Looking to buy a MK 1 cabriolet

[pondoras box]

I am looking at a MK 1 cabriolet that has had an engine swap started. I have no experience with water cooled VW's but have been into air cooled for many years and am fairly mechanically competent with my daily drivers a 2007 Honda and a 2001 Saturn.

They dropped in a 2.0 ABA engine and put a turbo on it. They never finished the project and it looks like someone without a lot of mechanical experience put it in. It will turn over but not start.

My questions are,

1. Is this a common swap and how much stuff needs to be done to do this successfully.

2. I was told that I would need a new ECM and injectors to play nice with the turbo. What is needed to do this?

3. The shifter in the car has been cut out and is now sitting on top of the floor, not attached, is this a normal part of the swap?

4. The fuel pump gets louder and sounds like its running faster as the starter is engaged, what causes this and is it a hard fix?

5. The body seems solid, with some butchery involved with installing "racing" seats, is this thing worth $1000.00 with lowered struts installed bad tires, but good top.

Thanks for any advice.

Robert
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Looking for anything from Hal Casey Motors out of Hamburg New York, from license plate surrounds to matchbooks.

1961 23 Window (Bobo)
1965 11 Window (Zelda)
1965 13 Window (Lucas)
1957 Oval ragtop
1988 Cabriolet VR6 conversion
Plus a lot of other rusty junk

[TDCTDI]

Run away! The 2.0 swap is a common swap, the relocated shifter suggests that a cable shifted trans was used. If your inexperienced-to-watercooled eye tells you that the swap was poorly executed, the a lot more is likely wrong with it. If you HAVE to have it, offer them scrap value ($200-$300), that way you can get your money back if you decide to abandon it too.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[pondoras box]

That's what I was thinking but didn't want to dismiss it just because I didn't understand the why of what they did.

Thanks
_________________
Looking for anything from Hal Casey Motors out of Hamburg New York, from license plate surrounds to matchbooks.

1961 23 Window (Bobo)
1965 11 Window (Zelda)
1965 13 Window (Lucas)
1957 Oval ragtop
1988 Cabriolet VR6 conversion
Plus a lot of other rusty junk