1981 (@wileythewesty) TDI conversion, from ground up

[charleslabri]

[4Gears4Tires]

Needing to defrost the windshield is a good point about having AC.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[charleslabri]

Changed my fuel filters and installed a webasto this week.

Boy i don’t place my fuel filters in a good spot for maintenance.

That clock ls 10k on the van with the ODO. Probably 12k on the engine.
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[charleslabri]

ALIKA T3:
no issue.. seemed to work. The ATE ones are compression and the Girling ones are cotter pins.

I guess goes for the universe here that ... they both fit. At least the ATE pins didn't fall out of the Girling calipers in my time using them
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[ALIKA T3]

[charleslabri]

changed by pads today.
Girling calipers.. but they had ATE pins. So I replaced the ATE pins with Girling pins and then put ATE dust covers

the amount of information on Girling early vanagon pad changes on the internet.. zero

used some cool grease for the pins

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[charleslabri]

[MarkWard]

Any reason the Nomadic couldn’t be mounted lengthwise in the luggage rack?

[charleslabri]

Got caught in a big, hot, rainstorm yesterday.

AC was a lifesaver. I forget how rough it was before the ability to dehumidify
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My Build Thread:
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[charleslabri]

Hey Oli!
So the trans thing. It sort of ended with a whimper. I could never get ahold of the dude who did the work here in nashville- rustybottom garage. I should probably make an effort again.
I was sort of sidetracked because the shop here in nashville that dropped the trans for me (i just felt like paying someone else to deal with it) ended up not torquing the CVs back on and wrecked one of them. Sort of pissed me off and i just replaced it last week.

Regarding the AC, ive got a 550w solar panel on top the van and 200ah of batteries. With the sun beating down on that panel i can sustain a fair amount of AC, but honestly it sucks juice. I have a dc/dc that i need to install to see if it can soften the blow better than the solar. Solar is great, but performance can be inconsistent with clouds, dirt, etc.
Its on my list to pop in when i get a little reprise from the heat.

Funny enough, just this week i had the AC cranking and my wife was just dying of heat in the van and took all the AC on her. I realized that i had the vanistan intake thing open, causing 100f air to pull in from outside, then i had the control for the cabin radiator set to allow that 100f air to pull across that rad and kick out the lower vents. Superheated air was pulling into the cabin more than the AC could cool. I closed it all up and the AC does much better now

If i were to do this over again id recommend AGAINST the Nomadic unit. I had some spare cash laying around and was like, sure why not. Under the hood its the same as any other unit for cheaper on the market. The unit is lower profile, but longer in depth which causes issues for the specific spot it sits in the vans. The dometic or other chinese brands are not as deep and look better in the final install. Id bet dollars that the Nomadic units are just marketing. If anyone has a dometic unit and wants to side by side the output, would love to test my theory. Part of me thinks a careful placement in the pop top would be better… or run a 12/24v mini split and just bring the lines inside rather than a big hole.
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[OlisGarage]

Can’t believe I missed the first post of the overhead AC. Wow, nice work!!! I am so glad that we have another samba user documenting this installation. This could be the perfect solution for the non AC vans to get AC while driving and while parked. A win win really.

A few questions. How are you powering the AC? I assume you have a beefy battery charger that charges the lithium and then those power the AC?

Secondly. How did your transmission issue end? Any more info to share?

Van looks absolutely fantastic. Your project and diesel swap definitely motivated me quite a bit to do it right the first time (within my abilities; though sometimes over budget). Thanks for sharing.
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1981 VW Vangagon TDI (in progress)
1984 VW Rabbit Convertible (daily)
2003 VW Jetta Wagon TDI (recovering from a hit and run)

[charleslabri]

Hey!
Been a bit since I posted, I have been daily driving my van all over the SE USA. Some learnings as well.

1. Its hot!
Today its 100f outside in the shade, the new AC setup was able to bring the internal van temp down (in the sun) from 110 inside to 80 inside. That's pretty good. The unit was on max AC pulling around 45a and crankin. Id say the thing that really needs to get beefed up with this unit is the fan. It's pretty weak in all honesty. Hardly reaches the back on full speed. I know it's a big volume to cool, but im thinking of getting a small fan internally to just circulate the air. Ive got 3m ceramic window tinting on all the windows (except the front, which I'll likely change).

I have been pretty worried about the wiring from the AC unit to the battery system just catching fire from heat. I have seen the wire in my setup get to 140f, which is way too hot for my general comfort. The sleeve rating is fine, but it's hot. A second criticism of the AC unit is the they sent out an aluminum wire. Trash. I think this is the first aluminum wire I have in the van, and I'll eventually rip it out and throw it in the trash. Weak and not as conductive as copper. For a run this length, copper is the way to go to keep conductivity up and heat down. It's a thicc boi at 2AWG, but Id replace it with a 2AWG copper.

One of the things I did to keep things cool is buy a thermal switch and set it to fire on at 90f, and wrapped the probe to the AC wire. That way the fan will kick on when the ambient is high in the electrical area or the wire starts heating up. This will draw cool air in from the floor into the electrical area there. So far, this hot ass day, it kept the temp on that wire around 100. Nice.
I just used a 120mm DC computer fan and a thermal switch (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H2ZDDF1).

Here is a pic of the unit from the inside and the outside (drawing in with the grate)

2. I finished off the mounting of the internal part of the AC unit. I ended up creating my own internal bracket and securing it with some steel from home depot.
It's not exactly where I want it, but it works. I really need to start getting to the finer points of my interior trim. Everything is rough right now. I wired up some UTV lights in there as well for now. One in the center and one over each door. It's nice to have a little bit of light when getting in the car at night. I dont have them hooked up to the doors, I'll have to do that later

3. My electrical is coming along as well. Its all rough ins, but Ive got:
- water pump + electric valves from @veedubdayspa in Bend
- stereo, a marine Kenwood BT only amp/head unit + a slew of focal speakers
- a lighting circuit for internal lights
- the truck fridge
- a beefy USB-C charger to rip my MacBook to full charge quickly

4. Some interior stuff.
My wife complained about the lack of cupholders, so I splurged and got the big metal box. It's nice, I dont mind stepping over it and having a lockable space is nice. Only think I DONT like is that now I can never swivel my drivers seat unless I remove that seatbelt plastic cover. 10m install, easy sauce

I got some floor mats for the winter, ooh so pretty

Ive been slowly getting the interior sort of roughed together. Currently it's kinda bolted in. It won't go anywhere unless I really smashed it up on a dirt road in rock country. Otherwise, currently serves its purpose.

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My Build Thread:
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[charleslabri]

Ok, so here's the process- pretty straight forward.

Following the advice of previous dude in here I worked hard to maintain (and was successful) the seal on the pop top as it drops down on the luggage rack.

Knowing that this was my rear most limit, I set the unit there and cut forward. I hated this, quite honestly. The Domestic is quite a bit wider, and not as long/narrow as the Nomadic unit. This is a big hit to the nomadic, and, if doing this again, might sway me toward the Dometic.

Due to the length of the Nomadic unit, I had to cut the luggage rack in two critical areas:

1. I had to cut the rear of the Nomadic shroud down. I can post a picture of this, but the top of the Nomadic shroud has about 1-2 inches of dead space in the rear. I cut this out so I could fashion the unit further rearward UNDER the luggage rack.

2. I had to (frustratingly) cut the lower portion of the front of the luggage rack all the way to about the `westfalia` lettering. This can be seen in the pics pretty clearly. I haven't road tested this to see if I get wind whistle up there- if I do I'll pull the pop top and make a little fiberglass shroud up there to reduce whistles.

The whole thing is really straight forward. It just sits up there and you bolt it into some sort of custom frame that you'll need to make. I got a few 36"x .25" rails that I'll cut and make an internal mount (I'll post about this when that's done).

The nomadic mounting brackets inside the unit are really poorly made. It's some threaded metal inserts that go into the plastic. The manual says you shouldn't exceed 3.5-5lbs of torque on these, but even at that torque, they fall out- really poor design here.


Currently I temp hooked the thing up (see my rigged electrical nightmare in the previous posts) and set it on eco cooling.

It's 110 inside the van. it's 2pm in the afternoon. Its humid. It's summer in Tennessee.

- In eco mode it's pulling 52A. That's right on target for the expected power draw from the tech docs.

The exterior of the van is 112f
Its dropped my van from 110f to 85f inside after 3h. It's consumed in total of 85ah since I turned it on.

Id say this is working as expected.

AMA if interested
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[charleslabri]

Onto a new adventure: Installing some aftermarket AC in the vein of some of the others that have installed the Dometix RTX 2000. Instead, ive opted for the Nomadic X2- here's a few reasons why, and why I wouldn't.

Pros
- smaller roof cutout (14x14)
- lighter weight (57 vs 70)
- more BTU (11k vs 7k)
- cool black finish
- good quality support (so far)

Cons
- their marketing is off-putting. They need to tone down the pseudo science, and stop flooding the market with paid ads. Its horrid.
- their unit is too big for the vanagon luggage rack (more on this later)
- pricey (3k vs 2.4k)



Here's some pics, then I'll walk through the process.

Finished product (so far)

Without the luggage rack

Just the cutout with the foam gasket

Cut in the roof

Prepping to cut the roof, added cardboard to catch the metal flake

Fitting the unit in the luggage rack

Final cuts in the luggage rack

From the inside (not fully bolted/attached yet)

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Install details in post two following-
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[Sir Sam]

[charleslabri]

1. Ground strap

Ok, cool.. I have it mounted to the SS engine mount which is mounted to the frame. I'll just drill a new hole and put it there. I had originally mounted it on the engine frame mount since it was just very convenient and in the perfect spot. But I'll move it. Andy, I have known a few people who have a really hard time starting the boxeer kits that reach out to me from time to time. I'll pass this tidbit along to them. Ive never had issues starting my TDI, fires up perfect every time- probably due to me refreshing the OG ground strap and its connection points when I did the undercarriage.


2. OEM syncro cracks

I am not a diesel idler, but I will let the engine run for about 60-90s usually when starting it up cold before driving off. I wouldn't see this as excessive.
Regarding which syncos were used, I had Matt Steedle do the build back in 2020, unknown what syncros he used, but assuming top quality. He recently said that the syncros he used were NLA now. So I can assume it was the OG syncros.

3. Thrust damage on the 4th straight cut gear.

You can see the marring in the picture posted above. Not sure I can comment more on it since my words would only be pontificating and I wouldn't have any real answers. Id imagine Paul would be the best person to contact and see what he says.

4. decel on highway speeds in 4th.

Ok good to know that the issue shouldn't plague my straight cut gear. But lends me to just wonder what's going on here with the marring on the thrust surface.

5. Ground strap on front of trans.

As noted earlier, I'll move the new ground strap to a direct frame mount rather than piggybacking on the engine mount and then remove the front strap. I should have run a second battery cable when I did the rebuild. Being that I had never restored a vanagon, it just didn't cross my mind. I ran a really nice super beefy positive cable (to ensure maximum cranking amps) from the starter to the battery when I rebuilt the van (its visible in the picture of the ground strap in a braided industrial sheath.
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[AndyBees]

I agree with Sodo about piggy backing anything on the main Ground Strap at the chassis as well as making sure it is grounded to fresh shinny metal.

Here's my experience with bad grounding at the OE site at the front of the transmission.

The TDI engine I installed was a "very hard starter" right off the bat. Hard starting plagued me for more than 18 months.......... new battery, several good used starters, a rebuilt starter, a new starter, re-sealed the injection pump, changed the fuel lines, changed the timing, etc., and about scratched the rest of my hair out. Oh, and I installed a Relay at the starter for the ignition start wire. None of these things changed anything with respect to starting the engine.

So, one day just to make sure the Starter was getting full power from the ground side, I installed a long ground cable from the battery out the sliding door under the Van directly to the starter .......... Dang, bam, bam, it started perfectly every time over and over. Wow, I said.

Bottom line, during the conversion project, I had installed the ground wire for the ECU directly to the ground strap on the chassis in piggy back fashion. The theory is that the starter was "sucking" heavily on the ground during the start mode. So, as I learned later, the TDI ECU needs a minimum number of volts to function. The loss or reduced grounding affected that voltage.

So, I installed a permanent ground strap directly to the engine block from the Van body.
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'84 Vanagon Tin-top, ALH TDI, two trips to Alaska, 2014 & 16. 1989 Tin-top unmolested.
1983 Air-cool, 225k miles, 180k miles mine, seven trips to Alaska from 1986 thru 2003. 1975 Bay hopeful.

[Sodo]

[Sodo]

[Sodo]