Suggest some engines for me

Hi guys, I currently have a kjet engine which is on its last legs, there is so much wrong with it I won't bother going into it!!

I'm looking to replace it with something slightly more alive. I want something with a bit of poke but with minimal effort, I'd ideally like to keep the gearbox from the kjet. I'm also wanting to keep cost to a minimum so not looking to pay £500 just for the engine.

What are my options?

any help much appreciated! 

8v Gti kjet engine? 

That price bracket and effort level would be a 16v for me fella 

Yea I'm leaning towards that I think, how much of my existing engine would need changing? Apart from head and block?

ive had a look through the forum but didn't find anything that answers my question specifically 

Erm depends which engine you get mate. And of course how handy you are? 

Narrow
Down the engine choice then what needs changing can be answered better. 
Either mk2 (Kr)
Mk3 (abf) 
Rado (9a)

You want to remain injection right? I would! Where abouts are you located too? 

I'm in Ipswich, my last car was a mk2 8v digifant, loved it, so easy and I know it well now, not such a fan of the equivalent kjet…

id want whichever engine will let me use what I've got (as much as possible), just want it smooth and reliable, but still worthy of a GTI badge, I've got a mk4 GTI for speed, my mk1 is for fun

What do you want to remain though? Gearbox/driveshafts is fine you can put that on any of the above engines and copes fine. 

They use the same water pump and can use the existing wiring for engine sensors. 
But you'll need an exhaust  manifold (make/buy) and an ignition wiring loom to control spark with an ecu. 

If you was more local I'd show you around mine 

You can put digifant 8v in though if you want one if those in

dubdan86 said

I'm in Ipswich, my last car was a mk2 8v digifant, loved it, so easy and I know it well now, not such a fan of the equivalent kjet…

id want whichever engine will let me use what I've got (as much as possible), just want it smooth and reliable, but still worthy of a GTI badge, I've got a mk4 GTI for speed, my mk1 is for fun

loved my old 8v digi, people say they are unreliable engines, thats not what I found, seemed better than my current K-jet

I've got a 16v abf engine box an engine loom you would just need mounts, let me know if your interested.

HrcClassic said

I've got a 16v abf engine box an engine loom you would just need mounts, let me know if your interested.

Interested pm me the details!

3 words for you, aey bee ehf

best in my book in terms of price, ease of fitment and reliability. use the abf ecu and managment, k-jet is just too old these days and finding good replacement parts is getting hard/expensive.

the biggest outlay on the abf is the exhaust manifold, the trouble is most kr conversion units can hit the chassis as abf is taller. proper off the shelf abf conversion ones can be pricey. if you can weld you can cut n shut mk1/2/3 downpipes yourself.

you can keep the old gearbox and running gear, fuel lines need a tweak but if you look underneath you might find they all want replacing anyway! if so sell the accumulator as you wont need it, then buy a banjo adaptor off ebay for the main pump and you can run rubber/plastic modern injection lines. mk2 or mk3 may even work, not tried that mayself

i personally wouldnt bother with an engine swap if you are not after speed

i would also disregard any kr or 9a engine 16v as they will all of been round the clock and probably need some sort of work

if i was you then i would spend say £500 getting my engine upto spec

There is a fairly local abf for sale with basically everything under the bonnet included so think I will go down that route, I can't see the existing engine getting any money towards it tbh, it's the biggest heap of poo I've ever owned, and I've had French cars!

rubjonny, are you the same rubjonny from the mk2 owners club?

there is only one rubjonny

rubjonny said

there is only one rubjonny

  quite blooming true though  

rubjonny said

there is only one rubjonny

                 

rubjonny said

there is only one rubjonny

Awesome

I'm almost at the point of buying the abf engine, only thing putting me off is the cost of the manifold…

Would I be able to have one knocked up from a few doners? Never done any welding so unlikely to be something I can do myself will an exhaust place do it?

yeah this is what was on mine!
http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=your-mk1-golfs_2%2Fproject-83-mk1-cabby

the top part is mk2/3, bottom is mk1. note the large kink to avoid the linkage! need to take care with that section, as even with that mine still hit in 5th! i ended up cutting a big chunk out of my relay shaft to clear. this is basically what the scirocco 16v relay shaft is like so i didnt feel so bad

Ok welding the two pipes together should be simple enough, how precise does the kink need to be? I can potentially cut it myself and then take it to get welded, would be a cheap job I imagine?

basically what i would do is wait till the engine is fitted, then work from there. the kink needs to be pretty big and you want to make ity at the right height if you can. ideally try to get the pipes bent rather than like mine as the angles are a bit sharp! this is one thing that would be much easier if you used the cable change gearbox rather than rod shifter as no linkage to kink around

Forgive my ignorance but if using a cable change box solves the issue why isn't this the common method? I presume there is some drawback?