Dodge Dakota Quad 4X4 ALH

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Thanks Jim reading your build what seems like forever ago was one that helped to inspire this build. I know of a few more swaps that are in the planning stages right now in our neck of the woods.
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Today I finally got the speedometer/ABS fixed. No lights on the dash save for the CE light and I will rectify that at some point by hooking the VW ecu CE light up to it.

Also built the intercooler scoop last week. Its 16ga with a coat of POR15.






Looks like it knocked the temps down about 10 degrees so its now no more than 25F above ambient. The big improvement is how quickly the temps come down after putting the coals to it. It was heat soaking before the scoop and staying 30 to 40 above ambient all the time.
 
Last edited:

jimbote

Certified Volkswagen Nut
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Location
spiral arm, milky way (aka central NC)
TDI
Tacoma 4x4 converted to TDI
very cool, i had a similar intercooler setup on my turbo 4runner years ago minus the scoop .... i am running a twinpass setup under my westy with a scoop and it makes for very cool iat's .... i'm interested to see how you'll like the lower gearing ... mine was 3:59 with 265 tires and it was way too tall ... i swapped in 4:10's and it's pretty good now ... what trans are you running ?
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
very cool, i had a similar intercooler setup on my turbo 4runner years ago minus the scoop .... i am running a twinpass setup under my westy with a scoop and it makes for very cool iat's .... i'm interested to see how you'll like the lower gearing ... mine was 3:59 with 265 tires and it was way too tall ... i swapped in 4:10's and it's pretty good now ... what trans are you running ?


Jim how tall in inches are your 265s? I actually ordered 4:11s but after looking at the math again I need 4:30s minimum. They dont make 4:30s so the next step is 4:56. I plan on running a 31.6 inch tire so it will be fine. Its what is on the truck now but they are so bald they measure at like 30.9 inches right now. I have the stock NV3500 that came in the Dakota. I only use 4th now as its 1:1. It has a tall .73 5th gear. I dont think toyota put anything taller in 5th than a .83.
 

xerootg

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Location
USA
TDI
Mk7 Golf Sportwagen, BHW Jeep XJ
Evguy put 31's on his cherokee swap, and did 4:10's. You could ask him what he thinks now that it's been on the road for a couple months, but last post on his thread he seemed pretty happy with it.
 

jimbote

Certified Volkswagen Nut
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Location
spiral arm, milky way (aka central NC)
TDI
Tacoma 4x4 converted to TDI
Jim how tall in inches are your 265s? I actually ordered 4:11s but after looking at the math again I need 4:30s minimum. They dont make 4:30s so the next step is 4:56. I plan on running a 31.6 inch tire so it will be fine. Its what is on the truck now but they are so bald they measure at like 30.9 inches right now. I have the stock NV3500 that came in the Dakota. I only use 4th now as its 1:1. It has a tall .73 5th gear. I dont think toyota put anything taller in 5th than a .83.
they are supposed to be 31.6, and like yours, because of the fresh tread they were slightly taller than the old 265's they replaced ... my fifth is .81 so with your .73 you should be fine with the 4:56's ... my truck would be a bit better with 4:30's but they are a somewhat hard to find factory ratio in the tacos ... the way my gearing works out is almost a match for a stock mkiv tdi fifth gear rpm wise ... so not bad at all because i have the extra torque to push 4wd brick
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Evguy put 31's on his cherokee swap, and did 4:10's. You could ask him what he thinks now that it's been on the road for a couple months, but last post on his thread he seemed pretty happy with it.
Yep big difference is 5th gear ratio. I have to go taller.

they are supposed to be 31.6, and like yours, because of the fresh tread they were slightly taller than the old 265's they replaced ... my fifth is .81 so with your .73 you should be fine with the 4:56's ... my truck would be a bit better with 4:30's but they are a somewhat hard to find factory ratio in the tacos ... the way my gearing works out is almost a match for a stock mkiv tdi fifth gear rpm wise ... so not bad at all because i have the extra torque to push 4wd brick

Funny I just sold my old 82 toyota pickup 2wd 4 spd with a G10 code rear.

With 4.56s in my dakota and fresh 31.6 tall tires that will put me right on 2500RPM @ 70MPH in 5th.
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Ok so today I dropped the truck off to have the AC lines made up.

Starting with the VW compressor side lines off a 1.8T the plan is to cut the hard line about an inch off the compressor fittings rotate them as needed and braze them back together and swedge on flex to the dodge side. Simple right? The problem is the VW lines are made out of a unfamiliar aluminum alloy and the guys could not even braze or weld the line back to itself as the melt temp was much higher. The stuff turned almost purple when heated so we are not sure what is mixed in the aluminum.

So does anyone know where I can find compressor fittings or know what the alloy makup is for the VW lines?
 

Rmschuit

Member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Location
Ontario
TDI
Ahu
I'm new here but farm tractor dealers can order an assortment of fittings that will fit or compression fittings to adapt them
Russ
 

smelly621

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2008
Location
Sonoma County, CA
TDI
2001 Golf, 2003 Tacoma
I've been working through making some AC hoses myself - and ordered a SD7 compressor head that had threaded #8 and #10 connections off to the side. This would have made it easy to then make my own hoses eliminating the odd-ball VW compressor fittings. However - once I had the VW compressor and my JDA style SD7 head next to each other I realized the VW compressor head is an odd duck. VW compressor has 7 bolts - all pictured SD7 compressor heads I have found have 6.

I have found that the fittings here: http://bouchillonperformance.com/inc/sdetail/6504 look an awful lot like the VW compressor pad fittings. They can be found elsewhere for less.

There are also these adapters from S&P: http://s-pautomotive.com/?product=mk4-sanden-sd7-compressor-adapters But I want to call and confirm that they are different than the Sanden SD7 fittings from Vintage Air because those DO NOT fit - I tried a set of those already.

Keep us updated on what you figure out - I'll update my post when I finally get it blowing cold - hopefully save some other folks some $$ that I have spent so far on R&D.
 

Rmschuit

Member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Location
Ontario
TDI
Ahu
I've been running a 2001 durango awd with a ahu tdi for a couple years now with alot of upgrades and I'm running the original Auto transport but never ever got to the a/c yet but I did love the challenge of making it work thoe what injectors did you run and what kind of boost psi are you making
 
Last edited:

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
I'm new here but farm tractor dealers can order an assortment of fittings that will fit or compression fittings to adapt them
Russ
The stock 1.8t compressor lines hugged the compressor body. they must be cut and flipped in order to have enough room to swedge a line on.

you could change the compressor head to one that matches your truck's fittings or buy adapters .... https://coldhose.com/sanden-compressor-heads.html
I thought about this and even ordered a VPK head compressor from across the pond to swipe the head since I couldn't buy just the head.. Unfortunately it only ca go on one way as there is offset in the bolt spacing that would put the connections at the 5 oclock position.


I've been working through making some AC hoses myself - and ordered a SD7 compressor head that had threaded #8 and #10 connections off to the side. This would have made it easy to then make my own hoses eliminating the odd-ball VW compressor fittings. However - once I had the VW compressor and my JDA style SD7 head next to each other I realized the VW compressor head is an odd duck. VW compressor has 7 bolts - all pictured SD7 compressor heads I have found have 6.

I have found that the fittings here: http://bouchillonperformance.com/inc/sdetail/6504 look an awful lot like the VW compressor pad fittings. They can be found elsewhere for less.

There are also these adapters from S&P: http://s-pautomotive.com/?product=mk4-sanden-sd7-compressor-adapters But I want to call and confirm that they are different than the Sanden SD7 fittings from Vintage Air because those DO NOT fit - I tried a set of those already.

Keep us updated on what you figure out - I'll update my post when I finally get it blowing cold - hopefully save some other folks some $$ that I have spent so far on R&D.
I have the SD7 fittings in your link as they fit the VPK head.

I am back to looking for the oddball suction side fitting that would fix everything and be the cheapest route. that or find out what the metallurgy of the VW pipe is so it can be welded. If I strike out on both then it will have to be a custom mount baby sanden compressor. If this were a 2wd truck there would be no issues at all and plenty of room.
 
Last edited:

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
So time for a fuel mileage update. This is the first full tank I have run through with my speedo/odo working and it seems I was missing a few miles on my previous calculations.

Ran it down just below a 1/4 full and got 603.8 miles. Now factor in oversized tires that are 3.41% taller than stock then factor they are bald so worst case my correction needs to add 1.5% so 613.8 miles divided by 21.1gllons is 29.09 MPG. Im very happy with that.
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Yea I caint complain at all. I personally experienced the 16 to 17mpg for several months. Slushomatics get like 15MPG. And I am sure to get a slight improvement when I re-gear it. Getting over 30 should be no problem if I drive like grandma and keep it under 65mph. But a real world 29 is awesome.
 

Owain@malonetuning

Associate Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jul 1, 2016
Location
Vancouver
TDI
PD jetta wagon
That a seriously impressive figure! FWD VW vans do well to crack 30, but they're literally brick shaped. Glad to hear she's working well.
 

Rmschuit

Member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Location
Ontario
TDI
Ahu
With the manual trans in yours I seen you where talking about changing your gearing I've drove mine with overdrive and without and the fuel millage never changed I have 355 gear ratio it runs 1900rpm at 100kms down the road

***
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
With the manual trans in yours I seen you where talking about changing your gearing I've drove mine with overdrive and without and the fuel millage never changed I have 355 gear ratio it runs 1900rpm at 100kms down the road

***
Yea see for me at 100kmh/60MPH in 5th(.73) would only be 1650rpm with the current 3.55 gears. Thats to low for cruising and the EGTs go through the roof above 1300F. 4.56 gears are in my future. Its nice to know the auto does well without a gear change. What EGTs are you seeing on hwy 100kmh cruise?

I would like to do a ALH 2wd Durango or 6spd Xterra for the wife when she needs a new ride. She wont drive an automatic so that will drive the choice above all.
 

Rmschuit

Member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Location
Ontario
TDI
Ahu
I'm surprised the manual is that much different in rpm the alh engine is a lot nicer than mine because the boost will work at lower rpm than mine with the valuable turbo ill check what the egt runs at and let you know
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
So we think we have the AC fix. Finally found a machine tool shop to make a few fittings for me. Just have to get lines made.


 
Last edited:

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Got the AC lines made up and put in all new o-rings and receiver dryer. Its ice cold now.
 
Last edited:

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Yea its a Denso 7sbu16c off a 2004 1.8T but I assume its the same as a BHW. I did not crank down the variable displacement valve to make it act like a constant yet as I wanted to see how it behaved stock. Ill have to wait for this weekend before it gets hot enough again to really test it out and put some gauges on it to see what the low and high are doing.
 

Motohead1

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Location
charlotte
TDI
2002 bug+telephone pole
Oil cooler upgrade to PN 038117021E . Did this during oil change this weekend. Also installed a fumuto valve to make oil changes a little less messy especially when the front axle goes back in. The alternative would be to soak the entire housing. Around 7000 miles on this swap so far and caint complain.



 
Last edited:
Top