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.
I get asked the question about towing with a TDI EV often and so far my answers have been mostly theoretical. Well now, I have some real world experience and in short my new answer will be, "No problem, tow away!"
Early this morning we headed up to Port Orchard, WA (400+ miles round trip) to pick up an 82 diesel Vanagon Westy that we just couldn't pass up. We opted to take the EV since both of our normal tow rigs ('06 PSD and an 85 F250) are fuel hogs and bolstered with my recent dyno #'s I felt compelled to use my Eurovan and see what all that torquey TDI engine could do. Well, we were both impressed the whole way home. It did awesome cruising back at 60-65mph, and took all hills at a min. of 50mph, limited not by the power available, but by my hawkish eye on the EGT gauge ;-). At 50+ mph on the big hills the temps. were very comfortable at below 1250* F pre-turbine. Overall we had a 100% flawless trip, with no engine temperature issues whatsoever (a steady 193*F the whole way). The power wasn't only adequate it was comparable to what our big trucks are like under tow. Very impressive.
Overall trip MPG avg. was around 23.5 (B50 all the way up and 3/4 home, last 1/4 on D2), so no doubt it was working to get us back here, but I'm certain that it was all well within SOP of this sweetly tuned TDI powerplant. And, in the end we got 1.5-2x better fuel economy than the full-size Ford trucks we own, and of course it's always more fun driving a VW!
Today we made the trip up to the dynojet dynometer at Dan Judy's Automotive in Salem, John in his 85 Vanagon TDI and me in my 93 Eurovan TDI. It was an action packed afternoon and finally we have some data points:
John's Van: 118hp and 245 ft/lb at the wheels running straight #2 D
Justin's Van: 110 hp and 213 ft/lb at the wheels running straight biodiesel (B99)
To be compared fairly with the posted power specs of the AHU engine (90hp & 155ft/lbs), which are measured at the crank, the rule of thumb is to add 15-20%. So now the numbers look a little more impressive and that fits with how they both drive down the road:
John's Van: 136hp and 282 ft/lb at the crank
Justin's Van: 126hp and 245 ft/lb at the crank
And here's the correction for biodiesel on my van (5-10% reduction in BTUs depending on feedstock, so we'll call it 7.5%) :
Justin's Van: 135hp and 263 ft/lb at the crank
Also worth noting is that peak HP and torque come on very early, right around 2500rpm, so all that power is there under foot at very low revs.
More pics of our rigs on the dyno:
Strapping down the Van to the dyno.
Yikes that's a smokey beast.
TDI Eurovan power curves, torque on top, HP on the bottom. The peak for the torque corresponds with around 2200rpm. Much smoother lines than the Vanagon graph above.
Dyno tech talk.
Soot scrawl behind the Vanagon after the smoke show.
My humble little 93 EV weekender strapped to the dyno.
Strapped, aligned and ready to roll!
Dyno time is fun time: not quite like fun family time, but quite like fun manly time.
It's been a good and interesting week here at the diesel shop. We took our latest TDI Vanagon conversion for its first drive yesterday, and today we dove in on two different customer repair jobs that turned out very interesting.
First there was the '02 New Beetle (ALH TDI engine/auto trans) that was still on the original timing belt at 128k miles:
Study this pic and see if you can see where all the chiclets go. This rig still turned over normally and came in for a supposed inj. pump re-seal or R&R. Divine intervention is the only thing I can see that kept the pistons from hitting the valves.
No piston/valve impact, timing just off enough to make it not run any more. Talk about dodging a bullet.
Next there was the curious case of the AAZ engine with 17,000 miles on it. This was installed in a Vanagon by some green-type used car company up in Washington. The pre-combustion chamber (swirl chamber) dropped down into the combustion chamber and here's what happens when that unfortunate event transpires: The piston was cracked throughout and down to the wrist pin and the rod bent slightly, rendering both unusable.
And this is what a head that suffers this sort of insult looks like. Also, totally unusable and only good for scrap metal at this point.
Ouch.
Needless to say, this one didn't come in running.
Tomorrow after we finish up these two jobs, it's off to Salem to get do a few runs on a Dyno with my TDI Eurovan and John's TDI Vanagon, so I should have some interesting data to post.
TDIFest 2010 was a weekend long blast and very nice to be amongst true TDI believers. We spent most of our time manning the booth and playing silly TDI sanctioned games like an A4 belly pan R&R time trial, timed spare tire change, the dolly race, etc. John spent most of Sun gussying up his sweet 85 Vanagon Westy TDI for the show n shine which paid off: John took home 1st prize in the TDI conversion category. Way to go John!! That's one sweet ass Van...
The TDI EV and a portion of the Grease Works booth at the fest.
Nuff said
Hood up and radiator/grill in service position for viewing. Lots of questions on that...
The full spread late on Sun. with Bora Parts flanking our R side.
Sweet ALH TDI Doka. This rig won the people's choice award at the fest.
A few other TDI converted rigs: A2 Jetta, Toyota pickup truck, Doka, etc.
Auf wiedersehen TDIFest 2010! Me and meine frauliner in front of our booth.
Come check us out this weekend at the TDI Fest PDX 2010. We'll have our TDI Eurovan as well as a TDI Vanagon on display along with a bunch of TDI parts and accessories for sale. This is the first time the TDI Fest has come to the PNW, so come check it out and help us raise the roof at the Airport Sheraton and help keep TDIclub.com funded.
It's been a hectic couple of weeks here at Grease Works. Just after we got fully moved over to the new shop and installed a new lift, we had to move out due to insurance issues. Wind out of our sails, we moved back over to the old shop and have been getting re-acquainted with the familiar lines. Just before we left the 'new' shop we got the latest TDI engine installed in a very nice 90 Go Westy Vanagon Westfailia. This rig showed up with a basically new (30k mile) 2.3l Go Westy engine that the owner was just not satisfied with and commissioned us to breath some life into this otherwise fine Westy.
AHU TDI engine w/rebuilt/re-geared 5-spd trans. ready for install.
TDI engine freshly installed in the Vanagon engine bay. Now the real fun begins....
Once we moved over a modicum of tools here to the new 'old' shop we dove right in to the hard work of paying the bills that start rolling in the first week of every month. Late last week we had a cyl. head R&R and radiator R&R on a very nice 91 Vanagon Westy with a TDI engine. This was the first time we'd seen a blown EGR cooler, so it's another TDI data point for the shop collective wisdom. Then the last two days we stepped back in time to our A1/A2 diesel roots and built up and installed a 1.9NA engine in an A1 Jetta (84). That was a fun project and reminded us of how simple life use to be back before TDIs took over our lives... That rig drove out of the shop today and purrs like a well fed kitten.
Today I took some time in the 98* heat to upgrade my intercooler a bit. I have been eye-balling this spot under the hood that is basically a hidden inverted scoop that collects air from the front of the van and channels it through the hood towards the back of the engine. This is where the factory air-to-air intercooler gets its cooling air from in the factory 1.9TD ABL engines in the T4 in Europe. The factory air plenum that was there just slides out of its slotted seat and gets tossed in the parts bin.
Fortunately for me I had a good used stock Vanagon heater core (yes, the front one--my hens have teeth too mind you) sitting on my shelf from my old sweetheart 82 TDI Vanagon that I recently sold. I replaced it prophylacticly this past winter after I had a dash fire that started in my blower motor and destroyed the heater box. No sense putting it all back together with a 28yr old heater core that no doubt would have failed 2-mths later (humble nod to St. Murphy), so I ponied up the big money and got a custom reprod unit from Peter at Van-Cafe. Anyhow, this Vanagon heater core has been screaming to me to be used in my EV TDI project and today I finally got around to making it happen:
This is a provisional install plumbed in series with my other IC radiator and Bosch pump and will be pulled if it proves to be inconsequential. I don't love the aesthetic of it, but for testing I wanted it simple and solid. It actually fits in that spot quite nicely and the hood release mechanism did not have to be altered. No clearance issues with the coolant bottle when closed or the AC switch on the other side. The heater core is affixed with radiator fan push-pin type hardware and the heater hose is held with riveted P-clamps in three spots (all interior to the hood channeling). My goal is to replicate or at least get close to the intake air temps (IAT) of my 96 Passat TDI which maintains a reliable 20* over ambient throughout most load and ambient temp ranges. After I took this pic I finished up the install with some aluminum ducting tape and made a very nice air tight attachment to the hood which will force all the air that comes in through the front underside of the hood (see openings at the top of the pic) to exit through the heater core.
TDI Fest PDX is just around the corner and I'm hoping to have quite the head turner in the TDI conversion Show-N-Shine class!
Last night I had to run up the PDX to pick up my family and drove a steady 65mph with cruise on the way up. Had a bout of road construction traffic that was stop and go for about 15-mins on the way there but still got 33.3 MPG on that leg. On the way back though things really started to shine: No construction and less traffic overall, 36.3 MPG with the cruise set on 65MPH.
Other notable conditions: running B20 in the tank, GPS confirmed speed/distance, ambient temp around 65* F, no AC the whole way, van only lightly loaded (3-total passengers and a couple bags of luggage).
I've got a custom chip tune coming soon that will be tweaked to optimize efficiency and secondarily to optimize power so I'll let you all know if we see any notable changes, but overall I can finally say that I'm very pleased with the mileage.
Getting closer on the shop move. Today we installed the lift and yesterday we made some good headway on organizing parts in the loft.
Tomorrow I think we'll christen the lift by swapping out my EV .756 5th gear for the .658 I just got the other day. Hopefully by next week we'll be starting on our next TDI conversion: a 90 Vanagon Westy auto that will also be getting a 5-spd conversion at the same time.
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