[chrslws]

Wasn't sure which of the forum sections to put this in, but I'm shoehorning it in here! I have a 93 EV with the AAF which has recently had a new timing belt service and head rebuild, but the lack of power is killing my fahrvergnugen! I'm about to move to eastern PA also and I shudder at the idea of taking this thing into the mountains.

Options abound for motor swaps; I know I'd get more fuel economy from a 1.9 TDI but my wife hates the smell of diesel and the end goal is to use this thing for family trips. I have found a few potential donor cars nearby, and will hopefully get something into the garage in the next week or two. I'm gonna play around with the 02M to see if I can figure out how others have gotten it to fit; the few build threads I've found don't seem to have working photos anymore. If I can't get it to work, I can always use my current five speed with the TDI fifth gear; I just won't have much room for increasing output from the 1.8t if I decide to. I'd like to transplant the instrument cluster and use the donor ECU with OEM management; there will obviously be a lot of paring down to do on the donor wiring harness. The fun parts will be engine mounts and maybe shock mounts and drive shafts since I've read varying reports about fitment. Let's see what happens! My move is in mid-June so I may be having the van shipped mid-project. Would love to finish in time to drive in from Texas but not getting my hopes up.

[chrslws]

Found a donor! 03 Beetle Turbo S at local self service salvage yard. AWP and 02M, Borla exhaust, looks like 3". Gonna try to pull it tomorrow. Engine is gonna need rebuild I think, marked 'bad', but crank spins. No timing belt, might have a wrecked valvetrain, we'll see.

[chrslws]

Been working on this quite a bit over the past 3 weeks. I got all the needed parts from the Beetle. The timing belt had broken on the engine with some valve/piston contact apparent. I'm having the head rebuilt locally and I have the bottom end ready with new strengthened rods from Integrated Engineering. I'm building up the engine with the plan for 240-250hp and about 300ft/lbs torque. Going to use the 02M 6 speed trans from the Beetle; the big question in my mind is still drivetrain mounting and whether it'll need to be tilted forward like the original drivetrain. I've found a thread on vwt4 forum about someone successfully doing this swap without rotating the trans on the engine, but haven't seen pictures, so we'll see how it goes. I'll plan to upload photos on the back end. Hoping my cylinder head is ready this week so I can move to fitting this thing.