ALH swap into 1970 Beetle

Here we go!

I picked up a 2002 TDI that had flood damage. It's been sitting for 6 years. I hooked up a battery pack and it turned over so I bought it on the cheap.

I pulled the motor/trans the same day, its an auto trans.

The guy said he thought the fuel injection pump was bad 6 years ago but could not remember exactly.

Next I'm ordering the adapter and going to pull the wiring harness.

Photos incoming.

What are you doing about the gearing?

Zeitgeist said:

What are you doing about the gearing?

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Can you elaborate was you mean about "gearing"?

I got the motor on the engine stand last night and started pulling the wiring harness. It was nice out last night the the tropical storm bringing in some cooler weather.

The harness is already overwhelming and I haven't made it into the cabin yet!

Heres the motor on the stand: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BylWv9tprxITR09jaGRfWlpfTlk

It needs everything replaced. Im thinking about pulling all the gears and putting them in my vibratory tumbler to knock the surface rust off. The belt, water pump, idler pulleys will get replaced with new parts.

TOOF said:

Can you elaborate was you mean about "gearing"?

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What was meant is what are you going to do about the gearing in the Bug transaxle? Your tdi will be revved to the moon just to do 60 mph.

Look at all the wonder Mark-And-Pray paint marks!

In addition to the gearing, how are you going to make the engine fit?

I've seen a 1.6l Rabbit Gasser engine installed in an Old Beetle..... many years ago!

Windex said:

Look at all the wonder Mark-And-Pray paint marks!

In addition to the gearing, how are you going to make the engine fit?

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Put it in the trunk.

I agree there are a lot of marks on that engine, probably the belt was done at least twice with the mark and pray method.

firehawk618 said:

What was meant is what are you going to do about the gearing in the Bug transaxle? Your tdi will be revved to the moon just to do 60 mph.

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Once I get the wheel and tire size that will be worked out. Its a stock type 1 now but once we hit the track it will be replaced with a modified type or or possible a 091 type.

Ranchero Transaxles is very helpful and their advice was to finish the build and get wheels and tires on then select gears.

Windex said:

Look at all the wonder Mark-And-Pray paint marks!

In addition to the gearing, how are you going to make the engine fit?

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It had the typical "baja" body work done years ago. There is plenty of room.

Tdijarhead said:

Put it in the trunk.
I agree there are a lot of marks on that engine, probably the belt was done at least twice with the mark and pray method.

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Yeah, it was very cheap. I am considering dropping the engine off and letting a pro handle it but then again maybe not.

The Mark & Pray doesn't bother me. I've done several TB Jobs "after" a M & P and they were just fine ..... not exactly where I would have timed them though.

I did a TB job about three weeks ago on an 01 NB that had previously had a M & P job, quite obvious from all the paint marks (made it easy for me to find the TDC mark on the flywheel)... I did a timing check with VCDS before starting the job. The timing was just a smidge below the center line in the graph with over 100k miles on the TB.

Is there a way to find TDC without the flywheel on? I hope so because thats already been pulled.

I imagine you could pull an injector or glow plug and set up a dial indicator to find
the highest travel on #1 piston then pull the valve cover to see that both valves are closed.I have to do the same thing because I got in a hurry and forgot to mark the Toyota flywheel.

Awesome. I'll keep that in mind if I decided to do it myself. Most likely I will if I can find a set of used tools.

An ALH will fit into a 70 beetle. I have put a AHU in a 76. It is very tight with the apron still intact. The hood is the big issue, The TDI sticks up quite a bit more than the air cooler. Not to mention the intake, exhaust, alternator, etc.

Gearing will be too low, just expect that. The best transmission to us is the "freeway flyer" '73 and later trans. It has the highest final drive ratio. 091s are geared way low and are a step down in my eyes due to gearing concerns, and mounting other than solid mounts is hard to do. You can spend big bucks and have the final drive altered to as high as 3.45:1 if I remember correctly. We put a CBEA in a 68 beetle with the back cut off, went with 31" tires and it is still too low, though better.