An idea of engine swap in Aygo X

[rossie]

Good afternoon,
I have nagging questions about the possibility of an engine swap in my 2022 Aygo X. I have a 1.0 engine with eCVT transmission. I am deeply in love with this car because it holds the road the best of all the cars I've driven. Also, longer road trips are so comfortable. For me, even the size is perfect since I am the only user of it. The only drawback I notice is, unfortunately, the lack of power and the possible solution could be swapping an engine. There begins my concerns. 

I have on my eye a Peugeot Prince 1.6 turbocharged engine. To be exact it is the "EP6FDT" model. It is an inline-4 layout generating about 220 hp. I have an idea where to mount the intercooler, put my Aygo X on a different suspension (able to support the heavier engine without dipping its nose to the ground) and other stuff but still - I'm not sure about the rest.

How should the engine mounts be modified and will they fit at all? Will I still have A/C? (probably I would have to "adapt" somehow the whole unit...) The transmission is not designed for this much HP, so with what I should go with? (Automatic transmissions stole my heart by their comfort so I want them exactly) Will even the transmission fit? And what about connecting it with the drivetrain? And so many other questions about the electronics and "pairing" it with the car computer itself despite the different ECU dedicated to this engine... 

Before I get replies like "You should have bought a different car" I would like to clarify something... I'm only making this post to solve my endless questions about modifying the car I truly adore. Maybe someone more experienced will give me some advice or someone will share their experience with swapping the engine in Aygo X. If anyone has a better idea of adding much more power I am open to hearing it 😄  


Hopefully, my concerns and questions will be solved 🙂 

Thank you and have a pleasant evening ❤️ 

[mrfixer]

Completely impossible.

[Strangely Brown]

So, basically, you want to change everything about the car that you "truly adore".

Yes, you should have bought a different car. 🙂

ETA: I wonder if that was actually written by AI. There is something about it that does not feel "real" to me.

[rossie]

2 hours ago, Strangely Brown said:

So, basically, you want to change everything about the car that you "truly adore".

Yes, you should have bought a different car. 🙂

ETA: I wonder if that was actually written by AI. There is something about it that does not feel "real" to me.

I do not want to change "everything" but I would like to give it a "little push" because circa 70 HP is not enough for me. Even the car itself wants to go faster 😆 Even though the high RPMs, it is limited by its undersized and aged-by-design engine. 

 Still - those are only my questions and concerns regardless of the engine swap. Maybe there is a better option like supercharging the 1.0 but I wouldn't be surprised if it fails shortly after the modification - that is why I was considering an engine swap to be a more reliable option. I thought I would find there some helpful information since someone put a bigger Japanese 1.8 engine to a smaller Aygo but what can you ask for. 🤷‍♀️

 And - no. My post was not AI-generated. 

However, if anyone has experience with tuning only the engine without pushing it to the limits but still gaining 30-40 HP, I am open to hearing it.

[Hybrid21]

Certainly wouldn't be a cost effective project Rose in such a new vehicle.

There may be some tuning options that you could investigate, but as you say would be limited on power increase and probably not enough benefit for you.

Unfortunately my advice would be to look at other cars, maybe similar in size but more powerful and designed in terms of brakes, suspension, gearbox, etc to handle the power.

Something like a VW Polo GTi with a dsg gearbox for instance 👍

 

[haelewyn]

A 1.6 Peugeot engine, supercharged in that car is an idea for a crazy billionair. 

No. . It can not be done in a reasonable way.

No upgrade is really affordable.

A tuneup would give less than 10 hours extra as there is nothing to be done with a turbo.

The possibilities are to rebuild it to the other version that exists in Japan of this same engine >>> with turbo.

That is technically possible. 

Also adding a supercharger would be technically possible PERHAPS.

I have contacted a company who said they might be able to do it. They are specialized in this kind of thing. They were not crazy of the whole idea and i am rather sure they would give me warranty of 30 yards.

But no adaptation like this would cost 10.000 € or less. All more.

My idea about it -and I must confess I had the same idea for a while about turbo or supercharger- is :

If you upgrade the engine, maybe the gearbox and the brakes, other parts of the body will suffer under the higher power and stresses on all parts of the car. It would make the toyota worse in what it's great now : driving characteristics and reliability. 

It's possible that a few months after you did this for a huge amount of money, toyota brings an aygo 1.5 or GR to the market. Why bother ?

If I would suddenly find myself In possession of 25000 € as an extra and I would feel I can only spend it on a car, it would be a better idea to trade in the AygoX now. Second hand prices are high. A dealer can give a good price. There is always a more sporty Yaris or a 2.0 hybrid Corolla that is not as lazy powered as the aygo. And on which you didn't lose your 10 year relax warranty. 

I think in reality, you only have 2 options. Get used to the disadvantages of your aygoX OR move on to an other car.

 

[Vandals01]

To Achieve your goal, you'll need:

1. Lots of welding and fabrication especially when it comes to engine mount.  In fact, you might need modify the engine bay in order to accommodate the new engine and transmission.

2. Joining a different brand of Engine and transmission.  As far as I know, this have NEVER been done before.  Simply because the holes where the transmission mount to the engine were NEVER STANDARDISED. 

3. Figure out how to control the engine.  Each engine has it's own Engine Control Unit.  Adapting a Peugeot ECU into a Toyota Body Control Module is just not possible.   So more than likely, you'll need an aftermarket ECU that can handle Body Control Module work as well (such as controlling screen wipers / Central lock / Lights etc).  BCM isn't the only one, there are still stuffs like Airbag module / Anti-Lock Brakes Module etc.

Evens if you figure out all the solutions to the problems above.  You will probably spend several or tens of thousands of pounds on it.

NO ONE is crazy enough to take on such a project.  The craziest stuff I've seen is putting a Honda VTech engine into a Mini Cooper.  But that's was Honda Engine + Honda Manual Transmission on a car that has literally zero electronics.

[rossie]

@haelewyn Thank you so much for your feedback. I know it wouldn't be that easy, especially with the cost. I could try chip-tuning it. Locally, I have a workshop that deals with such treatments. They had already done chip tuning in Yaris 1.0 with success. The graph with data measured on a dynamometer went from 68 HP to 89 HP. It sounds sort of unreal, especially for a non-boosted engine. I might contact them about the details, but I don't know if I should wait until the end of my main warranty. The price is attractive - with conversion to GBP it is 282,87 pounds, but to me, it sounds pretty suspicious. 

Hopefully, Toyota will release Aygo X GR. There my savings will go. 😂 

[Puglet]

A cheaper and easier option would be to get the engine remapped to take out the slack and free up more power and at least that is reversable. 

Many years ago remember someone on another site swapped the 1.0 in a Mk1 to a toyota 1.8 or 2.0, and it was a major job, fair play he did it, so anything is possible, but would I be doing it on a very new car and end up with something worth less than the original car at the end of it. 

[Agent Orange]

I've been coming on this site since 2016 and I've seen some daft questions asked....To be fair, I've asked a few myself!!!

However, this is the first time somebody has asked, basically how do I wreck a perfectly good car?

Rose, if you want more power, trade the car in.....For goodness sake, you say you love it but it's not the car for you.

You are trying to do the impossible, making a nearly new, reliable and fun car into an uninsurable, undrivable and unsafe nightmare.

Sorry to sound so negative but there just isn't a positive answer.

[Vandals01]

9 minutes ago, Puglet said:

A cheaper and easier option would be to get the engine remapped to take out the slack and free up more power and at least that is reversable. 

Many years ago remember someone on another site swapped the 1.0 in a Mk1 to a toyota 1.8 or 2.0, and it was a major job, fair play he did it, so anything is possible, but would I be doing it on a very new car and end up with something worth less than the original car at the end of it. 

Remap is certainly the best option.  However, the lack of power really boils down to the transmission i.e: CVT.

As far as I know, CVT is never known to be fast as it usually operates around 1500 to 2000 RPM range.  So unless he change that transmission, he wouldn't get much power from the engine.

At the end of the day, better to go for a different Car.

[rossie]

12 minutes ago, Vandals01 said:

NO ONE is crazy enough to take on such a project.  The craziest stuff I've seen is putting a Honda VTech engine into a Mini Cooper.  But that's was Honda Engine + Honda Manual Transmission on a car that has literally zero electronics.

The more I read how difficult and pricey this will be, the more I'm moving away from it. Maybe it is time to accommodate to reality how it is. And so, I will not be the fastest. 🤷‍♀️ Maybe small things like chip tuning or changing the CVT management would make a small pleasant change.

However, the change in the mindset plays the main role. Adventure, camping, and private daily car don't have to be a "rocket". 🤔 (but sometimes it's tempting to put gas in the floor and go a bit faster than 10+ sec to 100km/h 😛)

[haelewyn]

Some of our members here stated it's not the car for you.

I don't agree. 

I am in my 50's and have never found the perfect car or wife yet.

You wouldn't divorce your husband or wife for not doing the dishes fast enough..  there are still a lot of reasons to find he / she is good enough to stay. 

Just finished a 100 km ride and saw my consumption was 3.9 liter per 100 km.

I wouldn't want to change the engine and end up with 7 liters per 100 km.

Chipping : this engine has 73 instead of 68 hp now so toyota has fixed 5 extra hp for you (vvt I think made that happen).

In my area, careful remappers never got 89 out of it.

In some cars people change camshafts etc to make performance higher but really... who is going to do the manufacturing and research for this one time exercise and fabrication.

@rossie   I was struggling with the same question before... as I said.

Here's the old topic >>

https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/211345-any-acceptable-way-to-pump-up-the-10-engine/#comment-1682817

 

 

 

[jcps001]

Nothing's impossible if you have the money and you're crazy enough... If money and sanity are beyond your worries, the consequences of that mod shouldn't be.

You have a new 2022 car, still under warranty, that will be destroyed with that mod. How are you going to MOT it? Will it pass with all the mods? Is all of that legal? Also, it's value will plummet, making it almost impossible to sell, and believe me, with a mod like that many things will go wrong, no doubt about that.

The best thing you can do is to trade it in. Get another car, as already advised by other members. A car that gives you what you need.

I understand your problem, the engine that powers the Aygo X is a complete dog, especially on inclines. I live on an island with a lot of them, and tourists don't like it. It's horrible when you have to get it moving uphill. The car is very nice to drive, very economical, but is best suited for long and flat stretches of roads, or flat cities.

If you need more power, get a more powerful car. It's a new 2022 Toyota. Talk to someone and see if you can trade it for a Yaris with a better engine.

[TonyHSD]

Hi, 

some good advice given and here are my two cents. 
It is possible to change the engine, however it’s not just the engine but many more things like transmission, wiring loom, immobiliser, suspension set up etc, pretty much you will need to use only the body structure from your Aygo x.
A donor car needs to be Yaris or Yaris cross, and in uk for example they comes only as hybrids, which is good, actually the best drive train. The price of this conversion will be higher than you just swap your Aygo x for one of these. These three cars are built on the same platform tnga,  and share many similar parts and donnoring from one to another might be easier than you think, no need of cutting metal structures or welding. But it’s a big job that it’s not worth it by any means, unless you have a garage and do many of the jobs yourself. My suggestion to you is to test drive Yaris or Yaris cross and see how you lie, any of them and simply swap the Aygo . This is the smartest move imo. 
Good luck 

[Vandals01]

1 hour ago, jcps001 said:

I understand your problem, the engine that powers the Aygo X is a complete dog, especially on inclines. I live on an island with a lot of them, and tourists don't like it. It's horrible when you have to get it moving uphill. The car is very nice to drive, very economical, but is best suited for long and flat stretches of roads, or flat cities.

I had no problem with the Aygo's engine.  In fact, I've beaten lots of car at the traffic light Grand Prix.

The problem is the "Transmission".  Despite the fact Aygo X uses 1KR-B52 (6 hps over my MK1 1KR-FE), I had a manual gearbox which allows me to reach 60 mphs at roughly 10.9 second. (10.4s in this video).

CVT is known to be slow.  The very reason why many American hates it (American loves powerful car).  Trade off for being slow is fuel efficiency.  In fact, CVT is one of the most efficient transmission you can ever get.

[APS]

It can definitely be done. That said, it is not a common swap and I would not be surprised if that particular swap has never been done, or even attempted, before. That means you have to spend a lot of time doing R&D to solve all the challenges you encounter. In short, it'll be very costly. Could quite easily cost as much as the car did new. Keeping the Toyota CVT with the Peugeot engine would not be advisable. It would likely break with that amount of power. In fact, the amount of weight and power in the PSA unit would make the car even more nose heavy and you'd need stiffer suspension and larger brakes. You'd also likely need to be prepared to cut and reshape the firewall in order to fit that unit. 

Plan B - keep the 1KR-FE - An ECU tune, or any other NA tuning, is not really going to get the results you want. NA tuning will bring you more power and often at higher RPM. The easiest solution to achieve more shove (torque) is forced induction, either turbo or supercharger. You'd also need an aftermarket ECU to get the most out of it and to run it safely. 

Forced induction on the 1KR has been done many times and likely to be the cheapest. How your CVT gearbox handles more torque and power while integrating with a custom ECU is another question. A manual would have been easier. 

Plan C - The other option is to use what you've got. Give it some beans and let the engine rev out. They will happily rev until they hit the 7k limiter.

[rossie]

@haelewynThank you very much for your reply and everyone else too. With engine upgrades, it's more of a whim than a requirement. I would like to clarify that my car is not as slow as it might seem. I'm probably lucky because I ended up with a piece that achieves a much higher top speed and acceleration of about 10 seconds to 100km/h. Although reaching the 100 HP would be perfect, despite it's not that easy to achieve. Maybe I got a little carried away with such a big "project". For now, the only thing I can do is research, get in touch with workshops, put money aside for the project, and most importantly - accept the downsides of my car along with changing "values" about being only on the fast line. Perhaps this is related to the fact that I previously drove a much faster car and mentally I still cannot adapt to the decision I made in February about changing to something more economical and suited specifically to me. It's really fun to drive and so far I'm just imagining "what if". 

Quick edit: I've seen a supercharger kit to Aygo, not Aygo X. It might be an option since where I live insurance companies get along with "changes" if everything is registered in papers by following vehicle examination. But changes in injectors, probably pistons, fuel pump, and ECU are another story. (I think this "kit" does not match my engine due to the different position of the lambda sensor... or I am mistaken. As I said before - research is mandatory. 😅)


Thank you so much for all your feedback. A long way ahead of me to find out everything as it would look like. Maybe I will consider the dono car, but still - "what if".
Thank you, and I hope I will stick around this forum due to the large number of enthusiasts I am too ❤️

[APS]

44 minutes ago, rossie said:

I still cannot adapt to the decision I made in February about changing to something more economical and suited specifically to me. It's really fun to drive and so far I'm just imagining "what if". 

Here in lies the nub - any modifications you make to get more power would also result in higher fuel consumption. You made the decision to get something more economical, it will therefore also have less power. 

48 minutes ago, rossie said:

changes in injectors, probably pistons, fuel pump, and ECU are another story.

I'd say, what you want is a bit more power and quite a lot more torque. Say, take the engine up to 100hp and you could probably get away with the stock internals. That would also keep fuel consumption reasonable. But even there, you'd probably use as much fuel as a larger engine just to keep the air:fuel ratio in check and keep things cool.

 

55 minutes ago, rossie said:

Maybe I will consider the dono car, but still - "what if".

Not a bad idea. Buy a cheap, old Aygo to experiment and practice on. Then you could transplant the mods or the whole engine to the newer car. 

[flash22]

The Prince PSA engine is a steaming pile (as found in the mini cooper s and 207)

anything is possible if your pockets are deep enough a drive in, drive out type service will be in £15-20K range, tbh i would fit a 1.6 Yaris GR engine as it a nice compact 3 cylinder

tbh that sort of money you are into a Yaris GR/ GRMN or decent GT86 with none of the headaches and they will hold there value

[Rhymes with Paris]

I admire your enthusiasm, and understand that for some people the "doing of it" tuning can give a lot of pleasure, maybe more than the end result.

But as others have pointed out, there is a lot to consider and take into account.

The cost of doing it.

The time off road while it is done,may take ages to get right if ever.

The huge loss of value of the car , usually people who modify want it to be to their choices, not someone else's ,that's if such a car was sellable at all.

I know you said" Before I get replies like "You should have bought a different car" but maybe that's not the worst idea, you could get best price for your car as is+the savings on cost of modification+the huge depreciation saved,as others have said that adds up to plenty to buy a pretty special and powerful car,all with no effort and waiting around.

To give my own example, I had a lexus is200 and it was 150bhp , I wanted more power so looked into how and cost.

The best option was to sell it and buy a lexus is300 at 200bhp,at the time that would have been around £500 difference, like for like.

In the end it turned out even better to keep what I had and knew well.

But good luck whatever you decide to do 😃.

 

[Cyker]

3 hours ago, flash22 said:

The Prince PSA engine is a steaming pile (as found in the mini cooper s and 207)

anything is possible if your pockets are deep enough a drive in, drive out type service will be in £15-20K range, tbh i would fit a 1.6 Yaris GR engine as it a nice compact 3 cylinder

tbh that sort of money you are into a Yaris GR/ GRMN or decent GT86 with none of the headaches and they will hold there value

Haha can you imagine that?! Esp. if the AWD system could be somehow shoe-horned into the Aygox! It would be absolutely insane  

The spiritual successor to the Aygo Crazy    

Most people that mod Aygos go for handling improvements - A few forum members had fitted whiteline ARBs way back in the day; One member, PaulT, modified his Aygo to be a Toyota Sprint Series car - stiffer ARBs, forged alloy wheels, coilovers, removed all the non-essentials to save weight, I think it might even have had a half-cage! It was so stiff it would turn into a tripod going round corners  

The Bad Obsession Motorsport guys (Of Project Binky fame) also did a season of Aygo/C1/107 racing and it might give some ideas for possibilities.

There's also the possibility Blitz or Rotrex etc. might come out with a super/turbo charger kit for it, although that sort of thing seems less common these days than it used to be...

 

That all said, the Aygox is such a new car I'd be loath to modify it so early!

[Strangely Brown]

12 hours ago, rossie said:

I do not want to change "everything" but...

Sorry Rossie, but your idea to change the engine and by extension the ECU, wiring, suspension, brakes etc, well, that's pretty much everything. What you are looking to do is to change the essence of what the car is. i.e. a very reliable, very efficient, great handling, city car. IMO, changing the essence of the car is tantamount to changing everything about it.

Seriously, if the car is not fast enough for you and underpowered then perhaps a bit more research prior to purchase may have been in order.

Even though you tried to pre-empt the response, maybe you should have bought a different car.

Anyway, for the amount that it would cost to make the changes that you mentioned it would almost certainly be cheaper to just buy something that does what you want.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just my £0.02. Other opinions are available.

[APS]

On 9/26/2023 at 11:29 PM, rossie said:

I have on my eye a Peugeot Prince 1.6 turbocharged engine. To be exact it is the "EP6FDT" model. It is an inline-4 layout generating about 220 hp.

I forgot to mention - this is the engine series that PSA co-developed with BMW and in their parlour is known as the N12 - N14 engine. I've heard they are not the most reliable of engines.

Again, I'd keep what you've got.

[flash22]

2 hours ago, APS said:

I forgot to mention - this is the engine series that PSA co-developed with BMW and in their parlour is known as the N12 - N14 engine. I've heard they are not the most reliable of engines.

Again, I'd keep what you've got.

It's a PSA engine no cross development, the VVT is dire, 40-60k miles they turn to an oil collider