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skadi the syncro
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flomulgator
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't see a transmission in there, so I'm guessing your sticking with Normal Rotation?

Those windshield heaters are awesome. Since these things don't have dash A/C, I'd almost be more excited about the windshield defrost potential in heavy snow then their deice ability.
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phlogiston
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

luVWagn wrote:
Wow! If you want some cash, I need the same job done to my front window!


ha! it's funny, i was on the phone with my mother last week, and mentioned how strange it seemed that i was more intimidated to install a windshield than an engine, but that after all i'd learned from my previous failures it had gone really well this time. her response was that i should start a business resealing leaky windows for northwest vans. to which i replied that it had taken me an entire weekend, and i can't imagine anyone paying me what a couple of days off are worth!


BavarianWrench wrote:
How hard will it be to run two or three stripes of heater element up the A Pillar? Can you bend a 90 in the element? At what length will the element loose effectiveness? My lower windshield is not so bad in the weather, but those A Pillars are a problem.


i purchased 2 products from frost fighter. one is specifically designed to be installed along the A pillar, while the other is intended for the bottom of the windshield. it might be possible to bend or fold the heating element, but then it would not be adhered flat to the glass and would eventually get damaged unless you were super careful. each unit comes with a power modulator that uses PWM to control the average current through the heating element based on the resistance of the entire network in order to get the right power output. it wouldn't be that hard to reverse engineer the resistivity (ohms/foot) of the heater lines so that you could do your own calculations (and the modulation units can be reconfigured with jumpers), but once you have a look at the huge variety of preconfigured products they have available, i'd be surprised if you still see a need to home brew something. i was willing to but saw no need.

their windshield products are here and they have a huge variety of rear window and repair products on their site as well.


flomulgator wrote:
I don't see a transmission in there, so I'm guessing your sticking with Normal Rotation?

Those windshield heaters are awesome. Since these things don't have dash A/C, I'd almost be more excited about the windshield defrost potential in heavy snow then their deice ability.


yeah, i thought long and hard about the flint reversed AEB system vs stephen's AWP solution. i had hoped to buy an AEB engine and install it with the syncro transmission, then in a couple years if all the other reversed AEB vans are still running strong, i'd take mine out, reverse it, and install the rest of the quattro system. but there is no off the shelf solution to mount the AEB (flint's system doesn't work with the stock tranny), so i'd need to design and fabricate something. so i decided to go with the AWP engine, which cannot be reversed due to the variable valve timing, but bolts right in with stephan's kit. considering that my syncro is my daily driver, it's worth a lot to me to have a turn key solution, rather than spend weeks trying to fabricate every little bracket and jerry rig every coolant connection.

it was a tough call.
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flomulgator
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Any chance you're going to the Nov 1. Marymoor meetup? It would be neat to see some of the mods you've done to Skadi in person.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

good question!

now that i'm looking at the sad but serious possibility that i won't be doing as much serious mountain climbing and snowboarding this winter, i'd really like to attend this event to connect with some wrenching oriented folks that might be able to help keep me sane during the upcoming season. plus i now have a vested interest in checking out some complete 1.8t installs!

however, that is the weekend that most of my climbing and ski touring friends gather in vantage for a double birthday bonfire changing of the seasons conflagration party... and i had to miss it last year because my brother opened a restaurant in san francisco that weekend.

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ahh first world problems, trying to decide which cool party to take ones syncro to...
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flomulgator
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do both!

Marymoor starts at 11:00am, plenty of time to mingle and drive before darkness falls and bonfires roar.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

roasting up some shanks for beef stew and planning to stop by marymoor on my way to vantage tomorrow. i'm looking forward to checking out some 1.8t vans!

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 3:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dang it, now I need to start saving for heated Recaros! Cool
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 12:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

flomulgator wrote:
Dang it, now I need to start saving for heated Recaros!


yep! they are a pretty crucial upgrade that has saved my butt (literally, ha!) on the last few mornings, with the temps in the low 20s as i departed for work. i failed at finding good used heated leather seats on ebay after months and months of searching, but craigslist yielded the used recaros locally. set up some auto craigslist searches and sit back and wait!

anyway, sorry to everyone at marymoor that i was too lazy to bust out the beef & barley stew... there were just too many vans to check out and i'd forgotten to bring a table to set the stove up on. but i made it out to vantage that evening, where skadi got to show off her halloween costume of "a pile of sagebrush".

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since then, i've been working on researching and assembling parts for the engine swap, which obviously has not yielded much in the way of exciting photos. but as the time draws nearer, i've begun repairs on my parts van, wendy, so that i'll have a way to get to work while the swap is underway.
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step one is to fix the leaking, grinding rear brakes. too bad that i threw away the one good drum that i had left over from replacing skadi's brakes last spring, because one of wendy's drums was destroyed by excessively worn shoes.
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anyone in the seattle area have a serviceable brake drum that they'd be willing to trade for a six pack of good beer??


Last edited by phlogiston on Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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flomulgator
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

phlogiston wrote:
flomulgator wrote:
Dang it, now I need to start saving for heated Recaros!


i failed at finding good used heated leather seats on ebay after months and months of searching, but craigslist yielded the used recaros locally. set up some auto craigslist searches and sit back and wait!


Can you remind me again what you had to do to make the tracks work? I kind of remember you saying your seats weren't plug-n-play and that you had to do some adapting. I have my seats out right now due to my own interior restoration which gave me the chance to finally inspect the damaged reclining mechanism. Not good. Between that and the chair being too tall it seems a replacement is becoming more likely.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

flomulgator wrote:
Can you remind me again what you had to do to make the tracks work? I kind of remember you saying your seats weren't plug-n-play and that you had to do some adapting.


all the gory details of the seat installation starts near the top of page 3 in this thread.

it's not "easy", but it's not as complicated and involved as i made it look . at the time, i hadn't really used a mill or built anything out of metal in around a decade.

if you get the right recaros, you can just use the gowesty "adapters", which as i showed, are really just seat rails with offset holes drilled in them. they didn't work with my seats.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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FYI, if you stagger your splices, the area wont be so "thick" when you cover it with heat shrink. Another plus is that they are easier to sort if pulled out for some reason.

Looks good. I need to get some nice crimpers like that....
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 5:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tjet wrote:
FYI, if you stagger your splices, the area wont be so "thick" when you cover it.


good advice. i remember thinking i should have cut those wires at different lengths as i tried to stuff both splices side by side into a wire loom. next time...
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 9:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

How is the Skadi Van?
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Here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=578490
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 10:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

it's been an interesting winter. progress on the 1.8t swap preparation has been slow and continuous, but has not yielded the type of content that might make for interesting updates to a build thread (who wants to read "today i spent 2 hours researching whether or not to remove the vacuum jet pump from the brake booster system and ordered some sweet oetiker clamps"). but after a few months of splitting my free time between tinkering on my new engine and trying to find snow in the insanely warm PNW, i have finally pulled the trigger.
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yep, skadi's WBX has been removed and my daily driver syncro is off the road. so though i should be frantically wrenching away instead of sitting on my computer, i should also have some more interesting pictures to post here. i'll start where i left off back in november.... i was just barely walking again, i had just purchased an intimidating blob of hoses and metal, and there was still hope for a real winter with actual snow below the alpine.

i found my new engine at a really cool shop in sumner. the owner was parting out a customer's wrecked jetta, so i had the opportunity to buy an engine with a known maintenance history from the mechanic who had serviced it regularly. i even got to help pull some of the parts. it was literally the first thing i did after being cleared to take off my walking cast!
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my new engine was in good company, surrounded by cool audi and VW projects.
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it was quite the happy moment, putting a shoe on my slightly crooked right foot for the first time since august. i can neither confirm nor deny that i hugged my snowboard immediately after taking this picture.
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sympathetic to my limited mobility, a few friends stopped by to help me unload my new project. it's good to have someone with a forum handle like "showabraun" around when engines need to be lifted, and he even loaned me an engine stand. thanks!
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it's pretty exciting to have this new toy in my garage, but a bit intimidating to behold the quantity of hoses and wires... and i'm going to need to understand every last one in order to get this thing working!
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step one--the engine gets a bath.
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step two--clearing out a corner of my garage in which to pile hoses and wires. got to be careful not to block access to the snowboarding gear rack; might need that stuff one of these days...
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

buying an engine with a known history put me in a bit of a dilemma. originally, my very reasonable plan was to replace the timing belt and service the cam chain on whatever engine that i bought. but now i had an engine purchased from a trustworthy-seeming mechanic who said he had done the service a year ago. after a bit of internal debate, i decided to leave the engine alone and install it "as is". i will endeavor to replace the timing belt and related components in the next few years (perhaps when the engine comes out to paint the van?) but for now i will focus on getting the installation done.

this page from the jetta bentley has been my constant companion over the last few months as i worked to understand and simplify the complicated tangle of vacuum plumbing on my new engine.
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as valuable as it is, this map is not entirely accurate. the breather system installed on my engine contains an extra fitting on the side of the valve cover breather. i have been unable to determine what it is for, but it doesn't not appear on the bentley diagram, and apparently many AWP engines did not have it. it's the small hose (still connected) on the right in this image.
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not to worry, i'm replacing this complicated, leak prone mess with a simplified silicone version that eliminates the extra mystery hose. OEM version on top, aftermarket below. note the plastic check valve has been replaced with aluminum.
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i used to live in san francisco, and i still love the city dearly. however, one of my main reasons for leaving california is the draconian and arbitrary rules imposed on engine modifications. i believe in minimizing pollution, but i also believe in minimizing pointless complexity. this is why i now live in a state that tests tailpipe emissions instead of checking the brand of your breather hoses.

speaking of unjustified complexity, i am happy to report that i will be running an OEM catalytic converter, and even maintaining the second oxygen sensor to monitor its health. i will not, however, be utilizing a mess of solenoids, relays, valves, and electric pumps to blow air into the catalytic converter in order to heat it up more quickly. the "secondary air injection" system uses a solenoid to open a mixing valve, allowing an air pump to blow filtered air through the cylinder head and into each exhaust port. this system only functions during the first minute or two of driving. it will not be missed.

removing the SAI "combi valve" from the cylinder head.
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this bracket bolts to the intake manifold and carries solenoids for the combi valve and the recirculating valve. only the latter, shown in the center, will be retained.
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a look at the SAI parts that were eliminated. not shown is the big relay needed to drive the air pump for the few seconds it is used.
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the SAI combi valve was replaced with a block off plate. the valve included a bracket that supported the end of a cluster of metal pipes. the bracket was replaced with a bit of aluminum secured to the threads that previously accepted the 3rd combi valve bolt.
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it feels so good to see needless complexity, packaging hassles, and failure points removed from my new powerplant! next up on the list was the evaporative emissions system. i have every intention of maintaining a functional charcoal canister and keeping my fuel tank vents tightly sealed. however, i have no need to pressure test my fuel tank on every start or to try to shoehorn in a strangely shaped charcoal canister that was designed to live in the fender well of a jetta. thus i will be using the existing syncro charcoal canister and replacing the vacuum actuated purge valve with the electrical one from my new engine. the jetta "leak detection pump" system, used to automatically pressure test the fuel vapor plumbing, is integrated with the charcoal canister. none of this will be used.
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both the LDP and SAI systems are controlled by the ECU including sophisticated diagnostics. there are several ways to deal with the removal of these components, ranging from simple hacks to sophisticated reprogramming. the software side of these modifications will be discussed in a future post.

yep, i was on a roll, getting addicted to taming the mess of vacuum hoses. according to my research the "vacuum jet pump" is used to create additional vacuum for the brake booster system. it consists of many molded plastic parts, check valves, and hoses, and it looks like a vacuum leak waiting to happen. after a bit of reading into the theory of operation as well as another look at the plumbing, it seems that this valve is not connected in a manner that allows it to generate vacuum while the manifold pressure is above ambient. instead, it helps create vacuum faster when the throttle is closed and manifold pressure transitions from boost to vacuum. after soliciting the opinions of a few racer and autcross types, i decided to eliminate the jet valve as well. if driving tests reveal that i do not have sufficient brake boost, i will reinstall it with simpler plumbing in a better location than where it used to live under the intake manifold. the newly vacated port on the manifold will be connected to a sensor for my boost gauge.
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

a few more photos to illustrate the plumbing simplification...

here is the lower section of the new silicone breather hose. the check valve is fitted into the T in the larger diameter hose and connects to the smaller hose that goes up to the intake manifold.
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above i mentioned the vacuum jet pump that i removed. here is its location under the intake manifold. one port connects to the manifold next to the empty nipple that the breather hose attaches to. another port goes to a hose assembly that travels between the intake runners and up to the "F" pipe on the left. the F is the vacuum source for the brake booster, and i have removed it, and instead will connect the brake booster directly to the intake manifold through a pair of check valves in series. the last port on the jet valve goes through a series of hoses and a check valve over to the turbo inlet pipe. confusingly, this plumbing is shown incorrectly on the bentley diagram that i posted above, which indicates that the jet valve tees into the breather system. i found another diagram from an audi bentley for an AUQ engine that shows this plumbing correctly.
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here is the solenoid bracket with the N112 secondary air injection valve solenoid removed. eventually i will redo all the plumbing here, but for now i have just capped off the unused fittings. i don't want to have too many unknowns during the initial testing of the engine, and this stuff is fairly easy to access with the engine installed.
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the space on top of this bracket was originally used to affix some hoses from the SAI air pump. here i am preparing to drill mounting holes in order to use the empty space to mount a transducer for a manifold pressure gauge.
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here the bracket has been reinstalled on the engine. the intake manifold nipple freed up by the removal of the jet valve now connects to the autometer pressure sensor.
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the pressure gauge was purchased off ebay, so i figured it was worth testing out on the bench. i don't have a good source for regulated air, but the gauge measured vacuum accurately.
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and now.... for a setback.

i had hoped to install this engine without doing too much disassembly, but during inspection i noticed that some of the intake manifold nuts were not the correct deformed copper locknuts, and one of these incorrect nuts was visibly loose. however, when i went to replace it, the stud snapped off with the first turn of the new locknut. damn.
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after all the time spent cleaning AROUND all the components that i didn't want to remove, i got to remove them anyway!
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there are a few things that i have little desire to deal with myself. broken studs is one of them, so i stripped the engine down for delivery to my local awesome machine shop "autosport seattle".
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

with the engine at the machine shop getting the broken stud extracted, i started work on the wiring harness. the AWP engine really has 2 distinct wiring harnesses (not counting the separate wiring to the alternator). each has its own connector to the ECU. the harness with the smaller ECU connector serves sensors and actuators on the engine; this harness is designed to wrap around the engine and mount directly to various pipes and brackets. it will not need extensive modification. the other harness, with the larger ECU connector, interfaces the ECU with the vehicle body. it includes many connections to the cockpit (instrument panel, electronic gas pedal, etc) as well as a few engine bay sensors that are physically farther from the engine block (oxygen sensors, evap purge valve, etc). this harness will be completely disassembled to remove the many connections that i do not need (automatic transmission, PCM, etc).

here is the harness as i harvested it from the donor vehicle. sadly i did not realize that the loom disappearing under the vehicle went to the oxygen sensors, so i don't have those connectors and will need to source them from the junkyard. the largest connector goes to the powertrain control module (transmission controller), and the 2nd largest goes to the ECU. the plastic box contains relays that supply power to the ECU and engine electronics.
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starting to unravel.... the group of brightly colored connectors in the lower right corner live in a box near the firewall on the jetta. this is where the chassis wiring connects to the engine bay wiring. looking up the pin identifiers in these connectors proved a great way to identify individual wires in the schematics.
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all unnecessary wires removed, sensor wires identified and labelled, power and ground distribution eliminated. wiring to be retained is on the cardboard; eliminated wiring is shown below on the pavement. cockpit wires were left in the colored connectors as this seemed easier than labeling them individually. i don't have the other side of these connectors, so they will not be used in the final harness.
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meanwhile, autosport machine shop did a great job extracting the broken stud (and got some suspicious looking ones out of the turbo as well). their prices were reasonable, the machinist was cool, and i got to check out a ferrari engine block when i went to pick up my stuff. they also indicated that they can source parts for customers; i've only taken them up on this service once since, but the price and turnaround time were good. it makes me happy to have such a cool business around... one of the benefits of living in a big city i guess!

before putting the engine back together, i wanted to figure out how i was going to mount my oil sensors. my plan is to retain the stock oil pressure switch while adding sensors for oil pressure and oil temperature gauges. the "oil distributor" bolted to the engine block serves as a mounting point for the heat exchanger ("oil cooler") and oil filter. it also has fittings for the turbocharger oil supply, the stock oil pressure switch, and one extra threaded fitting that is plugged. my plan is to use the plugged opening for a temperature sensor and to connect a small manifold to the fitting for the pressure switch. i can then attach both the pressure switch and pressure sensor to the new manifold.

unfortunately the autometer oil temp sensor is just a little bit too long for the depth of the unused opening, and the sensor threads are 1/8" NPT while the engine threads are straight M10. the size and thread pitch of the 2 are pretty close so (after consulting the machinist at autosport) i decided to run a 1/8 NPT tap into the M10 threads. this caused the sensor to thread even further into the opening and make contact with the bottom before the threads were even tight. so i wrapped a drill bit partially in tape (to protect the threads) and drilled out the bottom to make more room for the sensor.
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now the temperature sensor fits well, and there is no metal contact to throw off the reading.
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next step is to figure out where to put the oil pressure manifold and how to connect it. i ruled out the extra space on the solenoid bracket (shown previously... i decided to put the manifold pressure sensor there instead) because i didn't want to have to plumb around the dipstick tube. there is a small metal bracket that attaches to what i'm calling the "oil distributor". it appears to serve little purpose other than attaching the wire harness and maybe protecting the oil plumbing to the turbo. it seemed like a good place to mount the oil pressure manifold, except that it would now be too close to use a flex hose with crimped on fittings as i'd originally planned. so i guess i get to make my first foray into the fun world of solid tubing.

here i have taped the manifold in place (it was purchased from 42 draft designs and includes 2 each 1/8NPT and M10 fittings) and am mocking up the tubing bends with some safety wire.
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copying the bends into tubing. this was a "practice piece" that i didn't bother flaring.
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the practice piece turned out well, so i did a few practice flares and then set up a little bending station to make the final part.
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checking the fit.
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the flare nuts each connect to an NPT elbow. i could have used "adapter" elbows with M10 male threads, but since the straight threads seal by compressing a flange against a crush washer, it is not possible to choose which direction the elbow will be facing once the fitting is tightened correctly. however, the spec for small NPT fittings is 1.5-3 turns past finger tight, which allows for the elbow to face literally any direction while still tightening the fitting correctly. so i used a small M10 to 1/8NPT adapter into the metric threads previously occupied by the stock oil pressure switch, then threaded the NPT elbow into the adapter. on the other end of my custom tube, i used another NPT elbow into a pipe thread fitting on the manifold. i still had another pipe thread fitting free for the autometer pressure sensor and an M10 fitting free for the stock pressure switch.
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the new location of the oil pressure switch is close enough that the connector on the factory wiring harness still reaches. that's one less wire that i'll have to splice! loctite 565 controlled strength thread sealant was used to seal all the pipe thread connections due to its thread locking properties that seemed appropriate for the high vibration environment.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 1:34 pm    Post subject: Skadi the Syncro Reply with quote

Super cool thread. I came across it while searching for answers to catalytic converter problems my Vanagon is having, side-tracked me for two hours! Wish I had your ADD and drive, I've got a 91 Vanagon GL (original owner) that I just keep running as a daily driver, she's not as pretty as she was brand new, but she still goes from A to B and back to A again. Keep up the awesome work.
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Kombi///M3
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Joined: March 16, 2011
Posts: 427
Location: Vancouver, BC
Kombi///M3 is offline 

PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 3:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice work! Like to see it in person once all done up.. Thinking of the 1.8T myself someday.
Cheers,
Ogi
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phlogiston
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Joined: March 30, 2009
Posts: 336
Location: seattle
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 10:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thanks for the comments, guys! i hope that skadi will be back on the road soon and inspiring other vanagon owners to install a 1.8t.

it's been a challenge this winter, trying to balance my desire to go play in the mountains with a sense of urgency to get this project finished. early in the season, i made the call to leave my snow tires in their storage location on my trusty 2wd parts van, wendy. i thoguht they'd come in handy for driving to the mountains once i pulled skadi's engine. however, with the incredibly warm winter we ended up having, this storm back in november ended up being the only time i drove in any real snow, and it was with my hakka C summer touring tires. fortunately skadi makes friends pretty easily. and this seemed more fun than just locking the diff...
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for the rest of the "winter" my project diversions have consisted mostly of parking at dry trailheads and hiking to the snow. no proper tires required.
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finally, in early march, skadi took her final WBX powered trip, carrying a load of friends, gear, and a cool dog from vermont.
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we made a fun descent of this face, but i had already made up my mind--my next free day would be spent pulling an engine.
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so much for that plan. not even a click when i went to fire up poor old wendy. got to change this starter before i can get started on an engine swap.
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it's easier to focus on sea level projects when it's not really snowing, but hoping to salvage the season with an april trip to AK, i have been committed to getting out at least one day each week just to stay in shape. so as the new engine is slowly readied for installation, i've gotten reacquainted with driving my 2wd van.... i even fixed the stereo and got a chance to take my sister on her first splitboard tour.
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but now, the time has come!
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nope, not to install this just yet (i think i'll replace some transmission seals first)... time to head north! hopefully my neighbors will not get too sick of seeing my van up on ramps in my driveway for a couple extra weeks. i'm writing this on an early morning flight into anchorage. it's time to put the van stuff on hold and go look for some powder!
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