Which small engine preferably 1.3/1.4/1.5 capacity can perfectly fit into this car without too much work? I am told in some of the swaps,  the shaft has to be joined , which can break easily at the joint. I dont want the shaft to be welded together. 

 

Second i need an engine which wont give too much problems. The one which wont consume too much fuel. 

 

Please help me. Am new on this platform. 

Edited Wednesday at 13:11 by Keken 
Adding more information.

Well, if you want to use original shafts, you are stuck with Skoda gearbox, that leaves only few choices:

 

Felicia engine itself can be modified to 1.4l with fabia crankshaft and to 1.5l with larger cylinders.

 

Whole Fabia 1.4MPi engine can be fitted, with some mods related to engine mount and flywheel assembly.

 

Also some engines from VW EA111 will fit, if you are able to find some important bits from 1.6 AEE felicia. I think that 1.4 16V (AUA, AUB and other variants) will be easiest.

On 22/06/2018 at 08:04, Keken said:

I have skoda felicia 1.3mpi petrol engine.  Which small engine preferably 1.3/1.4/1.5 capacity can perfectly fit into this car without too much work? I am told in some of the swaps,  the shaft has to be joined , which can break easily at the joint. I dont want the shaft to be welded together. 

 

Second i need an engine which wont give too much problems. The one which wont consume too much fuel. 

 

Please help me. Am new on this platform. 

Edited Wednesday at 13:11 by Keken 
Adding more information.

 

Basically the Polo AFH 16V 1400 is pretty much plug and play apart from a fabricated engine mount, sorting out the exhaust, the gearbox adaptor plate from a 1.6 Felicia and shifting the radiator a little. Search for the threads on here for more details.

 

It's an old engine now though and they didn't make them for many years, so might be difficult to find a good one.

I have finally converted the Skoda Felicia and now using polo engine. My first challenge is the engine is not firm, it shakes. Second, the temperature keep heating up at short distance.  

 

Any advice?

A 16 valves engine runs hotter so you need a bigger cooling system.

Try 1.9 radiator, it's biggest one fitted in Felicia. 1.3 is insufficient even for that 1.3

 

Hard to say what to do against shaking, when we don't know what modifications you did to fit it.

Edited 1 August, 20187 yr by Papez