Hiya folks, apologies for my first post being a question.

I've got a 1.6 petrol Felicia Pickup, I like it, but it's a little thirsty for my requirements (1013 miles since Wednesday). There's a bloke selling a rotten 1.9 SDI truck around here, and I was wonderring about taking it on as a donor (and giving myself an excuse to use the Skoda's engine to build a 1.6 Polo in the process ). The wiring looks pretty straightforward, the exhaust's different, and I think the rad is. Are there any other pitfalls that I haven't spotted?

Also am I right in thinking that the 1.9SDI's are pretty happy to run on diesel "substitutes" if you know what I mean?

Much appreciated

Steve

you will need the hole pickup and swap looms over tanks pipes and rad i did a 1.3 to 1.6 air con and fould this easy but swaping from petrol to diesel hard you will find the 1.6 in the polo easy put manifolds diffrent and down pipe to cat

Thanks for that, I've got a few mates who've done the 1.6 polo before, so that's the easy bit, just need to get an inlet manifold stitched together.

The truck sounds like a project for a week off, are we talking a full relooming or does the dash wiring stay as is?

The 1.9D would be better than the SDI if you want to run it on biodiesel.

Both were fitted in the 6N2 Polo, but I haven't a clue what the engine mounts are like on the SDI.

They are both bloody reliable but the AEF (1.9D) has a mechanically driven injection pump (indirect injection) over the Bosch electronically controlled injection (direct injection) in the SDI.

Anyway, I might be wasting my breath because most people here would advise you not to bother and to simply go out and buy a diesel felicia complete in the first place as most of the parts under the bonnet are quite different between the diesels and petrols.

Yeah, I meant the 1.9D (engine out of the same sort and year of truck as mine, just in a diesel. Out of laziness and ignorance, I tend to call all the 1.9 none-turbodiesels "SDI"'s.

Those people could be right, but I didn't spend much on my truck and we've evictted most of the tinworms now. Similarly, the diesel truck I'm looking at to use as a donor is about the right price, hasn't done many miles and seems to run sweet, so it's better the devil you know.

The way I see it, I'd rather swap an engine than start from scratch on the bodywork on another truck.... I hate bodywork

These all seem to have the same rust in the same places unless you're lucky or spending the money..... I hate spending money as well!

lots of differences but if you have a complete donor car/van then simple stuff, most forget about the fuel filler neck having the petrol filler restrictor in it untill they try to fill it with diesel, front springs/struts, exh, eng+box , engine wiring loom plus probly the inside loom and fusebox and the immob box and key, steering pipes,throttle cable, fuel tank or may get away with just swapping the fuel pump for the sender unit, rad, heater box unit, all pipework, dash insert to swap the rpm counter for clock.

prob a few bits I have forgotten too,

easy enough from a 1.6 as the engine mount is already there unlike the 1.3, and mostly simple bolt on stuff.

Much appreciated - never realised the heater box was different! I know what you mean on the filler neck, I made that mistake years ago when I bought a 205 with a knackerred engine and put a diesel in. Put a gallon in out of a can, probably wasted half of that getting it bled, drove to the garage on a tiny dribble of what was left and...... B****ks!

I'll chat ZZR's with you another time, such an underated bike.

Take what I did and buy a hole donnor car/pickup then you will have all parts as I did with mine I had to change dash loom and cut hole in bulkhead th fit air con or so found rad/fans be from a diesel engine felicias pipes to pas dash I had loads to change took me a week on off to strip car and 10 night's as work day time to be back running. It is worth it if car your putting it in is sound.