Engine conversions

nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
TDI to petrol conversion, would the interior fuse box and wiring loom need to be changed too?

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Leon20vt4

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Oct 21, 2018
939
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TDI to petrol conversion, would the interior fuse box and wiring loom need to be changed too?

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I cant see how changing would require the interior loom to be changed. Granted there will probably require a rather large wiring merge. But there are other factors that you must do when changing a diesel car to a petrol engine swap.

Entirely new engine and support (air con, alternator, ECU)

New transmission because the gearing for a diesel is much too long for a petrol.

New exhaust also completely different.

This will also change the weight and balance of the car so to make it right you'll want to adjust your suspension

The list goes on and on, I don't want to be a debby downer, just trying to show you other Angles.

After all of that it'll also be a ton of money.

Why do you want to swap engines? It would be a helluva lot cheaper and more efficient to sell the car and buy a petrol

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nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
The car is worthless as it is, it's cheaper to buy a donor and convert it to something different (cooler) I'm not buying everything separate it'll be a full car I just wanted to know if anything on the dashboard side would need changing, I know what's needed for a normal conversion just not tdi to petrol, if the fuse box layout isn't any different then I won't touch the interior

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Leon20vt4

Active Member
Oct 21, 2018
939
683
The car is worthless as it is, it's cheaper to buy a donor and convert it to something different (cooler) I'm not buying everything separate it'll be a full car I just wanted to know if anything on the dashboard side would need changing, I know what's needed for a normal conversion just not tdi to petrol, if the fuse box layout isn't any different then I won't touch the interior

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I'm sure it depends o the model of the car.

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nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
Yeah, plus it's a conversion that hasn't been done as far as I'm aware yet

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Leon20vt4

Active Member
Oct 21, 2018
939
683
The cordoba estate and I'm looking at putting a vr6 in it

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Ah cool! Those are pretty rare over in the UK? Right? The best thing you can do is compare the golf 1.9 to the golf 2.8 since the cordoba is also based off the golf chassis. Try finding the wiring diagrams for both cars. But I think you will find they're pretty similar.

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nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
Ah cool! Those are pretty rare over in the UK? Right? The best thing you can do is compare the golf 1.9 to the golf 2.8 since the cordoba is also based off the golf chassis. Try finding the wiring diagrams for both cars. But I think you will find they're pretty similar.

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Pretty rare yeah, mine is 1 of 22 in the UK from research, and I have,the platform is the same from the cordoba and mk3 golf so it's a bolt in conversion using factory mounts and plugs etc, the only thing that was racking my brain was the interior wiring, like will the fuse boxes and more importantly the fuse and relay layouts be the same between petrol and diesel, if they are then I can get away with leaving the dashboard and interior alone. Only issue I'm getting so far is the clocks from mk3 won't fit my dash, but the mk3 dash is wider than mine, but I can get the immobiliser removed to solve that issue

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Leon20vt4

Active Member
Oct 21, 2018
939
683
Pretty rare yeah, mine is 1 of 22 in the UK from research, and I have,the platform is the same from the cordoba and mk3 golf so it's a bolt in conversion using factory mounts and plugs etc, the only thing that was racking my brain was the interior wiring, like will the fuse boxes and more importantly the fuse and relay layouts be the same between petrol and diesel, if they are then I can get away with leaving the dashboard and interior alone. Only issue I'm getting so far is the clocks from mk3 won't fit my dash, but the mk3 dash is wider than mine, but I can get the immobiliser removed to solve that issue

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The not your average bus! Yeah you make me want to buy one over here in Germany. Okay so what you should do is fly your ass to mainland, buy a petrol one for 500 pounds, drive it back to your place and use it for parts. Then you have all the petrol starting parts you need! Just swap over to the right hand drive body.

Or do a big TDI swap like a 3.0 or 2.5

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nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
The not your average bus! Yeah you make me want to buy one over here in Germany. Okay so what you should do is fly your ass to mainland, buy a petrol one for 500 pounds, drive it back to your place and use it for parts. Then you have all the petrol starting parts you need! Just swap over to the right hand drive body.

Or do a big TDI swap like a 3.0 or 2.5

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You make it sound way simpler than it is I'm still deciding completely what to do so no idea whatll happen yet

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nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
You breaking the Internet again lol

This is going to be awesome haha
I do try at first I planned to throw money at the 90bhp engine to make it fast,then my girlfriend kindly reminded me, I'm not rich. So I lowered my expectations a bit then heard someone say vr6 now I'm back in the excitement

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Leon20vt4

Active Member
Oct 21, 2018
939
683
You make it sound way simpler than it is I'm still deciding completely what to do so no idea whatll happen yet

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Just saying man if you want a fast estate and you don't want to go with an A4 wagon as the ground works, then it would be best to start with a petrol platform. ******* hell you can get an A4 quattro with a 2.8 v6... I know I know boring and not super unique. I'm just trying to save your wallet and your headaches. By the time you complete the swap and have everything done you'd have bought an a4 with some mods. Or a leon 4wd with the vr6

If you really wanted to do the cordoba estate by all means do your thing I'm here to support you. Just trying to throw in a different perspective.

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nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
Just saying man if you want a fast estate and you don't want to go with an A4 wagon as the ground works, then it would be best to start with a petrol platform. ******* hell you can get an A4 quattro with a 2.8 v6... I know I know boring and not super unique. I'm just trying to save your wallet and your headaches. By the time you complete the swap and have everything done you'd have bought an a4 with some mods. Or a leon 4wd with the vr6

If you really wanted to do the cordoba estate by all means do your thing I'm here to support you. Just trying to throw in a different perspective.

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I've had an a4 estate before (insert picture here) that was something different too, over here vr6's aren't that expensive, full running and driving car with rust and no mot for less than £600, factor in what the engine costs alone and it's fairly cheap. I've had so many diesels I'm genuinely bored of them, plus the overall weight of the cordoba is way less than an a4 quattro so power to weight is shifted a lot, ah I don't know the money isn't a problem because I've already gone overboard with the car as it is, and vr6 conversion was the cheaper option compared to spending 10k on building the 1.9 just to get close to 300 in it
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Leon20vt4

Active Member
Oct 21, 2018
939
683
I've had an a4 estate before (insert picture here) that was something different too, over here vr6's aren't that expensive, full running and driving car with rust and no mot for less than £600, factor in what the engine costs alone and it's fairly cheap. I've had so many diesels I'm genuinely bored of them, plus the overall weight of the cordoba is way less than an a4 quattro so power to weight is shifted a lot, ah I don't know the money isn't a problem because I've already gone overboard with the car as it is, and vr6 conversion was the cheaper option compared to spending 10k on building the 1.9 just to get close to 300 in it
bba6c8d7fd839b915b76ed1c185eafbe.jpg


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An A4 Avant B5 generation with 1.9tdi 90hp same spec as your car 1285kg

Cordoba Estate 1.9tdi 90hp is 1177kg

A 108kg difference isn't that huge. Tell one of your friends he has to stay behind and you just made up that weight

Just food for thought brother

I'm sure a 2.8L 190hp a4 b5 (quattro or not) can be found rather cheap.



But back on the topic of switching out the engine, I whole heartedly believe VW used the same plugs and relays across the mk4 platform. So I don't think you'll have to touch the interior. The most important will be merging the ecu and the engine wiring loom etc.

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nathancadman98

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
43
6
I just want to be able to say I'm the only person with a vr6 cordoba estate and the idea there is to remove the wiring loom still attached to the engine so that there's only a couple plugs at most then grounds and the 2 main ecu plugs, the odd plugs that need connecting may be different but I can cut and repin those no problem. The platform being the same means it'll be a direct plug and play swap

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Nollywood

Active Member
Aug 27, 2018
157
50
Everywhere
And yeah, the dash (main) wiring harnesses are different between diesel and gasoline-engined cars. So is the relay panel layout.
 
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