I appreciate that this probably isn't normal fodder for the forum so please bear with me.

My daughter , god bless her, decided that the dipstick was an unnecessary accessory and although no oil registered on the dipstick it really wasn't a problem. So after a 10 mile journey to the beach and back the cam now sounds like a machine gun. The Polo is a 2006 1.2 6v and admittedly drank oil like a thirsty glass blower, didn't leak it nor did it throw out clouds of blue smoke? The upshot is I have located a car with a 12v engine and wondered would an engine swap be viable and what would it entail? The other niggle is the 12v car has lost 5th gear and when placed in gear with the clutch in sounds like a towel wrapped brick in a cement mixer so assuming the engine swap is viable are the gearboxes the same for both engine variants?

Thanks in anticipation.

6v to 6v swap would be a whole lot easier 'cos you could keep existing engine ECU and all wiring. My advice would be to seek out a 6-valve engine/gearbox combo, or simply a whole nother car.

There must be tons of them about that people are just offloading cos of age and tattiness rather than serious ill health. 'New' is such a popular thing these days, so the secondhand car market must be buyer-friendly.

The 12-valve variant is a better bet, but the hassle of conversion of her existing car wouldn't be worth it, I think.  1.4l engines are better still if she fancies something smoother, quieter and with a little more go.

36 minutes ago, Pete1 said:

6v to 6v swap would be a whole lot easier 'cos you could keep existing engine ECU and all wiring. My advice would be to seek out a 6-valve engine/gearbox combo, or simply a whole nother car.

There must be tons of them about that people are just offloading cos of age and tattiness rather than serious ill health. 'New' is such a popular thing these days, so the secondhand car market must be buyer-friendly.

The 12-valve variant is a better bet, but the hassle of conversion of her existing car wouldn't be worth it, I think.  1.4l engines are better still if she fancies something smoother, quieter and with a little more go.

Point taken Pete, I know the 1.4 is a much better engine but as its her first car and just passed her test we need to keep insurance costs down. I asked bout the 12 valve as I can get one locally and it appears that the 6 valve 'BMD' is the worst engine VW ever made. It has been unreliable and plagued with misfires when hot on longer runs even after replacing all the coil packs, one cylinder drops out then when it cools down 'recovers' again. I'm trying to avoid a repeat of similar problems with a replacement BMD engine. Would it be a complete loom swap out?

The predecessor engine, code AWY was just as bad.  

The 12v engine obviously has a different engine loom, but I think more awkwardly, differences in the wiring/relays in the cabin, all sorts.  I think it would be a lot of work, and you would need to somehow overcome immobiliser issues I think, with the 12v engine ECU not necessarily being plug and play with other control modules without quite a bit of faff and tech.

 

Look for a well-priced 12v car I reckon. Mk1 Fabia and Seat Ibiza(?) of same era all equivalent pretty much, to widen scope.

4 hours ago, Pete1 said:

The predecessor engine, code AWY was just as bad.  

The 12v engine obviously has a different engine loom, but I think more awkwardly, differences in the wiring/relays in the cabin, all sorts.  I think it would be a lot of work, and you would need to somehow overcome immobiliser issues I think, with the 12v engine ECU not necessarily being plug and play with other control modules without quite a bit of faff and tech.

 

Look for a well-priced 12v car I reckon. Mk1 Fabia and Seat Ibiza(?) of same era all equivalent pretty much, to widen scope.

Yep, I think it best to abandon the idea!!