# 3.2 to 3.6 Swap



## snowzach (Jun 21, 2018)

I've seen a bunch of posts about a 2.0 to 3.6 swap, has anyone ever done a 3.2 to 3.6 swap? I've got 80-some thousand miles and know I'll eventually need chains. If I was going to the trouble I was wondering if it was reasonably straight forward to put the 3.6 from a Passat in without crazy modifications. I've removed a Touareg engine before for chains so I know the engine fairly well but I haven't dug that far into my TT yet. Everything *mostly* looks the same. The only thing that I thought might be a headache is dealing with a 6-Speed since the Passats were all autos (at least as far as I know) I did a little searching and didn't find anyone that did that swap.


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## Nidana (Jun 9, 2018)

Seen a mk5 R32 on YouTube that's swapped out to a 3.6 other than that it's Ian's extensive work.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SwissJetPilot (Apr 27, 2014)

Ian (*IPG3.6*) is the go-to guy on this one!

Here's his primary post with a list of all the various modifications he's done. The title of the post changes from time to time depending on his latest project -

*FrankensTTein 3.6*
https://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... &t=1900369

.


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## IPG3.6 (Sep 5, 2015)

Hey @snowzach it's defintiely doable. *The simplest part is bolting it all in* which is pretty straightforward.

*The main challange with going from 3.2 TT VR6 to 3.6 VR6 is the ECU.*
The TT's 3.2 ECU is a Bosch ME7.1.1 and has an MPI (multi-point injection) fuelling setup (into the inlet manifold). The ECU is very similar to the Mk4/TT Mk1 pinout. You can see the plug shape below.









3.6 VR6 (Passat, Touareg, Q7 etc) is Bosch MED9.1 and has an FSI (fuel stratified injection) fuelling setup (into the cylinder). The ECU is not similar to the ME7.1.1 and more closely related to the 2.0L ECU's in the 8J. You can see the plug shape below.









You can see right away their plug shapes are completely different. The pinout is also very different where you basically need to convert the ME7.1.1 wires into the MED9.1 plug. There's a LOT of rewiring to do (i've done it with some friends on the mk5 R32 and mk4 gen Bora/Jetta which is the same ECU setup as the TT 8J 3.2).

Hope that helps! It's probably going to make a billion more questions pop up and happy to help where i can.



If you've done engine swaps and have a good grasp of wiring diagrams it's a process of methodically working through each wire/component to do the ECU plug conversion.

*Finally is the software* side of things where you'll need to work with immobilizer data and software delete various things to show a clear engine scan. I had a running car but kept getting an engine relay2 error which i couldn't figure out but as the car was running I ended up getting that code "masked" so it no longer appears when scanning.


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## snowzach (Jun 21, 2018)

Holy moly.. Thanks a lot *IPG3.6* for the detailed response. I didn't realize they had different FI setups between them. I guess just because the long blocks look the same it's not. While I am no stranger hacking up wiring, my TT is in too nice at this point to deal with hacking it up and working all the bugs out of the swap. (Whoever owned it before me took very good care of it before totaling it. I just finished rehabbing it) I was naively hoping it would be swapping the engine and figuring out the software. Maybe if I have it long enough I'll get bored enough with it to attempt assuming I can still find a decent 3.6. Thanks again for all the info!!!


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## TT'sRevenge (Feb 28, 2021)

snowzach said:


> Holy moly.. Thanks a lot *IPG3.6* for the detailed response. I didn't realize they had different FI setups between them. I guess just because the long blocks look the same it's not. While I am no stranger hacking up wiring, my TT is in too nice at this point to deal with hacking it up and working all the bugs out of the swap. (Whoever owned it before me took very good care of it before totaling it. I just finished rehabbing it) I was naively hoping it would be swapping the engine and figuring out the software. Maybe if I have it long enough I'll get bored enough with it to attempt assuming I can still find a decent 3.6. Thanks again for all the info!!!


I'm not really sure it's worth it to try to swap a 3.6 anyway, unless you had something wrong with your existing 3.2 and needed to swap it anyway--in that case going for a 3.6 would make sense.

Otherwise, if you're looking for power, something like one of these options is a better idea:
https://www.hpamotorsports.com/collecti ... bo-program


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## snowzach (Jun 21, 2018)

TT'sRevenge said:


> Otherwise, if you're looking for power, something like one of these options is a better idea:
> https://www.hpamotorsports.com/collecti ... bo-program


Yeah, I'm starting to think you're right...


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## IPG3.6 (Sep 5, 2015)

snowzach said:


> Thanks a lot IPG3.6 for the detailed response. I didn't realize they had different FI setups between them. I guess just because the long blocks look the same it's not.


No probs. Yeah many things upgraded in the 3.6. Not only the wiring and ecu but the internals are very different - bored out, different angle in the V, the head's ports are HUGE compared to the 3.2's.



snowzach said:


> I just finished rehabbing it)


well done! It's so good hearing when a car gets rescued. Hopefully the damage wasn't too bad.

Here's a pic of the swap. Totally love it and I have no regrets doing it.









Heaps more pics and videos in the links in my sig.


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