A friends 02 Jetta TDI with 140k. Just broke the timing belt this weekend, destroying his engine, what would be a serious and fair amount to offer him? and depending on the damage would it make more sense just to plop a 1.8t in or repair the diesel? How interchangeable are these engines?Its an auto trans also...
thanks Nick
ooooo, i want!! id say, start the offer at $2k, those are still going for a crap ton. I would rebuild the diesel because of the resale value...
I suspect that a diesel to gas 1.8L turbo conversion is more complex than would be worth it. Aside from engine you would need ECU, gas tank and fuel lines ( i suspect even more need than this.)
Quick look on www.car-parts.com put a replacement diesel engine at $2k to $3K.
When running correctly, retail could be $5k to $6k.
jrw1621 wrote:I suspect that a diesel to gas 1.8L turbo conversion is more complex than would be worth it. Aside from engine you would need ECU, gas tank and fuel lines ( i suspect even more need than this.)
ECU, harness, cluster, immobilzer defeat...
Thats true didnt think about fuel issues, well TDI could be fun anyways, how difficult would a auto to manual swap be? Does this generation have 5 or 6 speeds?
The techs here and I pay $500.00 for them and have bought and sold a dozen or so in the past two years. One of them twice!
BlackHatContracting wrote:Thats true didnt think about fuel issues, well TDI could be fun anyways, how difficult would a auto to manual swap be? Does this generation have 5 or 6 speeds?
the GLIs are 6 speeds
I doubt its worth rebuilding, it can be parted out for a bit though, if it has the 11mm injector pump thats worth up to $800 to the right person, and alot of other parts are worth a bit too. Id think anything under $1k would make it worth buying just to part out.
Broken TB @ 140K miles... makes me wonder what other TDI specific maintenence was ignored... 
Without pulling the head to check for cylinder & piston damage, it's hard to say... John's $500 offer would be a low-ball number... since if all it needs is a rebuit head it could be fixed and resold for a tidy profit, but if it needs a long-block, much less so. Pull the glow-plugs and video-scope it.
MkIV TDI's have 5 spds. 6 Spd conversions have been done, but they're pricey. Auto-manual conversions are a bit pricey as well... and tedious. And given this car's questionable history, I'd fix it and sell it... preferably to someone on the other side of the country...
