Would like a brief run-down on older TDI's

I bought mine for $1200 I think and had the head rebuilt from a TB issue along with a bunch of other things to get it back in shape. I couldn't get half of what I have into to it if I tried. 2 Beetles in the driveway looks cool. The 2003 piles on the commuter miles and the 2015 mostly waits its turn in rotation.

Lightflyer1 said:

The 2003 piles on the commuter miles and the 2015 mostly waits its turn in rotation.

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That's exactly what I'm doing, but with two wagons.

There are a lot of 5 speed TDI beetles in my area, like a LOT. I guess they just don't have that much of a resale market around here, as most have been on there since I started lurking for a TDI months ago. There is something kinda neat to them when they're all done up with wheels and a spoiler and the like, but I can't really get past the very bubbly style they have. I enjoy the styling of the A5 beetle a lot more but that's neither in my price range nor the drivetrain I want lol.
Besides, there's a Karmann Ghia in my barn and I'd feel sacrilegious owning that and a front-drive Beetle

I am an old school dubber too, and to be honest I hated the New Beetle when it came out. Largely because I followed closely the evolution of the Concept 1 from its rear-engined (usually powered with a waterboxer) beginning stages in the early '90s all the way through rear engined but a VAG inline, then a mid engine, then ultimately just based on the next (new for 1998) 4th gen Golf. I felt a bit betrayed, as I really wanted a true evolution of the old Beetle through modernity.

However, I came to realize that the New Beetle was really a homage to the original, and that it payed respect to it unrelated forefather and was a decent car all on its own. Plus, I realize that it probably would never have come to production had it not been able to be built off of an existing and VERY high volume platform.

I am sad now to see them go away, as I think 2017 is the last year for them.

Quite a run of 68 US years and 79 world wide.

I have a restored 1935 Ford Fordor sedan. It is amazing to think the Bug started out only three years later and remained in production till now in its various forms.

I didn't have any experience with the older ones. Got used to the 2003 and the newer ones looked "squished" to me. They have now grown on me as well. Besides I am inside driving, looking out. From the inside, the outside can be whatever I can imagine in my mind.

The oldest Beetle design prototypes were built in 1932, actually. NSU sanctioned some, as did Daimler. Really was not until the "state" run KDFWagen Works got going that the final design and the one that became the real deal.

Lots of the basic layout was already done while Ford was still churning out Model As. No doubt, the Beetle was WAY ahead of its time. Of course, this later proved to be a hindrance as the Volkswagen organization was slow and over conservative with evaluation of new designs. It caught up to them by the late 1960s and they were forced to suddenly play catch up, and since the core group was simply unable or unwilling to do what it took, they simply took over other companies and tapped them for innovation. NSU's K70 was a failure, but the last of the Auto Union folks, Audi, were able to pull together what would become the single biggest grand slam to Volkswagen's history, and is not only alive and well today, but has already outsold the Beetle by a wide margin and is in its seventh successful generation. The homely Golf.

Appropriate time to flash my finished project (9 months in the restoring). Brought back a lot of memories from when I was a young man who had 1/2 dozen of these.

There's an '03 TDI Golf by me for really cheap and in great shape, it dropped a valve or two so the engine is toast. Hypothetically, how difficult would it be yank that paperweight block out and drop an ALH out of another car in? I'd imagine it would be more simple than a similar job with a gas engine as there's nothing to worry about with ignition.

Assuming the Golf is a diesel, it would have an ALH also, good time to upgrade clutch and clean intake, delete EGR if it hasn't been done. Only thing you may run into is if your ALH engine is older the needle lift sensor on the 3rd injector has a different electrical connection. Nothing that can't be worked around.

BearForceOne said:

There's an '03 TDI Golf by me for really cheap and in great shape, it dropped a valve or two so the engine is toast. Hypothetically, how difficult would it be yank that paperweight block out and drop an ALH out of another car in? I'd imagine it would be more simple than a similar job with a gas engine as there's nothing to worry about with ignition.

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Engine isn't necessarily toast. Head probably is. But you could pull the head, inspect the bottom end for piston and cylinder wall damage, make sure rods aren't bent, get the head rebuilt or buy a new one, and put it together. You can also hone the cylinders and replace rods without removing the block.

FYI: Franko6 is the guy to talk to about cylinder heads for these engines, and he's right here on the boards. Worth looking him up if you go for this and you can fix it with a head job.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Engine isn't necessarily toast. Head probably is. But you could pull the head, inspect the bottom end for piston and cylinder wall damage, make sure rods aren't bent, get the head rebuilt or buy a new one, and put it together. You can also hone the cylinders and replace rods without removing the block.

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you can also have a used engine delivered to you for less than having a head fully rebuilt and rods replaced if there is that much damage done to it.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Engine isn't necessarily toast. Head probably is. But you could pull the head, inspect the bottom end for piston and cylinder wall damage, make sure rods aren't bent, get the head rebuilt or buy a new one, and put it together. You can also hone the cylinders and replace rods without removing the block.

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Top end and bottom end are toast lol

This looks like a good deal: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=480657

BearForceOne said:

Top end and bottom end are toast lol

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That is what my Golf's ALH looked like when I got it. Courtesy of a local dealer timing belt job (tensioner installed backwards).

New pistons, rods, reconditioned head, and it is still kicking 150k miles later. Never even took the engine out.

So long as the crank is OK, and the cylinder walls clean up OK with a light hone (if they even need that), then you can salvage the engine.

vanbcguy said:

VW did a major engine redesign when they started with the Mk4 platform. All the earlier diesels both IDI and DI share the same basic block, engine mounting points, etc and you can swap engines between all of them fairly easily.

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I wanted to return to this briefly, I'm not going to do this for a daily but if I'm understanding this correctly, would that mean swapping an AHU engine into a 1.6 IDI car would be fairly straightforward? That would be a super cool project to graft a MK3 drivetrain into a Caddy or the likes

BearForceOne said:

I wanted to return to this briefly, I'm not going to do this for a daily but if I'm understanding this correctly, would that mean swapping an AHU engine into a 1.6 IDI car would be fairly straightforward? That would be a super cool project to graft a MK3 drivetrain into a Caddy or the likes

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Reasonably straightforward yes. There's a little fab work needed for the rear engine mount as the Mk1 used a combined engine and IP mounting bracket. You can stick a Rover pump on and run it mechanically for ultimate electrical simplicity, get a conversion harness made up for a near plug and play swap or try and do all the electrical yourself if you have the skills.



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vanbcguy said:

Reasonably straightforward yes. There's a little fab work needed for the rear engine mount as the Mk1 used a combined engine and IP mounting bracket. You can stick a Rover pump on and run it mechanically for ultimate electrical simplicity, get a conversion harness made up for a near plug and play swap or try and do all the electrical yourself if you have the skills.

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I may have to go that route someday, a tuned AHU caddy would be quite the toy hauler