Hello from Wisconsin, everyone!
This is my car, a 1985 Quantum Wagon.
I bought it February of last year, right after my TDI mk2 Jetta was totalled by a drunk driver. RIP GLI...
^^This car was my first gas to diesel conversion. It was much simpler than I thought it would be, and I ended up doing it again (with an IDI) to a '91 Golf, which I use as my daily.
So, the Quantum began life as a 1.8 gas 5-speed car, from Virginia. I bought it off thesamba sight-unseen for a song, and drove it straight back in one shot (13ish hours). Right after I got it home, it looked like this:
As you can see, there's no rust! Also, this is a neat base model Quantum; crank windows, manual mirrors, cloth interior, no cruise, etc.
So, I proceeded to drive it as a gasser all of last year, racking up 15k miles, including a trip to Colorado:
My original intentions were to swap the TDI from the wrecked Jetta in, but life got in the way, and someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse on the TDI.
Fortunately, this led me to something nearly as good:
A friend of mine in Iowa hooked me up with the perfect parts car, an '84 TD Quantum wagon. The front was wrecked hard enough that the roof had buckled, so I didn't feel too bad parting it out. I retrieved it the old fashioned way, tow bar style:
NOTE: The brown car has the super-long ration 5-speed, which made for some hairy hill climbs on Highway 151.
I made it back safely, and completely parted out the poor 'ole blue car. By this time, the gas engine in the brown car had reached oil consumption of 1 quart every 500 miles, so I put it away for the winter.
Fast forward to the beginning of June.
I borrowed enough shop space and time to do the project. In less than two weeks, I dropped the entire subframe, swapped the diesel engine onto the wide-ratio gas trans, bolted the whole deal back into the car, swapped the gas tank for a diesel one, welded up a straight pipe exhaust, and wired the car enough for basic driving. Some in-progress pictures:
After getting the fuel system bled, it fired right up. Right now, it boosts to about 8psi, and seems to be getting north of 40mpg. I haven't driven it much, and here's why:
This belt setup is nightmarish. I replaced all the v-belts(not a job for the weak-hearted or those short on time), and I'm running an Optima deep-cycle battery, but that doesn't stop the alternator belt from slipping. I've had this issue on diesel Rabbits and the like, and it is pretty much my least favorite part of diesels. The solution I found for my daily Golf is to swap an entire TDI serpentine belt setup onto the motor. Everything bolts up, and I've got it rigged to only run the water pump and alternator on the Golf. I'm currently sourcing another TDI setup from Europe, along with (hopefully) an early Euro front end. Here's where the car sits now:
Future plans:
-Intercooler-I've sourced a front mount intercooler from an Audi 5k turbo, all I need now is boost piping and a Fox-style radiator
-Boost-I don't know much about Garrett turbos, but I'd like to learn so I can tune this baby right!
-Suspension-currently, I'm running Bilstein HDs front and rear, but I'd like to maybe get it a little closer to the ground...
-Interior-the stock brown interior is pretty much UV destroyed, so I'm trying to source a black interior for it (3/4 there)
Feel free to flame/praise away!
Topic: '85 Quantum Wagon Do-over (Read 5494 times)
