[Vwdiesel] Considering Options (Dead TDI Bus)

[ralph meyermann]

If you have another running engine available I would install it and enjoy
it while rebuilding/juicing the other if possible that way you could enjoy
the fruit of your labor and have more drive time to see how you want to
juice the one being rebuilt? Thats just my crazy talk as usual! My daughter
is also disappointed in missing bustoberfest this year.

Velma 82 1.9L AAZ td westy
On Oct 14, 2013 10:17 AM, "Dave Cook" <davevw at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I was telling my parents that one of the biggest things (besides the time
> and money aspect) that I was personally disappointed about with the engine
> dying like it did was that my foster kid was pretty bummed about not being
> able to camp in the bus at Bustoberfest this weekend.  I was talking to my
> mom and uncle about relaying my uncle's tow dolly to me so that I could tow
> the bus this year.  Instead, she found a good used dolly for a good deal,
> and bought it for me!  So the bus will be going to Bustoberfest after all,
> though not under its own power I guess.
>
> I'll be pulling the engine and transmission this week, which will reduce
> towed weight and prevent the possiblity of further damage from it popping
> into gear or something..  I don't know if I'll have time for an
> "auto-topsy" or not on the engine before the weekend, but I can tell you it
> is seized good and tight.  I used my 4Runner to push it backwards a little
> and decided to just see if it would rotate at all backwards, by putting in
> 1st and pushing it gently.  Nope.  The 4Runner's tires squeaked on the
> driveway and the bus didn't budge.
>
> But for the purposes of discussion, lets assume that the engine is
> rebuildable.
>
> If it were you, would you pursue 1) a good used engine on a pallat, 2)a
> running but ratty/wrecked car from which to pull the engine, or
> 3) rebuilding the one I have or 4) low likelihood here- buying a newer car
> and installing the rear-ended '02 Golf TDI's motor.  (Car is kinda ugly now
> but it runs fine and I drive it daily.)  In a quick search, it looks like
> the costs would be similar whichever way I go depending on how lucky I
> might get one way or another.
>
> Though the engine I have was running fine, I did kind of imagine that I
> would start looking at pulling it and rebuilding it over the winter after
> driving it a bit for a "proof of concept".  The car had 260,000ish miles
> when it was wrecked so I imagine some internals were starting to see wear.
>
> I wouldn't mind a bit more power out of the engine.  It was an improvement
> over the old 2.0 motor the bus had, but was also a little lower than I had
> hoped.  (Though the short-lived test drive on larger tires seemed to
> improve that, perhaps it was just the engine rapping out too early.)
>
> As I recall, it had the next step up from stock nozzles from Kerma, but
> was otherwise stock besides me pulling the EGR crap off and installing an
> AAZ intake manifold.  I don't know if codes from not having EGR or the cat
> temp sensors would have caused any kind of limp mode but I don't think so.
>
> I was interested in the recent discussion of changing to the VNT turbo via
> a chip and swapping out the N75 valve, and would be interested in a little
> bit power upgrading.
>
> On the other hand, social work doesn't pay that well, so if I pursued
> rebuilding, I could risk the bus sitting for another whole camping season
> if it ends up taking time getting it going, wheras I could find a running
> motor and get it going again, and then work on building a beefier motor
> later.  Selling parts from a ratty car could help pay for some of this, I
> expect.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
> Dave Cook
> _______________________________________________
> Vwdiesel mailing list
> Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel
>