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Village's TDi Conversion Thread

51K views 124 replies 23 participants last post by  LawAnderson 
#1 ·
There's no going back now because I've already bought the donor car:



All I need now is:
1) some way of getting the golf here (not tax or MOT),
2) somewhere to park it off road whilst I sort out somewhere to do the conversion,
3) somewhere to do the conversion, and
4) magically grow the skills to do it all......

no problems then.....I:

watch this space! T:

Jimmyjames, stick me on the list!
 
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#6 ·
Cheers JJ!

There will be a short delay as the seller is off on his hols tomorrow, but that suits me fine as I still need to find somewhere to put it I:

Got a mate who has a unit with a bunch of his chums so going to try to beg/borrow/steal a spot in a corner there, but can't get hold of him at the moment cos he's on his hols too!

gives me time to do a bit of planning and sorting out the various bits that I'll need to source.

anybody know if any old 2.5 TDI pedal will do the job?

Chers
Pete
 
#7 ·
You need the earlier 2.5tdi throttle pedal and the bracket which the potentiometer bolts to. IMHO this is the simplest part of the conversion and it so satisfying getting rid of the cold start and throttle cables T:T:T:
 
#9 ·
I've come up against the first hurdle on this project, they guy who was going to rent me some space in his workshop is currently (on for the foreseeable future) short of space :(.

I also need to collect the car from the Guy I'm buying it from and therefore have no off road space to park it.

I think I may have to ask my boss very nicely if I can park it in the corner of the office car park as a short term measure - how successful that will be is unsure as he's already given me a dressing down this week for less than exemplary time keeping....

Wish me luck!
 
#10 ·
CAr collected and towed through Oxford by the 800 spesh and stored at a secret location in rural Buckinghamshire:



also made enquiries at a tyre place in the town where I work who have just moved premises, I asked if they would be interested in renting their old unit to me (as they still own it) for a month, waiting for a response tomorrow....

It would be ideal as I could head into work early and do a bit in the morning, a bit more at lunchtime and there some more after work! T:
 
#12 ·
I've got a big stack of new parts to go on the engine before it goes in the T4, including, cambelt kit, water pump, oil pump, new oil and filter, fuel filter, LuK Golf TDi clutch kit, new flywheel bolts and a slack hand full of gaskets and seals.

The golf is going to be stripped of it's engine, gearbox and wiring loom on Saturday........T:

I've already removed the golf dash board, so all the elastic-trickery is exposed and ready to be removed:

 
#20 ·
do you need to remove the servo from the golf to get the loom out? It loot very tight! Would it be best to pull the loom into the engine bay or into the cab?

Cheers
Pete
Yes remove servo (three/four 13mm nuts in the drivers footwell), pull the harness through from the engine side of the firewall be careful to pass the connector through the opening one at a time.
 
#29 ·
Parking space has now been freed up with the disposal of the donor golf. I had to go and take all the tools and important bits (particularly the ECU and MAF!:eek:) out of it last nigh t in the dark and snow. I then launched all the bits that were in a pile on the floor into the back seat, stuff like rad, bumper and a mudflap.

I had to do a runner halfway through my Friday lunchtime pint with my boss so that I could meet the man with the recovery truck, that's the first time I've left a pint half full in about 15 years!

here's a pic of the old girl going to the great scrapyard in the sky, or in this case, Thame:



next stop TDi engine fettling and some wiring spaghetti!
 
#30 ·
Just a quickie (ooh err) regarding the abl wiring.

On top of the fusebox there's a double width relay (137 I think) that connects into the engine wiring loom, can this be skipped? There's also a single wire on a yellow(?) Connector that also joins the engine loom, can this be disconnected and does anything on the new loom need to join here?

Cheers
Pete
 
#33 ·
It’s about time I updated this thread, especially as I’m actually doing some work on the van.

Since my last progress update I’ve pulled the engine out of the T4 which involves removing the front panel to get access to the engine:





Once this lot is out of the way it’s a matter of disconnecting all the hoses, pipes and wires and you’re ready to pull. Except that some bits are real ball ache, such as trying to remove the exhaust C-clips:



These little blighters were a real pain in the posterior, I’d ordered a removal tool from the bay of evil, but it turned up yesterday which was no god as it was 2 days after I’d removed the clamps!

I have found another use for the 27mm spanner I bought to adjust the front suspension though…

The next pita was the lower engine mount which is the fork shaped thing in the middle of this pic:



It wasn’t getting it out that was the problem, it was the angle that the engine was hanging at on the hoist, I struggled to get the sump clear of the mount, but a trolley jack came to the rescue.

Next on the swear list, were the cv joints. The bolts came out easy peasy but I couldn’t get the joint to separate from the drive flanges on the gearbox. 27mm spanner and the handle from the engine hoist came to the rescue and eventually I had the engine free!



Proof that I am actually doing the work myself!

A word of advice if you’re going to remove an engine from a T4, get the lifting chain on the engine and the hook chain on the hoist as short as you can so that you can get the crane arm under the windscreen scuttle. The engine needs to drop rather than lift and you’ll run out of wiggle room if you have the arm too high.

Last night I started stripping the bits I need off the ABL to go onto the AHU, this involved lots of looking at the engine punctuated by actually doing something. I’ve removed the EGR kit and fitted blanking plates to the inlet and exhaust fanimolds and rotated the inlet elbow so that it points to the passenger’s side. The turbo oil feed pipe is now in the way, so I’ll get a braided pipe made up rather than try to bend the current one.

That’s it so far. More stuff to follow…
 
#34 ·
Good work fella T:T:T: Out of interest; why do you need a new turbo oil feed pipe? I cant remember which one i used but it was either the one from the ABL or the AHU and i didn't need to buy a new one.
 
#35 · (Edited)
It looks like I need to reshape the ABL pipe to clear the rotated inlet elbow and the coolant pipe on the passenger side of the head. this almost certainly means that I will break it (it's one of my "gifts"), and the AHU tubo sits in a different place so the pipe is a different shape, plus I've already bent it whilst removing it from the engine. I figure that I'm better safe than sorry!

in addition, A bit a braided hose will add some bling to the proceedings! T: A: :ILU:
 
#39 ·
It looks like I need to reshape the ABL pipe to clear the rotated inlet elbow
Just use Golf inlet and blank EGR - less messing about

...the AHU tubo sits in a different place so the pipe is a different shape
Why do you want to use AHU turbo (and hence manifold)? The turbo will be in exactly the same place as it was on the ABL because you are going to use the ABL manifold and turbo - yes :confused:
 
#36 · (Edited)
How the Hell do you get the oil filter housing off an AHU engine?

The top bolt is easy to get at, but the lower two are hidden behind the heat exchanger with approximately eff-all room to get an Allen key in!

I spent a good 10 minutes staring at it, but it didn't spontaneously detach itself, so now I'm stuck.....

I also nearly brained myself by standing up quickly whilst crouched directly under the engine crane arm.....
 
#37 ·
How the Hell do you get the oil filter housing off an AHU engine?

The top bolt is easy to get at, but the lower two are hidden behind the heat exchanger with approximately effing all room to get an Allen key in!

I spent a good 10 minutes staring at it, but it didn't spontaneously detach itself, so now I'm stuck.....

I also nearly brained myself by standing up quickly whilst crouched directly under the engine crane arm.....
take off the big 21mm collar nut on the bottom of the oil cooler, then remove the coolant pipes and slip the heat exchanger off, then you can get at the bolts...
 
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