98 tdi jetta swap into a 98 tdi glx

[fuslit]

Hello everyone,

Thought I'd post up a project I'm putting together: (I re-assessed priorities and have dumped my gtd rabbit project and focused on this instead, it frees up space in my garage too!)

Anyway, my daily driver is a 98 tdi jetta with some pretty bad rust issues in the gas tank and trunk area but drive train is decent. It's got 193k plus or minus a bit, I did the timing belt, tensioner rollers at 180k water pump not long after... (should have done it at the same time... oops) put new glow plugs in, new glow plug harness and a few other maintenance items I'm forgetting off the top of my head.
 

The current mods:
- stage 2 chip from malone tuning http://malonetuning.com/?page_id=62
- downpipe back straight pipe (my exhaust rusted out, this was the cheap replacement for the moment)
- larger injectors (Sprint 764)
- boost gauge

current problem:
At the moment I have a random (not repeatable) intermittent boost issue I haven't been able to pinpoint. I believe is associated with my turbo's waste gate sticking (when I bought it it was frozen up, I managed to free things up with pb-blaster and some vise grips and moving things around, it's not exactly an easy spot to reach.) but my n75 valve could also be part of the problem. While I'm doing the swap I will pinpoint where things are freaking out.

After looking at the body work that I'd need to do and by chance my buddy was parting out his turbo vr6 jetta which lined up a pretty much rust free glx. Based on the cost of bodywork, and upgrades that the glx would have I worked out a price with him and I'm buying his shell for the swap.


Things the glx shell has on it: (and should come with, going to be picking this up friday)
- clean title / fresh paint
- no motor/trans/radiator
- no engine wiring/ECU/cluster
- no emissions stuff
- will have shifter box and hydraulic clutch stuff.
- stock 5x100 15" wheels, stock suspension. will have axles.
- will have 11.3" brakes / rear disk with newer MK4 calipers. stainless lines. ebrake holds.
- control arm: polly bushings in front. R32 rear
- no seats; will have black door panels. black dash. black carpet.
- neuspeed upper tie bar.
- neuspeed front and rear lower sways
- 2.5" TT stainless borla exhaust with TT test pipe
- stock headlights

Things the shell needs fixed:
- passenger fender kinked. front/rear bumper needs paint.
- bad steering rack (i dont think yours will work). pressure line also needs replacing (your line should be fine)
- no seats, door cards will be swapped over with a k2 jetta door card. (I'll be swapping in my seats which are from a 95 glx)

Things I'll swap over from my current tdi:
- Suspension from my current tdi (noname cupkit)
- motor & transmission
- engine bay wiring harness
- gas tank

Things I have ordered or am building or have on hand for this swap for upgrade/replacement:
- Stuff to make a stainless downpipe
- ebay cxracing fmic from ebay
- new motor mounts (g60 solid transmission mount, oem front and rear engine mounts)
- new strut bushings
- aircraft spruce egt probe (plan on connecting a vdo gauge I have hopefully it's the correct type)
- manual boost controllers (I'm picking up two of these to use until I get things dialed in)


Fabrication:
- short shifter (a friend of mine makes these, I'm getting a decent price on it so I'll try it out)
- the downpipe
- custom 3 gauge holder thinking about a green sand casting of one I have now but it needs some work.
- building a custom intake from a volvo d24 (egr delete) ported and polished
a couple images of that so far (I've beadblasted it and my buddy will tig-weld it for me)



- k24 turbo from an audi 5000 diesel (will custom exhaust adaptor & or manifold adaptation to make things work correctly)


The info I've pulled from it shows that it's a k24 from a 2.0L audi turbo diesel seems to be in decent shape. I'm thinking about pushing in the range of 20-25psi (I would like some input on this particular turbo, has anyone here run them on a tdi? also sorry for stupid questions, I haven't found any maps on it and am still learning about turbos.)

http://www.turbo-product.com/KKK/K24.ASP

model # I found 069145703 shows the following

Turbocharger - KKK
Mark - Audi
Model - 100 TD
Year - 1981-01
Engine - 720/5 (2.0)
H.p. - 87 D
Family Turbo - K24
Turbo Code - 53249706081
O.E.M Turbo Code - 069145703 3K (maybe this is the max rpm?)

Things that will need to happen once swap is complete:
- paint bumpers and one small ding
- Once things are up, running (and most importantly stable) I will look into an upgraded 3 bar MAP then get another custom tune from malone for some more power.
- Find out what it would take to get the MAF working (using a vr6 cluster mod the tachometer I've read a bit about it but it's on the back burner at the moment)

The goal of this project is to have a decent reliable daily driver that has enough power to pass when I need to, and have a fairly good mpg. my commute is about an hour one way so most important is it needs to be reliable. That said, the glx will have tons of upgrades that my current one lacks, an interior for instance because I have a huge rust hole in the trunk area that is letting water in...

Anyway, thanks for reading (and stay tuned) I am gonna try and wrap this up by September! (a lofty goal for me)

-Todd

[CdnVWJunkie]

Looks and sounds like a cool project.

I had a K24 on an e-tdi in my syncro.  It boosted just fine with very little noticeable lag.  I think you'll find it works fine in your application as the Jetta will be lighter than the B3V Syncro.

[fuslit]

Looks and sounds like a cool project.

I had a K24 on an e-tdi in my syncro.  It boosted just fine with very little noticeable lag.  I think you'll find it works fine in your application as the Jetta will be lighter than the B3V Syncro.

Cool, Thanks for the feedback, The one thing I've had a little trouble finding is the efficiency envelope for this turbo.  Tow much boost were you running in your syncro?

-Todd

[fuslit]

Just replaced the n75 valve and took it for a spin.
Started out, hit 3rd gear 2500 rpm and hammered it, The new N75 valve and holds it at 15psi!!!

While I only went for a small drive, since the gauge didn't get above 15psi  I'm 99% sure my intermittent boost issue is fixed!!! (except now I want more boost...)

This is so Awesome to nailed the cause of this before I did my swap (of course everything I had read on this subject  pointed at a bad n75, although I think it was a combination sticky n75 valve and frozen waste gate)

I guess next time I'll not be so such cheap... *grin*
-T

[fuslit]

I got the car delivered yesterday to the shop things will be taking place, have a lot of work ahead of me which I need to get cracking on to make headway, gonna try and spend some time on it today, but need to do rear shocks in my wife's mk4 golf tdi before I can get over to that one.

At this point I'm leaning towards buying a new (well rebuilt) steering rack, the guy I got the car from hasn't had a chance to pull a used one and I don't want to have that hold up the swap.

I'll try and upload some better res images of the shell.

-T

[fuslit]

Yesterday I got the dash out of the glx, which should make the fuse block re-wire go much much faster.

Also got my short shifter installed.

Next step is removing the steering rack so I can figure out what direction I'm going to go with that. Once that is replaced, the car should be ready for the swap, I'm just waiting for the parts to show up. I guess I could start taking a look at egt probe placement on the exhaust manifold.

before



after

[fuslit]

While the dash is out I'm contemplating replacing the heater core, clean the evaporator unit for the ac, and replace the foam (to reduce flying dash bits)... not sure yet if I want to tackle yet, but it would give me something to do while I wait for parts.

Anyway, Got the rear door panels off and ready to have the new ones swapped in.

and these showed up today (cool.)


They'll be used for the downpipe, was hoping that I could use one as an interface with the turbo, and one to match up with the exhaust that's on the shell currently.

looks like it'll take some custom fabrication to work, but the price of a stainless flange that I found was twice what two of these cost!?! I figured I'd try this out first it's not 'that' far out of line I think I'll be able to get it to work fairly easily. (still need to go over to see if they'll fit the exhaust bracket that's on the car now.)



I think pretty impressive for what they cost, makes me sad that I can buy these on ebay so cheap and have stores that are 'reputable' sell the same (most likely as almost nothing is manufactured in the US anymore) thing at 2-3x the markup... but that's a story for another time

Also, the steering rack is ordered and should be here in a couple days.

[CdnVWJunkie]

Looks and sounds like a cool project.

I had a K24 on an e-tdi in my syncro.  It boosted just fine with very little noticeable lag.  I think you'll find it works fine in your application as the Jetta will be lighter than the B3V Syncro.

Cool, Thanks for the feedback, The one thing I've had a little trouble finding is the efficiency envelope for this turbo.  Tow much boost were you running in your syncro?

-Todd


No worries.  I don't have the car any longer and it didn't have a boost gauge nor a EGT so I can't answer those questions, sorry.  I think the ECM had the standard chip although I don't recall that detail.  But driving it with the K24 was similar to the K03 in terms of when boost came on maybe it was a couple/few hundred higher but with the factory syncro gearing the car had better than stock performance.

[fuslit]

No worries.  I don't have the car any longer and it didn't have a boost gauge nor a EGT so I can't answer those questions, sorry.  I think the ECM had the standard chip although I don't recall that detail.  But driving it with the K24 was similar to the K03 in terms of when boost came on maybe it was a couple/few hundred higher but with the factory syncro gearing the car had better than stock performance.

Thanks for the info, that helps give me an idea of how this turbo will perform.

I found a good price on a heater core ($23.61) [http://www.autohausaz.com/] so I went ahead and ordered it along with new fluids (vw power steering and g12) that I covers most of what I'm looking to do here. (Hopefully)

So, Other than title/registration and cost of materials to finish the exhaust and intake (misc silicone couplers, cost of a refill on a bottle of argon) and final paint work I hope (crosses fingers) all costs are taken into account.

I'll make some progress on this tonight.

-T

[fuslit]

More parts have arrived









how the 90 degree bend lines up



well this was a pain but the heater core's out. Can't imagine what it would be like to try and get to this with the engine in the way... even more of a pain!







The new heater core won't be here until next tues ... but honestly there's alot of things that need to happen between now and then.

-Todd

[fuslit]

Last part of the downpipe showed up today,


and the steering rack showed up... but... i think it's the wrong one. (need to do a little research, the invoice says for a vr6 corrado)

anyway, pics of the removal/comparison.

old rack (pay attention to the three bolt holes on top)


out:
the new rack appears wider, the bolt holes are missing. I didn't bother to measure, i'll confirm the part # I need then chat w/guy I bought it from.

[fuslit]

So, I just heard back from the place I got the rack. The owner checked with their supplier who says that they've never had any problems with these, says the intended application is vr6 mk3 jetta. He usually knows what he's talking about and would not intentionally jerk me around, So I'll give it a shot.

Basically I just wanted to confirm that it if I had to return it (i.e. it doesn't fit that it won't be a problem.)

This weekend I'm going to try and catch up with my buddy who's gonna help out with the tig welding to weld up the intake.

-T

[fuslit]

So,
I ordered a bunch of stuff through arizona autohaus which showed up yesterday, some of the parts I ordered (brand of Meyle) came with stickers saying made in china... I just wasn't expecting that.

I guess the US isn't the only place that outsources to China it will be interesting to see how they hold up.

I'll be attempting putting the steering rack in the car today, hopefully it works as the supplier claims it will. We'll see how that goes.

-T

[fuslit]

Got the intake trimmed down and have a plate cut out for welding. (may have to trim it down a bit, but wanted to make sure I had enough so I didn't have to cut another one.









now to go put the steering rack in...

-Todd

[fuslit]

Steering Rack is in (this is taken 1/2way through without all the nuts being tightened down)



next step is focusing on the interior (door cards, wiring harness & fuseblock) as well as motor mounts and suspension bits.

-Todd