TDI Ranger Build

JFettig said:

just like this one?

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Hah exactly, I guess another picture I missed?

chudzikb said:

So, what I want to know is...when I can drop off my 06 Ranger and have you drop in an ALH motor for me? No way, no how, could I ever do what you are doing, that's some mad skills. Well done...

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Thanks Chris. I may have to design an adapter for the 2001-2011 2.3L motors. Different bellhousing pattern from the earlier years.

Lone Ranger said:

Looks good green! The only thing I can see that I did different is when i had the tran and motor bolted together i put the trans on the original mount and built around that. Shortened driveshaft means you have the motor/trans even further back than original? I know in my setup if I did that the alternator would be hitting the mount on the driver side, which i already moved back. I have pics of all what I did and plan to make a website, but I'm havin too much fun driving the truck. lol.

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I'm not sure what we were doing differently but the only way I was going to be able to use the original trans mounting location is if I made a block off plate for the vacuum pump.

Hmm, now this is very interesting. I had to block the heater hose outlet, but the vacuum pump made it. If I had to move mine forward the oil pan would be hitting the rack and p.
The only thing I can see is the trans for the 2.5 is shorter? or the block is? Or is it the truck itself? I doubt the truck, they have stayed pretty much the same since the mid 90s. Yours is a 2003? Mine is a 2006.

Either way I guess I'll wait till you have some pictures of the final resting place. Maybe I'll start a thread on my latest one or add to my thread from my original TDi Ranger so you can have a look at mine. Tomorow I change gears to 3.08s and then my truck is ready to go on my newspaper run of 320 miles a day.

Lone Ranger said:

Hmm, now this is very interesting. I had to block the heater hose outlet, but the vacuum pump made it. If I had to move mine forward the oil pan would be hitting the rack and p.
The only thing I can see is the trans for the 2.5 is shorter? or the block is? Or is it the truck itself? I doubt the truck, they have stayed pretty much the same since the mid 90s. Yours is a 2003? Mine is a 2006.

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2000.

I did have to hop up over the steering rack since I moved it so far forward. I was quite surprised when I did a hood clearance check to find that my PD150 intake was pretty close to the bottom of the closed hood. I might look into a custom intake that doesn't hug the head as much as the OEM options.

I think 1" might be the most you can move it forward before you run into the steering rack. Of course as soon as you hop over the rack you move the vacuum pump closer to the firewall due to the angle of the drivetrain and the angle of the firewall.

Lone Ranger said:

...and then my truck is ready to go on my newspaper run of 320 miles a day.

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Still the very best use of a tdi ranger in my book .

So you moved it forward and tilted it up? I would be very careful doing that. You can get some weird drivetrain vibrations as a result. The angles of the u-joints should always be equal and opposite, but if you tilt it up you will have less angle at the trans than at the diff. I'm not saying you will get weird vibrations but there is a possibility, I've heard of few people with this problem when doing tranny swaps on old Corvettes. Something to look into anyway.

curtis75 said:

So you moved it forward and tilted it up?

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Yes I did.

If it turns out to have vibrations due to the driveline angle mismatch I have a couple options to fix it, some more painful than others:

1. Reduce the angle mismatch by dropping the engine closer to the steering rack. At the moment I have ~1" of clearance for compression of the engine mounts during hard hits. Would require modifying the mounting brackets.
2. If #1 isn't enough, notch the oil pan around the steering rack and modify the mounting brackets.
3. If #2 isn't enough, slide the engine back towards the firewall just enough to clear the steering rack. New driveshaft length, new trans mount bracket, new engine brackets (possibly move the Ranger mounts on the subframe like it seems Loneranger has done).

If you were able to measure the angle, somewhat accurately you could clock the diff, to make it the same as the trans. I believe I've seen wedges you can put between the spring and perch to do this, but I don't remember where. Might be a cheaper, easier option.

The only thing that made me afriad of moving it forward, and thus not having to block the heater core outlet was the fact that it tilts the motor to the back. I know the oil pump is chain driven right off the crank snout, and by what happened to my previous ranger(catastophic top end failure) I decided if anything I would have it tilted slightly forward. Wether or not the tilt made my first one fail prematurly I still don't know but this time I'm erring on the side of caution

curtis75 said:

If you were able to measure the angle, somewhat accurately you could clock the diff, to make it the same as the trans. I believe I've seen wedges you can put between the spring and perch to do this, but I don't remember where. Might be a cheaper, easier option.

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Excellent idea. Thanks!

I was getting kinda nervous that I hadn't been successful finding the correct pilot bearing for the swap. To be more accurate I was looking for a pilot bushing since the needle bearings in the Rangers are notorious for going out and taking the input shaft with it. In fact I have several core transmissions in my garage that suffered that fate.

I spoke to a friend about my predicament and he recommended a certain guy at our local Napa who has been a nightmare in the past with getting me the right VW parts. Anyway I went in with low expectations...I mean how many parts counter people do you know that are willing to dig into the books on the counter? 99.99% of them basically say "if you don't know what year, make, model then I can't help you." Well I walked into the store with the ID of the crank and the OD of the shaft and actually walked out of the store with the bushing! Once I got it back to the shop I checked it with my calipers and it appeared like the OD needed to be opened up .005".





I threw the bushing into the freezer for a couple nights and went to cleaning up the ID of the crank. Quite a bit of gunk/rust can build up after 10 years (you of course would do this before you measure the ID but I used a spare block I had sitting around). A light coating of grease and some persuasive taps with a drift and the busing is in place.






Throw on the adapter plate, the flywheel and torque down the flywheel bolts using my nifty metalnerd flywheel holder. The Ford flywheel is ~10mm thicker at the center than the vw and requires new, longer bolts. I lucked out and the original Ranger bolts are the perfect length and the right thread. Small dab of thread sealer to keep the oil from wicking into the threads and torque them down.

Engine Final assembly

I really needed to get the adapter and flywheel in place so I could finish up on the timing belt end.

man, you missed the opportunity to paint the Cam & IP gears black to match all of the other bolt on bits... shame

and I thought that flywheel holder was from Dieselgeek... I have one just like it that he supplies with his DSG Flywheel replacements. I begged him to sell me one a couple of years ago.


Looking really good Nick.. I wish I was working on a project in my garage.. maybe someday.

Nick,

I figured out a better way to delete your AC.

Make a bracket for another PS pump, add valve then:

Growler said:

man, you missed the opportunity to paint the Cam & IP gears black to match all of the other bolt on bits... shame

and I thought that flywheel holder was from Dieselgeek... I have one just like it that he supplies with his DSG Flywheel replacements. I begged him to sell me one a couple of years ago.


Looking really good Nick.. I wish I was working on a project in my garage.. maybe someday.

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You act as if it takes more than 10min to get this belt off when in the truck. I did get this with a dieselgeek DSG DMF kit...I just assumed metalnerd was behind such a great tool.

JFettig said:

Nick,

I figured out a better way to delete your AC.

Make a bracket for another PS pump, add valve then:

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haha. Nice. I bet I could put the tailgate on the ground if I did that.

Bench start

Now these pictures might frigten some but this couldn't be easier to do if you have the whole harness, ignition, cluster, and of course the ecu. Really all you have to do is hook up the battery, have the appropriate fuses in place (6 or 7 if you power up the instrument cluster) and ground all the various grounding points in the harness.







Here is the result of about 6 hours of harness trimming:





http://youtu.be/3ugd7ilJATE

Growler said:

is it just me or is there an interferance between the starter snout and the bellhousing on these two photos?

Starter snout sticking past plate

No Starter on plate with trans installed..?

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Here is a good shot showing the clearance required for the starter:

Stellar progress!

Is it in the truck yet!?

The suspense is killing us...

Kriesel said:

Stellar progress!

Is it in the truck yet!?

The suspense is killing us...

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Yup, it's now in the truck. Starting to mock up charge air pipes and whatnot.







And here's where the shifter is ending up in the interior. It isn't a dash hitting knuckle buster but it's close. I'll have to get everything back together before I go about modifying the shifter.

Looks awesome, following with interest!

I am concerned about your VNT actuator, looks very rusty on the outside.

I agree Paul, it is fairly rusty but it holds vacuum and moves very smoothly. I'm inclined to reuse it instead of the chinese "new" actuator I was sold by one of the members on here.

Its only temporary right?

Yup.

Looking good. you are right, I can see where it would only take about 10 minutes to get the timing belt stuff off on this car.

nice notch in the bellhousing as well for the starter snout.

Growler said:

Looking good. you are right, I can see where it would only take about 10 minutes to get the timing belt stuff off on this car.

nice notch in the bellhousing as well for the starter snout.

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Ahem....you mean truck.

Thanks. One word of advice for others when cutting: a cutoff wheel can grab pretty hard once it gets coated with aluminum and throw you into parts of the transmission you don't want to cut. Notice my cutting of the rib that I didn't intend to cut.

cutoff and grinding wheels can also explode when grinding aluminum. Proceed with caution!

Any chance for a debut at Leppy's?

SpamJ said:

Any chance for a debut at Leppy's?

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Now that would be ultra cool!

SpamJ said:

Any chance for a debut at Leppy's?

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darkhorse said:

Now that would be ultra cool!

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We'll see. I really tested the wife's patience the last two weeks trying to get it ready for the car show which I unfortunately didn't make. At least I made really good progress.