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First picture shows the ACME adapters adapter plate. This bolts to the back of the TDI and makes it now have the same bolt pattern of a 20r/22r/22re. The adapter plate also comes with a bushing for the end of the VW crankshaft that the toyota transmission input shaft slides into. The second picture shows the included custom flywheel which is the same size and dimensions as the Toyota flywheel (8 3/4"), with the bolt pattern and offset to bolt directly to the TDI crank. And bolted up to the flywheel (not pictured) is a Marlin Crawler 1600lb high torque clutch.

The last picture highlights all of the work that went in before getting the engine in. First and most obvious, is I removed most everything in the engine bay as it was not needed for the TDI. All that is left is the master cylinders, heater hoses and the toyota wiring harness. I then gave it a thorough cleaning and complete paint job using POR15 as most of the engine bay was covered in surface rust. Also note that the new transmission is sitting much further forward (around 5") compared to the stock transmission. This was to allow room behind the engine for exhaust and other components. It was also dictated by the length of propeller shaft I was able to find at the junkyard (I can now avoid a custom drive shaft).

There were also a bunch of small little projects that added up in the time department (like the body lift) that I will not go into detail about. All said and done, I am very glad I took all the extra time to prep things correctly before the engine went it. Later I will post pictures of the engine installed.

tdi_acmeplate.png

tdi_flywheel.png

painted_enginebay.png

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Don't forget your pilot bushing for the Toy trans it had a ball bearing so the center will be small.

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Finally someone with more action and less words.  Diesel powered Toyota MH have been a hot topic for a long time, now there is a conversion

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As promised, here is a picture of the clearance between the cross member and the oil pan. Again there is also about the same clearances on the driver side and top of the engine and the hood. Even with this tiny engine, clearances are small but got it in there!

engine_oilclearance.png

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Got the engine radiator and air-to-water intercooler radiator mounted. Engine radiator that came out of the VW had to be mounted all the way to the passenger side to leave some room for a small (group 26) battery on the drivers side. Intercooler radiator was mounted in the center. I am a little worried about cooling at this point, as there is only room to mount two 10" radiator fans in the front. I may be able to get an additional fan on the passenger side in the engine bay but will run with the two 10" fans for now and hope for the best.

engine_radiator.png

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Fuel system was installed as well. The fuel tank was dropped and thoroughly cleaned. I removed the old fuel pump and did a new fuel pickup and return using 5/16" fuel line. Did not get pictures of the fuel pickup system at the tank but could dig up the forum I took the idea from if anyone is ever interested.

I am using a low pressure, high flow lift pump (green pump in picture on firewall) to help draw the diesel up. It then goes through a 14 micron and water separating filter (white filter), then through a true 2 micron CAT filter (yellow) then to the injection pump. I went majorly over kill on the filters but I am sure it will be worth it if the time comes that I get a bad tank of diesel. Also a few bucks for a filter is far cheaper than a new injection pump. 

I will get a better picture up at some point showing all of the fuel line plumbing.

 

engine_fuelfilter.png

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Here is the intercooler and intake set up. All of the air pipes are run, just need to install the water pump and water lines for the intercooler. Everything was done using 2.5" aluminum piping. I used a bunch of pieces from the stock intercooler and intake system to make mounting the MAF sensor and crankcase vent heater easy. Did get an aftermarket flange to mount the MAP sensor down stream of the intercooler in the aluminum piping. All of this was very important to me as I wanted to keep all of the stock engine sensors since once you start deleting these sensors, the engines efficiency would take a hit. 

I was unable to fit the stock airbox so instead used a cone filter mounted inside a 6" aluminum pipe (lower left of the picture) which will help draw cool air from the front and hopefully limit the amount of hot engine air in the intake.

This picture also shows the completed fuel line plumbing (minus some pipe clamps). Things a looking pretty messy right now but will get everything cleaned up once it is running.

I also have the electrical done. All I need is to get a lower radiator hose and intercooler plumbed to radiator and I can fire it up. Also still have the exhaust to do but that can hold off until it is running. Will hopefully be firing it up on Wednesday!

engine_intercooler.png

Edited by gmg
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It runs! Video is not the first start up but it started up just as easily the first time.

Lots of little things left but probably 90% done at this point.

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Its Alive, congratulations DR. Frankenstein.

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Can you get the engine up a bit higher with shims under the engine mounts? The oil pans are really thin and fragile broken pans were a big problem in the cars that's awfully close the the cross member it may touch when it's torqued up. 

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3 hours ago, Maineah said:

Can you get the engine up a bit higher with shims under the engine mounts? The oil pans are really thin and fragile broken pans were a big problem in the cars that's awfully close the the cross member it may touch when it's torqued up. 

Definitely have that option. We will see what happens there really is not much room on the top side to move it up. I could maybe move it up a quarter inch and I may do that. Another option I have considered if it comes to it is:

www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/products/1-9-tdi-hybrid-shallow-sump.html

Gains me 1cm and a steel bottom oil pan.

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For your NEXT install? maybe a rosebud torch and a BFH applied to the crossmember would give you a bit more clearance.

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5 minutes ago, WME said:

For your NEXT install? maybe a rosebud torch and a BFH applied to the crossmember would give you a bit more clearance.

That would have doubled as some stress relief after all of the frustration with the motor mounts!

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  • 1 month later...

Short update.

It drives! I can now say for sure that this swap was beyond worth it! This little motor has so much torque, just at idle I can let my foot off the clutch with the E-brake on, and it will crawl forward without a hint of stalling. This is even without a tune which should yield 50ish more ft-lbs of torque. It seriously drives like most other diesel trucks I have driven. I was taking it really easy on engine but even so, this thing can get up and MOVE!

I raised the engine up about 3/4" which still allows me to close the hood and have the clearance to where the oil pan will not hit the crossmember even when torqued up. The last big thing I have left is the exhaust which I will tackle some time this week. It will be 2.5" exhaust (stock size is 2 1/8" for this engine) with only a cat. Initially will not run a muffler since I love the sound that comes out of this thing. If it gets old, it would only take me a few hours to throw in a muffler.

Once the exhaust and all the routine maintenance items done (timing belt, water pump, oil change, etc.), I will post up a video of this thing driving around.

I will say it now though, if anyone is contemplating an engine swap that is beyond just a simple bolt in, this is the swap to do! Even if I don't get any increase in fuel efficiency, just how this thing drives is well worth it. That said I still have high hopes for the fuel economy. I have not tallied up the cost but I think this swap would give the biggest bang for your buck!

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3 hours ago, linda s said:

Ooh I love the sound of a diesel. Can't wait to hear it. I'm going to have to find out if I can do this swap in Cal. They're so strict here.

Linda S

From what I have read, you can as long as all of the stock emission devices are present in their factory form. The egr valve would be the trickiest bit to fit as it would have kept my hood from closing.

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry I have not been updating this. A lot more work has been done. I will update everyone soon. 

Quick update as we just took it on its first trip. We are still getting limp mode (aka no boost and down fueling to protect engine) from the ecm trying to communicate with transmission control module that is not there. A tune will solve that. Sadly we were left limping our way up the big hills with about the same power as the 20r. Again a simple tune will solve that.

I filled the tank completely before and appears I have a leak out of one of my pick up ports. Will have to drop the tank to fix this. Also means I could not get accurate fuel economy measurements, however I still draw some fuel economy estimates.

WARNING!!! This may be bordering on heresy here and I will provide indisputable evidence once the tank is fixed. Here is step by step facts/numbers.

1. Filled up with needle square in the middle of "E" with 12.91 gallons.

2. As of now, drove exactly 250 miles. Speedometer is still spot on so miles are correct.

3. Still have 1/3 of a tank according to the terrible gauge.

So lets say low end mpg is 12.91 gallons in 250 miles yielding 19.4 mpg. Yes, that is 19.4 mpg as a MINIMUM!

In all actuality probably used more like 10 gallons which would be 25 mpg! That doesn't even take into consideration the gallon or more of diesel that leaked out. This is also not flat straight roads. Several 1000 ft of elevation gain and curvy canyon roads. Also 30 miles of that was city driving and decent amount of idling.

Once tank is fixed and more trips taken, I will get precise numbers. 

 

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Diesels and turbos are a match made in heaven... Get your turbo going and your MPG will go up, your smiles will increase substantially.

Gas gauges are not very linear, so MPG is best done fillup to fillup

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6 minutes ago, Derek up North said:

Or even more accurate, averaged over several fills.

That is definitely the plan!

1 hour ago, WME said:

Diesels and turbos are a match made in heaven... Get your turbo going and your MPG will go up, your smiles will increase substantially.

Gas gauges are not very linear, so MPG is best done fillup to fillup

Turbo works under light load so driving on flats it kicks in and nothing but sh*t eating grins on my face! 

At this point I will not be surprised to see 30mpg on a tank.

One problem I am having is with final drive ratio in 5th, I am up at 2800 rpm at 60. I want to be down aroubd 2400-2500. I can not find any information on any gearing smaller than 4.1 in the differntial for the one ton axle. Anyone know if 3.73 or something similar exists? If not, looks like I may be getting custom wheels and bigger tires. That will probably be worth 1-2 mpg increase on the flats.

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18 hours ago, gmg said:

That is definitely the plan!

Turbo works under light load so driving on flats it kicks in and nothing but sh*t eating grins on my face! 

At this point I will not be surprised to see 30mpg on a tank.

One problem I am having is with final drive ratio in 5th, I am up at 2800 rpm at 60. I want to be down aroubd 2400-2500. I can not find any information on any gearing smaller than 4.1 in the differntial for the one ton axle. Anyone know if 3.73 or something similar exists? If not, looks like I may be getting custom wheels and bigger tires. That will probably be worth 1-2 mpg increase on the flats.

It's not cheap but if you have a 1.9 TDi  it can access pretty much everything. Vag Com by Ross-Tech. Had issues with my TDi turbo WOT several years ago found it with in minutes. Best I ever did with my TDi was 57 mpg 906 miles on one tank! Loved that car but it was coming up on the 300K service and it was time to reduce the fleet.

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2 minutes ago, Maineah said:

It's not cheap but if you have a 1.9 TDi  it can access pretty much everything. Vag Com by Ross-Tech. Had issues with my TDi turbo WOT several years ago found it with in minutes. Best I ever did with my TDi was 57 mpg 906 miles on one tank! Loved that car but it was coming up on the 300K service and it was time to reduce the fleet.

Oh I got the vagcom! Best few hundred bucks I spent! Took 10 minutes to figure out I had a bad maf sensor which was also causing limp mode. Makes diagnosing problems very easy. Will also make tuning and future upgrades for power and efficiency easy.

It is crazy how efficient these engines are. Was poking through tdi forums and someone did a very good job comparing total efficiency between a tdi alh and the prius drive system. The tdi was the clear winner in total efficiency. Your experience speaks to that as I dont know of anyone who got 57 mpg in a prius!

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I live in Maine that cotton pickin engine is so blasted efficient in the winter time if I waited for someone running the engine the heater would drop to blowing cold air. I never bothered to warm it up because it wouldn't unless I drove it. It never ceased to amaze how anything could use so little fuel and have so much guts! 

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Had friends that had a MBZ 240D in Alaska, the engine ran for 4-5 months continually 24/7 during the winters. The only time it was turned off was in a heated garage for an oil change.

They let the heater off when it idled to avoid the problem Maineah had. He said it used between 1.5 to 2 qt of diesel a night.

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Thought I fixed the leaks in the tank so filled up. Still minor leak but I was able to get an accurate fuel economy reading.

23.76 mpg. 

Again this does not take into consideration the substantial amount of fuel that leaked out. Was also a lot of idling and probably 70 miles of city driving. I now definitely forsee regularly getting  30+ mpg.

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22 hours ago, linda s said:

If you would ever consider doing another one please let me know. I will make it worth your time

Linda S

For you Linda, I may entertain the idea in a couple years. Next summer I already have an om617 swap into a jeep lined up for a good friend. That following spring or summer, I could do it. I think the second swap would be much easier.

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40 minutes ago, gmg said:

For you Linda, I may entertain the idea in a couple years. Next summer I already have an om617 swap into a jeep lined up for a good friend. That following spring or summer, I could do it. I think the second swap would be much easier.

You know where to find me. No California smog issues with me. Where I live is so rural you only have to pass smog when you buy. So I never need to smog my Sunrader ever again and whose to know it's diesel. Oh FUN

Linda S

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  • 2 months later...

Figured it is time for an update. Man this thing has given me some headaches in the last couple months!

Driving to Seattle from Idaho for thanksgiving, the alternator went out after a few hours on the road. Luckly I had a large house bank to limp us to the next town with an Oreilly's where I put a new alternator in. This did require removing the radiators and ended up being a 4 hour job in 20 degree weather. The next morning, not even 5 miles down the interstate, there was a loud clunk, the feeling like we ran something over and the sunrader started jerking and shuddering. I thought the engine grenaded and my stomach sank! It ended up being some oil that got thrown up onto the clutch. I think the clutch was damaged as I could barely get it into gear and grinding into 1st and second. I limp it to seattle. Mind you this entire time the engine was going into limp mode and I had very little power.

My initial inspection led me to believe it was the rear main seal that was leaking. So I pull the engine and find this was not the case. It was in fact the main seal around the input shaft of the transmission. I seal this up and in goes a new clutch. Sadly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear syncros are kaput. This transmission was a junkyard transmission so I knew it was going to have to be replaced at some point but not this early. This was determined on thanksgiving day so no chance of sourcing a new transmission. I had to leave our home in Seattle for three weeks and headed back to Idaho. At this point I want to take this thing out back and put it out of its misery!

Over that three weeks I did a lot of research to figure out how to diagnose my limp mode issue. Also got everything to do a complete timing belt job and do all routine maintenance items as I had no idea when these were last done. I came back to seattle ready to get this running well.

One of the greatest things about the tdi engine, is the online community and wealth of information out there. Also having VCDS to log any engine sensor and access all of the ECM data makes working on a more complex engine much simpler. I was able to trace my limp mode issues to a poor connection in the MAF sensor connector. Got a new connector, did the timing belt job and other routine maintenance. In doing the timing belt job, I realized that the person who did the timing belt previously did not do it correctly. The cam was slightly out of time and the injection timing was highly retarded (which would cause lower power and poor fuel economy). Everything got fixed and a new transmission was put in.

I now have almost a 1000 miles on it since doing the work. Not once have I gotten limp mode and all I can say now is this thing is a blast! This engine is bone stock so only has 90hp and 155ft lbs. of torque (similar to a 22r). So on very steep hills I am only going up the hill at 40 mph in 3rd (not pushing the engine hard). However, on gradual hills on the interstate, I can power up those things in 5th gear at 60 mph. This was not possible before. All of these miles have been fully loaded at just under 6000 lbs. At this point, I am not going to tune the engine or do any performance upgrades. I think I will take the fuel economy and longevity over going 60 up steep hills.

Wish I could say something more certain about fuel economy over those 1000 miles but sadly the speedo cable broke within the first 10 miles of finishing all of this work. Using mile markers though, I am certain I am well into the 20's mpg (I estimated around 22-23 mpg). I am finally enjoying my time driving this thing as I am not always on edge thinking when is it going to go into limp mode or worried about the timing belt going and destroying the engine.

Finally, here are some pictures of my sunrader. I will post some interior pictures at some point as this has undergone a total overhaul and remodel, beyond just the engine.

20180923_125328.jpg

20180923_125352.jpg

Edited by gmg
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