Doing the un-thinkable

Hi folks. I'm in need of some advice about ecu and general engine management.

My dad and I have been talking about cars upgrades and engine swaps... See whare this is going.?

Mechanicaly fitting a new engine is no problem dad's done many.

The thing we are worried about is this.

The doner is likely to be his 3.0 tdi audi a6. Its sat there intact with all the electronics.

We are concerned about how the ecu will cope in a defender with out all of its fancy input signals to feed it.

Does any one have exspence fitting more modern and computerd engines in a defender? How did you get around the emobiliser and so forth.
Even better if you've done this exact swap.

I'm open to buyi g a stand alone if that is way it takes but the advise would be very useful.

Thanks

I think a real blocker will be the immobiliser, you have to fit this also in the Defender. Next will be safety stuff like ABS, it could be possible that this will limit the power of the engine because brakes are not working. Besides of this you will get a lot of errors but they will not block you.
Depending on the engine, it is possible toto program out the things you don't have fitted. VAG COM is your friend

Mario110 said:

I think a real blocker will be the immobiliser, you have to fit this also in the Defender. Next will be safety stuff like ABS, it could be possible that this will limit the power of the engine because brakes are not working. Besides of this you will get a lot of errors but they will not block you.
Depending on the engine, it is possible toto program out the things you don't have fitted. VAG COM is your friend

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Thanks. Good to know that it's not completely un reasonable.

Do you know if there a remap company or tuner in particular that would be worth speaking to about it?

I would hazard a guess so long as you fit the entire engine/ecu and the dash binnacle, anything is possible as said vagcom is amazing, some very clever people on the vag forums
What bhp is the 3.0tdi?

Good engines

lynall said:

I would hazard a guess so long as you fit the entire engine/ecu and the dash binnacle, anything is possible as said vagcom is amazing, some very clever people on the vag forums
What bhp is the 3.0tdi?

Good engines

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It is 230hp and 340 or 350 bl/ft

That's great news thanks.

110specialvehicle said:

It is 230hp and 340 or 350 bl/ft

That's great news thanks.

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Pre or post 2008, iirc pre 2008 suffers from weak injectors,, and more importantly on any vag v6 is the camchain, slightest tinkle on startup is fine until oil pressure has built up, right old racket or it keeps on rattling run away!
Ignore the silly long oil change intervals, 5k is what I do, oil cheap ish engines bloody expensive.
Wife is on her 4th earliest 2004 (215bhp) latest 2013 (245bhp) I rate them highly, ie they dont cause me any hassle by breaking down.

lynall said:

Pre or post 2008, iirc pre 2008 suffers from weak injectors,, and more importantly on any vag v6 is the camchain, slightest tinkle on startup is fine until oil pressure has built up, right old racket or it keeps on rattling run away!
Ignore the silly long oil change intervals, 5k is what I do, oil cheap ish engines bloody expensive.
Wife is on her 4th earliest 2004 (215bhp) latest 2013 (245bhp) I rate them highly, ie they dont cause me any hassle by breaking down.

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I think it's an 06 but not certain.
Dad wouldn't give me a trash engine so I'm sure there's no issues. He owns his own independent garage

110specialvehicle said:

I think it's an 06 but not certain.
Dad wouldn't give me a trash engine so I'm sure there's no issues. He owns his own independent garage

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I reckon it will be a right weapon, chew up them old petrol v8s and spit them out, and get 2 to 3 times the mpg.
Good luck, keep us updated, people love interesting projects.

Some vids on youtube of people decatting/de dpfing the 3.0 tdi, have to say they do sound good.

lynall said:

I reckon it will be a right weapon, chew up them old petrol v8s and spit them out, and get 2 to 3 times the mpg.
Good luck, keep us updated, people love interesting projects.

Some vids on youtube of people decatting/de dpfing the 3.0 tdi, have to say they do sound good.

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I'm keen on it. I doubt it will be done anytime soon. The defender is my primary vehicle so can't have it off the road for long. Needs to be planned and researched before I start.
But yes, I think the engine would suit the 110 well.
I will probibally document the project more so I can remember whare thi gs should go.
I'm still looking for ecu advice and re commendations for people to speak to about it.

Chears.

Mario110 said:

I think a real blocker will be the immobiliser, you have to fit this also in the Defender. Next will be safety stuff like ABS, it could be possible that this will limit the power of the engine because brakes are not working. Besides of this you will get a lot of errors but they will not block you.
Depending on the engine, it is possible toto program out the things you don't have fitted. VAG COM is your friend

Click to expand...

+1 for vagcom (free download on Ross-tec's website)

look on Tdiclub forums, loads of great info & plenty of conversion threads (unknown about the 3.0v6 though as I've not looked at them there)

lynall said:

I would hazard a guess so long as you fit the entire engine/ecu and the dash binnacle, anything is possible as said vagcom is amazing, some very clever people on the vag forums

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immob etc. can be deleted / turned-off in the ecu

110specialvehicle said:

I'm keen on it. I doubt it will be done anytime soon. The defender is my primary vehicle so can't have it off the road for long. Needs to be planned and researched before I start.
But yes, I think the engine would suit the 110 well.
I will probibally document the project more so I can remember whare thi gs should go.
I'm still looking for ecu advice and re commendations for people to speak to about it.

Chears.

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good luck with it, budget a lot of time & money though

Rich.

Zed. said:

+1 for vagcom (free download on Ross-tec's website)

look on Tdiclub forums, loads of great info & plenty of conversion threads (unknown about the 3.0v6 though as I've not looked at them there)



immob etc. can be deleted / turned-off in the ecu



good luck with it, budget a lot of time & money though

Rich.

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That's a great idea regarding the audi tdi forums. Thanks.

Time I'm poor on but money can always be raised given the right amount of effort and patience.

I'm lucky to have the engine to hand already so that's a big lump of potential cost saved there and to have my dad's mechanic exspence and his workshop free of charge too.

Thanks for the interest in the project

John.

110specialvehicle said:

That's a great idea regarding the tdi forums

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I read & post on tdiclub as I have tdi converted mk2 golf, B3 Passats (have 2!) and t4 van so can vouch for it being a good resource & forum

also have a few Landrovers so am a masochist

Rich.

110specialvehicle said:

I'm keen on it. I doubt it will be done anytime soon. The defender is my primary vehicle so can't have it off the road for long. Needs to be planned and researched before I start.
But yes, I think the engine would suit the 110 well.
I will probibally document the project more so I can remember whare thi gs should go.
I'm still looking for ecu advice and re commendations for people to speak to about it.

Chears.

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Why not get the engine to run of the floor? that will save a lot of time, but it is still going to be a massive job.

110specialvehicle said:

I'm keen on it. I doubt it will be done anytime soon. The defender is my primary vehicle so can't have it off the road for long. Needs to be planned and researched before I start.
But yes, I think the engine would suit the 110 well.
I will probibally document the project more so I can remember whare thi gs should go.
I'm still looking for ecu advice and re commendations for people to speak to about it.

Chears.

Click to expand...

What sort of engine does said Defender have in it now?

lynall said:

Why not get the engine to run of the floor? that will save a lot of time, but it is still going to be a massive job.

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I'm not sure I understand properly as to what you mean by of/on? The floor?

110specialvehicle said:

I'm not sure I understand properly as to what you mean by of/on? The floor?

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I think he means to try and start up the new engine out of the vehicle before installation.

Turboman said:

What sort of engine does said Defender have in it now?

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Ifs currently got a td5 that's actually in perfect working order.

This all started by dad and I finding an old Land rover on an estate we are mou ding on. He was going to buy it and pull the engine as a spare if it ran.

But by the time we rememberd to speak to the office they'd already scrapped it.

We then got onto the what if train.

Turboman said:

I think he means to try and start up the new engine out of the vehicle before installation.

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I thaught that's what was meant.
Dad and I were discussing this on our way to work very very early this morning and it is probably what we would do. Make sure it runs as a standalone engine first.

We then got onto gale banks and his killi g a duramax series and how they must have a way to run an engine without its normal ecu.

110specialvehicle said:

Ifs currently got a td5 that's actually in perfect working order.

This all started by dad and I finding an old Land rover on an estate we are mou ding on. He was going to buy it and pull the engine as a spare if it ran.

But by the time we rememberd to speak to the office they'd already scrapped it.

We then got onto the what if train.

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As a Td5 has ECUs already, I would guess it would be best to remove then entirely, and try and re-programme the Audi engine management using Vagcom, as has been suggested already^^^^^.

Turboman said:

As a Td5 has ECUs already, I would guess it would be best to remove then entirely, and try and re-programme the Audi engine management using Vagcom, as has been suggested already^^^^^.

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Yeah. It was never even considered to use the td5 ecu. We would always have used the donor ecu and engine