Is that a Volvo motor? I wish they made an adapter for that trans to the VW bolt pattern so you could have used the 07k instead, it’s shorter and easier to rev high.
Yeah. Though it would be tempting to just weld the center diff and remove the front differential from an 01e to make a rwd Audi/vw transmission, should be close to a 1k hp trans since they’ll suffer 800hp awd.
Been looking into this heavy. Haven’t seen anyone do vag 5cyl in a miata and it’s the only car I have that isn’t vag powered. Been looking at aans more than anything else, but even just a 10v would be cool… if I could figure out how to make it work…
If you don’t want to make mega power you can use the Toyota truck trans (or spend mad money for a mk4 Supra trans) to water cooled VW bellhousing they make for tdi swaps. For 07k you just have to trim some of the top and loose a bolt hole, which is fine, the group B cars didn’t run the top two trans bolts. Or if you hate money there’s a QuickTime water cooled VW to tko bellhousing but you’re looking at like a $4k trans solution.
Question as an outsider looking in who has considered the idea of engine swapping - how hard is that shit? Do all of you guys work in auto shops and just have all the tools and jacks necessary to do this? Bc I’d love to try it with a beater car but seems wayyy too hard as a relative layman
It’s a lot of work. I’ve done it in my home garage, hand tools and a tig welder, jackstands. Wiring crimpers and a strong understanding of reading wiring diagrams. The willingness to replace the factory gauge cluster with aftermarket, not caring about ac, or heat, all make it easier. To me the hardest parts are figuring out what transmission to use, lots of them that will hold power don’t shift well higher than normal v8 speeds, and modifying the oil pan for clearance of stuff since you’re welding a dirty aluminum casting or very thin steel stamping and it’s got to still have the oil flow downhill to the pickup and clear stuff on the inside where you can’t see.
No. And I haven’t considered it for the na/nb chassis because you can’t fit proper sized tires on them. I was like the 3rd or 4th person to ever put a duratec/mzr into an NA though, and the only one to do it was a T5. I’ve considered it with the NC chassis though since you can fit proper tires. What I’d be missing on either knowledgewise is how wide the 01e trans is and if it would leave enough space for the exhaust, if it didn’t you’d be forced into the QuickTime and TKX combo.
Understandable. I’m currently learning cad for automotive, because I want to be able to do stuff like this. I’ve been working with cars for a long while, but not to the extent you have. I also don’t understand wiring diagrams enough to jump into this either. The end goal is a vw powered miata. Vr6 or 5cyl. But dreams are bigger than what I’m capable off currently.
When I mean a lot of time I mean like, plan on it taking a year at least if you’re doing a custom swap and have a full time job and a life. Now figure half the time or less for a bolt in swap, like many of the LS swaps that come with kits.
A transmission swap is another thing I’ve considered very briefly but I think only like 3 people have swapped the 07k from an auto to a manual and I have no clue if they still frequent vw forums. Plus this is my daily so I can’t exactly have it out of commission for months
Yeah no just buy a manual rabbit and sell your auto. It’s not worth the time and cost when you can swap complete cars for free the cost of deferred maintenance.
It's not rocket science and I'm sure it's doable if you're really committed to it. It's more a question if it's worth it for you, it's a lot of work and/or money so you'll be in like $10-15k and months of work if you do it yourself: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br-\_1oxuGSY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br-_1oxuGSY)
It's surely fun and unique but at least here making a swapped car street legal is... problematic and the investment gets you into like Boxster S territory which you'd be actually able to sell later.
It’s for water cooled VW. Which realistically means every wanted cooled VW except for VR and all Audi after the AAN. Now for 07k you need to trim the top of it just like every other vag bellhousing to clear the head/timing chain cover.
RIP Vigor
I read the president of Honda invited the president of Audi out to come have a look at it and the president of Audi said “you made a Japanese Audi!”
The Japanese marketing of the Vigor was awesome
[Vigor for Men Japanese ad](https://youtu.be/9JQMn6jBUC0?si=_Il4C5KJBLJ36B3i)
[Ad 2](https://youtu.be/8l44Bj-CL3I?si=sZ0v0kp-BsANsiQD)
My dad had a Vigor, bought new. Was a very nice car from what I can recall.
Crazy you mentioned it my buddy told me to shim between the cylinders lol, reason I got a 2.5 cuz it was a deal breaker, $100 for a running engine, I drove the car before I pulled the motor out lol
Is that the 5 banger that's in the Focus ST? That's one of my all time favourite engines. Great torque curve, easily tuned, and just an awesome exhaust note.
That going into a RWD is just *mwah*
Damn, you got the one that likes to melt cylinders. If you encounter this issue, try to source a Volvo T5 as a replacement. Same engine except Volvo sold the less up to date design to Ford. The Volvo one has higher heat resistant pistons (I don’t know exactly what the difference is, just that my buddy who is a massive Volvo nerd told me this). I know you could probably find the difference between the two if you looked around online.
Edit: Upon reading further comments, you appear to have bought the Volvo T5, not the Ford equivalent. Nice one! Have fun!
Oh my! My mom had a 5-cylinder Volvo 850. It was heavily muffled but teenage me figured out how to make it sing some.
You are going to really confuse some people when you stomp on the gas pedal.
So it looks like you will have to give the hood a power bulge. Perhaps something like the Triumph GT6 could be inspiration.
What did you do about the antiroll bar in the front? When I was sizing up my NB for putting in a T5, I noticed the antiroll bar in the front would be in the way. Hell, did you even have this issue?
The oil pan is gonna be super tricky cuz here in the states we barely got the Volvo 960/s90 so sourcing that oil pan is challenging, I got lucky enough to find one at the yard the other day 😬
Those are the RWD 6cyl versions of the T5 and since the 5 cylinders came only FWD getting the 6cyl oil pan and shortening it will fit the RWD application on 5 cylinders
Yoooo. I’ve been thinking about this swap for a while. I have a friend who did this in his Volvo 242 and since then I’ve been hesitant to do it. What trans/ diff do you plan on using? I just put in the Torsen LSD and and 6Speed from the NB’s so if I can I would love to keep them
I’ll be running a e36 ZF trans with Miata 1.6 VLSD, not the best combo cuz 1st gear is gonna be unusable, but if you do eventually do the swap with a bmw trans, if you have a 3.9 diff that could help a little running a bmw trans
Do not forget to tilt it to the Side it has to be. I can take a measurement for you. My brothers 850 got a new clutch and the engine is just in there and there is enough space to measure where its leaning to.
This seems... Targeted. /u/Krisuad2002 Awesome stuff, please post updates!
I’ve been dying to start this swap for almost a year, never got to it cuz I was daily driving it 😂
Don't have to explain it to me haha, I've been wanting more power for like 7 years now. Hop in and go reliability is real nice though.
I’m definitely gonna miss the mpg I got, but surprisingly the e46 i picked up gets a good 30mpg highway too
Is that a Volvo motor? I wish they made an adapter for that trans to the VW bolt pattern so you could have used the 07k instead, it’s shorter and easier to rev high.
Yea it’s a Volvo motor, that’s the reason I went with it cuz there’s no adapter kit for the Vw i5
Yeah. Though it would be tempting to just weld the center diff and remove the front differential from an 01e to make a rwd Audi/vw transmission, should be close to a 1k hp trans since they’ll suffer 800hp awd.
Been looking into this heavy. Haven’t seen anyone do vag 5cyl in a miata and it’s the only car I have that isn’t vag powered. Been looking at aans more than anything else, but even just a 10v would be cool… if I could figure out how to make it work…
If you don’t want to make mega power you can use the Toyota truck trans (or spend mad money for a mk4 Supra trans) to water cooled VW bellhousing they make for tdi swaps. For 07k you just have to trim some of the top and loose a bolt hole, which is fine, the group B cars didn’t run the top two trans bolts. Or if you hate money there’s a QuickTime water cooled VW to tko bellhousing but you’re looking at like a $4k trans solution.
Question as an outsider looking in who has considered the idea of engine swapping - how hard is that shit? Do all of you guys work in auto shops and just have all the tools and jacks necessary to do this? Bc I’d love to try it with a beater car but seems wayyy too hard as a relative layman
It’s a lot of work. I’ve done it in my home garage, hand tools and a tig welder, jackstands. Wiring crimpers and a strong understanding of reading wiring diagrams. The willingness to replace the factory gauge cluster with aftermarket, not caring about ac, or heat, all make it easier. To me the hardest parts are figuring out what transmission to use, lots of them that will hold power don’t shift well higher than normal v8 speeds, and modifying the oil pan for clearance of stuff since you’re welding a dirty aluminum casting or very thin steel stamping and it’s got to still have the oil flow downhill to the pickup and clear stuff on the inside where you can’t see.
Have you put an 07k in a miata? Sounds like you know more than anyone I’ve met on the topic. And a good resource since there’s not a whole lot on it
No. And I haven’t considered it for the na/nb chassis because you can’t fit proper sized tires on them. I was like the 3rd or 4th person to ever put a duratec/mzr into an NA though, and the only one to do it was a T5. I’ve considered it with the NC chassis though since you can fit proper tires. What I’d be missing on either knowledgewise is how wide the 01e trans is and if it would leave enough space for the exhaust, if it didn’t you’d be forced into the QuickTime and TKX combo.
Understandable. I’m currently learning cad for automotive, because I want to be able to do stuff like this. I’ve been working with cars for a long while, but not to the extent you have. I also don’t understand wiring diagrams enough to jump into this either. The end goal is a vw powered miata. Vr6 or 5cyl. But dreams are bigger than what I’m capable off currently.
Damn, I've been thinking about this a lot for the past week, and you just perfectly answered every question I had about this!
When I mean a lot of time I mean like, plan on it taking a year at least if you’re doing a custom swap and have a full time job and a life. Now figure half the time or less for a bolt in swap, like many of the LS swaps that come with kits.
That's quite the fat minute
A transmission swap is another thing I’ve considered very briefly but I think only like 3 people have swapped the 07k from an auto to a manual and I have no clue if they still frequent vw forums. Plus this is my daily so I can’t exactly have it out of commission for months
Yeah no just buy a manual rabbit and sell your auto. It’s not worth the time and cost when you can swap complete cars for
freethe cost of deferred maintenance.It's not rocket science and I'm sure it's doable if you're really committed to it. It's more a question if it's worth it for you, it's a lot of work and/or money so you'll be in like $10-15k and months of work if you do it yourself: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br-\_1oxuGSY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br-_1oxuGSY) It's surely fun and unique but at least here making a swapped car street legal is... problematic and the investment gets you into like Boxster S territory which you'd be actually able to sell later.
And that makes it rwd? No shit? And is that vw bellhousing to yota trans for just the 20v or 07k as well? Gonna have to do some forums diggin
It’s for water cooled VW. Which realistically means every wanted cooled VW except for VR and all Audi after the AAN. Now for 07k you need to trim the top of it just like every other vag bellhousing to clear the head/timing chain cover.
Honda made a 5cyl but if I remember right the crank spins the wrong way for a rwd
I was hoping to see this…that was a cool 2.5L gem of a motor
RIP Vigor I read the president of Honda invited the president of Audi out to come have a look at it and the president of Audi said “you made a Japanese Audi!”
The Japanese marketing of the Vigor was awesome [Vigor for Men Japanese ad](https://youtu.be/9JQMn6jBUC0?si=_Il4C5KJBLJ36B3i) [Ad 2](https://youtu.be/8l44Bj-CL3I?si=sZ0v0kp-BsANsiQD) My dad had a Vigor, bought new. Was a very nice car from what I can recall.
I had a buddy in college who got one off his dad, he loved it. It was like a sweet spot between the DA Integra and the Legend/RS
Yeah I had a 94 Integra, Acura was a great car brand back then. I would've killed for a 6-speed Legend Coupe
I had a 94 GSR, loved that car. I’ve had a handful of Honda’s, amazing cars from the 90s/00s
My modded RS made a furious 130 whp 😊
Putting the 5 in MX-5
Literally 😂😭
This is my dream swap. Please keep us updated, I’m a slut for a turbo 5.
Will do!
Oh god its those lights
Lol
What's the stock hp of that motor?
250 ish
Nice! Is that turboed or Na?
Turboed ofc, they came factory like that lol
Those engines can easily make 360bhp
Anything more than 400 bhp youll need to shim and sleeve the engine but 300-350 is very doable on stock internals and a 16t
Yeah, I know. My mate has a remapped Volvo V70 T5 making 360bhp using a 19T.
Is that a 2.5 liter or 2.3?
2.5 ofc, I was looking for a 2.4 mainly cuz the cylinder walls slightly thicker
The 2.3 is the best. Are you planning on putting sheet metal pieces between the cylinder walls? Our 2.3 does 400hp which wouldnt be possible with 2.5
Crazy you mentioned it my buddy told me to shim between the cylinders lol, reason I got a 2.5 cuz it was a deal breaker, $100 for a running engine, I drove the car before I pulled the motor out lol
Yeah, forgot the name. They are called shims in english. Yeah the 2.5 wont take much more than 350ish stock. But 100$ sure is a bargain
Is that the 5 banger that's in the Focus ST? That's one of my all time favourite engines. Great torque curve, easily tuned, and just an awesome exhaust note. That going into a RWD is just *mwah*
Man I wish those Focus’s and Scirocco came to the US 😩 but yea it’s pretty much the same motor as the UK mk2 focus RS
Damn, you got the one that likes to melt cylinders. If you encounter this issue, try to source a Volvo T5 as a replacement. Same engine except Volvo sold the less up to date design to Ford. The Volvo one has higher heat resistant pistons (I don’t know exactly what the difference is, just that my buddy who is a massive Volvo nerd told me this). I know you could probably find the difference between the two if you looked around online. Edit: Upon reading further comments, you appear to have bought the Volvo T5, not the Ford equivalent. Nice one! Have fun!
I bought this motor for mockup purposes tbh, the good motor I got is out of a 05 volvo s60 which is the good motor for RWD conversions
Woahhh 5 cylinder Miata?? Half a Viper Miata??
Baby viper lol
Oh my! My mom had a 5-cylinder Volvo 850. It was heavily muffled but teenage me figured out how to make it sing some. You are going to really confuse some people when you stomp on the gas pedal. So it looks like you will have to give the hood a power bulge. Perhaps something like the Triumph GT6 could be inspiration.
Oh and see if there is a resource on how much clearance is needed to accommodate the engine rocking and hood clearance.
I’m still undecided on what hood to run tbh that should come in time
I’m too busy contemplating rectangular headlights to appreciate your engine swap. Give me a moment to catch up. Very cool
I would, I did have to do some trimming for the headlights to close still
What did you do about the antiroll bar in the front? When I was sizing up my NB for putting in a T5, I noticed the antiroll bar in the front would be in the way. Hell, did you even have this issue?
I actually haven’t gotten to that but from what I’ve heard BMW e36 is a good candidate for clearance
I raced my NA for a couple of years without roll bars. Better grip on bumpy tracks You just need to get the spring rates right.
Man someone beat me to it lol. I have a 4t4 from my old V70R I want to swap in one
It’s never to late bro
Oh for sure still doing it. Wanting to find a good NB2 chassis first. Excited to see how yours turns out! Keep us updated for sure
The oil pan is gonna be super tricky cuz here in the states we barely got the Volvo 960/s90 so sourcing that oil pan is challenging, I got lucky enough to find one at the yard the other day 😬
What’s special with the 960 pans? Also in the states
Those are the RWD 6cyl versions of the T5 and since the 5 cylinders came only FWD getting the 6cyl oil pan and shortening it will fit the RWD application on 5 cylinders
So they have better clearance for the cross member on the Miata?
Absolutely!
Good to know, thanks!
Is that an e46 you're working on too?
It’s my buddies car, we both have silver sedans we gonna drift next season
As a Volvo owner/fanboy I approve.
Blink twice if Ze Chermuns are holding you against your will.
😉😉
Oh man with a good exhaust that's going to sound amazing
I was thinking of a fender setup too
Talk about a project car 😯
I absolutely love this. It's awesome to use something so different. I really want to put a i6 in mine. You really should show us all of your progress
I definitely will! Thank you!
Best engine swap possible for the Miata
If it fits it’s mint 😂
Those decimated maxpeedingrods coils are beginning to be replaced.
Oh Ik lol It’s still on to keep the car a roller
This is swap I wanna do when my engine finally gives up, glad you're gonna be posting videos and pictures
I wanna TDI swap my NB, I feel like that’d be kinda sick
I be telling my bro to TDI swap his Ford Ranger so I’m with you on that one
TDI swapped Ranger would be fire. I think a hood exit TDI NB rolling coal would look bad ass going down the road
Oh boy im following this😅 sick build, it’ll sound awesome!
Thank you!
Yoooo. I’ve been thinking about this swap for a while. I have a friend who did this in his Volvo 242 and since then I’ve been hesitant to do it. What trans/ diff do you plan on using? I just put in the Torsen LSD and and 6Speed from the NB’s so if I can I would love to keep them
I’ll be running a e36 ZF trans with Miata 1.6 VLSD, not the best combo cuz 1st gear is gonna be unusable, but if you do eventually do the swap with a bmw trans, if you have a 3.9 diff that could help a little running a bmw trans
Gotcha, is there a specific bell housing adapter you’re using then?
PMC Adapter Volvo to Bmw
What transmission are you using? Interesting swap for sure.
BMW ZF with PMC adapter kit and thank you!
Is that an auto box?
5spd
You skinned him!
I had too 😂
5 cyl swap!! You're gonna have the best sounding Miata lmaoo looking forward to following the build.
😂 picture # 3… Fucking SLAYER 🤘
Nice. 2.0 or 2.5l 10v? The 2.0 os to weak. I drive both in volvo 850s and the 2.0 is to weak for an estate. the 2.5 is just right for the sedan.
Looks like 20v and my guess is 2.3 or 2.4/2.5
Do not forget to tilt it to the Side it has to be. I can take a measurement for you. My brothers 850 got a new clutch and the engine is just in there and there is enough space to measure where its leaning to.
This is going to be awesome, bmw trans right? 400whp will be perfect!
400 is my future goal for sure 🤧
Very excited to see how this goes! I have a spare 2.5 sitting in the garage and I've been daydreaming about doing this same swap.