[Vwdiesel] Looking for thoughts/perspective-TDI Bus Project

[Dave Cook]

Some of you may recall that I have a '78 Bus, that I installed a TDI motor from a '96 Passat into this past fall.  I got it running in early October and it seemed to work pretty well.  Except that I made an error in the cooling system. (Didn't connect a bleed nipple that was plugged, and the coolant escaped when the engine warmed up and pressure built).  The Auto-topsy revealed head damage, and a melted piston, as well as what looked like heat damage to the block in the area of the piston.  The engine got so hot that plastic bits melted inside and out!

To install the TDI motor, I utilized all the necessary parts from a Mexican watercooled Bay-oil pan, tranny bellhousing, carrier bar, etc.

Anyway, today I picked up a '92 Jetta because it "Ran like Shit" and the guy wasn't interested in trying to fix it.  I noted a very large crack in the rubber boot between the AFM and throttle, and took a gamble that that was creating a huge vacuum leak and is what was causing it to buck wildly.  I got home and as an experiment slapped some tape over the crack, and it seems like it made a big improvement already, so I imagine that was the biggest problem the engine has.

The car looks halfway decent though some trim is loose.  The interior is overall pretty decent too.  It would need some work to be driveable, such as correctly fixing the air leak, a battery, tires, possibly wheels (not 100% sure the ones on there are actual, proper fitting wheels-the seller said he traded the wheels for the steel rims that are on it), new tie rod ends, and out put shaft seals on the trans.  

So I gotta decide what to do with the Jetta.  

One option would be to throw a few oil seals at it and stick its motor into the bus.  All the mexi-bus stuff would fit on this motor and it would go in fairly easily save for figuring out a few wires and undoing some of the stuff I did for the TDI harness to hook up the Digifant system.  This would be considered "temporary" as I prefer the torque, economy, etc of the diesel. (Not to mention that is what I set out to do all along!)

Another option would be to fix whatever the Jetta needs up, and sell it and use that to help fund a new TDI motor later.  


Advantage of Option 1 would be getting the bus back to useable condition quickly, even in a weekend would be possible.  Disadvantage would be redoing some of the work down the road.  Another disadvantage would be either discarding of the Jetta carcass or possibly storing it for later reinstallation of the engine...?


Advantage of Option 2 would be not redoing things later down the road, and hopefully making profit on the sale of the car.  Disadvantage would be having to fix junk on the Jetta before selling it.  

 
Anyone have any thoughts on all this?  


Dave Cook