MkII gas 2 diesel conversion options

[upchuck]

hi folks,

great forum, glad i found it.  thanks to jwspin on the bentley site for leading me here.

i'm in the midst of a MkII gasser to diesel conversion... taking the engine and tranny out of a 85 diesel golf donor that had a rusted out crap body and installing them into an 87 jetta that was pretty nice except for a high miles oil burning engine.   installing a wvo system is part of the plan.

the question i am faced with currently is this...  the jetta had AC, power steering, and cruise.  would it be easier for me to keep all of this, or just omit?  seems like the biggest hassle would probably be if the mounting and pulleys interfere with the mounting of the injection pump - i guess i'll be able to figure that out real soon, as this is my next step.  i don't know anything about cruise control and it wasn't working when i got the jetta, so i would have a pro hook it up aftewards if i wanted to keep it, or i could just pull it all now.

if anyone has any suggestions for my current questions that would be greatly appreciated.  some of the bentley crowd seemed to like to scold me for being a naive "trailblazer" who was wasting my time.  seems like you folks here might be more appreciative of where i am coming from - i like the time spent tinkering and learning, besides it's just a spare time on the weekend project.

peace,
upchuck

[SMOKEYDUB]

a bunch of people including myself have already done this. use the search option it works great.

[vwmike]

I would try and hold onto the A/C or at least the power steering if I were you. I'm not entirely certain if you can keep that A/C compressor though. You'd have to find the specific mk2 A/C bracket to use that same compressor. I don't recall what A/C compressor the MK2 diesels used though. My '88 Jetta TD has power steering but no A/C and that's something else I've also never seen in the US. Removing the power steering can be done with or without changing the steering rack, but it would be a good idea if you swapped in a manual rack as the ratio would be correct and it would reduce steering effort.

[upchuck]

thanks guys...

smokey, yes lots of good stuff on this site... really glad i found it!

i do have the entire donor car (85 golf) at my disposal so i'm thinking i'll just swap in the entire non-power steering rack - i discovered the current power rack in the gasser is leaking...  or i could spend the $75 at the yard for another power rack, hmmm...

vwike, are you refrering to a mkII deisel ac mounting rack?  i have all the mounting hardware from the gasser for the, well, everything...

already swapping front suspension and fuel tank (seemed easier than messing with the filler neck by itself)

as for wiring, i was originally thinking of just using existing wiring in the gasser, at the advice of others i've talked with at shops etc.  i would have rigged a dash switch and relay for the glow plugs, possibly patching into the wiring for the ignition coil.  ...it's not all sorted out yet.   but other posts on here have me reconsidering that idea.  i have the diesel wiring harness and all, so maybe i'll swap all that in too.

also, previous posts have got me thinking that i should just use the gasser's exhaust manifold and existing exhaust (but i'll have to get rid of that cat - it was really stinking!).  the downpipes are different, and i was orignally thinking i would swap in the diesel exhaust (at least from the downpipie past the cat).  this is one i'll just have to play with and firgure out i think.

now if anyone could please provide me instrutions for a time machine so i can warp ahead to two weekends from now when i'll finally have free time to work on this again!!!

[zyewdall]

I did this -- put a diesel from something (bought it from ebay, so not sure exactly what it was from, but it was a hydralic head), into a '91 GTI.  I abandoned the power steering, AC, and it never had cruise control.   Now that I finally got an alighnment, I don't notice the lack of power steering, except when parallel parking -- that's a pain.  It was 103 degrees (farenheit) here today, so I wished for the AC, but with a 52HP engine, I'd probably have to chose between running the AC and driving the car..... :roll:    Hmmm.  Since you have a full donor car, it should be a lot easier than mine where I had to make alot of stuff up for the diesel wiring harness and fuel system.

[Master ACiD]

i dont know about a2's but i found out with my a1 that the a/c, ps, etc doesnt really swap over from a gas engine to a diesel. seems all the brackets, hoses, etc are in different places and dont match up.

when i converted my a1 from a gas engine with an automatic trans to a diesel with manual trans, i had to scrap the a/c, p/s, cc, etc from the gas engine. i also had to scrap the electric fuel pump and re plumb parts of the fuel system with diesel rated hose because the gas hose came apart with it had diesel in it. no big deal though. vw's are really easy to work on. its almost a pleasure doing this stuff. and to top it off i have 3 junkyards near me that have about 10 diesels total in them, so getting things like brackets and such is easy cheap and quick.

i later added a/c using all diesel parts. it worked out great. the a/c sure slows ya down some but i live in south florida. this is all flat lands and its all good.

[anarchyx34]

I'm currently starting a similar project, putting a 1.6TD into my MK2 jetta gas. I've done a fair bit of research and as far as I can tell, the diesel and gas ac compressors are the same and interchangable. Brackets are a different story, but barring that it should fit. Power steering pump is the same deal.

Ac hoses, at least one of them is different (the one that normally goes in front of the alternator on a gas car goes behind the engine along the firewall on the diesel). I cant see power steering hoses being any different as well.

[upchuck]

thanks for that insight...  it was 90+ the other day and i was just dying in traffic so it think i will give it a go to save at least the ac.  if i cant make what i have work, i'll just check the recycling yards for diesel mouting hardware.

anyone know if any diesel mkII's in the US ever came with ac stock, or is this a good excuse for a weekend trip up to vancouver bc?

[anarchyx34]

Of course they came with A/C. I cant think if a single car in the US since the 80's that didnt have it as an option.

[745 turbogreasel]

Irrespective  of swaps, I always install the AC in the trash.  Its like 40 LBS I don't need to carry, and make sroom for your knuckles while working on other stuff.  I might feel different if I lived somewhere hot.

[upchuck]

hey there folks,  

the project continues (slowly since my workspace is over an hour drive away) and after today i came across a little hang up that i'm hoping some of you might have some experience dealing with...

so i've pulled the a/c and swapped the steering to the manual rack as adcised by others - the weight savings and simplicity of it all convinced me to go that way.  i did rip the steering u-joit boot for the manual but i'm sure i can find another.  

anyway, so my hangup is this...  i've gone ahead and pulled the wiring harness from the donor diesel (85 golf n/a) and was going to install it in place of the existing wiring harness in the gasser (87 jetta gli)...  and i realized that the diesel wiring harness will not be able to plug into the back of the gasser fuse panel.  have you folks who have swapped wiring along with the diesel engine also swapped fuse/relay panels?  then what?  seems like i'll at least need to splice in the electrical connection plugs so everything else in the car can plug into the back of the diesel fuse/relay panel.  well, i'm sure i'll eventually figure this out, but thought i'd check and see if anyone has any sage insight or easy tips from experience

[Lovechick]

Chuck, I completed one of these swaps a few weeks back. ('85 n/a donor into '88 golf gasser.) Others may disagree, but I marked the wiring as needed and pulled it all, front end initially and then the rear. I was quite happy with the results and the only casualty was the shift light. I did find that VW changed some of their connectors in the three years separating the cars (i.e. wiring to overhead lights), so some minor surgeries were needed. Time consuming, yes, but done right, as opposed to the jury-rigged glowplug switch in my old '83 Nissan truck, which was a source of constant problems.  I also warn you to use caution around the steering column. I stupidly found out that they are made to collapse somewhat easily but can be very difficult to expand. I also agree with posters suggesting the A/C deletion. I went back and forth and decided to keep mine but what's the point? Good luck.

[anarchyx34]

I just completed my swap last week. I fail to see the reason to replace entire wiring harnesses when it's really only 2 wires that run the engine. I wired the injection pump shut off valve to what would normally provide power to the igntiion coil, and I used a siimple push-button relay setup for the glow plugs, but I imagine it would be pretty simple to implement the factory glow plug relay-timer in the future. I also kept a/c and while I havent installed the p/s pump yet, I'll be keeping that was well.