Crunch time in TDI conversion land

The last few weeks have been action packed with conversion work--and that won't be letting up until well into Jan. at this point.  We've been fortunate to have some really nice Vanagons around the shop lately:

From L to R:
90 Westy 2wd w/TDI conv. & auto to 5-spd conv.
89 Westy Syncro w/TDI conv.
87 Westy Syncro TDI conv. coming soon
85 Westy 2wd TDI conv. w/5-spd conv. and LSD trans








Here's some bottom up pics of the 90 Westy TDI conv. we just finished:

And here's some pics of one of our in-house TDI engine builds for a conversion project:

 1.9l AHU TDI engine.  First the engine is completely stripped down to the bare block.  Then it is brought to a machine shop with the pistons to be used in the rebuild and hot tanked, new I-shaft brgs installed, and cylinders bored to spec.  Then we get it back and on the stand, tape it up and paint it our fav color du jour.  Then the rebuild process begins: install piston oil squirters, main bearings, crankshaft, install rods onto pistons, then piston assemblies are pushed down the cylinders and bolted to the crank journals.  Short block is now essentially done with a few peripherals in this pic.

 I hope I don't sound like too much of a gearhead by saying that's a damn pretty sight.

 Step by step the engine is built up to 99% completion on the stand.

And of course I have to have some of my own fun too, so here's a preview pic of one of my weekend personal side projects:

Let's just call this one FMIC prep work.... More pics/info/specs coming soon once I reveal TDI EV IC Ver. 2.1.