Project double my VeeDub's mpg

[dremd]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Will be interested to hear how this works for you... I see a lot of good and a lot of bad reviews.

Only complaint is that it comes set to Russian and the procedure for changing language is a pain.
Video is beautiful, notifies of record start and stop audibly, and audio is shockingly good.

[dremd]

I'm still getting ready for the swap, I've just been crazy busy.

I hope to have a few days free week after next, I'm going to pull the gas burner then, stick the diesel in and hope to get it running, however, I'm sure I've forgotten something and will be stuck for some period.

I'm going ahead with the pre+post-lube plan, I have a hydrolic pump designed to lift a stern drive cylinder (this pump specified 30w motor oil). I've got a pickup near the bottom of the oil pan plumbed to the pump inlet with reverse flare stainless line, the outlet is plumbed to the turbo feed line through an all metal check valve. Yes, I know, excessive.

I've decided to swap the gasoiline tank for a diesel tank, the vent system is very differant, and the diesel tank has no nozzle size restrictor.

I've decided to change my snow performance nozzle from 60 ml/min to 100ml/ min and increase to cut in boost pressure mostly so I can go longer between washer tank refills.

I've gone to an amsoil spin on bypass oil filter only for simplicity's sake.

Terriable fuel economy continues with the 1.8t, that said, it isn't as bad as the VR6 or plenty of other motors running around.

I've enjoyed the extra space of the wagon over the golf especially over the last few weeks cleaning up 2 houses (friend, and family).

Funny story at FedEx. I had the wagon totally full of packages hauling them in a few at a time in the rain, when I was about 3/4 way done one of the employees asked how big my van was. They were a bit surprised when I told them it was a Volkswagen.

Hopefully I get to cut my consumption in half soon.

[dremd]

I got a WEEK OFF!

So far.
Pulled 1.8t drivetrain. I highly recommend moving the front carrier to service (aka removing the front of the car) I had it off in <30mins and it is crazy easy to get to stuff now.

Pulled exaust, repaired rusty resonator by replacing with glass pack, swapped gasoline catolitic converter for gasoline, got a mild performance tdi down pipe (still 2") because it was easier to source than a stock one.

Pulled heat shields, cleaned and insulated top side with high temp foil faced material to reduce noise somewhat, but mainly so I can run a full belly pan and not worry about the heat heading through the tunnel.

Removed gasoline tank, evaporative emmisions equipment, 2 of the 4 fuel lines, more evap equipment, a fuel filter then replaced with diesel tank, PD diesel lift pump (self primes the car), diesel lines, and a CAT 2micron fuel filter.

Removed rear axle, added shine rear sway (I know, I know, but I have ESP, so not totally dumb) cleaned up surface rust (northern car) cold Galv, then a few coats of rustoleum flat black.

Installed Diesel engine / 6 speed manual, installed axles, swapped shifter (pitb), installed 1-0 gauge battery cables and 2ga charging cables (my last car had high resistance someplace in those cables, I'm not taking any chances on this one).

Remaining
Wiring, all of it.
Re-Install rear axle.
Repaint wheels and install TPMS senders.
Brace front subframe.
Connect heater core (1.8t connectors are straight, TDI's are 45deg I ordered newTDI connectors from the dealer.
Install intercooler.
Remove auto brake pedal, install 5 speed brake pedal.
Install clutch pedal, master cylinder, and plumbing.
Re-attach front carrier and bumper.
Acquire shifter clips, adjust shifter.
Install air box.
Install battery+ battery box.
Set injection timing and quantity (due to timing belt job and injection pump re-seal).
Install water injection in same spot I had it last time where evaporative emission stuff was on gasoline car.
Install fail safe bypass to lift pump.

I'm hoping to get most of that done tomorrow so I can find out what else I'm missing to finish the job.

[MetroMPG]

Dremd - got a pic of the car? I'd like to feature this project on the front page.

[oil pan 4]

Have you thought about a ram air intake, putting a bigger turbo on, installing bigger intake piping or going with a straight pipe exhaust?

[dremd]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Dremd - got a pic of the car? I'd like to feature this project on the front page.

SWEET!

I need to upload some better ones, but the ones I have so far are here (follow ups will be in same set). Jetta - a set on Flickr

[dremd]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Have you thought about a ram air intake, putting a bigger turbo on, installing bigger intake piping or going with a straight pipe exhaust?

Mkiv VW's have a bit of factory ram air.

Bigger turbo would only move BSFC curve up, the motor spends most of its time at low- moderate load and 1400-1900 rpm's. Would be fun, but most of the time that I make a boost request, I only want it for 3-7 seconds and a VNT-17 would make me need to downshift (maybe 2x) for the power I normally want.

I do have significantly larger turbo inlet piping (improved spool, tad bit less smoke at WOT). My TIP is from PD150, air box snorkel/ ram air bits are from Euro Dual Clutch R-32.

As far as boost side plumbing, I'm running a stock turbo outlet hose->1.8t pancake pipe (reduces spool a tad with larger volume, but reduces charge temps epically at cruise and allows a tad more high rpm power)-> Ebay stock size, but much higher mass and nicer fined inter cooler-> water / methanol injection (mostly to keep intake clean of EGR geww, but also quiets motor a bit at high power, drastically improves HP when heat soaked, and a tad more high RPM power with not much down side other than using crappy washer fluid up at 1.5x my normal rate) -> 99.5 upper charge pipe which relocates map much nearer intake and after the water/ methanol injection so I can keep a bit more timing from the corectly sensed intake air temp-> PD150 intake manifold (I've never run one before, but everyone loves them and my stocker was sheared off in the wreck.

My buddy runs a 3" straight pipe on his ALH, I'm not 100% sure, but we think he lost a mile or 2 to the gallon with it. Sounds pretty epic, reasonably quiet at idle/ cruise, not terrible at WOT, but sounds like a big single 2jzgte doing 100-150 pulls (except it is actually 30-60 pulls).

This car is for super comfortable highway cruising, so I'm running stock sized exaust with diesel Cat-> glass pack resonator -> factory giant 1.8t muffler. I'm expecting factory noise level, but hoping for lower.

[dremd]

Today:
Laid out wiring harnesses, started routing them, not much progress there
Re-Installed rear axle. (Way bigger job than it should have been because i was all by myself)
Installed full exhaust (also tricky alone)
Connected heater core
Installed water injection
Ordered fail safe bypass to lift pump.
Ordered shifter clips from dealer.
Had to re-plumb lots of fuel due to the fact that I ran the lines across the spot where the coolant globe goes DOH!
Realized the 1.8t has 1 less exaust mount than the TDI, I'm trying to score that one off tdiclub classifieds now.

I'm hoping to get most of the remainder done tomorrow, but that is looking optimistic with crappy weather.

Edit:
Just ordered a hose I forgot existed that goes from coolant globe to front of motor. Also a diesel cap.

[dremd]

Also decided to go to higher temperature thermostat.

Modified Thermostat for higher MPG's... - TDIClub Forums there is a great white paper linked in there someplace BTW.

I got a Stant Super Stat because most people have them run in the 200-205 range despite being rated for 195. I'd do the hybrid, but that is a tad scary for me.
Hopefully that's good for about 1-2MPG.

The factory thermostat does 188, but fades to 182 in about a year and a half, so this should be about 20f warmer than my last car was running.

Yes, I now have a larger oil heat exchanger and have always run high grade synthetic lubricants.

And, Yes, I want an active grill block pretty bad.

[NachtRitter]

I did the hybrid 'stat plus a grill block and it keeps the temps around 210F. I had the same problem with the factory 'stat ... couldn't keep it above 188F. Hard to say how much (or if) the new hybrid 'stat helped with FE since I changed several things at once. Overall the FE has improved since I put it in (FWIW).

Do you have any engine build details (pics, etc)? The text description is interesting but it'd be interesting to see the comparison of old vs new parts if it were available.

EDIT: Just noticed the link to your Flickr pics... that helps... a little