My kind of modded car

bah he shoulda got an R32 put in :) or the 1.8T

Overkill in a Mk1..... a 16v is plenty quick enough.

For the money, I'd definitely be interested in something like that, but it's too far away.

16v is nice but there's a blue Mk1 on the club Gti forums with a NA 1.8 20v with TBs and that thing shifts. I'd rather go with a G40 transplant in a Mk1 as they pull as well as the 16v but are lighter and easier to tune.

Don't think there's a lot in the weight between a G40 and a 16v. Definitely wouldn't even think about a 20v or 20vT as they need custom engine management to work. 16v is the best compromise, but if you want forced induction it has to be G60.

If you are doing that I'd ditch the G as the G60 chargers aren't as reliable as the 40s and get one of these

and the adapter kit.

heh then hmmm shame as it's only 40mins away from me :)

Nice, clean, tidy. Strangely, you know, that very square dashboard is very similar to a Skoda Favorit.

A little more plastic looking in the Skoda, but very similar.

...all of which comes with the engine :)

The electronics are just as important as the engine itself - as long as you transplant the whole lot at once, it'll work just fine.

A couple of weeks back, I was reading a post from a guy who'd put a 306 GTi6 lump into his 205. The mechanical side was all fitted and OK, but he couldn't get it to run.

Further down the line, it transpired that's he'd *only* swapped the mechanicals, and was trying to get it running with the 205's loom and ECU :)

>>>>> 24963&rd=1

If it were doable, the people who do 1.8T transplants wouldn't go to the effort of building a custom loom and getting a new ECU... Apparently for the 1.8T to work right, you need to tranplant all the instruments and the steering column. Have a look at

Exactly what Nom said you need to transplant the entire loom from the donor vehicle with the latest VW range that includes most of the dash components. Not like the good old days when you linked up the battery to the starter and the petrol tank to the carbs and that was it.

in news: snipped-for-privacy@news3.newsguy.com, "Nom" slurred :

Er. I'm pretty sure you can do that. In fact it's quite common for people with Mi16 conversions to use the 1.9Gti ECu, but have the rev-limit altered. I've never done it, you understand, so this is all hearsay :-) FWIW, if I was to I would definitely try to get the ECU which came with the engine.

Of course, the trouble with 1.8T lumps is that the ECU controls not only the engine ignition and fuelling, but also the central locking, alarm, immobiliser, interior lights, all the dash incl. climate control etc, electric windows.... the list is endless. It's not a simple swap, it really needs throttle bodies and a custom ECU to drive it all.

Have you looked at that link properly?

The custom ECU and loom come to over a grand.

Without this, the conversion can't be done. You certainly can't just rip bits out of a donor car, stick 'em in your MkI/II and get it working.

As long as you take the complete loom there's nothing to stop you doing it with the stock ECU, indeed I know people who have but you will need everything.

I have the 'idiots guide' to doing this conversion on the cheap in PVW this month. You definitely need the custom ECU.

Yes, that's exactly what I said ! As long as you take over *everything* that the engine requires, then all is well.

Of course you can !

If you take *everything* out of the donor car that is required, and slap it all into the Mk1/II, then it'll all work fine. If it doesn't, then clearly you've forgotten to transfer something !

So what you're saying, is that you can't use all the stuff from the donor car ?

Clearly you can. If it all works in a Golf 4 shell, then it'll all work in a Golf 1 shell ! How can it know the difference ?