[Vwdiesel] 04 TDI work

[Travis Gottschalk]

Just finished working on my 04 TDI. I had blocked off the EGR but never removed the cooler. I thought I would try leaving the cooler hooked up so the exhaust could warm up the coolant in the winter better and compare to my brothers that had everything removed. I didn't notice a difference so I removed it all now so there is less parts to fail. (common to have the piping break loosing pressure pre-turbo or have exhaust and coolant mix. Also put a Passat oil cooler in the thing to help keep the oil and coolant more constant. Since I tow I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I will have to see what my coolant temps are in the future. I don't have an oil pressure/temp gauge since there isn't a great way to do that and have the dieselgeek bypass kit so I can't tell you those stats. I think my axle seal is leaking again as well. Could be some over spill from me filling the car too so I will clean it up and drive without the belly pan (sin in my world) for a week and see if more clean oil appears. It isn't black oil so it rules that out.

In other news I just got my hobbiest license plates for the 81 rabbit car. In WI if you have a 20 plus year old vehicle and you have a vehicle you aren't going to license like that then you can get these plates. You never have to renew so the savings is after two years. The restriction is I can't drive in January. Well they are parked then due to salt. You can get a temp 1 month permit for that month if you want. They basically are the same as the collector plates only there you have to have all original so I figured I would cover my but. Cost and restrictions are the same. First plate takes about 3 weeks. Second plate is about 10 weeks as they add a -A, -B, ect on to the same number with each added vehicle classified. So I have about 10 weeks now to get the truck running again. I just spent $735 on the injection pump and injectors on that. The injectors were sticking and not matching pressures. Also had new nozzles. The IP was leaking out the shaft seal. I have a new timing belt and tensioner and just need to get the seals done on that side of the engine as it is leaking somewhere. 

Any tricks to get the crank bolt off while in the truck? And re-torquing? 

Travis G