Tdi engine bay layout..?

[ratinyho]

Would like to hear off people who have already done an Afn conversion on where they located/the best place things in the engine bay. I have a loom boxed up ready to send to Andy at syncro sport so i've got until the courier collects it tomorrow to finalise the layout.

I have a syncro doka and will be using a subaru legacy charge cooler behind the pass side light. I was looking at mounting the pendal sender on the bracket supplied by ultimate engineering (bolts behind alternator), does anyone else have this setup?

Any advice mucho appreciated

[lloydy]

You'll find EVERYONE does it differently, it drove me crazy!
I have all my relays and the ECU. Fitted in the bottom of the westy wardrobe, maybe yours could go in the locker under bed? so they are away from the elements. The N18 and N75 I have fitted behind the LH light cluster along with the charge cooler pump. You might want to put yours on the metalwork on the left hand side of engine due to your charge cooler being there. . MAF is just after the air filter on mine. I also have a MAP sensor (you might not, depending on age of engine) that goes on the pipe between chargecooler and inlet manifold. I got my loom from Andy, very nicely done and worth the money.

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

Lloyd's described all the important bits I think - being a doka it's different to mine as I had to shift the snorkel to the drivers side as I have an air-air intercooler where you're proposing a chargecooler, and the induction pipes got in the way of a position for the air filter box. This is what I have (what a mess):



as Lloyd says - N18 (not connected as EGR deleted) and N75 on the left side - MAF between airbox and turbo inlet, and snorkel up pillar on driver's side. My ECU and relays are all inside a cupboard at the back - good idea to try and keep all this dry if you can. You'll also need the vacuum reservoir somewhere - I have mine on the left where I found some space. My accelerator potentiometer is bolted next to fuel filter at the front right of the engine bay. I've got a 68 pin MSA15 ECU which has the MAP sensor inside it so you need a boss somewhere between your turbo and inlet manifold to feed that, as well as a separate boss for the IAT sensor somewhere close to the inlet manifold- if you have the later version you get a combined 4-pin MAP and IAT sensor like the one Lloyd has - but it's not difficult to rewire it one way or the other with a bit of soldering - the chips are pretty much the same within the sensor.

Ewen

[lloydy]

Ewen, do you think that vacuum res is needed? I never had one fitted to mine (do have one in the garage though) I have thought about plumbing it in. But read somewhere it was only needed for doing tests on vagcom without the engine running? Or do you think it helps to have that bit in reserve?

[ewenmaclean]

Hi Lloyd,

in the original vw plans it's there after a non-return valve to allow the EGR and actuator to function properly even if other things are using the vacuum. I think you're probably right it's not completely necessary but if I'm right in thinking you'll have reservoirs for the diff-locks - I don't know a lot about this - is it possible the servo and these together might rob vacuum from the system when you want the N75 to have some for the actuator?

It's probably not important in my case - the only thing using the vacuum is the brake servo and I can't imagine need full boost and braking at the same time (unless I was trying to burn out the back tyres?)

Ewen

[lloydy]

I had thought about fitting for those reasons, need to get hold of one of the one way valves though

[Cableguy]

Have you looked at the 15 deg install?
That's what mines 'supposed' to be.
Means you can use all the AFN stuff and not worry about the turbo drain too.
Would fit nicely in a doka

[keith]

Mine minus the chargecooler.....

[..lee..]

afn with gt series turbo. go 15 degree. no brainer in a doka. i`d even make the effort to go 15 degrees in a van body. if you go 50 degree with the vnt you`ll need to scavenge the turbo oil return.

lee.

[syncroandy]

Hi Craig, like Lee says, in a pickup with the extra space, 'upright' is technically superior (mainly for oil flow reasons), and pretty much essential for any later TDI which can't take the JX sump. However going upright does involve major extra complexity/cost to the installation.

If (big if) the turbo oil flow issues can be cracked, going 55 degree with JX bits is the path of least resistance, and plenty of people are running round quite happily (myself included) with this setup. I only get very minor smokiness under normal conditions, acceptable to me anyway. I think use of the Passat manifold may have helped as it keeps the turbo higher compared with adapter based solutions, see here, also careful design of the return pipe.

For my install, I followed the KISS principle, and kept everything pretty much in stock locations, except I moved the JX airbox upward to make space for the chargecooler and pipework. There are some pics of this on my brickyard thread. I've got some more I didn't post, let me know and I can email them if you want.

HTH, Andy