VW TDI Transplant

[Peter60]

ON THE ROAD

Well I've been able to drive it a little. First was around the farm and then on the road.

Around the farm it seems to go well. I don't travel very far or fast so the real test in on the road.

These drives are spread out over days and in some cases weeks. I don't always have time available!

DRIVE 1

I headed out the gate and got about 50 metres! Limp Mode. Software was complaining about the accelerator. It is electronic and has two circuits.

I redid the wiring, making sure all the joins were OK.

Accelerator seemed too be fixed.

DRIVE 2

80Km drive to my house and back. It was a rather embarrassing drive as the TDI belched black smoke. So much so that if there was a car behind me, it wasn't visible !!!!

Problem was a split in the intercooler pipe.

Intercooler pipe fixed. Went for a 16kms drive. Fantastic. No smoke Turbo was working and it was very responsive.

I drove to my shed and stopped the G60. Loaded tools and planned to take it home (40Kms). I jumped in to start it, But it was a no start.

After 4 days of trying everything I knew I reached out to a TDI Forum. I reported my symptoms and some guy said he had a similar experience and his cause was out of fuel. I had at least 40 litres of fuel but decided to run a tube from a jerry can to the electric fuel pump. 5 minutes later it was going. So not sure what was the real cause but I was out of time and I'll return in a few days to continue the testing.

In chasing down this error the software reported two other errors - but neither of these should have stopped it starting.

Error 1. Complaining about the accelerator again. So I need to get a new accelerator pedal. I find this hard to believe as it worked on the Jetta.

Error 2. Crankshaft sensor faulty. The TDI has both a crankshaft sensor and camshaft sensor. This model TDI will still run if either are faulty but limits RPM to about 3000. To sort out this error I may need to pull the engine out to get to the sensor - I don't kook forward to that. I did put in a new sensor before I installed the TDI in the G60, so I'm hoping it is the wiring - but that is still difficult to get at.


DRIVE 3 -

Watch this space ....

[Esteban]

Fantastic Peter! Congratulations!

Very entertaining to follow your progress.

[RiverPatrol]

Great progress and results. Congratulations!

[L60Boerne]

Thanks Peter. Your close now.

Your tribulations remind me of when I bought a computer driven Buick v-6 into the Chinese Jeep about 10 years ago. A great TV mechanic finally tuned the computer and it to run. Field testing revealed that the radiator was too small to keep it cool and there was no room for a bigger radiator. I was never so ready to get back to basic motors.

Having said that....your efforts are most appreciated because someday some Patrols will need a suitable modern motor. Plus fuel injection at high altitude or acute angles is so important....then low end torque....the trifecta is upon us!

Go Peter Go!
L60Boerne

[Peter60]

Just a quick update.

In had hoped to be able to report on driving the TDI by now, but no.

I still can't get it started. While it initially looked like fuel it turns out to be more deviant!

Its starts once in say 200 tries! So totally random.

Various support I have had was fuel (I spent 5 days looking at pumps, lines, flows etc) then injectors (4 days so far replacing several injectors) yet still no start.

Very frustrating but on the positive side I'm learning a lot about the TDI and diesels.

I'm planning to go on a 6 day trip early May with the G60 guys and I have a 5000 kms (3000 miles) scheduled for late May.

So I'm under a bit of pressure - although at this stage it looks like I'll be taking my other G60 (red midi softop).