Hello all,

I’d like to start by saying that I do not have a major engineering background, and have limited knowledge about this - I’m posting here in hope that someone will have advice or answers I can pass on to my partner. He is a trained mechanic but not well versed in automatic vehicles, as his speciality is actually all things bodywork.

I have a 6N Auto 1.4 Polo, the engine was knackered, with massive issues with hunting, as well as being kept poorly and tinkered with by the previous owner, and it needed an engine swap. My partner bought an engine via EBay, where the company confirmed it was the correct engine and it had the same engine code as the one in my logbook.

We’ve gone to do the engine swap, and when the gearbox is tightened, the engine doesn’t fit. When loosened, it fits. Upon further inspection, it would seem that the pilot bushings and crank are different to my original engine.

I’ve done some googling, and I believe that the manual and automatic engines for a 6N are different - which I suppose could make sense, but due to the engine numbers being the same, wasn’t something we really thought about. This is just my assumption, I could be wrong, but it would seem the engine builds are different across the two transmission types.

Has anyone had any experience with this, does anyone know if it’s possible to swap the cranks over? Any advice would be greatly appreciated please!

I know that the engine blocks are different between 1.4 manual and automatic transmission versions in 9n Polo, so can easily believe they also are on previous generations.

I seem to remember that the pattern of reinforcement ribs on the rear of the block is noticeably different.

The crankshafts have different part numbers for manual & automatic see this parts listing https://www.lllparts.co.uk/catalogs/vw/RDW/PO/158/1/105/105005. So the engine code could have either version of the crankshafts