Skip to main content
Gerry | Vanagon
Checking account...
← vanagon.com home · Continue the discussion in the forum
VanagonEuroVan
Subject:FWD: TDI engine swaps
From:Jim Arnott
Date:Wed, 5 Jan 2011 17:49:52 -0800

Forwarded from my friend Britt Grannis (who's current in Ireland):

Hi Everyone,
I'm currently sitting in the front room looking out at the rain
falling. I'm very happy to see the rain as it melts the darned snow! I
just got home last night from our AGM for one of the VW clubs here in
Ireland. AGM is the Annual General meeting. I was talking to some of
the guys trying to come up with ways to get parts here which we have
in the US and then a way to get the parts we have here to the US.

I just bought a 2001 T4 Syncro 2.5 TDI. I got to thinking this would
make a perfect vehicle to drive to Alaska and how could I get it to
California. I have found a short term solution and can keep the Van
there for 9 months. I also own a 96 Golf TDI and it is amazing what
type of fuel mileage I get. I have a source for 20 to 30 Mk3 Golf,
Bora, and Jetta TDI's. I can get TDI Passat's and even the 1.9 Td's as
well as the 1.9 D engines.

Here's my question for the masses.

If I were to buy some of these cars and cut the front clip off and
save the doors and rear bumper and ship them over would there be a
market to sell them. I'd have available the complete engine, trans,
ECU, wiring harness, dash cluster, foot pedal cluster, even all of the
Right hand Drive components if someone had a Mk3 Golf to convert. I
see in Las Vegas that there is a guy importing from Germany and he
gets $2400 for a TDI engine and that's just starting. I will ship the
whole front clip over and it should have everything but the engine to
trans adapter for a Bus and you'd still have the trans to sell on to
re-coop some costs. I think I can do this for $3000 landed in San
Francisco and if I could get 4 orders I could deliver to Bustoberfest
for fuel costs.
BIG ???? Can I get enough people interested to make it worth my efforts?

Send me an email to hillcountry@ctr.net with TDI in the title and we
can talk.

I hope everyone has a wonderful year!

Cheers,

Britt

Have something to add on this topic today? Revive this thread in the forum »