02 February 2025 I'm unable to keep building this post due to some limit so I have created another post. See that.
31 December 2024 added INTERFACE TO BELLHOUSING ASSEMBLY PROCESS.
OVERVIEW
I’m in the process of putting at VW TDI engine in my 1977 G60 LWB Patrol.
The project has been on-going for two years
. It most likely has another few months to go!I plan to report to this forum the trials and tribulations and hopefully the success for having a TDI transplanted into a G60.
THIS WRITE UP WILL TAKE ME SOME TIME (WEEKS/MONTHS) TO COMPLETE. But I thought it was worth while putting some detail down as I progress.
I will continue to edit this post, so all details are in the one spot. [No longer possible]
WHY TDI?
I’ve had diesel Golfs since 2006. I think they are great reliable cars. I did look at transplanting a complete AMAROK TDI and drivetrain, there were plenty available cheap in 2020 after a devastating hail storm, but it looked just too hard. Then TD Conversions came up with interface plates to the standard G60 bellhousing – I was excited.
In the USA in particular, there are so may TDIs being transplanted into all sorts of vehicles. 4WD vehicles are fairly dominant in that transplant list so it looks like a true and tried product. And there was a lot of help and experience out there in all the internet chat sessions as well.
INTRODUCTION
I purchased a donor car in January 2023. A VW Jetta 2008 with a 2.0 TDI BKD engine. It had 200,000 Kms on the clock (125,000 ,miles). It was still a lovely car and a bit of a shame to wreck it.
There are a lot of VW TDI engines out there and they differ in many ways, so the BKD is very significant. The BKD was very common in Australia around 2006-2008. It was used in Golf, Jetta, Audi A3 and a few others. The BKD has ‘PD’ injectors, not common rail.
When purchased the car was drivable but had a bad injector. I replaced the injector before I removed the engine. So, I had a ‘good’ running engine to start with.
I pulled the engine/wiring out and proceeded to get it running “on the floor”. I left the VW gearbox on so I could use the starter motor to start the engine. My approach was to get it running on the floor using all the existing wiring, ECU and cluster. You needed the cluster to get the immobiliser to work. So, I pulled out heaps of wiring and demolished the car from the front bumper up to the front seats.
After a very short time I abandoned trying to get the engine to run with the original ECU/immobiliser/cluster/key (just too hard and very messy). I should have followed others advice! I then purchased an ECU with the immobiliser deleted.
I was able to get the TDI started and then spent a long, long time sorting out the errors and wiring. Really, there was a long learning curve understanding all the electronic components - I really had very little knowledge of the TDI internals or even diesel engines! So its been a massive intellectual challenge as well. Many hours was spent doing research, finding documents and on forums. There is software for VWs called VCDS from Ross-Tech. This allows you to run diagnostics and do trouble shooting and some tuning. The TDI is a very sophisticated engine with SO much controlled from the ECU. VCDS is essential in diagnosing problems, although not cheap. You may be able to use the VCDS 'Lite' version as a fraction of the cost of the full version.
Once I had the engine wiring/electronics sorted out I moved on to the next stage.
TDI TO G60 INTERFACE PLATES
TD Conversions, in Canada, built the necessary interface plates to marry the TDI engine to the G60 bellhousing. Many thanks to MAD4HWS in this forum for making that happen.
See TD Conversions https://tdconversions.com/collections/n ... dapter-kit
I ordered the set in January 2024 and now December 2024, nearly 12 months later, have worked out how to assembled them to the bellhousing and in the process of dropping the TDI into the G60.
What TD Conversions have engineered are two interface plates. The first plate bolts onto the engine. It seems to fit the various versions of the 4-cylinder TDI, more specifically the 1.9 and the 2.0 litre engines. The second plate is custom made for the bellhousing/gearbox of various vehicles.
The two plates then bolt together.
A fairly simple concept.
The TDI engine is at 15degree slope in the standard VW cars. They go east-west and I think it slopes back 15degrees. Having the two plates means you can turn the plates and achieve a 15, 10 or zero degree engine slope. I used the zero slope. Others use the various slopes so they can fit the TDI into the engine bay.
Additional you get a crankshaft extender (say 50mm/2 inches) and a starter motor. Various bolts are provided.
I also purchased generic engine mounts from TD Conversions in case they were needed. As it turned out I didn’t need/use them.
INTERFACE TO BELLHOUSING ASSEMBLY PROCESS.
Generic assembly instructions were provided by TD Conversions. The instructions don’t mention the G60 but there are other Nissan variants covered. I suggest that connecting the TDI, plates and bellhousing is fairly a simple process for the G60 compared to some other models.
I did go through this assembly process a few times to made sure it all worked. I did need to change the way the bellhousing bolted onto the plates and I also added a new ‘lift point’ so the engine was put in straight.
The first plate, the plate that bolts onto the TDI engine fitted well. It came with a number of M12 and M10 bolts. One of the M12 bolts is 35mm whilst the remainder are 40mm. Take care where you put the 35mm bolt as its hole isn’t as deep as the others. I numbered all the bolts along with the plate so I knew where every bolt went. The short M12 bolt went to position 1. This was a little different to the documentation. The second plate was a bit trickier to install. I needed to cut off the top about 10-15mm. The reason for this was that on my TDI engine there were pipes in the way of the plate just at the top. I didn’t want to relocate the pipes so chose to cut down the top of the plate.
Once cut down the plate installed smoothly. I decided to have zero slope (and hoped that was appropriate) on the engine and therefore used hole A on the first plate with hole 1 on the second plate.
I needed to install the spigot in the crankshaft extender. It is the same process as in the P engine. An easy process – especially with the crankshaft extender on the bench top. The second plate connects plate 1 and to the bellhousing. It uses just 4 bolts (the same as the P engine), for the bellhousing. However, the two top bolts are difficult – to say the least! I had several attmpts and finally came up with a solution that worked for me.
My first attempt was to put the top two bolts through the bellhousing and through the plate. Nuts are required on the other side – between the plate and TDI engine – however there is just enough room and very difficult to get a spanner on the nuts. I tried again supergluing the nuts on the plate. It sort-of worked but not really practical for future maintenance.
For my final attempt I pulled the plate off and pushed the bolts from the engine side through the holes into the bellhousing. To hold the bolts in place I out a small plastic tube in the holes and then hammered the bolts through. They were held very tightly. The plates are put on the engine then the bellhousing is put on with the nuts on the inside. Success. I just hope the plastic tube doesn’t deteriorate over time and fill make future maintenance difficult.
The final thing that I need to do was to ensure the engine lift straight. The two engine lift points were designed for the engine to have a 15 degree lean. It was impossible installing the engine like that. I fabricated another lift point which I placed at the top of plate 1. The engine then had the correct orientation (zero lean) to install the TDI. A starter motor comes with the TD Conversions kit. This bolts onto one of the plates and goes into the bellhousing. The generic instructions state that you may need to modify (cut/grind) the bellhousing to make the starter motor fit. This is not necessary as the starter motor fits perfectly.
I did note however that the bolts that came with the starter motor are just a little too long. I noticed that one bolt pushed against the plate and caused a distortion. I just added a couple of additional washers until I acquire a bolt of the correct length. There are two ‘gasket’ plates – one that came was between the TDI and the gearbox and another between the P engine and the bellhousing. I contacted TD Conversions to see if either of these were needed. No was their response. The flywheel, clutch pressure plate and bearing were installed and the TDI is ready for the gearbox and transfer case.
INSTALLING THE TDI INTO THE G60
SEE OTHER POST
) and behind the wheel where the large DPF is.
I hope just a few more days!