The Project Pad

Well guys, I have been putting this off for awhile now, but figured what better time to start a new project at The Project Pad. I'm sure there are those of you that have been catching this idea of mine, on MG, S2 forum, etc, but the time has come to make it official and start a new project. The jest of the project is going to be to make a commuter car, I know .....this is a forum for Hard Core projects, not commuter type stuff. I commute about 75 miles a day and although I like driving the Urq, I don't like all the miles that gets put on it or the gas mileage. It seems that the only option for good mileage these days is either Hybrid, no nothing engines, or diesel. I have opted for the latter and will be putting something together TDI.

The recipient for this transplant is going to be a Coupe GT that I have had sitting in the side yard for a few years that I had repurchased for Urq parts. It has it's problems and especially after three or four years with the nineteen year old niece. I bought it back not running, but still too good of shape to scrap or part out.



This is the only picture that I could dig up tonight, but I will try to post up some more later. The drivers side has a dented front fender and door and a small dent in the rear quarter by the door line. It came back to the house minus a cat.....someone had gone to the trouble of stealing it while it sat on the road in a residential area. The starter was bad also and a ignition switch that wants to work sometimes and then not so much. Both window regulators are broke and it had no oil on the dipstick, no hydraulic oil in the reservoir, no brake fluid showing....none..... and no gas.


The plan is to get the car running on the everything stock condition so that I can register it as a classic, and then swap in a TDI. More on getting it running later, but first lets talk about the TDI. I know that there are those out there that aren't going to think the type 85 a good platform to run a TDI and that they deserve to be the sporty little front driver that they were intended, not a slow, smoke belching commuter. My way of thinking was that if I were to keep it a five banger, those purists might be able to somehow forgive me of my errors so I began the search for a proper I5 diesel. It so happened that Janus, whom most of you know from motorgeek, had gone back to Europe and was looking for 01e Trannys in the junkyard over there to ship to the US to help supplement his income and help out some audi nuts on this side of the pond. I figured what better time and asked him if he would look for a good candidate I5 TDI. After a few days he emails that he has found the perfect candidate in a 97 Audi A6 with the 140hp AEL TDI. The car had been rearended hard and totaled, but only had ~81000 km or about 50k on the engine. He sent me a video of reaching in and starting it right up and hearing it sit and idle. The madness was born and it was just a matter of money and time to float it across the pond.

About 3 months later this crate showed up at Hanks shop in Las Vegas.





It was obvious that it came from snow country (Latvia), but all in all a very clean TDI to start with. I had told him that since they were never offered here in the US, that I would need everything with it to make it run. I would need the ECU, harness, auxiliaries, clutch and pressure plate and anything that he thought I would need without taking up more precious room on the pallet. The car it came out of was a right hand driver quattro so the transmission wasn't going to work for me. I didn't want to build a TDI car and have it coupled to gas gearing so I needed to decide how I was going to tackle that problem. The AEL's were all bolted to 01e trannys and wouldn't easily bolt up to an 016, so wanting TDI gears I had a FWD 01e 6sd sourced. Obviously I will have to deal with mounts, axles, and such, but the thought of a .56 6th gear in a 2600lb car sounded like what I was after in a commuter.

This is the AEL with the FWD 01e 6sp along with the harness, MAF, A/C compressor, etc.



This project will probably be put together mostly at Iroz Motorsport so could technically be considered a shop project, but given Hank's reputation........well he might not want his name on a diesel project. What does the forum think of this start as a project and as a shop project coming out of Iroz Motorsport? Be sure to weigh in and offer suggestions and knowledge....especially Martin since he has already done a B4 90q TDI.

I love it! Can't wait to see it come together.

sweeeeeet.

I for vote for shop project ....

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She has her flaws, but all in all that is a clean coupegt that is lucky to be back in good hands. I love the idea, John, and look forward to updates!

Wow John, quite the project! Should be a good one.

What the heck John? This is freaking awesome! There is absolutely nothing wrong with a diesel project coming out of IMS! A few years ago (like 10) a buddy of mine and I did a TDI swap into a MK2 GTI. That was a fun little ride!

Nice, john. I am excited for this one. I'm going to be looking into something after the diesel vanagon engine is rebuilt this spring. It looks like my 0 mile commute is turning into about 45 miles here soon. I won't be happy unless it is done on less than a gallon of gas. I may start with an old rabbit diesel which should yield about 50mpg.

I've been thinking of looking into hybridizing a diesel to get the best of both worlds...

Awesome John.

While your at it you may as well throw a b5 rear suspension in there and quattro
that summ off a bitch, you know for the hard core part........

I look forward to the updates.

Cheers,


Craig

Well guys, I'm going to take the above comments as approval of said project and move forward....not that I wouldn't have anyway, but it's always nice to have some support along the way. Thanks the the comments.

Toph, You are right in that the car has some issues, but even though you have seen the coupe, until you look under the car you don't realize just how good of condition it really is in. There isn't a spot of rust anywhere! The underside actually looks showroom clean with just a layer of dirt. It's obvious that it has been a desert car it's entire life.

[quoteWhile your at it you may as well throw a b5 rear suspension in there and quattro
that summ off a bitch, you know for the hard core part........

][/quote]

Craig, I think that the new user name with the 69 on the end is starting to go to your head. I would be lying if I told you that I hadnt contemplated quattro, but hardcore for me would be a B2/3 conversion. I would be way excited about a B4 conversion, but quite frankly never even got the thought process worked up to a B5. Do you know something that I don't? You know....something hardcore?




I think for now that I am going to concentrate on getting the bodywork and bugs worked out of the car. I am still fighting the DMV on a title issue. My niece signed on the buyer's line rather than the seller's and has since got married and changed her name from what is on the title. I keep having to get erasure and now a "one in the same" form filled out and notorized to be able to register the car.

Here are some more pictures of the bodywork and car








It's kind of hard to see the door, but it is caved in a bit. It isn't anything that couldn't be fixed, but I have a white good door that I will probably just color match close and use along with a white fender. The only real bodywork where I will need to pull and thin bondo will be right behind the drivers door where the quarter panel got creased/dented a few inches.

The car had been sitting about three years when I decided to get it running and back on the road. Like I said above, there wasn't fluid one that had anything in it, including gas. How do teenagers to that? I started by pulling the starter since once the battery was charged and good I couldn't get the starter to turn. I pulled it apart to find the gear drive mechanism broke and the brushes pretty well worn. In hauling the mill from Salt lake down to Vegas, I brought some parts from guys up there to Hank. In the pile of parts were a couple of starters from Dave (Hybridhatch). I told Hank that freight would be charged as a starter and threw it on. It worked some of the time and I quickly realized that the ignition switch was on its way out. I still haven't changed it out, but know the trick now. I cranked and cranked until I realized it was out of gas, put a few gallons in from the lawn mower can and proceeded to crank again. I could hear the pump running which kind of surprised me, but no go until all of a sudded a pop, a sputter and it comes to life. It jerks and sputters for a few seconds and then just settles into a nice 800rpm idle. It has started everytime within a half second of turnover for the last 1500 miles. Impressive It runs so well that I almost hate to ruin a good thing.

Some pictures of the engine and car











Anyhow, it should be fun to get going. I don't intend it to be a quick project, but would like to have it done by BBQ4. I told Rudy's wife last year, when Rudy wouldn't turn loose his Urq for her and Selmirs wife to go shopping, that I would have the coupe GT ready with a TDI in it for them next year. I guess she has run a coupe GT down in the bay area for years and loved it. I have my work cut out for me it looks like. The sad part is that Rudy wouldnt let her take the Urq shopping, which I'm not sure I would have either, but then some drunk totals it while it is parked on the street. Go figure!!

So I started cleaning up a bit this week, by taking the intake and exhaust manifolds off the TDI. There is part of me that just wants to stick the low mile lump in the car and run, but in the end I just cant do it so the cleaning process begins.





The intake manifold cleaned up



Cleaned up MAF. I am not really impressed with the rotating flapper style design and would have rather it been a hot wire MAF, but they say they do alright as long as the POT windings don't get worn or dirty. It seems like it would be a huge flow restriction similar to the CIS metering plate though. One of the things that I will have to do is fabricate a filter box for the MAF to attach to. That didn't get sent on the pallet and out of an A6 probably wouldn't have fit anything anyhow.






A cleaned up hydraulic pump and pulley




The water to oil heat exchanger that I will probably run, but have my reservations about. Any comments on pros and cons?




Cleaned up oil filter housing.




And of course the cleaned up compressor housing.




Just to be different I will add the front bracket the A/C and fan



Now as I'm sure you noticed, this piece is still a bit on the unacceptable side. It isn't cleaned up yet because it has been awhile since I have had to deal with a clutch fan and cant figure out how to take it off. I won't be needing the fan and clutch portion of the bracket, but will need the idler for the serpentine belt. Can someone enlighten me as to how they are supposed to be removed? It looks like the pulley has spaced holes around it to maybe use a spanner wrench to keep it from turning while getting a large wrench on the inside nut. Does the whole clutch assembly thread out and is it left or right hand threads? Any help is appreciated.

I think you remove the left hand thread nut and used the threaded holes to run bolts into the bracket to "press" it out.

I still think all this effort should be spent on a quattro driven vehicle (B2.B3.B4) but if you want to be different this is also the way.
Just not sure the FWD will be able to handle all the torque once you start chipping and swapping injectors, etc. etc.

Looking forward to updates.

I have seen the water/oil coolers fail. Personally I'll be using the MC/3B/AAN filter housing with proper thermostat and custom lines.
Eventually Hank will make me a 20vt header for better turbo placement so I can get the A/C compressor back in there.

I'll try to start my tdi thread on here as well..

John,

The diesel stuff gets me just as excited as the gas stuff does. I have a complete 98 tdi jetta and a
91 b3 quattro just sitting doing nothing. It's all the will power I have not to go out there and start
ripping the engines out.

Anyhoo, the coupe gt's are really starting to grow on me. I think this would be a great project,however
like Martin said it is going to be torque steering all over the road. I'm sure you will do a great job as usual, which
ever route you take.

That engine is one of the coolest engines to come out of the VAG family, I personally think it should end
up in a quattro chassis. But ultimately it's your project. Good luck and keep the updates a coming.

As for the b5 rear suspension comment. I've been under many newer Audi platforms, and I think that bolting
a complete b5 suspension on the back of a coupe non quattro chassis would be not too much of a job. I've never done it, however I think with fabrication and time it would be not to much of a issue. Just my 0.02 rambling cents as usual

Cheers,

Craig

With an 01e in there, he ought to be able to put a wavetrac front differential in there to help with the traction issues. We will probably space out the axles and use the same left to right axle with a spacer to help have equal length shafts.

I agree that it would be cool to have a quattro TDI, but you you get in a CGT, and the thing feels so light and nimble compared to a 4kq. The 20v gas engine does a pretty good job motivating it around because it is 2600 lbs. With a chipped ECU on the stock turbo, it should rip around and get pretty descent mileage without the added drivetrain loss.

Chris, a couple of my frineds from my Formula-Hybrid team have maid DIY hybrids. The ticket is gathering the battery packs from prius's that have been wrecked. They are relatively small packs, but putting a couple of them in parallel makes for enough capacity to be useful. Pretty much the cheapest way to get a hold of descent batteries on the cheap. Now that would be cool! Quattro via battery power in the rear!

Looks like the shop is getting pretty full of projects! I think I see 'ol lago back there and Sean's urn. I'm guessing Hank's Urq is in there too. It's probably getting messy!

Keep it up! Is this thing scheduled to be done for BBQ4?

Looks really good so far John! I hope you have it up for BBQ too, I want to see how this oil burner runs out!

I like where you are going with this project. Should be interesting to see that lump in a CGT engine bay, I dig it. Very unique.

Going to be following this thread for future posterity! Really want a 5pot oil burner myself for the long commutes to work and trips to the mountains.

If this car is strictly going to be a commuter, fwd with some kind of lsd and torsion bars will certainly help with the tq steer (Aaron did some in his coupe and rabbit drag cars, IIRC) and not kill your mileage. But... what's an Audi without quattro? At any rate, that's always an easy enough project for Coupe TDI v.2

The thing is, where I live we get absolute no snow......none!! It would be nice to have quattro to put down the torque without torque steering I will agree, but if driven as a true commuter, there shouldn't be too many to the floor romps where torque steer would raise it's ugly head. I will probably chip the AEL to the 170hp levels, but past that probably not. If I were in Europe or even Canada where there were parts available I might be more inclined to hotrod out an AEL, but I am still wondering what the best and cheapest way would be to source essential parts like a front and rear timing belt. Ideas?

That said, I could be persuaded to drop the AEL into a clean low mile 95 B4 chassis. I really would like a small chassis four door quattro sedan that is galvanized and I could make the frequent trips up to Salt Lake to take grandkids skiing and still get ~50mpg!! That would be my first choice, so tell me what you got. The beauty of the Coupe GT is that I already own it, but again not my first choice. I have even looked some, but it seems everything is either junk, too far away, or both.

At any rate, that's always an easy enough project for Coupe TDI v.2

I like your thinking!

quattro87 wrote:If I were in Europe or even Canada where there were parts available I might be more inclined to hotrod out an AEL... Ideas?

At any rate, that's always an easy enough project for Coupe TDI v.2

I like your thinking!

And I like yours, from my first days of reading on MG... hence why I'm watching here

Canada, you say? Whatever should you need? I know of a certain (notorious) LVNV resident who's picking up an equally notorious wop-mobile semi-locally to me so it could be very possible to send parts south with said miscreant. Not like you haven't ferried parts across state borders for the Mafia/community!

Miscreant about sums it up, but doesn't he still need a tow vehicle? I knew we were trying to expand into other areas, but internationally? Whoooooh I will have a talk with him the next time I happen to see him in the shop. Good idea. Would I be able to find timing belt parts in Canada for the AEL?

ASK, and ye shall receive.

For serious.

All I need are PNs and a price range. I has distributor hook ups.









PM'd

Already this thread is delivering . Progress looks great so far!

Is it done yet? (first for the project pad!)