1.9AAZ TD into '86 Vanagon Syncro @ 50 deg.

[Syncroincity]

The front axle components;









Here's the snow we got at Newark... Drifts up to my knees, topped the bumpers. The Subaru simply climbed  up on it and bulled it's way out. Impressed the hell out of me. This one has the air suspension, I can raise it up for conditions like this... similar to the Audi Allroad, with the same reliability issues, the bags leak after time, expensive to replace.



What was in the driveway:

[Syncroincity]

Found some earlier pictures I thought were lost.










The remains of the tank straps, fuel pump mount, & fuel sender...

[Syncroincity]

Well, that last set of engine install photos was from November, last year. Nothing was done until lately when the weather & spare time allowed. This past weekend I got back into the engine bay, doing some minor tasks, then filled the crankcase with oil, and pre-lubed the motor by spinning the oil pump with a drill & 13mm socket, in preparation for first turnover using the starter...

I guess I should have done this a bit sooner.  The motor froze up during the long hiatus, I was unable to budge it via the crank bolt or starter motor. I'm guessing the rings rusted onto the cylinder walls; every bearing surface was slathered in assembly lube, but the cylinders were only lightly coated with motor oil after honing.

   Grrrrrr. I'm going to pull the injectors and dump some Kroil into the cylinders, but that may not help since it's tilted over, unless I really flood each cyl with a half liter of liquid so it can get into all of the piston's circumference.
If that doesn't work, the head's going to have to come off, and probably a re-hone of the cylinders.
_________________

[Syncroincity]

I don't think that happened... that would imply some movement, this thing is resolutely at #1 TDC at all indications. Intengineering would have some 'splainin' to do as well if my I-beam rods buckled under the starter motor.

It occurs to me that I never actually spun the whole motor-trans assembly after install... it's possible that the flywheel or the clutch/throwout assembly is causing a hang-up. I'm using the bigger TDI flywheel, and had to do some clearancing of the starter motor and bellhousing. Maybe I didn't do enough clearancing.   

[Syncroincity]

So after ignoring everything for a few months, I finally dug into the engine. Turns out that the ARP flywheel bolts I put in were too long, and had gone through the crank flange and bottomed out on the block behind it, effectively locking the motor. After several aborted attempts to use washers, I broke down and replaced them with a new set of stock bolts.

The motor is now back in the van, and I'm working on hooking all the systems up. Using a Teleflex cable for the cold-start lever, and I may use one for the throttle; the new, stock Diesel Vanagon cable I have is about 2" too long for some reason...

I've come up short by about 15" between the engine coolant hoses and the existing van body hoses, looks like I'll have to splice in sections of straight hose; I guess the DV body hoses are longer than the gasser tubes. Yet another gotcha. I used the excellent coolant tank mount bracket from Justin at Greaseworks to mount up the early watercooled-style resevoir.
Got the vacuum line sorted out, and the fuel lines and filter mounted. I'm using this Lucas/Delphi filter assembly; has a built-in priming pump, fuel heater glow plug, and water drain. Unfortunately, I can't seem to locate spares for the filter element, so I bought a bunch of them from the UK on Ebay, as well as a 10mm fuel line check-valve to put in down at the tank outlet for anti-siphoning duty.

[R.O.R-2.0]

this a water boxer? it looks just like an air cooled, but with water ports plastered over it randomly..

[GEE-BEE]

Nice

How did you like the front radiator hoses I made ?

GB

[Syncroincity]

Nice

How did you like the front radiator hoses I made ?

GB

They are great! Fit like a pair of gloves. Do you have an ad up anywhere for them?. Lemme update this thing...

[Syncroincity]

Weekend Update... actually a couple of weeks condensed.

New (rebuilt) power steering rack, new lines from Frank Condelli, new German Meyle tie rod ends. Finished it off with a set of poly bushings from Chris (Loogy). Note relocated resevoir in engine compartment; the tank bracket was originally welded in place right over the diesel engine bar mount holes, and had to be ground off so I could fit the mounts to the van. Cast around a bit for a new location; ended up tucking it into the corner; accessible, and a straight shot to the ps pump inlet.




















Coolant system is finally all in place & ready to go. The silicone DV engine hose set, which I played a part in creating, is available from Justin at Greaseworks. Apparently, the diesel body hoses run longer than the gasser hoses, I came up about a foot short, and had to splice in some hose to reach my original body tubes. I got the front silicone hose set directly from GeeBee, he's producing them and they will fit any watercooled vanagon except early diesel unless you update the radiator...
***in' coolant tank bracket from Greaseworks as well, with a new 1.9L tank. Note also the spliced water pump outlet hose; I can't find the correct angled thermostat cover that the hose set was designed to use, I ended up using the nice compact 90-deg section from an original front radiator hose.













Air intake system is under heavy revision. I have a Donaldson air cleaner that was recommended to me; I simply could not get it to fit/work with the Syncro snorkel as originally configured, with both in & out on one side. I had planned to put it behind the pass. side tail light, but this location is also where the fuel filler tube comes in, further decreasing space. I gave up, and moved it to the other side, but again, outlet config prevented hooking up the snorkel, the intake would not clear the lip of the side vent, could not get the unit in far enough... I couldn't let it go, I want my snorkel, dammit. :wink:  So I proceeded to re-engineer the Donaldson. Sliced off the offending outlet tube and blanked off the endcap, reversed the filter element (cylindrical, with one end open and the other closed), and put a new outlet flange on the removeable cap, effectively reversing the flow thru the filter. This allowed me to push the unit all the way into the cavity, and I got the intake tube and the snorkel to line up. Used a new length of accordian 3" hose down the side vent, and attched it to the filter with a vinyl adaptor/clamp that came with the hose, one end "screws" onto the hose, the other got zip-tied to the filter. Bloody cramped quarters to work in, very frustrating job, but it's in. The gotcha here was that it went in so far, that the drain tube now hits the frame. :roll: Hence the sideways drain in the pics... I'll figure this out later. I probably should have just ordered a different filter, one that fits, but I'm kinda dumb that way...

This is how it came originally; with moveable 90-deg outlet.



During modification, outlet-ectomy, kind of a filter sex-change...





After installation and snorkel hook-up. Note incorrect drain orientation... hard to find a position where I could get all 3 latches shut. Nightmare project all around, especially getting that snorkel secured tightly to the filter intake, not much room for man hands in there...







Syncro snorkel, transferred to the drivers side. It still fits on the mount prongs, but it's reversed so the openings face forward. If I encounter water ingress issues, I'll just spin it around and use zip ties.



Miscellaneous stuff...

Replaced the crumbling throttle cable tube with new nylon 3/8" tubing, leftover from the fuel line feed. I encountered frozen gas pedal syndrome a few times from water getting into the cable run in winter, now it's all sealed up.



Oil dipstick; I ground out a divot in the pump bracket, and tied down with a SS zip-tie.



Corrosion control: every fastener, clamp, and component that goes into the van gets soaked with this stuff, high penetration and dries to a waxy red shine. Freebie from work...



Fuel filter; Lucas unit with built-in prime pump, bowl heater & water drain. Left-to-right flow necessitated the crossed fuel lines. Turns out filters don't really exist here, so I just ordered 6 of them from the UK.



I'm having difficulty getting enough motion from the gas pedal to make full throttle on the injection pump. I cut off the stop flange on the plastic gas pedal, so floored is really on the floor, and I'm still about 1/4 -5/16" shy of WOT on the pump. I'm thinking of re-drilling the bellcrank under the pedal and the cable attach point on the pump to gain some lever action... anyone have ideas or ??

[Syncroincity]

This was a mod from a few years ago, but it's worth mentioning; I picked up some polyurethane bushings that were reasonably close to the right size, and "machined" them to fit using a grinder & drill, I found these in a  Pep Boys that had a good selection of universal-style endlink and swaybar bushings. The swaybar parts were a direct fit, and have a grease fitting on them, just look for the appropriate size... 21 or 22mm, I forget. The cool red poly has faded a bit since then to a Pepto pink.  :?

[Syncroincity]

Intake system, continued. I ended up ditching the big U-shaped intercooler in favor of a straight-thru style, since I put the filter in the space where the IC was supposed to live, and anyway it was going to be very awkward running the hoses for that setup... I spent a day re-designing the intake, using a kit of mock-up tubes I found a few years ago at a FLAPS. The new IC is 13.5" long, with 2.5" I/O ports. It's a stretch, but I got it more or less in place after a lot of trimming, pushing & shoving. The firewall needs to be either bumped out, or removed where the 180-deg bend is hitting it, I couldn't cut the hoses down any further without getting into the bend radius of the hose.

All hoses, intercooler, connectors, clamps etc. came from siliconeintakes.com

Unpressurized section; 3" to 2.5" reducer, 2.5 90-deg, and a 2.5 to 1.75" reducer 90-deg into the turbo.





Pressurized section
2" to 2.5 45-deg at turbo outlet, 2.5" 135-deg bend to the IC, then a 180-deg bend comes around to the intake port.









Mounting the water pump...
This is why I never throw anything away... this is a part off of the widow regulator from the Jetta. (Ask any MKIII owner, they'll tell you all about the windows in these cars.  :roll:  )



Figured it would make a nice bracket for something, and the electric water pump needs a home... but this worked out so well it's spooky. I was about to break out the drill and punch a hole for mounting it, but noticed there's a few holes in the sidewall that are factory threaded... and the bracket screwed right into them. So I insulated the motor with a few slabs of silicone hose trimmings to damp the noise, then screwed the bracket to the van. I had to substitute a big socket for the pump during install, wasn't enough room to swing the whole pump around.

[Syncroincity]

this a water boxer? it looks just like an air cooled, but with water ports plastered over it randomly..

Yes! This is the infamous WBX. And it's exactly how you described it.  2.1L, very torquey, but only about 100 hp. Actually a pretty decent motor, but it really crippled the Vanagon performance-wise. A terrific upgrade for air-cooled cars, you can get them cheap from people swapping them out. Stay watercooled with real heat (and attendant cooling design headaches) or just add air-cooled jugs to it.

[fdnyguy]

Haven't heard from ya in awhile. Glad to see things are moving along.



Stay safe, stay well. Jimmy.

[Syncroincity]

Well, now I know the difference... I thought these Bosch pumps were all the same.
 Not.  :lol:

The Cobra intercooler pump is twice the size of the VW unit!




Of course, the mount had to be moved, it wouldn't fit on the wall like the little one; I ended up clamping it onto the right side engine carrier bar.
 Subject to change, I'm considering putting it up front at the resevoir outlet.

Got the rear axles assembled yesterday, and installed them today just before it started pouring rain. Interesting how the 930 CV barely fits into the trailing arm. :shock: 

[Syncroincity]

Just found this in a box of pictures... Late summer 2002, the Manassas VW show. First road trip after the camper interior went in; we camped at a nearby state park.
She cleaned up pretty well back then.