New bay window owner/Watercooled Conversion

[vwwestyman]

When it came time to do the wiring in my TDI bus, I had found a diagram someone made online of a '97 Jetta TDI (I was using a '96 Passat motor).

So I took the file to a local copy shop and had them print it on a couple large sheets of paper, which I taped together to make a very large wiring diagram, which became the master.

I also had a couple other pretty-large copies.

I then sat in the garage with a diagram and the wiring harness. I went through the ECU plug and checked each wire one by one. If I found any difference between my harness and the diagram, I noted it on a piece of paper. Sometimes the difference was the wire was not where the diagram said it should be, sometimes the difference was it was a different color wire.

Any wire that matched the position and color description, I assumed was a correct match (and this proved accurate for me).

I was then able to take my list of (8-10ish) mis-matches and either trace the wires to see what component they went to (in the case of different wire colors but same pin) and verify if they went to the correct socket, or by searching for wire colors and the process of elimination find where the wire actually was on my socket.

Because the '96 year used a couple components that were dropped (an emissions thing that didn't work out and was recalled by VW and fixed by swapping in a different ECU that just didn't use those components), I was able to find these wires too.

Using this information, I was able to then determine which wires I could eliminate from the harness. I was able to confidently cut out the wires for the excess emissions injectors, the EGR system, and a couple other things in order to simplify the engine.

I transferred all the info to the master diagram which was laid out on a table behind the bus in the garage. I used color coded highlighters to mark wires on the diagram that were correct, different (with a notation of actual pin location) or being eliminated accordingly.

The result was that the motor started up and ran the first time (actually sitting on the garage floor bolted to the transmission), and the only codes in the ECU were from the components I deleted.

It was painstaking work and the print outs cost a few bucks (but were surprisingly inexpensive) but totally worth it in the end.

If there isn't a similar wiring diagram available online for your motor, you could photocopy the pages from a Bentley and tape them together and come up with something similar. It was worthwhile to not have to flip back and forth in the book nearly as much to figure it all out. (I did this a little bit to verify the wiring differences I had found.)
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Mr. Unpopular]

Well I didn't get any work done on the bus today, but I had a GREAT day at the U-Pull-It yard. I really feel (and hope) the bus gods are shining down on me in my struggle to drive the bus next week.

I went to get a "new" crank and knock sensor for the ABA. Both of the connectors were cracked badly on the donor motor. I ended up getting a knock sensor, but the crank sensor sits behind the motor mount bracket, so I'll buy one new.

While there, and checking out all of the MK3 VW's, I scored an almost new set of "racing" plug wires (they are as big around as my finger), which I needed because I broke one of the donor's plug wires.

I got a crankcase breather (which I need because the grommet gets hard with age making it IMPOSSIBLE to get out of the valve cover without breaking. I also got the plastic tube that goes from the side of the crankcase to the breather on the valve cover. Mine was missing as well as most VW's in the yard.

I got a bracket from an aftermarket air filter setup. The bracket bolts to the MAF and holds it to the inner fender. This will be adapted to my bus somehow, but that saves me from fabricating the bracket.

While scoping out the rest of the imports, I got about 10ft of big Monster Cable power wire from some guys car stereo install.

I also grabbed a Volvo oil cooler and sandwich plate adapter (the gods were really looking down on me for this, I didn't have any tools big enough to take it off, just as I realized this, I grabbed it and it wiggled, the mounting bolt was finger tight.)

The best part is I got all this for $54! I was going to have to drop $300 on the oil cooler setup alone (new Mocal, but used OEM Volvo is fine with me).

Tomorrow, wiring the motor into the bus. Crossing my fingers it goes well.
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"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV

[tristessa]

[Mr. Unpopular]

yeah, I grabbed the lines because I remember when reading about them the fittings were unique. I got extremely lucky with it though. The biggest wrench I had was a 13mm, which wasn't going to cut it, but the lines were already removed and the BIG nut on the filter adapter was finger tight.
_________________
"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV

[Mr. Unpopular]

Well, sadly, I missed my goal of taking the bus to the biggest show of the year and the kick-off to our show season

I thrashed on it all last week. I didn't want to cut any corners and cause issues with the swap, so it took longer to get all of the little things done, it just ended up being a bit too long.

Thursday night at 10pm, I finally got the bus to a point I could try to start it, it spun over, but I had no spark. At that point, I decided to stop trying, as we were due to leave Friday morning to start the show weekend, and while I could've thrashed all night to try to get it to run, that would mean jumping in a completely untested rig and criss-crossing 4 counties over the weekend, and that's just not something I wanted to do.

I'm back at work tonight and tomorrow, so Wednesday I'll post the latest pictures I have. I probably won't work on the bus this week, as I desperately need to do U-joints on my daily driver (I've been putting it off trying to get the bus ready), so that will hopefully get done this week.

Next week, I'll get back to work on it.

The only thing I'm really not happy with is the extra feet of wiring harness I have to hide. I'm going to search around and see if I can buy the pins to shorten the engine's harness and re-pin it at the ECM side.

OH! Almost forgot, even though I wasn't driving the bus, it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about the bus. I bought a set of wheels at the show's swap meet yesterday.

I saw some steel, 15" 5 lug wheels in a swap meet spot that to me looked cooler than jetta steelies that many are using, but I didn't recognize them. A quick google search of the VW part number showed they are from a 93 Eurovan. The wheels are HEAVY, 15x, ET44 if memory serves.

So I ask the guy "how much for the eurovan wheels?" His reply was a blank stare. So I say "the silver 5 lug wheels". He shurgs and says "Is $10 each OK?". Yes, yes it was OK.

Here's a pic I found online

_________________
"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV

[Stuartzickefoose]

Fwd offset may make the wheels sit funny. Whatever works
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[Mr. Unpopular]

Spacers are much easier to work with than cutting fenderwells.
_________________
"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[Mr. Unpopular]

It's been a while since I posted an update, mainly because I haven't touched the bus in over a month (the thrash to make the show ending in disappointment really took the wind out of my sails for a while).

So with the help and encouragement of a good friend, we got back on the bus and made some progress.

It appears I have a bad relay in my system, because I wasn't getting power to the coil. I just put a jumper wire in there for now just to keep progress coming. I then found out my ECM wasn't getting power either (constant or switched) so I hooked those up. Then, to verify the ECM is wired up, I tried to get my Scangauge II to connect, and it wouldn't. Come to find out the GM motor that was in there before and the new VW motor don't send OBD data to the same pin in the DLC connector. I rewired that, and now the Scangauge connects to the computer, which is a good thing.

The issue now is that while cranking, the Scangauge doesn't see RPM. I feared this may be the case because the connector on my crank sensor is all busted up and the wires are corroded. I'm ordering a replacement from Rock Auto and when that gets here I'm hoping it will start.
_________________
"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV

[Stuartzickefoose]

Sweet! Keep up the work!
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[Mr. Unpopular]

So a little bit of an update. I got the crank sensor in the mail today. Went out and bolted it on, and she fired right up! Next week I'll start fabricating the exhaust and buttoning up the loose ends to get it driveable.
_________________
"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV