TheSamba.com :: View topic - Alaskan 85 Weekender, 1.8T (AWM), 5 speed conversion

Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:29 am

This is the total amount of gear oil that drained out! The tranny was pulled from the donor vehicle and through this whole journey I had never taken the time to check the fluid level. I even had purchased the replacement gear oil and it was sitting on the shelf in my garage! Feel free to heckle me, I deserve it...

Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:33 am

But there is a silver lining to this whole story. One of the beauties of this conversion is the widespread availability of replacement trannies. A trip down to the local wrecking yard and the guys helped me find a replacement with only 50k in Washington state. And maybe this was a blessing in disguise. If the donor vehicle was driving around with so little gear oil I'm guessing there might have been some real problems down the road.

Tue Aug 13, 2024 8:02 am

Oh man! Well rest easy knowing that you are not the only one that has ever done that. I sent a transmission to one guy here on Samba and he also just assumed it was full of oil. A few miles later, he found out it was not.

Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:09 am

Let me take that Darwin award!!!
Akmush stick to it, will love your van, you are doing great.
It has been 10 years since I initially picked up my converted 1.8T motor and transmission from Andrew. It was originally going to be shipped, but i decided to pick it up.
I spent some time installing everything, checking things twice, and the 1.8T at first intimidated me, so I was checking the motor really carefully. Got out driving it, watching oil level, temps, listening to every sound.
A couple hundred Kms later I decide I'll change the transmission fluid. NOTHING drains out! DOH. Andrew drained all fluids so it could ship. Stupid me. Well I put new fluid in the transmission and drove like that till this year. No problems.
This spring I installed a NOS transmission I was able to pick up, that is how much I love this conversion. My first test drive,....wow so quiet. So I think my original transmission took some serious wear while I ran it dry, but it still performed. New transmission was filled prior to installation, and I still can't believe how quiet it is. Old trans will go to the scrap.
And 10 years later Andrew is still there answering my emails if I have a question, and recommending parts I'm considering maintenance.
Andrew is genious to have come up with this combination, and a true gentleman in his dealings.
I'm 10 years on this conversion, proving its reliability. Andrew is longer, and more miles. I'm so glad I was one of the lucky ones to have gotten this conversion.

Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:20 am

akmush wrote: And maybe this was a blessing in disguise. If the donor vehicle was driving around with so little gear oil I'm guessing there might have been some real problems down the road.

Exactly this!! Imagine, you would’ve thought all is well, driven it just far enough until you can’t easily get home, and then had a transmission failure.

Keep trucking along!

Tue Aug 13, 2024 10:52 am

Oofta! You’re a good candidate for R&D testing :D

And persistence training! Certainly shows your a long time teacher - thanks for keeping the posts up and helping folks avoid the pain. And very inspirational for us ‘longer term projects than anticipated club’ members. The time dilation/forget stuff is very real - good lessons for those taking things apart (i.e. me in 2020)

Wed Aug 14, 2024 6:28 am

The new tranny was shipped up from Washington and the guys at the auto salvage even drained the fluid and looked it over before they would allow me me yo pick it up. He said the gear oil was so clean it looked like it had been pulled from a new vehicle! I guess one positive from all of this is that I can pull the engine and tranny alone in about 3 hours. :roll: Here she is once again back on the lift.

Old and new-

Pulling the hubs-

Ready to join engine and tranny...

Wed Aug 14, 2024 6:45 am

I am now a checklist guy after all this. Tranny filled with new gear oil. Check. Tranny bolts reinstalled and torqued to spec. Check. You get the idea. This time I was super cautious about the test drives with multiple checks along the way. Eventually I was confident enough to take the 3 hour trip to the Alaska Range for the first overnight since starting the project-

And then took the van clear across the state to go dipnetting on the Copper River. Alaska has a personal use fishery and we brought home 80 Red salmon after only 6 hours of dipnetting! The van ran flawlessly tackling hills with a big load flawlessly.
We did have a scare in Glenallen when we smelled burning plastic! A quick look under the van and I saw that the zip tie holding my wiring to the tail lights had come lose and they were crisping on the exhaust. Here is a view of the Copper River. We haul our fish out on bike trailers!

Wed Aug 14, 2024 7:03 am

Fast forward to the present. I am tracking down what I believe to be a crankcase ventilation leak. At first I thought it was this cheapo t fitting that had melted and cracked. I replaced with a much sturdier version.

The other tell tale sign is a leaking valve cover gasket. The symptoms are periodic blasts of engine fluid smell (not exhaust) in the van when I am on the road. Also, if I remove the oil filler cap with the van running, there is pressure being pushed out. I have replaced the "puck" and my pcv valve.

I have my block breather port connected to my valve cover port with 3/4" hose. This continues over to PRV "puck" and then into the turbo inlet pipe. The PCV valve is inline with the block breather port and connects directly to the intake manifold.

The smell is not overwhelming but definitely noticeable. Some questions for the 1.8T folks-

-Am I correct in my thinking about the crankcase ventilation that air pushing out of the oil filler cap means I have "negative pressure" and I want "positive?"

-I have a new valve cover gasket but need to install. Could the saturated valve cover gasket be the source of the ongoing smell now that I have replaced the puck and pcv valve?

- Is there somewhere else I should be looking?

Thu Aug 15, 2024 6:16 am

akmush wrote: I am now a checklist guy after all this. Tranny filled with new gear oil. Check. Tranny bolts reinstalled and torqued to spec. Check. You get the idea. This time I was super cautious about the test drives with multiple checks along the way. Eventually I was confident enough to take the 3 hour trip to the Alaska Range for the first overnight since starting the project-

And then took the van clear across the state to go dipnetting on the Copper River. Alaska has a personal use fishery and we brought home 80 Red salmon after only 6 hours of dipnetting! The van ran flawlessly tackling hills with a big load flawlessly.
We did have a scare in Glenallen when we smelled burning plastic! A quick look under the van and I saw that the zip tie holding my wiring to the tail lights had come lose and they were crisping on the exhaust. Here is a view of the Copper River. We haul our fish out on bike trailers!

Beautiful scenery! I bet those salmon are delicious.

The cam chain tensioner seal is usually the culprit as to wheat looks like a valve cover gasket leak. It can cause the oil burn smell. Replace that when you do the VCG and it should fix things.

Thu Aug 15, 2024 6:49 am

Thanks Andrew! Once again your knowledge is proving invaluable. I was not considering this as a culprit. Some follow up questions-

-You are referring to me needing to replace the cam tensioner seal and the half moon seal both?

-Do I need to loosen the cam itself to do this or just the tensioner? Online there seem to be two schools of thought and I sure would like to leave the cam alone. (Setting the cam chain timing was the single most challenging process for me :shock: )

Thu Aug 15, 2024 6:53 am

If you have the tool to compress the tensioner you can do it without disturbing the cams. Just put the tool in, remove the bolts holding the tensioner down and you raise it up just enough to slide out the seal and half moon piece.

Thu Aug 15, 2024 7:09 am

Will do it this way, thanks!

Fri Aug 16, 2024 12:10 am

akmush wrote: …
Alaska has a personal use fishery and we brought home 80 Red salmon after only 6 hours of dipnetting!
…

Wow, nice haul! When you’re hitting them it’s hard to stop. I’m not sure many would recognize just how much work processing 80 reds is. They not be tiny and time is not on your side. Hats off to you guys!

Becoming clearer to me why you took to the considerable task of reversing a 1.8T :D

Fri Aug 16, 2024 4:53 am

xoo00oox wrote: If you have the tool to compress the tensioner you can do it without disturbing the cams. Just put the tool in, remove the bolts holding the tensioner down and you raise it up just enough to slide out the seal and half moon piece.

to follow up on xoo00ooX...

Look on youtube for 1.8t cam chain tensioner replacement. There's a good video of a shop replacing the whole tensioner on a passat.
I'd actually suggest just replacing the tensioner while you're at it, and you get the tool with the new tensioner in most cases