3 TDI conversions in 6wks

90 Syncro Vanagon TDI conversion

I can hardly remember a time when we've been this crazy busy in the shop--almost too busy to take any pics!  This past week was full of early mornings and late nights as we completed our 3rd TDI Vanagon conversion in less than 2-mths.  And we've got two more to finish by Dec. 17!

50* AHU TDI engine with some of our trademarks

 

 

 

 

 

 

AHU engine fitting just below the deck lid

Engine bay with IC system in background

Close up of our std IC system

Happy (though blurry) customer awaiting completion.

90 Vanagon Syncro Westy TDI conversion

Here's another super nice Vanagon we just finished a TDI conversion on.  This one came in from Tennessee with a Tiico inline conversion and a *mostly* complete Syncro conversion, but that just wasn't cutting the muster.  This one got a freshly rebuilt 1.9l TDI AHU engine, and fully rebuilt syncro trans. from AA Transaxle, as well as all the trimmings to boot: New K03 turbo, custom IC and exhaust sys., T4 injectors, Malone stage III custom tune, EGT gauge, de-coupler, etc.  Now it's fun time!

 90 Syncro TDI conversion--front badge view

 90 Syncro TDI conversion--rear badge view

 AHU engine installed at 50* using customer supplied TIICO mounting hardware.

 TDI engine at 50* in syncro.  IC system on far left.

IC system with boost controlled 'puller' fan mounted underneath it.

 Close-up of IC system.

Ground clearance with Tiico carrier bars.

Another sweet TDI Syncro Vanagon on the road....

FMIC specs: sehr gut!

1.9TDI Eurovan FMIC specs:
Run #1 11/7/10 11:44am

Ambient temp: 53* F
Road conditions: sustained hill pull
Speed: 60mph
RPM: 2500
IAT:  66* F
Boost press: 18.2 psi
EGT: 1250* F (pre-turbine)
Music: Run To the Hills, Iron Maiden
Volume: 27/30

Run #2 11/7/10 11:50am

Ambient temp: 53* F
Road conditions: sustained hill pull
Speed: 61mph
RPM: 25500
IAT:  64* F
Boost press: 19.5psi
EGT: 1275* F (pre-turbine)
Music: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Metallica
Volume:  28/30







Well, sorry Iron Maiden but Metallica beat you by 2 clicks on IAT.

TDI Eurovan intercooler optimized (ver. 2.2)

Finally, a front mount intercooler (FMIC) that kicks some butt and seriously cools some charge air. This is a 27" long and 2.5" thick intercooler that is mounted right below the license plate. 

View from underneath EV.

Engine compartment all cleaned up with the water-to-air IC removed and the blue silicone hoses to/from the FMIC visible.

R side charge plumbing tucks under air intake from filter.

Charge plumbing from IC to intake manifold.  IAT sensor that is unplugged on manifold has been supplanted with one in the charge pipe post IC.

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.

Towing with TDI EV: 5000lb Westy from Seattle to Corvallis

In tow--265+ ft/lbs of torque at work

 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!

93 Eurovan w/4-cyl TDI towing an 82 diesel Westy.

Dyno time!

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.

Rear straps secure and ready to go.

Wall of Fame entries

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 recap

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.