Hi folks -
Some months ago I seized the cam on my 96 passat vr6 12v (AAA engine) (auto), causing the sprocket to shred the woodruff key. The buildup of sludge in the engine, and the possibility of metal shavings through it, made me decide to replace the engine with one from a junkyard. I got a nice clean 12v vr6 (with a guarantee) out of a totaled 98 jetta. This has been my spring project.
I finally got the bad boy into the bay and connected everything up, but can't get the engine to start. Got spark, got fuel, but it won't go. When I hooked up vagcom, it couldn't establish a connection - too many communication faults.
Then I noticed that the head on the new engine is different from the old one in one interesting way - the cam shaft position sensor, next to the coil pack, points in a different direction, and the holes are in a position that won't let the old style cam position sensor be used.
I've already decided that I'm going to relace all of sensors on the new engine with ones from the old engine, and use the old wiring harness and sensors.
Here's my question - If I pull the head and replace it with one from an earlier VR6, will this fix the problem, or are there other differences in the block that I need to know about? I'm really hoping that I don't have to pull the engine again, and replacing the head and wiring I can do pretty quickly with the engine in the car.
I know this is a big project for ramvw, but there are some pretty good techs in here. How bout it Dave? Woodchuck? Peter? Any words of wisdom you can pass my way?
Mucho obligato - Chris