TheSamba.com :: View topic - 74 Beetle engine upgrade to 2016 Jetta 1.4T

Tue Jun 09, 2020 9:06 am

I have a 74 Beetle that had been converted to an electric drive. I bought the car because the body looked good and not rusty, and was intrigued by the electric conversion. I got the electric drive to work and found that it did not suit my needs and desires. I built a 74 engine to put in it and was accumulating parts to convert it back when I got a sudden inspiration.

The base engine in the 2016 and later Jetta is a 1.4 litre turbo, all aluminum and lightweight and semi small. I figured that it could fit in a Beetle after much comparative measuring. So the project began.

Tue Jun 09, 2020 9:12 am

Wow, that looks like a fun project. Lots of custom engineering is going to be needed. Looks like it fits nicely in the engine bay. Which transaxle are you going to use? The Jetta, or the original?

Tue Jun 09, 2020 9:50 am

Very cool.

Swapping something out that doesn't belong in there... for something else that doesn't belong in there. :lol:

I may be interested in that electric stuff if you decide to part with it.

I'm curious how it drove with that setup.

My day job is electric forklift tech... so thats right up my alley, :wink:

Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:11 am

We used the original transaxle with a Kennedy adapter and 1700 Lb dual friction clutch to hold the power. We had to raise the body a little to get it to fit with the hood shutting all the way with no other mods like extended hinges etc. With the hood shut the only clue is the a/c compressor hanging down and the view through the hood fins definitely looks different.

Since we raised the body a little we dropped the pan with dropped spindles and springplates, doing a complete disc brake upgrade at the same time.

The car with the electric drive was very slow, very poor range, but interesting. They used the original transaxle but the motor was rated for 40 HP and 3000 RPM. Top speed was near 50 MPH.

I used this car for the swap as they had already cut it up some to put in the electric conversion. We cut it quite a bit more.

I plan to modify a 1600 dual pipe header muffler to fit so in the end it will also have two pipes sticking out in the appropriate places. One of my goals is to make the car look basically stock. We have even retained the back seat.

Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:46 am

Where is the radiator going, routing of water lines?
Looks awesome.

Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:28 pm

Going to upfeed a radiator behind the rear seat area, used the original radiator from the Jetta the engine came from with fans and intercooler radiator.. Had to move the firewall and make sides for the engine bay, and a lid not shown. The hoses are a tight fit but they work.

Wed Jun 10, 2020 6:55 am

Had a bit of trouble getting the 1.4 engine to run in a standalone setting without the rest of the car hooked up so did a lot of just mockup on the project in case we had to redirect our focus. Now that my engine problems seem to be behind me assembly of the vehicle is rapidly happening. Marin at https://www.advancedcarelectronics.com, was a great help there, he was able to configure the ecu to run standalone and not in limp mode. I tried all 1.4T tuners I could reach and no one wanted to or was able to configure the ecu to run standalone. They all wanted to just send me a prepackaged tune for an existing car.

Decided to install sound deadening wherever possible as it is easiest now and surely wont hurt the finished project.

Dropped the body back on to get positioning for a/c hose and unit installation finalized. Got the hoses run front to back and ready for crimping the ends, got condenser mounting figured out and hoses readied for crimping too. Mounted dash unit and also measured and marked hoses for crimping. A/C unit is a period perfect Wards Riverside underdash unit that I have had kicking around looking for a perfect home. finalized my coolant bottle location, and a few other things. When you start assembling it all you sometimes find the need to re engineer a few things as other parts added get in the way of your original design. Oh well, that is part of the fun and adventure. I am sure to have the body off and on again a couple times more before I am done. I tried to build the pan to contain all the drive related stuff, then drop on the body, but radiator mounting for one was too tight to allow for that.

Sat Jun 27, 2020 7:52 am

Another update of progress, which is admittedly slow. They say the devil is in the details and that is true. You have to think of everything to be done and do it preferably before the body goes on.
Got the A/C lines all measured and cut and crimped. Put them on and did preliminary routing to see how everything fits.

Got the heater system worked out. I plan to draw fresh unheated air through the original heater tube holes in the body then pressurize the area under the seat to force heated air through the original heater tubes in the body. That way the original heater controls can be used to deflect heat and defrost flow. I am going to mount a water control valve for the heater and operate it by cable from the original heat lever too. As an added bonus that the car lacked before I will be able to turn off the heat and use the fan in the heater box as forced ventilation out of the original vents too.

In order for all of this to work I have to separate the intake and outlet side of the heater box to be able to pressurize the underseat boxed area. I made a cardboard prototype of my intake box and then a steel one for the final. I have to mount the body before I can build the top of the box to seal it. There will be a tube from the other heater tube hole to the inlet box, I will use both openings that way. There is just enough room under the seat to run it over the battery and wiring there. I will cut a hole in the part of the box that goes back to the body and stick the tube in there.

You can see the separation of the two areas and the way it will fit in the finished car. I will have to build the pressurized box under the seat and stick the heater outlets through, but unfortunately the body will have to be on to do that, which will make it a little harder, but I have mocked and planned it out mostly.
you can also see in the photo where I hid the ABS controller and sensors I had to retain to keep the engine out of limp mode. It is visible sticking out of the center of the body lift and held on by two screws.

There is so little room available that you have to use what you can.

Next is cruise conrtol.

Sun Jun 28, 2020 11:46 am

Took apart the A/C evaporator unit I plan to use and cleaned it out and rewired it. Good thing, it was pretty dirty from it's past life in another car, but I do like the true retro look. It is from the era when the car was new and could look like it was always there.

Wired in the relay and pressure switch and condenser fan for the A/C, mounted receiver/dryer bottle and hoses and fuel surge tank. Mounted the fuel filter too. Not shown are the A/C lines that go to the evaporator, was a little tricky to get everything to clear the steering, but did finally get it all to go together happily. No more room up here for anything else now.

Final wiring harness for engine and fuse box before it gets installed again in the pan. Wired the A/C and Heater fan into this fuse panel since there is no room in the original Beetle one.

Sun Jun 28, 2020 8:13 pm

This is totally crazy, unnecessary and a hell of a lot of work.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!

Can't wait to see it finished.

Tue Jul 07, 2020 1:02 pm

More progress, with pictures of course. Got the body and pan joined finally. All bolted together and hopefully permanently. Sorted out the hoses and routing and bleeds etc. and filled with coolant. Ran engine finally for quite a while since it now has coolant. Everything works as it should, thermostat opens and radiator fans work as needed. I was a little worried about the fans whether they were controlled from the missing body control module or the engine. maybe the body module has input for a/c and such, but I am glad to report the engine controller does a great job of fan control. They cycle off and on as needed and variable speed as needed. I think their major input is radiator outlet temp as it seem to follow that well and try to achieve the specified temp on scanner.

Got all the A/C components installed and added a little oil for the new hoses and condenser. Sucked it down and leak tested, then charged it up for testing. System works great and vent temps were blowing 38 degrees. I was wondering how efficient the old R12 evaporator unit would live with R134. I sized the condenser for R134 and apparently it is right, the vent temp are good, pressures are good and the condenser output air is not overly hot, nor the condenser. I tested the controls on the evaporator and they worked well. I has a dial for temp as well as a switch for the fan. I knew the fan functioned but had to wait till it was charged to see if the unit would cycle the compressor with temp settings, which it did.

Condenser and fan mounted, and a shot of the inside fuse panel area work in progress.

I am starting to get excited, I can see that there may be a chance soon to drive the car. Many things left, but fewer than before. Exhaust system is one, but I have it mostly mocked up, just have to fabricate hanger and brackets. Or in other words the hardest time consuming stuff. Need to hook up the steering, install the tank, bleed the brakes and a couple other little things, then it can be driven.

Wed Jul 08, 2020 4:52 am

Please post a video of the first drive.
This is very inspiring.
How high did you lift body? Any pics of the lift?

Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:38 am

I am not sure how to post a video on this site, but I am sure there will be a few taken, all the guys in the shop have been sending running videos to their friends. Driving is still a little ways away, but there is so much less to do than there once was.

The body lift is 3 inches. It is the standard lift kit you can buy from various sources. The lift is in most of the pan shots, it is just 3 inch rails that fit between the pan and body. In the typical aftermarket fashion they didn't fit out of the box. i had to cut the mismatched angles and rebend them to match the pan and reweld. The rails were open on the inside so I boxed them in with 20 gauge steel to make a solid looking unit as the inside opening could be seen from the inside if the carpet is lifted. Probably unnecessary but I feel better that way.

Yesterday was fairly productive. I shirked some of my duties and spent some time with the car. Fitted and fabricated and welded the exhaust together. Still need to add the bung for the rear o2 sensor and an end mount on the right side, but pretty happy with it so far. There isn't/wasn't a muffler in the muffler so it is pleasantly noisy. The turbo and cat both quiet it a little but it does snarl if you rev it high, which it does quite readily. It does not sound anything like a 1600 Beetle.

Mounted the steering shaft that I fabricated from the jetta donor and discovered that sometime in the car's past life an uninformed person must have put on a tie rod or end and managed to get the steering box way off center. The box is designed to be just a little tighter on center for good road feel and that was way off. Also the wheels didn't turn enough one way compared to he other. I remember noticing that when the car was driven in it's former electric mode, but forgot till now. So I had to move the tie rods enough on each side to balance the movement, and check toe. Camber I had already reset with the pan off.

Sun Jul 12, 2020 11:32 am

Today was the first drive. All went well, pulls strongly for a beetle, a/c blows cold, drives and handles well.
Here are a couple of shots of the almost finished project right after the test drive. Should have washed it but...
I think I mostly accomplished my goal of looking like a stock beetle. The purists will notice some difference, but doubtful anyone else will. The only outside clues are the condenser hanging in front and you can see the tailpipe off the turbo in the left rear fenderwell area, and the sound if running.

Sun Jul 12, 2020 11:47 am

Awesome! What an amazing beetle! You can always upload it to youtube and share the link. Can't wait to see a video. Great work! :D