Transverse mount mid-engine AHU diesel build thread - more pics

[leecat]

HI all!

*EDIT - added a bunch more pics of odds and ends of the build, below*

I am in the Vanagon forum 99% of the time, but thought I should FINALLY post a build thread for my 1969 Bay bus with a diesel AHU. I'm going to put it in the Bay thread (for obvious reasons) and then direct anyone who wants to check it out over here from the Vanagon forum - no reason this could not be done on a Vanagon as well.

Please bear with me as it could be a little long.

I did not want to go through all the hassle of bolting a fresh diesel to a tired, old, wrongly-geared bus transmission; I wanted the reliability of a newer transmission that's meant to be with the engine. I picked up a 1999 (but MK3 chassis) AHU Jetta for free and did all the usual freshening up on the engine, and got a '69 Bay Westy bus in pretty good shape (sans engine) for a couple hundred bucks.

The bare-bones basic of it is cutting the nose out of the Jetta and paring it down to almost nothing, then cutting out the rear frame rails of the bus and transferring the nose up under the van. That way you keep all of the stock Jetta motor/trans mounts, suspension, etc. Hopefully the pics will be the most informative part.

Alignment is of course absolutely critical or she'll dogtrack - wheelbase has to be set exactly the same left and right before welding in solid, and height has to be the same both sides as well.

Width-wise the Jetta is about one inch wider than the stock van rear end, so the wheel arches have to be curved outwards ever-so-slightly. I think you would run into trouble trying to run 15-inch-or-greater tires, stock 14 works best.

Of course, you end up with four-bolt rear wheels and five-bolt front wheels - I used a 1973 front frame with the bigger discs and ended up raising the front end slightly.

For brakes (four-wheel disc now) I started with the original Jetta proportioning valve but ended up stripping it right out - brakes work better without it. My brake booster was shot and had endless trouble until I had my unit rebuilt via Rockauto's service - now she stops on a dime.

I run newer Audi electronic rear brake calipers, one bolt on them bolts right up and it just requires a small bracket to fit the other bolt, I'd say 4/10 difficulty. Those calipers work fabulous - they are run to a momentary on/off switch on the dash, I can flick it several times to use it as a parking brake, hold it down and the rear brakes lock up solid.

The caliper body has to be shaved slightly to clear 14 inch stock Jetta rims, btw.

The Audi dual-bleed-screw calipers are a nightmare to bleed (you have to flip them upside-down while unbolted to get the lower bolt to bleed), fyi.

I'm running the stock (new, of course) van brake master and it operates the 'rear' Jetta (well, Audi) calipers perfectly.

I'm using Saturn Vue electric power steering with adjustable firmness controls - HOWEVER enough rough roads tend to shake the adjustment in the Saturn computer out of sync and she'll start to pull HARD to the right until re-adjusted. Not a pleasant experience and I may pull the whole system out and go with one of the newer Camry units that apparently has a 'fail-safe' mode and so requires no external controller. I really dislike Saturn's dodgy computer design.

I cut apart the Jetta steering rack and TIG-welded it to the frame to provide a solid-yet-still-stock-adjustable rear wheel alignment system. Viewing the pics are probably the best option there.

For shifting the 5-speed I ran two identical AHU shift linkages in an 'S' pattern (one from the shifter back, another from the transmission forward), with a custom solid pipe-and-slider-rod system mounted underneath in the center of the van. The slider rods have threaded ends with two nuts on each thread to lock adjustment in. It takes a lot of fiddling to set the gears, but once set they have worked flawlessly for a few years now.

The wiring was by far the worst - I made the mistake of running the computer up to the dash and extending ALL the wires the length of the van, rather than running the computer at the rear in stock-ish position and just running dash wires forward. NEVER. DO. THIS. Took me longer than the whole rest of the swap.

I am also running the Jetta steering wheel and full dash - the dash is a great fit with just a little trimming needed on the front curve (half an inch here and there, if I remember correctly) and a few minor brackets built.

My exhaust is stainless steel, the fuel tank runs behind the engine and to use the stock Jetta plastic tank the fuel filler door has to be relocated about six inches to the rear, onto the very rear curved quarter.

I'm sure there are ten thousand small details that I'm forgetting (I've been obsessed with my Vanagon and haven't been using this bay at all) but hopefully photos will tell most of the tale. It's not exactly a casual weekend project but ABSOLUTELY doable and I could do it in half the time now. The van hauls like nobody's business and gets 40+ mpg.

OH - the intercooler is mounted underneath, with a screen to protect it and ABS piping. I tried lighter flexible tubing for the turbo piping and it totally disintegrated in short order. I wanted to run the radiator up-front because I've never had luck with a bottom-mounted rad. The stock Jetta rad fan is dished into a steel cup welded into the nose to bring the rad as close to possible to the front of the van. I have stainless coolant lines run under the van to extend the cooling system, but other than that it is pretty stock-ish.

And now some pictures - please drop me a line if I haven't explained something well. I'd also love to know if there are other builds like this out there - I have only found one other partially-completed one in England.

I'll add a few completed pics when I have time - the rad has a painted-to-match shroud over it, of course, and the interior is complete.

Hope this is of some interest - if anyone is planning this and wants some specific pics, more than happy to help.

Thanks for reading all this! It was a fun little project. Sure do wish I hadn't painted it brown tho - don't know WHAT I was thinking. :/

And some more pics - the insulated 2-piece engine cover, with magnetic hatch for checking oil...a more detailed shot of the fuel tank install (there is a metal heat shield between the plastic fuel tank and the exhaust manifold), some interior shots including my folding sink that leaves the walkway clear when folded down, etc. The dash shot is an early one with p/s installed but without the steering wheel column cover on, or the end caps to finish off the dash. Thanks for looking!

In the above pic, a standard grocery-store 5-gallon blue plastic water jug sits under the cabinet, and the plastic tube runs to the electric water pump mounted under the countertop. That way we can carry extra water and just swap out jugs, and refill at any grocery store.

[caravelle c]

For this type of heresy, you should be sentenced to drive eternally Zastava Yugos and Reliant Robins till the end of your days!!!!!!

[tristessa]

H@ters gonna h@te.

Impressive amount of work and retro-engineering.

[skills@eurocarsplus]

anyone that gives me shit about putting Subaru's in these will get a swift kick in the dick.

looks like an interesting build.
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[CakeDiesel]

Interesting solution to combat the Achilles heel bus transaxles for a diesel conversion.

Very creative and original

[cmonSTART]

Seeing the rear rotors put this in the genius category for me!
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[vwwestyman]

[caravelle c]

[vwwestyman]

So is this project finished? I.e. the inteior put back in and all driveable and all that?

I assume that the panel over the engine is removable for servicing, etc.

Does it interfere with the back seat's useage? Appears that it does go into the open space under the back seat, but perhaps the stock seat could be reinstalled to make for a largely stock appearance from inside?

It also seems that one could close up the area over the fuel tank and use it as a trunk. That would help make up for eating up the under seat storage area of a Westy.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Zeitgeist 13]

[notchboy]

Ok this thread is weird and I feel as if Im not quite in the Bay Window Forum


Some Kind of off brand Hell where I eat Prongels and KicKer's

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[leecat]

Yes, this project is 100% completed and totally operable, inside and out. Yes, the panel over the engine IS removable, but still incorporates the stock engine deck lid as it's much easier to remove just that for checking coolant, etc.

Access to the oil dipstick is via a hatch under the back seat - I'll post a pic of the 2-piece engine cover that goes under the seat tomorrow.

I lost about eight inches of room behind the rear seat kick, the remaining space is just over the width of a deep-cycle battery so it's basically a long battery tray.

I have a folding sink with electric water pump, as well as the factory jump seat behind the driver's seat, with toilet storage beneath it. I'll post a few pics of that tomorrow. The rear seat remains 100% stock.

I've absolutely considered making storage space above the fuel tank - good eye. Just never gotten around to it yet. I also want to move the coolant reservoir rearward about ten inches (but mounted on the same shock tower). Access via the deck lid is a pain as the tank sits a little too far forward and close to the decklid for easy filling.

Thanks for the comments - the only serious crisis my gf and I had was me grounding the glow plug circuit for testing early in the build and then leaving it that way. Eventually it melted the cluster plugs and wiring, literally lit the cluster on fire (filling the van with smoke) and burned the main engine ground right off the block. We spent the night in a cow pasture, but it was still fun - at least we had a bed.

Can't send the U-boat fleet to sea without SOME casualties!!!

[ImAddicted]

[Spike0180]

What happened to the fuel tank? Is that black thing covering the passenger side battery tray the fuel tank now?

Sweet project btw. I'd love to see some more photos
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[vwwestyman]

[leecat]

Yes, vwwestyman is right about the fuel tank. The filler tube extends a little into the bed area, so my foam mattress is notched for that, and the plastic tank is where the engine originally would sit. The filler tube and tank are one-piece moulded plastic in the Jetta/Golf Mk3, so I had no choice - where the tank sits decides where the fuel filler is.

I'll post some more pics as soon as the torrential rain here stops, especially of the Audi electric e-brake setup.

[leecat]

Added a bunch more pics of interior and some closer shots of some build elements - still have to add rear electric brake pics as soon as the mud dries out and I can jack it up and pull a rim. Thank you for looking!

[markd89]

Thanks for posting up all the details.

As someone who did it the other way (VW Trans), I like your approach and it should be less costly to maintain in the longer term.

I have reliable cooling working with two radiators in series under the belly, so for those who don't like the front radiator, it'd be possible to combine leecats engine/trans with my cooling.
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78 TDI Sunroof Bus
Los Angeles

[vwwestyman]

Yeah, I think I like it too.

I just had my Bus trans rebuilt a couple months ago (for the second time).

This one is supposed to be stronger, but if it gives up the ghost again any time soon, I'm going to start looking in earnest for some other solution. Especially since the rear seat is still useable basically as-is, I don't hate this approach.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Hikelite]

Awesome

Please do not take this as any sort of slight or criticism... It's merely where my head went...

You have a steering rack in back, right? Why don't you have 4 wheel steering?

Kidding, but sorta not kidding. lol

Love the build.
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~Kevin

My 1968 Campmobile