Advantages of a jap engine - climate control!

yes that's right, my crazy plan of installing digital climate control into my Baja has begun.

So as most people know I have a Mazda KLZE V6 in the back of the Baja. The front cut I used for the engine transplant had climate control, so I had planned to put it in as well. Many things kept me too busy to bother, but now I am motivated again.

The first problem, well the fan, evaporator, heater and servo controlled flaps are as wide as the Baja!

hmmm, maybe if I mount the fan remotely, and duct between the other gear

nice project, I plan to do use the AC pump on my EJ20 engine in the future but don't have the Suby dashboard parts with it.

Hmmm....let me guess...summer was the motivation!!! You don't need climate control Wes,just connect the aircon to run flat out. Heaters are for sooks!!😂

Hi

I plan to hook up the air on my bug as well.

Steve

but the climate control is so cool. I already have it all wired up, when I did the loom for the engine I kept all the climate control wires. I can plug it all in and everything works. They like little motors and flaps that move by themselves, they're so cool!

Anyway, here is the MX6 dash. The only down side is it sat in the weather and some of the black wore off the buttons. I might just buy a new control panel (I have seen a couple of 2nd hand ones for sale, one was only $50). The other option is to either repaint the buttons, cover them in velour or find where to buy the stick on carbon fibre contact type stuff.

it's the full digital climate control where you set the temp and it does the rest.

As you can see the MX6 dash vents would look funny if transferred into the beetle, so I might go hunting at the wreckers for others.

Here is the 2 units in place. It doesn't interfere with the drivers leg, and there is plenty of room above the passengers legs.

don't try this if you don't like wiring. With the MX6 instrument cluster and the climate control (together a total of 40 extra wires from the rear of the car), plus vw wiring, alarm, immobiliser, electric windows and the stereo, you get a lot of wires.

This is how far everything will probably stick into the bonnet space. I will reweld in steel to cover the air-con stuff and replace the strength which is lost by cutting a huge hole. I should have most of the original glove box space left. I plan on having the vents in the steel dash, so there is no real room left for the stereo. I haven't figures out where to put it yet.

either one of these vents from www.vintageair.com would be very cool, but pricey (US$70-80 each!).

I wonder if I could make some...

Hi Wes

Im going to mount my heater & air con unit under the back seat, and blow through the heater channels. The evaporator will mount in the tail Im going to use.

Steve

This is the tail Im using mounted on Dak to the Future.

WES , I think I have these vents at work , I check it out for you .

There called butter balls ?

seagull

below the back seat may seem like an easier option, but there isn't much room under there. definitely not enough room to fit all the bits I plan on using.

...interesting... I will be watching this thread carefully....

R 🙂

Good stuff Wes, I'll be keeping an eye on proceedings! 👍

Hi

I had a troopy heater core and fan under the back seat of the yellow bug, I will have to see. Oh you can get carbon fibre contact paper from sign writing supply places.

Steve

Check out Whitworths marine (or any ships chandlery) they have a lot of vent outlets and grills.

I've moved all my old wiring out the way, and started rewelding metal back in around the climate control unit. I want it to look like it's the original dash, only with a bump below it for the air con stuff.

I also removed the instrument cluster, fuse box, wiper motor and arms, pretty much everything to give me better access for the metal work.

But I have seen an easier way to put air con in a car... Maybe I could do a split system, it'd look neater. Outdoor unit and geny on some roof racks, and indoor unit under the dash (or probably across the entire back seat)...

So with all the wires out the way (or mostly out the way) I could sit and think some more about where everything was going to fit.

In the end I decided the stereo was going to have to go back where it was, under the dash in the center (as shown below with the old instruments);


If I moved the stereo lower then my clutch leg would hit it, if I moved it to the passenger side the car would look uneven. The center part of the dash will be filled with 2 vents and the climate control head unit.

So I decided to refit the stereo in place and see if I can push the AC gear back far enough to clear the stereo. I found out I could, but it will be tight.

So I made a steel frame for supporting the AC gear, and to restore some strength to the dash. I could also weld in 25x3 flat braces which allowed me to weld the plate in sections.

So I have all the main braces in, the plate under all the AC gear is in, and the plate behind the stereo and over to the far left. I have two more plate sections to go which are slightly trickier shapes because they must bulge out a little to go around the climate control servo's.

oh, and my welder is playing up. The hand piece is pretty much stuffed and the trigger is playing up. Not very helpful when your trying to weld thin sheet neatly.

[ Edited on 13-11-2005 by Baja Wes ]

Looking good Wes, What are you gonna do for paint? Go nuts or are you gonna buff out the smoke marks and paint the new bits black so no-one can see?

A bet a swamp cooler is looking good about now. :o

BTW, I wish I could weld that well with a stuffed welder. Mine's working well and I'm still not that flash...no pun intended.😂

The smoke marks actually wipe off with your hand, so they aren't a problem. All the welded sections are under the dash and out of site, so all of that panelling will be painted black. I may even put carpet over top of it to really hide it.

I am currently thinking of having the climate control unit in the metal dash, with two round vents above. Then having a panel below the dash to blend the stereo section in a little better, and also provide something for side vents to be mounted in.

Something like this...

if anyone else wants to try to do digital climate control, this will probably turn you off. The wires!



I didn't get too much of a chance to work on the car this weekend, but did finish cutting the last of the panels and have most of the welding done.


The leg room is surprisingly good. It has more room in front of my legs than a regular car does. I plan to pad and carpet the boxed out section I welded in for the AC.


And I think I have found the vent I want to use. A swivel ball vent from an MX5



[ Edited on 20-11-2005 by Baja Wes ]

Things seem to work out so much cheaper if you have a welder and can use it properly.

Good work Wes.
:thumb

Looking good!!!!:bounce

I am still trying to figure out where to put everything. Here are some quick photoshop mock ups.

This is what I will probably go with


But I think it's making the dash look cluttered. The climate control head unit is actually relatively narrow, so I could actually put it into the glove box lid itself

It might look weird though, but the center of the dash would be neater...

You managed to save the glovebox...why fill it with gadgets you could be showing off???👍👍

[ Edited on 20-11-05 by Mick H ]

My vote's for the top one.

I'd go for the bottom one but with the a/c control moved to just above the head unit and move the electric window switches out sideways...
Nice vents 🙂

Rich

Mick H wrote:You managed to save the glovebox...why fill it with gadgets you could be showing off???

I didn't mean put it in the glove box, I mean actually mount it into the glove box lid itself. It would be normally visible, and would fold down with the glove box lid. The climate control head unit is only ~1 inch thick.

Ricola, I agree putting it above the stereo would be the best, but it would mean cutting out the metal that is in the way there. Then if I rewelded anything back in the paint on the dash would peel off. 🙁

this is how the first one should have looked, except I blue-tacked the vent in the wron spot;


But perhaps it would look better if the whole dash was covered in black carpet. It would certainly make it easier to have a nice neat finish after cutting all the holes...

Yeah, that last one looks to be the go, although I'm not sure about the black carpet idea...:puke

Good work so far Wes, keep it up. So when is the supercharger going on? :P

why not nick the vents out of a bay kombi (you can take their holders out of the dash as well with a bit of care) or the classy little ones from a late t3? the late t3 ones fit in about the position you are thinking of and are a nice simple look.

baybuscamperkid wrote:why not nick the vents out of a bay kombi (you can take their holders out of the dash as well with a bit of care) or the classy little ones from a late t3? the late t3 ones fit in about the position you are thinking of and are a nice simple look.

Wes considered Kombi vents but they are bigger and don't look as cool as the Mx5 ones.

I like the reposted first one

Marc

You can dress up those plastic vents with stainless steel dress rings. I've put them in my MX-5 and they look great.
Another option would be the vents out of the Toyota RAV4. They are round as well but have flaps that can be closed, unlike the MX-5 ones.

a friend recommended closing vents from an S15 Nissan. They look cool too but would probably be pricey and hard to find...

Yes, they look similar to the RAV4 ones

What about some old mini air outlets?

The ones I have in my Libra must be pretty cheap and easy to get hold of, I've never looked tho'



Rich

looking good wes cant wait to see it up close and personal!!
cheers
rhys

The climate control has been moving along slowly. Too many other things going on this time of year (xmas parties, birthdays, Motorcycle toy runs, broken house air con, planting gardens, putting up xmas lights, mowing the lawn that grows too damn fast). I was planning to finish the wiring on Saturday, but the 36 deg C temperature meant I lost motivation.

But I did get something done. I finished all the welding (hopefully) and the main unit seems to fit very well in it's new home. I welded up the old fuse box hole and painted everything black.



Under the dash is looking mostly complete too, and is also now painted black. I just have to vacuum all the dust out and retrim the carpets a little. I was speaking to the guy who made my carpets in the first place, and he still had some of my colour carpet sitting around from when he first did my car (3 years ago). So hopefully I will have enough to pad and carpet the section under the dash so it really won't be noticeable.



Hopefully this week I will quickly get the old wiring together so the car is driveable for next weekend (I want to go offroading at Mt Mee). Then during my xmas break I will redo the wiring probably and make all the air con ducting. If I get time and find an air-con shop open over the xmas break I might even get it all working.

Looks like a neat fit.Good stuff!!

I've been looking into air vents for my Eureka and stumbled upon a company called Flexible Drive Agencies.Thay have outlets in most States. Anyway, they sell and eyeball type vent like the MX-5 but with closeable vents. The part number is 061405 and it retails for $22.56 + gst. the catalogue is here http://www.fdrive.com.au/docs/Automotive%20Electrical.pdf

Nearly 6 weeks has passed, and I haven't really gotten too far. I blame xmas (shopping and festivities), going for a trip up 40 mile beach with friends, getting side tracked on other projects and the ridiculous heat 🙂 . I procrastinated about working on the car many times but retired to the comfort of an air conditioned house most of the time.

The first side-track project was the radiator scoop. You can read about that in the rear radiator post.

Next side-tracked project was a third brake light. I have had friends complain they can't see my brake lights many times, so I figured a third brake light was a good idea. My friend bought me a suitable LED light on his trip home to Singapore / Malaysia. I decided to put it in the rear spoiler above the engine. I couldn't screw it there, double sided tape didn't work, so I fiberglassed it in place.









So back to the climate control. I spent a long time rewiring the car (and part of that was another side project where I fitted later model beetle splined windscreen wipers as opposed to the early grub screw wipers I had). I lost my alarm and immobiliser wiring diagrams, but the supplier (Autostrada) was very helpful and photocopied another set for me. Wiring is slow and sometimes frustrating, but I have redone all the VW loom. I also tried to install a Jaycar speedo corrector kit, but it doesn't work and I am currently trying to sort out the problem with Jaycar.

As part of installing the climate control the whole dash needed to be finished off (the instrument cluster was never in there properly). I decided to cut up the plastic mazda dash to use the instrument cluster and climate control unit plastic surrounds.



and then test fit it in the dash



the instrument cluster is quite a different size. I could either spend weeks trying to weld and shape metal, or think or another way of making it look neat. The mid section of the dash was now a bit weak with so much cut out, so I figured adding a mdf panel onto the front of the dash would give some strength back, and give me something to work with so I could inset the plastic surrounds in the dash. This would mean that I will need to carpet the dash, which I was leaning towards anyway. It will be charcoal marine carpet like my floor.



First I cut the mdf panel to shape and moulded the climate control surround into place (above). Then I had to attach the mdf to the dash (rivets in countersunk holes) and fibreglass the dash surround from behind.



The mazda surround had gaps at the side due to the shape of the Mazda dash, so I fiberglassed those over too. Now I just need to spread bog over it all and sand it to shape. Once the carpet is on there you'll never know. I also hopefully have another climate control heat unit coming that still has black buttons (mine have peeled off).

Baja Wes wrote:I procrastinated about working on the car many times but retired to the comfort of an air conditioned house most of the time.

I know what you mean, but then the other way around, it below freezing over here.....

You're bug is going to be really nice!! Aircon, the ability to go everywhere AND with lots of power, very nice!!:thumb

It's looking good!


[ Edited on 24/1/2006 by gerrelt ]

Wes If you weren't doing something crazy to that car I'd be worried about you😁

Nice going Wes!

I'm doing a similar job grafting the subaru instruments into my 1303 dash...



Rich

after many people objecting to my plans to carpet my dash, I have gone for the painting option. This of course means more work, and hours of sanding and preparation to get it all smooth. I'm getting pretty close though, it's pretty smooth...

my only concern is that offroading the dash might flex and cracked the filler out, but it never did that before I guess...

here are two pics of my painted dash. I painted it with my air brush. It just needs a clear coat to make it shiny like the rest of the car. The very left part of the dash is still the original clear coated colour. I blended the colour across. The preparation wasn't perfect, they are still some small marks, but it's pretty good and I didn't feel like sanding for another week to get it perfect.

love your work

thats damn sexy, i personally think it was worth the time to prep the dash to be painted it looks the good 👍

That looks like ex-factory! Better than shag-piling the dash, for sure.

Your dash looks great. All your guages should work since you are using the original instrument cluster. But what are you going to do for the fuel level guage because the VDO sender is probably different OHMs that the instrument cluster?

yes they don't like each other. I have been running the mazda cluster for 2+ years. The fuel sender kinda works. Full is full, half is 1/4, and 1/4 is empty. So it works for me but will confuse others. I think I may be able to fix it by modifying the stock sender (bend or shorten the arm) or by adding a resistor.

I put the dash together for a trial fit, and it looks pretty good.

I had Troy send his climate control face unit down to me, and his was not perfect either so I will try repainting the buttons on mine black.

I also had dramas with my instrument cluster. I got a little overspray on the clear cover, and decided to try cleaning it with metho. I dabbed it on one corner and then wiped it straight off to test to see if it melted the surface (which I could have buffed back out). To my disappointment (even after wiping it off) the metho caused the plastic to start crazy cracking. So now the left of the clear cover is cracked. I'll have to get another from a wreckers 🙁

Now I just have to make the under dash panel which will basically be an extension of the one already there. I will make it full width with the vents in each corner. I will probably also carpet the boxed out section under the dash.

Lookin Good! 👍

I dunno, purple leapard skin could do it!

modulus wrote:That looks like ex-factory! Better than shag-piling the dash, for sure.

I'll add more words later, but I am just posting to show the new dash.



I carpeted the section that is boxed down below the dash, so you virtually don't notice it, especially behind the lower velour panels I made for the dash (to house the outer vents). I also added some little MX5 courtesy lights that come on with the door light in the under-dash panels.

Looks great!!!!:bounce:bounce

Looks fantastic Wes 👍

How does the AC work?

Rich

So what are you using the switch on the gearstick for?

the switch on the gearstick is just for my rear offroading spotlights.

The AC doesn't work yet, as I still haven't finished the ducting, or mounted the condensor at the front, or run all the AC lines.

I'll try to get all the ducting finished so at least the heater and fan of the climate control work before winter. But I will probably wait until winter to mount the condensor and run the AC lines. That way the AC shops will be low on business (in winter) so I will have more chance of finding one that will be helpful and patient when running the new hoses.

Progress has been slow. I got married in May, so most of the year leading up to that I was busy doing wedding stuff, so the car got neglected.



Then I had a honeymoon, came back to normal life and had to do a few things around the house.

Now, finally, I've had a chance to work on the car again!

So in my last post I had all the dash finished, and the main climate control unit fitted, but didn't know where to fit the fan.

After a lot of thinking, I decided to pull the fan apart a bit more. It was fitted with a servo actuated flap that selected inside and outside air. I have pull that off, and may mount it somewhere else later. but pulling it off it made the fan a lot smaller.



The fan did have a steel plate mounted as part of the casing before the flap, so it was almost a sealed unit when pulled apart. But it had a section where the metal was missing, so I fiberglassed over that part. I welded old wheel studs onto the metal plate and put rubber table leg covers on the wheel studs. This lets the fan sit on the fuel tank.



[ Edited on 30-7-2006 by Baja Wes ]

unfortunately the brake fluid reserviour was in the way of the fan and ducting, so I had to relocate it. Quite a pain.

Then I put the fan in place and started making a cardboard duct.



You can also see a bit of PVC pipe and 32NB flexible hoses, these are the demister lines and connect to the vents at the corner of the windscreen.

Making the cardboard duct was difficult, mainly because I had to make sure it cleared the bonnet hinge.



Once I had it made up with cardboard, masking tape and hot glue, I could start fibreglassing. I don't really like fibreglassing, it's a messing job, but I seem to do a fair bit of it. It will take a while to finish all the fibreglassing.

I also soldered copper water piping elbows onto the heater unit. This lets the water pipes turn up and clear the fan.



[ Edited on 30-7-2006 by Baja Wes ]

HOLY CRAP! Ur car wiring is scary... let along the room left in the bonnet, lol.

At least u know what ur doing, hopefully it works out for ya mate, GOOD STUFF!

By the way, congrats on the wedding too dude!

Looking great Wes...Congratulations on the wedding as well!!!! Wondered where you had been hiding:kiss now we all know !! Cant wait to see this finished.....

Looking good Wes! It's almost done, isn't it?

And congratulations on your wedding!

Congrats Wes, getting married was the second best thing I ever did. :thumb

Very interesting fan setup. I have to say your interior looks great. Leave the bonnet closed and you'll win an award for the setup for sure. Will we see the car at valla?

BTW, I'm thinking the 300 bucks I paid for my heater/aircon unit is looking better by the second. I know you'll come up with a more interesting solution, but for ease of installation, you can't beat two bolts, two hoses and two wires.

There is certainly a lot of stuffing around there with fibreglassing and such. 🤪

I won't be at Valla this year. It seems everyone I normally go there with can't make it this year.

Pete, for sure your set-up is a great solution. It's so easy. Trust me, I thought about doing the same myself.

But I'm a sucker for trying to things that normal people would think is too hard. If it's been done before then I'm not interested in doing it. I mean how many other type 1 VW's have digitial climate control in them? 🙂

And yes, under the bonnet is rather unattractive at the moment 🙂

oh, i didn't mean it looks unattractive. looks no worse than ubder the dash of a modern jap car. It's just that people might notice that the heating and aircon don't actually work. 😉

good on you for trying something new. i gave up trying to out do people years ago. these days i settle for working and cost effective. 🥲

well the Mazda climate control ain't easy, but it's cost effective so far (as it all came in the engine's front cut).

If I didn't care about cost I could go for this cool aftermarket climate control;
http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=475/prd475.htm



US$1100 for the Vintage Air air-con module and then even more for the digital control unit!!!

I didn't get a lot done this weekend. I finished fibre-glassing the duct, and it fits! Now I have to make all the little ducts to the internal vents. I have the demister connections done, but the 4 vents are more painful.



I have started by getting the original MX5 and MX6 ducting and modifying it to mostly fit. Then I'll either have to rivet extra plates and pieces in, or fibre glass again. I borrowed a hole saw to cut through to the lower vents and add some flexible hose, but I borrowed the wrong size hole saw 🙁

More work and fibreglassing. I had to modify the main AC unit to change where the feet air goes. The original set-up went into weird flat square plastic ducts that went under the carpet to the rear seats, and out side vents under the dash. I had to cover all those holes with fibreglass and make a new big hole out the bottom. I later put compressible foam strips around the hole to make it seal once it's installed.



And below are the 3 holes that I cut for the big foot air vent to blow through.



Then I had to start work on the ducting to go from the main unit to the in dash head/body vents. I used the Mazda MX5 (Miata) duct that connects to the rear of the in dash vents, the MX6 square duct piece that connects to the main duct body, and made the ducting in between using roof flashing. The PVC pipe is to run flexible hoses out to the sides to go to the side head/body vents.



After I had the metal parts made and trial fitted it (about a hundred times), I covered it in fibreglass (as the roof flashing isn't very strong). I also fibreglasses the demister PVC tube onto the main unit.



And below is the whole assembly sitting together. I painted it all black as you can see.



Hopefully on the weekend I will install everything in the car. I just have to make up some support brackets to hold everything in place (so it doesn't move around when I brake and corner).

i think someones going to be very nicely ready for the up coming summer... don't ya think 😂 :P

I managed to get it all mounted in the car today. I bought some 32NB flexible piping for the side air vents, but they had ran out of the black pipe so I now have a combination of black and white pipe which looks a bit odd.



I looks messy, but it's tricky to make it neater. There's just a lot of wires, and a lot of ducting! You can see the two air con lines on the right above the fibreglass duct. They will be connected once I get the condensor mounted on the bull bar. I still have to make a few more brackets to make sure everything stays still when I hit big bumps offroad.





Above are some shots of the digital climate control in action. At the moment I don't have the air conditioning part set-up, so it is currently just normal air or heating. I'm glad that it all seems to work so far. Set it to a temp below ambient and it blows normal air, set it to a temp above ambient and heated air comes out. It varies the fan speed depending on how far from the ambient temp it is set. The feet, body and demister settings all work and operate the ducting flaps correctly. It is certainly a cool toy to play with.

good stuff Wes. Looks great. Amazing how much nicer it is in a car with a heater isn't it.

yeah. I put a heater in it 3 years ago when I first put the V6 in, because to get the engine conversion approved I had to have a working demister. But it was just a real simple heater, out of a troopy or something.

So now I have a heater with automatic temperature control and a computer that varies the fan speed in 8 different settings. And I can direct it to feet, body or demister, or various combinations.

Althought the wiring looks a little messy, it is heaps better than it was straight after the conversion (when I was in somewhat of a rush)....

I actually thought the wiring looked alright. Afterall, there's a heck of a lot of stuff going on in there. And it's certainly an improvement on the last pic you posted there.🙄

I decided to fast track the last part of the climate control and drop into Custom Offroad for some assistance. Brad made some new bull bar support brackets (the old brackets were complete crap). The new brackets are use to mount the condensor on. We decided to put the condensor in the nose cone in the end, and I cut about 80mm off the bottom of the nose cone to help with air flow.

The main problem I am having is the half jut was 92/93 so it used R12, and now it has to be converted to the new R134a. This means all no o-rings (no probs) plus new dryer, new filling fittings, possibly new expansion valve.

Brad had run the R134a hoses from front to back, and now they need the special fittings added on each end. Unfortunately air con hose isn't cheap, about $20/m. Not cheap when running from the back to the front of the Baja, and back again.

Then the air con shop has to thoroughly flush all the lines and components to ensure there is absolutely no old R12 lubricating oil left in the system before they can refill it with R134a. Hopefully this will happen during the week.

So the air con is proving to be more painful than the engine conversion itself :P

But it should be just as rewarding :thumb

Some piccies.

new and old dryer;



compressor cleaned and ready to go (new seals and stuff)


Evaporator cleaned and fitted with a new expansion valve (for the R134a gas)


evaporator in duct


condensor flushed out and ready to go. Thermo needs mounting


new bull bar braces tacked in test position. lower part of nose cone trimmed.

well, after a huge amount of effort, I can now happily say I have working digital climate control!

:bounce

It gets the air coming out the vents down to about 6 degrees :P

The hose lady took about 4 hours to do all the end fittings, so all up her labour, the cost of hose, and the fittings cost a bit over $400.

The new dryer, new TX valve, reco'ing the compressor, all new o-rings and testing and gassing the system was another a bit over $400.

Then probably another $200 on thermo and materials for the bull bar brackets.

The hidden cost is the huge amount of time it took me to fit the whole thing into my car (more work than the engine conversion almost) 🙂 .

And of course the time Brad put into it at the end, I'm sure I will pay him back for that in some way with my engineering / drafting services..... 🙂

So anyway, It all works!!!

"COOL"😂😂 Congrats on the instal. Now you can take your wife wife out in comfort?:alien

Some pics of the mess of hoses and dryer mounted in the front. When I get a chance I will try to make things look neater. There's a cover over the condensor / thermo and some insulation to keep the heat away.
:thumb


and here's the compressor all mounted and working (needs a good clean back there);



And I made a little animated gif to show just how much fun the climate control is :P . Driving around today it was great to just set it to 24 degrees C and let it do it's thing 🙂

Awesome, wanna do it to my 74 Super ?

hmm, there's a lot of work in it. I don't think you'd wanna pay my fee 😀

Baja Wes wrote:hmm, there's a lot of work in it. I don't think you'd wanna pay my fee 😀

I thought I read that it only cost you around $1000, how much labour can it take and what would that cost ?

vw2b wrote:I thought I read that it only cost you around $1000, how much labour can it take and what would that cost ?

ah, the selective reading bug again :P

The costs listed above was the cost to finish the install. The cost to make custom hoses and have the thing converted from R12 ti R134a and gassed.

You have to actually buy all the climate control pieces in the first place. I got all mine when I bought my V6 front cut (so I already had all the pieces). So if you buy a front cut with climate control then you can use those pieces. A good front cut would be around $2500. You could sell the engine and box to make some money back.

Then you'd need to get someone to attack the loom and isolate all the climate control wiring. A custom engine loom for something weird would be about $1000, so you'd be looking at something similar. I didn't need to do this as I installed the V6 with the complete engine and climate control loom in tact. I did however spend a good 20hrs of messing around with the loom removing unnecessary parts like headlights etc.

Then once you have the parts and a simplified wiring loom, you have to modifiy the car to physically fit all the stuff in. I reckon if I went flat out at it I would still have taken about 2 weeks - 80hrs. It really was a lot of messing around, just read through this post. :o

So yes, if you paid someone labour to do it all, it would cost a heck of a lot. Probably similar to what it costs to pay someone to do an engine conversion. :thumb