Difference between NA Passat BHW and European model

Hi there, I have been looking and searching through old threads and I cannot the answer to my simple question. What are the differences between the European B5.5 and the North American model? I am looking for the mechanical/drivetrain/engine difference in oue 2 liter vs the Europeann2 liter.

They had a huge range of different engines available in them in Europe. Most were 1.9s. The 2.0s even in Europe are a bit rare in the B5.5 Passat. They did have a BGW code that was the most similar to our BHW here, virtually identical engine except it had a different crankshaft snout on the transmission side that had extra material to properly support the pilot bearing many of the longi-mount transmissions use.

Since all the North American 2.0 B5.5s were automatics, they got a crank snout that was shortened to better clear the torque converter I believe.

The 1.9s did not have the problematic balance shaft the 2.0s got. But, any of the 2V/cyl PDs are subject to the cam wear we have with any of our PDs on this side of the pond too.

Interestingly, as far as I know, the early B5 Passats in the late 90s never had an ALH style "038" engine block with the rotary pump. The early B5s got the really old "028" block with the intermediate shaft and external water pump like Mk3s and B4 Passats got, and instead of using the newer block with the rotary pump like Mk4s did, the Passats went straight to PDs from there (I believe the first PDs in Passats were model year 1999 or 2000). This is what makes it a challenge to put ALHs in the longi mount cars is there aren't OE-quality engineered parts to make it work as the engineers originally intended.

Thank you Matt for the very informative reply. Were the turbos and tuning similar in the Euro and NA vehicles?

Pretty similar, yeah. From my searching, 4 cylinder PDs available in the B5.5s had a few different engine codes, but only two different turbos and 3 different outputs.

The 100 hp engines used a smaller turbo, the more powerful 1.9s were 130 hp and use the identical turbo to the BGW/BHW 2.0L engines, which made 136 hp. Neither turbo is ideal to swap onto a transverse mount TDI due to how its oriented and the fact that they are separate from the exhaust manifold. So yeah, considering that the BHW and BGW are both rated at the same max output, I'm sure the tuning is very similar from the North American BHW. The main difference being that the BGW is physically designed for the manual transmissions in the B5 longi mount chassis, BHW is designed for automatics.

The turbo is a "baby" VNT17. It's a tad smaller than the PD150 turbo (the "true" VNT17) on the higher output Mk4 1.9Ls, but spins up a little faster. Safely supports a max of maybe 1 PSI shy of the PD150 VNT17. A lot like the BV39.

For higher output TDIs in the B5 Passat, they had a 2.5 V6 for that They highest output of those were 179 hp from the factory from what I can tell.

That would be an interesting swap project! If only you could make that BAR approved.

The BHW and BGW are identical EXCEPT the BHW has the balance shaft module and was bolted to automatics, the BGW has no balance shaft module and was bolted to manuals.

The Audi A4 got more higher output 2.0L TDI engine choices, there were even some 16v PD TDIs but not sure of all the applications.

And they *might* have gotten a model year or two that used the 038 type block in a VE format, as the Audi stuff seemed to advance a year or two ahead. The gas 4 cyl did get the newer engine in 2001 prior to the mid-2001 facelift (the change from "B5" to "B5.5") making those early 2001 1.8t cars a bit unique, different engine code too, the AUG. Audi switched in 2000.

Oddly enough, most B5s and B5.5s in Europe were 1.9L engines, though. A PD136 in 8v configuration, while available, was apparently not a very popular choice. Maybe because with the added cost and hit in fuel economy over the 1.9L engines available, they instead just went for the 2.5L V6 TDI... which actually (I have been told) was not a very good engine.

I also think that an automatic in a B5 Passat would have been for old people, disabled people, or someone who moved from the US.

oilhammer said:

The BHW and BGW are identical EXCEPT the BHW has the balance shaft module and was bolted to automatics, the BGW has no balance shaft module and was bolted to manuals.

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And the BGW had a DPF, perhaps helping account for why they didn't sell too many of them. DPF technology would have been in early stages around the time they were on BGW's so customers would have been guinea pigs for some bleeding edge hardware, and I can only guess the DPF option would have been costly also. Hard to imagine who would have bought the DPF motor voluntarily before emissions regs made them a requirement, unless it was someone really on a mission to reduce pollution or who lived in a city that was an early adopter of rules limiting non-aftertreatment diesel vehicles in urban areas. Other than the emissions difference, the 1.9 AWX and AVF PD130 motors would have had nearly identical performance to the BGW and probably better fuel mileage, at lower upfront cost and with lower ongoing upkeep costs... no surprise they sold more of the 1.9's.

An interesting question to wonder about is why VW went to the trouble to build the 2.0L BHW engine for the US when the 1.9L AWX/AVF had nearly identical output figures and was already being built in volume. Could be that the software calibrations needed to meet US emissions regs resulted in slightly lower specific output so that they needed the extra tenth of a liter to produce similar total tq and power ratings.

I'm pretty sure none of the B5/C5 platform cars ever got an ALH type engine, from everything I can tell they all went from the old external water pump AHU/AHH/AFN type rotary pump engines straight to the PD motors.

Emissions was probably most of the reason. Same as why back in the '70s MB cursed the big S-class and SLs with that 4.5L V8 that was "cleaner" than Europe's 3.8L V8 of the same time, despite the 4.5L making less power and using considerably more fuel.

It would seem nothing has changed much there: clean emissions and low fuel economy are in contrast to one another, according to what the EPA deems "good". Hence the recent ban on a bunch of "dirty" 50 mpg cars.

(you can still buy as many 12 MPG Suburbans as you like, and now Ford has an even BIGGER gasoline V8 displacing a whopping 7.3L, pushrods and all, in a pickup truck).

I can tell you that my AVF engine seems to use almost all of the same parts as the BHW but it is missing the balance shaft and has no EGR. It is really the best of both worlds it seems!

otty said:

I can tell you that my AVF engine seems to use almost all of the same parts as the BHW but it is missing the balance shaft and has no EGR. It is really the best of both worlds it seems!

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It is also a 1.9L (PD130). So it has a different block and pistons too.