UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

hi,
just wondering if it is more hard work to keep a car running if the engine is from another car?
it is just that my friend has had it done to his car and it is running fine for now, but before that there were a few problems that he kept on have to take it back to the garage.
now that is only 1 guy who has had problems, i am just wondering in general do people have to look after there car alot more(buy new part, garage, etc..) then u do for a normal car?
i know a normal car will be better(running) but are cars with different engines roughly the same or alot worse?

thanks

I know that R4BBY has had a few problems with his 1.8T conversion.... now he's sellin it because he's a bit fed up....

I think it's hit and miss really - depends who does the work - I bet there will always be problems, but once they're ironed out it should be a lot better.

To take it to extremes - I swapped the engine in my first landrover and had no probs whatsoever

Depends what the conversion is and how well it's done. For example, if I were to swap my 1.05 mk2 engine for a 1.3 mk2 engine (which share the same mounts, gearbox etc), it should run no different to if it was a 1.3 to start with, amount of maintenance simply depending on the age and condition of the replacement engine. However, if I decided to adapt my bay for a 1.8 gti engine, that'd take a load of modification and more than likely something would get bodged along the way, some bits might not fit quite right etc.. in which case I'd expect things to wear out quickly (if someone hadn't made a particularly good job of fitting the engine, anyway). If a good job's been made of it and nothing's been bodged to fit it, there's no reason that it should be any different for having had the engine fitted as standard really.

hmm thanks
so i depends on the job and how well it is put in, as well as abit of luck.

well thanks for that i am going to have to speak to afew friends and find out about what different mechanics are like before i go ahead