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

[lbaird119 at aol.com]

  For myself there'd be NO question.  The one that involves the least "doing it over" and costs me the least.  Sounds like that'd be fixing the Jetta, selling it and sourcing a TDI in the meantime, to buy with the proceeds.  I dislike doing stuff over and the newer the car, the more I hate it.  :-)

  Just fixed the brush rake Friday (had to make two new arms, just pipe with a turned end and 3 holes).  Dad raked about 6 rows of brush, the ring around the outside broke a weld and bent all 8 arms.  UGH!  At least we found that one of them was broken and about to break in half...
    Loren



-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Cook <davevw at yahoo.com>
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>
Sent: Sun, Dec 15, 2013 6:44 pm
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Looking for thoughts/perspective-TDI Bus Project


Some of you may recall that I have a '78 Bus, that I installed a TDI motor from 
 '96 Passat into this past fall.  I got it running in early October and it 
eemed 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 
he engine warmed up and pressure built).  The Auto-topsy revealed head damage, 
nd a melted piston, as well as what looked like heat damage to the block in the 
rea of the piston.  The engine got so hot that plastic bits melted inside and 
ut!
To install the TDI motor, I utilized all the necessary parts from a Mexican 
atercooled Bay-oil pan, tranny bellhousing, carrier bar, etc.
Anyway, today I picked up a '92 Jetta because it "Ran like Shit" and the guy 
asn't interested in trying to fix it.  I noted a very large crack in the rubber 
oot between the AFM and throttle, and took a gamble that that was creating a 
uge vacuum leak and is what was causing it to buck wildly.  I got home and as 
n experiment slapped some tape over the crack, and it seems like it made a big 
mprovement 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 
retty decent too.  It would need some work to be driveable, such as correctly 
ixing the air leak, a battery, tires, possibly wheels (not 100% sure the ones 
n there are actual, proper fitting wheels-the seller said he traded the wheels 
or the steel rims that are on it), new tie rod ends, and out put shaft seals on 
he 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 
us.  All the mexi-bus stuff would fit on this motor and it would go in fairly 
asily save for figuring out a few wires and undoing some of the stuff I did for 
he 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 
hat 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 
hat to help fund a new TDI motor later.  

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

dvantage of Option 2 would be not redoing things later down the road, and 
opefully making profit on the sale of the car.  Disadvantage would be having to 
ix junk on the Jetta before selling it.  
 
nyone have any thoughts on all this?  

ave Cook
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