Eurovan Pickup? YES!!

[rcowan]

Thanks for the feedback Josh. I did get a hood with the donor AND the air funnel. I took some pictures tonight to try to help explain the differences. Hopefully they will help. The white hood in the pictures is a US Spec 1993 2.5 gas Eurovan I have. Totally stock.

Not a great picture at all. Sorry. However, what I'm trying to show is that the TDI funnel is about 1.25" wider left to right. The depth (front to back) LOOKS wider where it connects to the hood but it isn't. It's just closer to the camera. It will slide in the white gas hood opening.

This shows what I need to do to the Doka hood. The Doka hood is exactly the same as my 1993 hood. The funnel is aligned with the hood on the driver's side. I need to trim the hood to make the cut out wider. In the pictures above (previous posts) you can see that the 2.5 TDI funnel slides in the hood and stays without trimming. However, I don't think it will stay with many hood open/closes (barely holding on) AND the airflow will be restricted because the opening doesn't match. The driver's side of the opening seems to be in the correct location, the trimming will need to happen on the passenger's side.

Hopefully that helps?

[Joshwa]

Thanks for the pictures. I a least managed to cut my funnel down to the right profile. Nice that you got hood piece as well.
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93 Weekender TDI conversion (AHU)
93 MV TDI conversion (1Z)
Weekender rear cot
Late model cabin air filter on 93
Euro spec bumper install on 93

[rcowan]

Josh, yeah you did pretty good! When I first saw your picture I couldn't even imagine what you had done. After looking at the 93 with that in mind, it all made sense. Nice trim job!

The hood that came with the donor is a nice hood. The passenger's fender and the hood will probably eventually get sprayed Paprika red. That seems like the cleanest, easiest solution to the intake and the hood problems.

[Joshwa]

The white clip has bolt on panels correct? I'd like to see pictures of how you attach it with the existing being spot welded. I assume you would drill and bolt. If its that easy, I may be interested in your drivers side panel, if it's straight. I'm missing the two lugs that hold on the the cover over the fan resistors.

Nice progress by the way. That will be a unique ride.
_________________
93 Weekender TDI conversion (AHU)
93 MV TDI conversion (1Z)
Weekender rear cot
Late model cabin air filter on 93
Euro spec bumper install on 93

[rcowan]

Correct. White donor has bolt on fenders. I think I will convert my Doka to bolt on. It won't be "correct" for the year but there are a lot of things not correct at this point. I think it will be as easy as drilling the body and adding clips with nuts. It has been a while but I took apart a 1999 and I think that's what it had....

Remind me that you are interested in that fender after surgery. I don't have a need for it, we can work something out!

[SplitBusVanatic]

Great thread. 2.5tdi 102bhp is a lovely motor.
I’ve got the lesser 88bhp non intercooled 2.5tdi.

[rcowan]

Thanks SplitBusVanatic!

Long overdue update. Knee surgery knocked me down longer than I expected. I'm feeling better now. I've got some catching up to do around the house but I've also snuck away and got a few things done on the Doka.

Wiring:
I think this is done but it hasn't been tested yet so not for sure. VW makes it fairly easy with their consistent CE2 electrical system. The engine harness plugged into G1 and G2 on the back of the fuse box. There were a few extra wires that needed to find a home though. I ended up added the colored junction boxes that VW used on the donor (1997) to make that easier. I also added the OBDII plug. Again, the colored junction boxes make it a bit easier. I saw I thinki it's done because I haven't tried to start it OR connect with VAG-COM yet..... That will be the true test.

I also swapped out the harness for the instrument cluster. It plugs into U1 and U2 in the fuse box. The old instrument cluster's speedometer was cable driven, the new speedometer gets a signal from a sensor on the axle. Also, the original cluster didn't have a tach, the new one does. Also not tested but I'm hoping simply swapping harnesses will make the new cluster work. Time will tell.

A picture during the process. The donor (1997) harness and fusebox is on the seat.

This picture show a few of those colored junctions boxes mounted on top of the fusebox. I'm not sure what the official name is for them...

Pedals:
The Doka is a 1991. It uses the "early" pedal assembly that is different that the 1997 donor. I looked at my options and decided to stick with the early pedals. It would have been a significant effort make the late pedals work and they are so prone to cracking at the clutch master mount. The early pedals don't seem to have as much of an issue there.

-Throttle: The throttle was a cable running from the pedal to the injection pump on the 1991. The new engine is drive by wire, meaning there is a potentiometer mounted on the pedal assembly and that signal is sent to the new engine's ECU. The early pedal assembly had two of the three mounting holes already drilled to mount the potentiometer. A few rivets later and it was mounted. The pedals themselves were easily swapped. No modification needed to mount the later pedal in the early assembly.

-Brake/Clutch: The new engine ECU needs a signal from a switch on the brake pedal and clutch pedal. The early pedal assembly had the holes drilled to mount these switches. However, I needed slightly more than holes.... the holes needed to have "slots" 180 degrees from each other to allow the switches to mount securely. I used masking tape to make a pattern off of the later pedal assembly. Then with a little work from a Dremel on the early pedal assembly and it also had those slots.

Suspension:
The front suspension and brakes are installed. This all went together just like factory (even though it's all 97-03 parts on a 1991 body). The only odd thing I learned is that the early (1991-1996) upper shock mount is different than the late (197-2003). The early is longer. Less 1/4" but it matters. I couldn't install my original 1991 mounts and was confused for a little bit. I compared and then used the 1997 upper shock mounts. It worked perfectly.

Difference of upper shock mounts. Early on right/Late on left.

A picture of the suspension done. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture with the brakes mounted.

[rcowan]

Tonight I decided to check my ecu/obd2 wiring. I plugged in the ecu and connected the battery. Then I plugged in VAGCOM and tried to connect to the ecu. Nothing! I unplugged the battery and reconnected a couple times. Nothing!! Then I remembered that I still hadn't reviewed the relays between the original and the donor. I realized I needed to add the relay in position 3 of the relay panel for ecu power. Then I tried VAGCOM again. Oh yeah!! It all works!! Just confirming that the wiring works makes me very happy. 😁

[rcowan]

Another small update. I got the brakes on and it's back down on it's front wheels. The 01-03 brakes fit on the 1997 hubs fine after enlarging the mount holes slightly with the correct size drill.

I have begun to look at the air box, intake vent in the fender, etc. It is obvious why this 1997 became a donor. It is quite rotten.

There are a LOT of differences between the doka (1991) and the donor (1997-short nose) on the inner wheel well. The shape of the whole inner wheel well is different. I made pattern off the 1997 to see where I needed to cut the doka but it really didn't line up well. I'm going to wait until the vent is located in the fender and then make my inner wheel well cuts because luckily the fenders are the same shape. Originally, I was hoping to simply swap fenders but the 97 fender is too rusty to do that. I'm going to try to cut the vents out of the 97 fender and weld them into the doka fender.

[Zeitgeist 13]

Thanks so much for documenting your project. I hope to follow your lead some day.
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[rcowan]

I haven't had much time to spend on this project lately so I'm still stuck in body work and adding the vents to the fender.

However, I heard of a 1993 Eurovan in a Pick and Pull so I went looking. It had most of the AC System still there and I'd really like to have AC in the Doka so..... lots of work happened at the Pick and Pull. My son and I pulled all the mechanical AC parts and every bit of wiring on the Eurovan. I wasn't sure how much was needed so I grabbed it all to be sure.

I've spent quite a bit of time with a Bentley and the wiring harnesses. I have narrowed it down to what I think I need. Time will tell if I'm right. The two piles below show all the wiring in a Eurovan. The wiring on the left is what I think I will need to add to the Doka. The wiring on the right is the "unnecessary" wiring........... I hope.

I will get the 2.5 running before I dig too deep into the AC swap but I had to grab these parts when the opportunity presented itself.

[SplitBusVanatic]

Ac retrofit. Good man. You should join the “Just T4’s” group on Facebook (as much as I hate Facebook). It can be a good source of info sometimes.

[rcowan]

Super happy to report that I'm done with the bodywork. I'm ready to get back to wrenching.
This weekend I blended the color and cleared the fender. I added the intake vent in the fender so the 2.5 TDI airbox can pull air in through the fender like a factory 2.5 TDI. I also removed a dent on the top of the fender that always bugged me. There are plenty more dents on the Doka that I should remove but that bugged me the most AND it was on the fender I needed to respray. It was a no-brainer to remove it at the same time.

With the body work done:

Paint done:

The paint tone match is pretty good but it's way shinier than the rest of the Doka. The tone match is all a result of my local paint supplier (Automotive Paint Specialties). I gave them the piece that sits below the headlight and paint code, they mixed the paint. The fender is way too shiny compared to the rest of the Doka. I'll try waxing the whole truck when I'm done.... then I may have to take a very fine steel wool to the fender to knock down the shine a bit. That would be painful, but I'd rather have everything match.

[SplitBusVanatic]

Excellent progress. Well done.

[CdnVWJunkie]

Looking good Rob.

Have you considered cutting and polishing the rest of the truck? Or even just the cab? Red does dull out pretty quickly over other colours but I have found it can be revitalized with cutting and polishing.

[rcowan]

SplitBusVanatic - Thanks for the encouragement

CdnVWJunkie - I hadn't considered cut/polish the rest of the truck. Polish was all I had thought of. That's not a bad idea. I may have to give it a try. If it gets too shiny though, all the other dents/imperfections will show up more.... hmmm. I can see myself repainting the whole thing then. Slippery slope. Thanks for the thought Rob, I'll start saving money for a full respray now.

[CdnVWJunkie]

[Abscate]

Subscribed and enjoying the
_________________
.ssS!

[rcowan]

Thanks Abscate!

CdnVWJunkie, I haven't used a Paintless Dent repair person yet. That would work for some of them. Some of them are big enough or paint is cracked to the point I don't think they would help. One area is where I should have a 4th door..... any 4 doors in a wrecking yard up there in Canada?

[rcowan]

Inner Fender: I decided to use the 1997 donor airbox and heater filter. The inner fender on the donor 97 and the inner fender on my 1991 Doka are quite different! I had to modify it quite a bit to work. The most obvious is that there needs to be a hole in the inner fender for the foam "intake" to fit in and a bracket to hold the airbox. Less obvious is that the windshield washer fluid reservoir is different on the 1997 to accommodate the airbox.

Picture time
I tried to show some of the modifications here. There was originally a round hole here. It's location is shown by the blue arc. I spot welded in sheet metal in that location and added seam sealer. Below that location is the hole I cut for the foam intake to slide into. On the left, the blue "X" shows the mounting stud for the original windshield fluid reservoir. it is no longer used with the 1997 reservoir. The stud circled is the new mounting stud I added to use the 1997 reservoir.
Also, the bracket has been added to hold the airbox. I removed it from the donor front clip. Since this isn't really seen when it's together, I found a red in a rattle can that is close and used that. Much easier than basecase/clear coat.

Next picture is of the other side of the airbox mounting location. I took a couple nuts and ground them until they were round. Then welded them together. The top nut is the correct size/threads for the factory bolt that holds the airbox (stolen from the donor clip also). I then welded them to the old of the motor mount bracket. The 1997 mount is actually at the same elevation as the mount but on the 1991, the mount is lower so I had to add them ~1" of height. This got 3 coats of the same rattle can paint.

This is how it looked at the end of last night. I'm really happy to see that corner put back together!

I need to finish the AC install on the engine bay side and do a little rust repair to the front core support, then it should be ready to try to fire up!!