artic-steel wrote:Gearboxes may be swapped at will over the engine range. But there are countless variants as to the gear ratios over the models and over the years
They are the words of Anders in reply to my question on techinical, maybe transplant a 1.7 turbo lump into your TZS, i'm sure someone on here can tell you how much the ratios vary & what the affect would be.
The 17td lump will indeed run any bx autobox, but the ratio's do differ alot and the internals of the differing boxes are considerable. a GTI box would be the closest match to the diesel, a little lower geared but would cope with the torque of the td. If you runa normally aspirated engine any box would do, you'll never rip the guts out of it! but top speed would be compromised.
By far the best autobox for a td would be the last of the xantia auto's. Much stronger internally, but hard to find, unless you got more money than sense!
I can probably find you a zx diesel autobox for very few pennies if you want one, I really would advise going the td route if you're gona do it, it makes the car much more civilised and easier to live with. Dad gets about 53mpg on a run and 40mpg round town with his td auto, when it was N/A it got about 24mpg round town and 37 on a run! and it was so slow! 87mph flat out down hill with a following wind!
I'm quite happy to be included in a working party to throw it together and install (assuming I'm around).
Cheers
Chris G