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

[peter blake]

Dave,
 Sorry to hear u burned up that motor. My first thot is what r u driving now?
If u have a reliable vehicle to get u around for the immediate future then                                                                      I think I'd do the minimal amount of fixing on the jetta and sell it to
fund the new tdi.  Seems a whole lot less work for the same end result.
Good luck in whatever path u choose.
Peter
--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 12/15/13, Dave Cook <davevw at yahoo.com> wrote:

 Subject: [Vwdiesel] Looking for thoughts/perspective-TDI Bus Project
 To: "Buskatiers Group" <buskatiers at buskatiers.org>, "tdi" <VW-TDI at yahoogroups.com>, "TDI-Conversion Group" <TDI-conversion at yahoogroups.com>, "i4 conversion" <vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines at googlegroups.com>, "VW Diesel Group" <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
 Date: Sunday, December 15, 2013, 6:44 PM
 
 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
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