Polo power plants

At present.

1983 VW Bus
1988 Polo Coupe S
1989 Golf 16v
1971 1302 Beetle
1972 1200 Beetle resto project

Not much, but when you add my dads collection (I live at home)

1988 XJS V12
1993 Nissan Primera (??)
1994 Ford Scorpio Ultima
1996 TATA Crew cab

and my brother, drew (get posting drew)

1988/9 Jetta TX
1962? Wolsley Hornet

You begin to see a problem.

Never seen it done, most people seem to go down the G40 route with Polo engine swaps but I'm sure it could be made to work. Do something with the brakes first though if they are anything like my Polo's stoppers!

Even the standard G40 brakes are rubbish, I uprated mine quite soon after getting the car. Maybe Ian Birch / Dubsport would have some informnation on the conversion you want to do

the 1300 blocks are small blocks. The golf 1600 & 1800s are tall blocks. Polos are designed only for small blocks.

you will need to fabricate a custom subframe in order to fit the tall block engine in - just as much work to fit the 1800 as it would be a VR6 or a 1.8T. Obviously wiring & what have you will be simpler with the 1800 16v than the VR or 20vT.

The conversions are very rare to say the least, practically non-existant in this country which is why you can't find any info.

Doesn't seem to make much sense to me if you're just after more power. A g40 engine will go in relatively easily & are good for 150bhp with a little bit of fettling.

Plus you've also got the problem of sorting the brakes out (no matter what conversion you use). in a mk3 polo there's only enough room for a small servo but in a mk2 polo theres NO room for a servo. The best bet would probably be to nick a remote servo system from a mk1 Golf & use that along with the 239mm vented G40 discs & calipers (which is also the same as mk1 Golf GTI).

A company called Salzmann in Germany fabricate subframes to allow fitment of tall blocks to polos, they also convert to racing style wishbones rather than the old anti-roll bar & track control arms of the mk1/2/3 polos. But this kit is SERIOUS money.

could always have it poking through the bonnet, hotrod-style

just out of interest, how good is the goof engine and would you be thinking of selling it?

That wouldn't be Steve (86C) from porka.net with the Lhasa green MK1? Hes fitted the servo on the L/H side of the car (where theres loads of room) And run a 'Twisty' rod across from the pedal box on the R/H side.

I never realised just how tall the 'tall block' engines were until I saw the one my mate fitted into a T25, I can see why they are canted so far back inside a Golfs engine bay! Made me realise that major surgery would be required to fit one into a Polo/Derby seeing how tight the stock engine is, and that sits pretty much upright.

The 16v engine from the MK4 and 5 Polo seems to be an easier and more popular conversion

Ahem

and is turbod


But TBH the G40 is such an easy transplant and gives pretty much ideal power/weight as a FWD car that I don't know why you'd really want to bother with anything else?

Goof engine is still in the car, ideally needs a new oil breather hose and cam chain (high miles!), and for the sake of a track control arm and grille, I may as well put it back on the road really.

Just liked the idea of a really rapid polo coupe , but now I'm selling the polo, with short tax and 12 months MOT for about £300 to some local yokel.

I really like his mk1 Polo - do you know if he's sold it yet? Yeah, Steve is a mine of information when it comes to the baby VW and a really nice guy too - always willing to help.