Hello from Durban, South Africa.
I Have owned my cherished 1.3lt manual k3ve copen for the past 3 years now and its been a wonderful journey from a sad wreck to a head turning daily driver painstakingly restored bit by bit by me.
I have just a few days ago come across a complete yrv turbo k3vet engine with the gearbox and harness with the original ecu intact and couldnt resist buying it to give my little toy some extra go. I need some advice on doing to swop correctly as it is my daily driver and i want it to remain as reliable as its always been.
Wouldnt mind the odd track day either.
Looking for some tips or pointers and some guides from Anybody with experience/expertise please
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welcome!
You must have some good skills already to have restored the copen - so this challenge is possible.
If it were me, I would swap all the turbo-related gear and move to a standalone ECU for the engine management. It would give you more control over the fuelling and boost to make sure it is all running as it should.
This would also keep the manual gearbox, which might be a bit more fun. There are lots of reports of people breaking them with the torque of a boosted engine. But this is where an aftermarket ECU might help - you can program in boost-by-gears or modify how the boost comes on to try to reduce the stress on the gearbox.
looking forward to following this!
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Thank you so much for that input, yes definitely would love to keep ger manual, will look into the standalone ecu you mentioned, makes a lot of sense. Here in SA the dictator management ecu seems a popular choice for tuners.
All skills aqcuired where for sourcing and researching the required bits to get her back on the road, often having to import parts from across the world.
Have a great mechanic that makes the task easier and off course a good panel beater to make her pretty again
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Was even considering getting a yrv turbo or copen auto shifter and pedal box as well as cluster to run with the yrv turbo ecu that came with the engine as i already have the auto gearbox just to keep the car reliable, what are your thoughts on that?
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Welcome. Glad you joined us. Hmm, K3 Copen, nice!
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Honored to have a veteran like you drop by sir, yes indeed, cant wait to get it done, super exciting
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It is a good plan also, I’m not sure how the wiring component will work. I read a lot of immobiliser-related wiring issues when changing over ECU’s.
It appears the easiest option in those engine-swaps (with ECU swap) is to change all electronics, keys and key barrels.
Are you working from a donor vehicle or just have the engine and gearbox?
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Just have the engine and gearbox with the ecu and harness. Managed to source all the other stuff for auto stuff from a scrapped car. Shifter,steershift steering wheel, cluster, and some tupperware. Should i get this cars ecu and locks so as to avoid those immobilizer issue?
i think auto is how i am going to do it for now.
Looking into AWD for future down the line mods, any ideas/input?
Ive read there is an alltrack version of the yrv turbo but it never came to South Africa, dont know if terios components may work as we only have that in awd here
[quote=“SmoknCopn, post:4, topic:6288”]…Was even considering getting a yrv turbo or copen auto shifter and pedal box as well as cluster to run with the yrv turbo ecu that came with the engine as i already have the auto gearbox…[/quote]You won’t have to worry about destroying the YRV’s automatic gearbox and it’ll be plenty of fun. You could always convert it over to a manual, if the automatic gets boring
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Yes, this is what i have opted to do.
Got all the yrv auto bits, gotta get it all tetris’d in now.
Scheduled for starting next wk sometime
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I don’t have personal experience, just reading on these forums quite often when people swap engines and ECU’s - they often find the car won’t start. Usually the advice is the imobiliser - which there are apparently methods to jump ecu pins to bypass. However that doesn’t seem to always be possible.
Another alternative is to desolder and swap over a certain chip on the ecu board…
It seems the primary way to prevent all the issues is to convert take the Immobiliser ecu, key barrel (lock), key, external locks to make the ecu work. I would search the forum first, such as:
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That’s why, whenever possible, it’s best to swap-over the entire harness, along with its ECUs and devices
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Managed to get a second ecu coming with the ignition barrel and steering column still attached to steershift steering wheel coming with the keys, problem solved i hope. Door locks already were sold but my copen has remote alarm etc plus i have original key so that shouldnt be an issue now.
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The yrv bits owner still has the original yrv 14 inch rims. I run 195/ 65/15 on my copen at the moment and am very happy with the look and feel of them. Would there be any benefit to me getting the 14s?
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Quick update, yrv turbo auto speedo cluster plus shifter and pedal box has finally arrived. Am told that standard copen manual transmission can handle the yrv turbo stock engine up to 12psi/ 0.8 bar. So for starters want to explore the manual swop option now, if the gearbox dies then i have a spare copen manual gearbox as well as the yrv auto to fall back on. Am told the loom of the copen is not compatible with the yrv turbo ecu and i will have to cut and rejoin to the yrv ecu. Anybody have wiring diagrams for these cars that could help? Any suggestions/ alternatives? Look forward to your assistance
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I wouldn’t think there is any benefit to 14’s if you’re happy with the current setup.
slightly less weight perhaps.
more sidewall on the 14" (if you keep overall diameter the same) and so more absorption of bumps
In Australia we usually have better access to performance orientated tyres in 15" sizes, so often that is a more ideal size.
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Thanks for that, i will keep my current setup, if anything, may just go lower profile tyre when they need changing