[WillowBeetle]

Hello from cold and snowy Northern Wisconsin,

New member to the forum.

I have the chance, as chance would have it, at buying a Red '98non turbo Beetle from a friend for a good price, manual trans. The H.G. is leaking, but other than that it is pretty cherry. Another friend has a '00 1.8 Turbo motor that had the head (and lifters) replaced about 20K miles ago, after a timing belt broke. It is still in the '00, but will be replaced in the next few weeks. It is being replaced because the friend's wife loves the '00 and needs the assurity a new motor will bring for long trips. It still runs fine, has 190K on it, but it burns a little oil. The turbo is caput.

Is it possible to just swap motors and not worry about the turbo, or will gas mileage really suffer w/o the turbo? Maybe the head from the '00 would fit on the block from the '98. I think the non turbo is a 2.0, right? Then the H.G., etc., could be done at the same time.

Any info would be useful. I would be assisting with the motor replacement. I am pretty mechanical, so fire away with technical jargon. I have always liked Beetle's, but never owned one, so I claim to not know anything about them. This will my second vehicle that will be used mainly during the summer.

Thanks

 

[Smileybug]

Not sure why you would go through the trouble of swapping in the 1.8T if you aren't putting the turbo in as well. Head gasket job isn't that bad and the 2.0 is a really solid motor. I would probably just keep the 2.0 in the car rather than go through an engine swap. And yes, the 1.8T will run without the turbo, but it will be slow and mileage will suffer. Its not designed to run without it. If you don't want a turbo, stick with the 2.0.

 

[D2Beetle]

Keeping the '98 a 2.0 is your best bet, as I do not believe that you can put an APH Cylinder Head on an AEG block. I doubt that the '98 ECU would communicate with timing sensor requirements of an APH. The APH uses Coil Packs and the AEG uses a Coil Block, with a Timing Control Module on top of it.

Considering the cost of an APH Cylinder Head rebuild for an APH, your friend should have replaced the turbo while the cylinder head was off at the machine shop.

 

[Bexar Bear]

I like the swap only if you are going to have the turbo rebuilt and you put it in with the new engine. You MUST put the ECM from the 2000 into the 98 though. Without swapping the ECM I can not see it working.