Vokswaggin' Passat Turbo Eco Build

[dfeldt91]

This is going to be a slow build but here it is:


The Car:
A 2002 Volkswagen Passat Wagon 1.8 turbo with automatic transmission and 190k miles. Paid $400. Timing belt skipped and bent valves a mile from where I bought it. Installed a new head and it has no oil pressure when hot so engine is done but I'm not complaining!

The Plan:
I am going 'all out' with this aero build. Starting off with an auto to manual conversion and engine swap from my sedan unless I can find a swap from Craigslist for cheap. I am going 'all out' with this build.

• Extreme weight reduction
• Full belly pan
• Emissions delete
• Wheel well covers
• Mirror deletes
• Wipers, motor, fluid reservoir delete
• Power steering and fluid reservoir delete
• Drilled and slotted brakes
• AC compressor, lines and AC radiator delete
• Lowered
• Mechanical fan delete W/ on demand electric fan
• Disable DRL
• No rear seat
• No carpet
• No sound deadening
• No dash
• No door cards
• No stereo system
• No locks
• No heater
• No interior fans
• No headliner
• No airbags
• Aftermarket steering wheel
• Lightweight seats
• Grille block
• Lightweight and narrower wheels and tires

It'll look like this after I am done:


My sedan gets about 45mpg at 55mph on the highway without aero mods at the moment. I'm expecting 50mpg highway with this build at least. Especially with a kammback of some sort on the wagon.

Stay tuned for more information!

[oil pan 4]

I have stripped the interior out of a car like that to clean and replace the carpet.
When I cleaned the carpet and got in the new bits I was very glad to get it put back in.
It was very loud and noisy.
You will be surprised by how much noise the interior eliminates.
I like sound deadening material so much I try to add more.

The only problems I see are you have to have mirrors and wipers.
Drilled and slotted brake rotors eat brake pads, avoid them.
And doesn't it rain a lot and get cold in Oregon? You may want the heater at least for defogging the wind shield.

I find that weight savings give the lowest return. So its not worth buying lighter parts or ruining the ride by removing everything.

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

No airbags? Obviously not planning on ever being in an accident, are you?

The seats will be replaced with lightweight seats. The original seats have airbags in them which when unplugged deactivates the entire airbag system. I can add a resistor in to eliminate the light that says there is an issue with the airbags however doing so will make it so the airbags cannot be set off seeing as it limits the voltage. That is the reason behind removing all the airbags.

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I have stripped the interior out of a car like that to clean and replace the carpet.
When I cleaned the carpet and got in the new bits I was very glad to get it put back in.
It was very loud and noisy.
You will be surprised by how much noise the interior eliminates.
I like sound deadening material so much I try to add more.

The only problems I see are you have to have mirrors and wipers.
Drilled and slotted brake rotors eat brake pads, avoid them.
And doesn't it rain a lot and get cold in Oregon? You may want the heater at least for defogging the wind shield.

I find that weight savings give the lowest return. So its not worth buying lighter parts or ruining the ride by removing everything.

I used to have a lifted Chevy Tracker without interior so I know how loud it can be. It doesn't bug me at all. I actually kind of like hearing the engine and the road especially at night on long drives in the mountains haha.

The car already has the drilled and slotted rotors installed so it is already there, also I do not plan on using brakes hard or often as my driving techniques and hypermiling allow me to avoid breaking unless someone pulls in front of me or there is an issue. I do a lot of coasting from far away so that when I get to the obstruction it would have cleared already like a light.

I have not had an air conditioner in my sedan since I got it, I also bypassed the heater core and have never had an issue with fogging. If it becomes an issue I have some anti fogging stuff to apply. I use RainX and it works really well to the point that I removed the wipers on the sedan and haven't looked back. I know they are required by Oregon law but I have not had issues. I got a ticket for parking in the wrong area and the ticket was placed in my fender seem instead. No ticket for no wipers. So hasn't been an issue yet!

[sandras]

No nothing. I'd love to be able to do that. This is gonna be interesting.

[JRMichler]

With less aero drag and weight reduction, you won't need as much power. Have you considered getting a custom cam ground to make it into a full time Atkinson cycle engine?

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by JRMichler

With less aero drag and weight reduction, you won't need as much power. Have you considered getting a custom cam ground to make it into a full time Atkinson cycle engine?

I did not even know about the technology until just now, I think I will look into it!

The only issue I see is the fueling. Wouldn't the engine still think it is a 1.8 liter engine versus say a 1.0 liter so it would inject too much fuel? I have some control over fuel injection and timing in the Passat using a program called Lemmiwinks. I think it would run incredibly rich without messing with the ECU. I'm not sure how much I would be able to decrease the amount of fuel injected during operation. Although it might work as I was able to entirely disable fuel injection during the warm up cycle effectively making my car inoperable until it was reset with Lemmiwinks. Wouldn't even start.

Or perhaps it doesn't need to be fixed as the car would see it is too rich using the O2 sensor and it would bring the fuel injection amount down? Hmmn...

I love the idea though and it seems like something I might have to add to the project.

[California98Civic]

I want to subscribe too. Should be fun. But I want to suggest that eliminating all emissions system hardware does not make the build more aero or eco. I hope you will reconsider that. We like our eco around here.

[freebeard]

I did something similar with the seats in my car, but I laid down a plywood deck to make the interior more useful.

I don't see much benefit from disabling the daytime running lights.

Wheel well covers. Two or four?

Wheels and tires can make as much difference as anything; have you considered the Bridgestone Ecopias from/on the BMW i3?

[oil pan 4]

How long much experience have you had with the 1.8t engine?