Skip to main content
Topic: V5 20v anyone? (Read 828 times) previous topic - next topic

V5 20v anyone?

Been looking into all the possible swaps recently, and as we all know best/ most popular swaps are vr6 our 1.8t.. I never considered it for a heartbeat before, but v5 anyone? Or or'vr5'!
Just wondering what you guys think about this swap vs other swaps.. anyone running that setup?

Thoughts invited..

Re: V5 20v anyone?

Reply #1
It has been discussed previously.

Unfortunately I expect a lot of the discussion is lost on the old forum.

I think, from what I can remember, the disadvantage is it's harder to do. Something about engine and/or gearbox mounts that need to be custom fabricated. Whereas other conversions can use off the self parts from other models, I belive there's no out of the box combination of parts for this conversion.

I'm fairly sure some of those that have done it have managed to do it successfully with spacers avoiding custom engineering.

Given that's it's not as straight froward a swap as a 1.8 20VT or a VR6/R32 less people have done it and therefore it's not as well documented and less people of knowledge around to pick their brains and learn from their mistakes.

I also think the gains to be had form this engine aren't particularly anything special and theres less tuning and modification opportunities so if you're just chasing performance numbers it makes more sense to stick with the tried and tested.

However if you want to be the one that does something a bit different then go for it, it has been done so we know it can be done.

Availability, plenty of Beetles around with this engine and they can be picked up quite cheap I think, compared to a Mk4 equivalent. However overall there's less reusable parts on a Beetle, so if you buy a donor car you might not get as much as you would from the left over parts than you would with a Mk4 or TT.


Mind you if I was looking for a challenge and wanted to go against the grain I'd look at doing a maybe Mk5 TFSI possible with DSG ;-) - That would be a talking point, it has also been done, but I'm only aware of one conversion.

Re: V5 20v anyone?

Reply #2
Well I've probably had my 20v v5 sat in the garage for almost 10 years. When I first picked it up think there was only one or 2 done but it has become more popular.

As eddy said the mounts are an issue but they are now available off the shelf. This was part of my stumbling block and plus plenty of other excuses.

I got my mounts from fabless manufacturing.
It's deffo going in this year.