AFN TDI + DHL A4 Box Conversion complete!

[davegsm82]

I'm doing an AFN + DHL install on my T25 since the JX is too small and revvy for my liking.

I've got the engine and box, and just today offered up the box (not flipped for now) to get the engine running, runs well and proves my Loom is working OK.

Will add some pictures and videos soon.

Dave.

[syncroandy]

Do you like Terminators "cock" then ?

(aka Boxter gearstick)

There are other options...

[davegsm82]

I don't want to go down the cable gearchange route if possible, I will try and home-brew a gearchange solution as I really can't afford to do anything else. For the mean-time I may just fit the engine and flipped box with backwards gears and change it when I come up with something.

Here's a Little video of the Engine starting and running, without sound unfortunately, not that you can really discern anything anyway as there's nothing bolted to the turbo at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwCYvQ7FMt0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dave.

[davegsm82]

Another video today, with sound this time. Progress made as I've managed to IMMO-OFF my MSA15 from the engine Donor Sharan and also my 'Spare' MSA15 which came from the A4 that donated its DHL gearbox (not a passat, I know).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xhMLMD3_Rw

I did some investigation into the Immo-OFF '60' mod. For those not familiar with the mod, you have to read the EEPROM inside the MSA15 ECU, this is a little I2C Chip on the underside of the circuit board, once you've read the contents of the EEPROM you have to open it in a 'Hex-editor' and locate all instances of the value '33h' and replace it with the value '60h'. This is usually fine, however the value '33h' is actually also the number '3' in ASCII code.

Since there is some ASCII in the ECU this means that sometimes you're overwriting the ID of the ECU which may cause issues. Also, fault codes are stored in the EEPROM and any fault codes with the value '33h' will be modified. Simply blanket changing all the '33's to '60's isn't a good way of doing it.

What I found from analysing other people's EEPROM dumps with both IMMO off and on, was that usually (but not always) the value '33' appears at location number 65h AND 82h in the EEPROM. When I opened my EEPROM, I found that there was only 1 instance of '33h' at location 65h, but location 82h was 00h. Just changing location number 65h didn't work, so I dumped it again and changed location 82h to '60h' even though it was originally 00h.

After doing this, the ECU starts and runs fine.

Things I need to do next;
Mount the ECU, glowplug relay, main power Relay and associated wiring onto a plate that I can mount near the engine bay.
Extend the Wiring for Clocks, Throttle, Clutch/brake switches and OBD2 port. This whole lot will be on an Extension cable up to the cab.
Buy Clutch slave cylinder.
Buy Gearbox flip Adapter plate.
Make turbo adapter Plate or arrange a new Exhaust downpipe.
Fabricate driveshaft adapters.
Fabricate throttle pedal plate to replace the original pedal.
Mount the Clutch/brake switches at the pedals.
Obtain spare set of clocks, to convert with the new clocks as seen in the video.

I admit this is going to be a slow moving build, but I'll get there in the end (when funds permit ).

At least I have the engine running

Dave.

[davegsm82]

Adapter plate arrived from Tim at Ultimate Engineering today.

Managed to get the gearbox rebuilt after coming back from the machine shop 15mm shorter. Had to strip it for them to get it under the CNC miller

Also called my insurance (JK) and enquired about costs for the engine upgrade, looks like it will be an extra £125 on top of my premium which although is expensive, will be worth it in my opinion.

Dave.

[gazza7200]

Do you like Terminators ""cock"" then ?

(aka Boxter gearstick)

There are other options...

Just fitted an Iveco Daily shifter to mine (old metal one - not the newer plastic one), seems to work well, v.smooth.
total cost is £31.00, just need a cowl over it now!

Gaz..

[Dutchman]

Hi Gaz,

Please post a foto installation of the Iveco gearstick.
I have also a TDI with flipped box (audi 80 TDI) and made the adapterplate by myself.
But i do make a gearshift installation for the right shift pattern.
Do you have an suggestion?

Kind regards Robin.

[davegsm82]

Robin, I'm working on something to give a reasonable gear change with the original gear lever when I get back of holiday.

Would be interested to see the Iveco lever solution though.

Dave.

[davegsm82]

Got the engine out of this yesterday, stripped off the relevant parts such as sump and pickup pipe and put them on the AFN.

Today After offering up the turbo I worked out that I needed to re-index it 60 degrees anticlockwise from its nominal position (viewed from the exhaust port), unfortunately the internal structure only allows for 120 degree shifts, so I had to re-drill and tap the 3x M4 screw holes internally which allowed me to get the correct position. Took some doing and needed a little bit of rework as I drilled the holes slightly off centre but managed to sort that ok.

This is the position you need....



The position allowed me to use the extension pipe from the new turbo along with the oil supply pipe from the JX. To do this I had to bend it very slightly and re-use the attachment from the top of the oil filter housing.

Swapped all the pipes over from the JX, including the thermostat housing as this was slightly different to the AFN one.

Swapped the engine mounts over from the JX to AFN.

Not sure exactly how I'll be tackling the intercooler but the idea so far is to use the SAAB 900 one, for convenient connections I've taken the intake manifold from my spare MK4 Golf engine and cut off the EGR valve flange. This should give enough space to attach a short pipe from the intercooler which will be mounted in the air intake vent at the rear. I've also re-indexed the intake side of the turbo so all I need is a simple L-shaped pipe to go to the intercooler.





Re-drilled the rear mounts 40mm lower, but am somewhat confused about the other instruction I was given about drilling 10mm further forward. Have left it there and shoved it under the van for the night as I'm knackered.


Dave.

[davegsm82]

Got the engine offered up today, took some doing to get it into place.



Turns out you need to re-drill the fronts of the engine mounting bars 10mm forwards and fit 10mm spacers at the rear. I'm not sure why you can't just use the original positions and simply re-drill/remanufacture the new gearbox nose mount. For the sake of 10mm I can't see what difference it makes but I suppose Tim must have tried this already.

The engine is in and currently hanging on the engine mounts but I need to make up some 10mm thick spacers tomorrow. I don't have any 10mm flat bar so will have to double up some 4-5mm stuff I have in the workshop.

With any luck I may have it running tomorrow, although I still need to add wiring for the Fly-by-wire stuff and the new clocks which I also need to mount in the dash-pod.

A couple of pictures showing the approximate location for the SAAB intercooler and it's position relative to the intake manifold, also the turbo outlet shown down the side of the engine pointing upwards.





Progress...

[MGP]

Is the spacer due to your early engine bars? Mines been running for about 4 years with no spacers

[davegsm82]

I'm not entirely sure to be honest, will mine be early if its a 1988?

I think you could get away without spacers but it would need the gearbox mount modified as the whole thing is shorter than the original engine and box.

Got all the mounts finished off today, found out that you have to move the gearbox minting bracket to the other set of holes in the chassis, otherwise the gearbox sits to far to the right and the left hand driveshaft doesn't reach. V I almost screamed before I figured that one out.

Turbo piping is going to be nice and easy, I've cut and modified the original alloy turbo pipe from the sharan, simplifies the routing of the pipework a little. Just need to get it tigged up now as I cant weld alloy.

Hooked up the ECU but can't get it started, have killed my vag com cable too so can't diagnose the fault either. Just sits there cranking over on the starter but not firing. After a few seconds of cranking you get a fair bit of white diesely smoke from the exhaust.

Pictures to follow.

Dave.

[davegsm82]

Big day today, started working on it again about 9am. Had the engine running by about 11am after I re-checked my timing belt and found I had both the Cam and the pump out of time by 1 tooth each in different directions!

https://youtu.be/HWqW69UKfVE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The rest of the day I have spent installing the clutch slave cylinder (was broken so had to make a bracket), tidying up the wiring and wrapping the loom, installing the ECU in the 'wardrobe', sorting the vacuum hoses for the turbo actuator and brake assist and I finally got onto the task of sorting out the intercooler which was not something I was looking forward to.

In fact, I've come up with an absolute work of art made from the scrap pipes that came from the Sharan and the A4 that supplied the gearbox.

Firstly, I chose the SAAB intercooler as I wanted something hidden away in the pillar. The SAAB intercooler has 60mm hoses whereas all the VW stuff is about 48mm, there's no way to stretch the hoses that much. So I adapted the intercooler like this...



I chopped the ends off of one of the hoses that came from the sharan, shaved a tiny amount of plastic from the outside then used solvent weld and brute force to get it into the inside of the intercooler ports. I secured this further with 2 screws and some silicone sealant.

I then chopped down this pipe...



like this...



and used the bit on the right to go from the intercooler outlet to the intake manifold, along with 4 spring clips and 2 bits of hose to join it up.

The end result is this;



The hose on the inlet to the intercooler is the 'S' shaped one that comes with the long thin Sharan intercooler, this goes down to the turbo via the original sharan aluminium pipe as shown below, which has been cut and temporarily pinned with a screw, as in the next picture down. Going to get this Tigged up when I get a chance.

before...


after...


The turbo intake goes something like this...



Chopped down the original intake pipe and removed the lugs, then used a 90 degree bend pipe that came from the A4 intercooler to connect to a weird shaped pipe which then goes up the back of the engine in front of the timing belt cover.



up there...



pops up here.

Then it's just a short flexible pipe ride along to this, which I've placed behind the battery in the right hand rear pillar.




All that's left to do now is sort out the clocks and a bracket for the throttle pedal, plus the assosciated wiring to get all this back to the ECU. I do have to extend the wires for the N75 valve too, since I mistakenly extended the EGR one instead

Other minor stuff still to do such as make a bracket for the intercooler, tidy up the cables and make a workable gearshift translator, but I'm working on that still, backwards gears will have to do for now. The engine also needs a new coolant temperature sensor, since the ECU says it's permanently 90'c even when stone cold. This might be why it seems to crank over for quite a while before starting.

I have one minor concern that there seems to be a suspicious amount of oil built up in the turbo, and there seemed to be a lot of black sooty oil around the turbo outlet before I bolted on the exhaust pipe. I'm a little worried that the turbo may be kaput, or possibly just a result of not being exactly at the angle it's supposed to run at? (oil supply and return vertical?).

Dave.

[davegsm82]

p.s, I figured out what was wrong with my Vag Cable. I'd managed to blow a transistor by accidentally connecting the K-line to 12v.



Swapped it with one from a scrap board and it works again

[davegsm82]

Have been driving around in the bus over the last couple of days, what a transformation. It felt heavy and agricultural previously, now even with the heavy steering it's still a dream to drive with the new engine. The wife nearly jumped out of her skin when I accelerated in 1st and 2nd.

Easily gets to 70 and holds it fine even into a headwind, although you can feel you're using a lot of throttle and if it's particularly windy you need to drop down to 4th to make it a bit more comfortable. I think I had about 76 out of it today before I ran out of road.

It still seems that 60-65 is the 'happy' speed that the van likes to travel at, however you're now doing it in 5th gear with very little throttle.

I got my new cluster installed, I chose a set of VDO clocks from a MK4 golf, took a lot of work getting the fuel gauge working correctly (reprogramming the internal EEPROM) but it works now, and the speedo reads the exact right speed now too. Was 16% off originally but I couldn't Softcode it even with the correct login pin. Had to do it manually in the EEPROM.

Can't vouch for fuel economy yet, will have to see how it goes in the coming weeks/months.

Dave.