TDI into Toyota (another one)

Okay, so I realized the err of my ways. Made a huge newbie mistake, that I am hoping did not cost me some valves. I was off a tooth on the TB. The cam was out of sync with the crank. It was only off one tooth and I cranked it over by hand first to make sure there was no binding and I didn't feel anything funny. Am I screwed or what???

I realized why this happened. What i did was tighten the cam sprocket and injection pump gear fully before tensioning the belt. I couldn't figure out why it was so hard to tension.... DUH! anyway, I think I got it now, and it seems to try even harder to start but still not firing. It almost seems like I am still off a tooth on the injection pump as I put it to the limit of the slot and it gets a LOT better. still not there yet tho. I hope it is not the valves. As it was turning over slow before the battery went completely dead I'm hoping maybe it was just that the battery was too weak to fire it over.

Tomorrow will tell.

Where is the best place to get a compression tester for the glow plug hole??


Jesse

one tooth off will not bend valves....so you are OK....harbor freight stocks a $25 diesel compression tester with the correct fitting (and many others) ....

Great project!! I have been researching for quit awhile now. I just picked up an 81 toyota, I will do a little different twist, I have a few VW bodys around from the old buggy days. I want to either use my bug convertible or a squareback (type 3).
Depends on how good of shape they are in, They have sit for many a year now and I haven't looked at them in a long time. Going out to look at them soon.
I also design in Solidworks, we use a waterjet in our shop. Good luck can't wait to see how it runs.
I plan on using the electronics, wiring, computer and all. My truck is a 97 f150 with a dbw 2005 V-10 in it, so I like wiring!!

Do you still have the wiring and Such?

I sold all the wiring, ECU etc to the guy building the Corvette tdi on here.
Long weekend. Hope to devote at least a few hours to the Yota this weekend. Will post updates if there are any.

how goes the project?

JayTee013
Made a huge newbie mistake, that I am hoping did not cost me some valves. I was off a tooth on the TB. The cam was out of sync with the crank. It was only off one tooth and I cranked it over by hand first to make sure there was no binding and I didn't feel anything funny. Am I screwed or what???

Click to expand...

You're prolly ok.

I've just helped a friend with a car that had a similar issue. Here are some links to save you search time:

My "slipped one tooth" saga:

1) Diagnosing the problem:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=334148
2) Got it running, but then it "slipped" ***
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=337207
3) Loose crank bolt:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=337761
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=325931&highlight=checking+crank+sprocket

Once the timing is set properly on both IP and cam, it should start right up. Be sure there's no air in the IP or injection lines.

How to dial things in when you've got it running:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=240450

Hope this helps!

What are you getting for MPG ? I would love to build a swap..

Soo... Not a lot of progress on the TDI TOY.... By that I mean it is squirreled away in the corner of the garage just taunting me every time I walk by... I need to get working on it and try some of eclipse's suggestions. Soon enough.

But on a side note... Look what I did to my jetta last weekend.
I needed new struts (still original @ 190k) so picked up some new Bilsteins....
You can take me out of a truck, but you can't take the truck out of me....


added a few more lights too... (6000k HID's)


Home made light bar...


General Grabber 205/75/15's

My homemade DP back straight 3" exhaust w/ 4" s/s tip




This is what it looked like before. A little bit of an old picture (60k miles ago) but the concept is still the same.


This MOD, has mae me fall back in love with my car. 1000k miles on it so far and I absolutely love it!!!!!

I did this with some homemade 2.25" spacers and VR6 wagon springs....

My oil pan with the old shot springs and struts was 4.25" off the ground. I measured it last night and I am now at 9" off the ground. The alignment shop was able to bring it right back in to alignment too. I had the opportunity to try it out in about 3" of slush this past week, and WHAT A DIFFERENCE. These New England Winters no longer stand a chance with me.

After 2 tanks it looks like I lost about 5-7mpg which puts me right around 40mpg.... Which is better than I thought.
I love this thing now and am WAY more confident to take it on my trips up north now...

That is awesome!

Lifted MK4

Wow, let the rallying begin! Nice work! We have - er, had - nearly identical Jettas, down to the pinstripe. I thought about doing something like this but focused on the truck. I also thought I might regret it for the longer 300-500 mile trips.

Has handling (while pointed straight) stayed the same? What's changed?

IT LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got the truck to start tonight....

I had a friend come over and look at it and he came to the same conclusion as me: It seemed like we just weren't getting enough advance out of the slots in the pump pulley... Loosened the belt and slipped the pump pulley a tooth, and it fired right up and idled...

I have a video, I'll see if I can post it.

Now it runs for awhile and seems to starve out for fuel after about 60-90 seconds. Revs nicely before that. Almost like the pump is loosing prime. I'm not really going to worry about it until I get the fuel system set, I was just sucking out of a gallon jug. We also had to prime the injection pump with a cheesy lift pump setup i made on the fly so that could be part of it too.... I'm gonna straighten everything out this weekend and see if I can get her to purr like a kitten for longer than a minute and a half.. haha

sooo friggin stoked about this project again...

Jesse

Not sure which one of these links will work....
try them both...



http://s1112.photobucket.com/albums...on=view&current=video-2012-02-01-20-20-25.mp4

Congrats Jesse! Stoked for you.

Cooked the starter

Thanks Cummins...

And to answer your earlier message, really the handling has not changed all that much on the Jetta. I thought it would be waaaayyy worse than it is. Although I was riding around on SHOT 190k mile struts and springs and now have the stiffer VR6 springs and the stiffer bilstiens (I believe they are advertised at like 20% stiffer than stock). That means they are about 300% stiffer than what was in there. haha.

Of course when cornering it has a higher center of gravity but again not terrrible. It does feel more sure footed though I'm not sure how much of that is just the struts. If I go over a speed bump slow I do get a clunk. At first I thought it was the struts at full extension but it is actually the bend in the sway bar hitting the front sub frame. I could fix this by extending the sway bar links but its acting like a over-entension stop for the struts so I think I'm going to leave it. Only happens about once every five speed bumps... Other than that I absolutely love not having to worry about that oil pan... I go down dirt roads (i mean rough roads) with confidence.... And snow/slush is no longer a concern. You would not believe the traction difference with those narrow nobby tires...


On a toyota note...
I started to work on the toyota this past weekend and didn't get too far. I'm currently using the 1.0kw yota starter. Surprisingly, it seems to turn over pretty quickly and starts fine. However, from all that cranking when the timing was off it has developed a flat spot and seems to have completely given up now. I have a starter/alternator guy in town here that says he can rebuild it for me and that he will be able to up the output. I'm not too familiar with that, does that sound like a real possibility or is he pulling my leg?

-Jesse

Mean Green Starter (junk?)

I ended up ordering a Mean Green starter for the setup as I thought this I would spend the money and just buy one starter and never worry about it again. I got it last week and installed yesterday. It seemed to crank the diesel over pretty quickly, but was really making a racket. The more I cranked the worse it got and then it started grinding and wouldn't even turn the motor over. I pulled it back out and it had started to chew my flywheel. I put the old stock yota starter in and it cranked over just fine and started right up. After some pretty quick measurements the mean green and yota starter seem to measure out the same (gears, throw of the bendix etc). Anyway I know a lotl of you have had good luck with those starters on here. Any ideas? Did I just get a bad one? I sent them an email last night stating my prblems hopefully I can just return it and go back to $100 starter. Seems to start fine with that 1.0kW.

Since I got frustrated with that I started on my fuel system. I mounted up a stock tdi filter to firewall. Also flushed all the gas out of the tank by pumping it all out and then adding 2 galoons of diesel and pumping that out as well. I then put 5 gallons of fresh diesel in there. I also had an idea which looks like it is going to work. I was going to put one of the LP bypass regulators like Jim Bote used but ordered one two seperate times and both times was told they were out of stock. I had a homemade/ebay "dawes" device (manual boost controller) on the shelf, brass fitting with a spring and ball bearing that is adjustable. I did a test using that as my bypass regulator and perfect! With it adjusted correctly it fluctuated between 5-10 psi and seems to work great. Also no seals or anything for the diesel to disintegrate, just brass and stainless. Seems like it is going to work pretty good. Best part is it was $20 on ebay....

Anyway, got the fuel system designed out and have all the parts. Now i just have to connect everything up. Once that is done on to the very simple wiring. Hopefully then I can be happy I went M-tdi...

It runs!!!! And Drives!!! And Crawls....

So...

Fuel system complete. $20 Dawes Device "regulator" works awesome. Maintains between 5-10psi of fuel pressure. Not sure of the purpose of the dual return line on the toyota (maybe one is a vent?) but I used one for the return from the filter and the other as the bypass line back to the tank from my "regulator".

Wired up the toyota fuse panel and volkswagen alternator. Also wired up starter and the battery leads/grounds. (it now starts and runs with the turn of a key). Apparently a lot of my hard starting and dying issues were related to the lack of fuel system. It did NOT like sucking out of a jug. Runs absolutely amazing now. Stone cold it will fire right up with no glow plugs.

Also hooked up the toyota throttle cable to my giles VW pump. What a project. It proved to be very difficult to get the right lever arm ratio to utilize the full motion of the pump arm via the small stroke of the toyota pedal. Ended up bending the arm of the yota pedal to allow more stroke and modifying the cable mount on the VW pump.


Modified the shifter lever to accomodate the dropped/pitched transmission as well as the body lift. I was just able to cut it in the right place and weld a piece of sleeve between the two sections.

Still a lot to do
1. No coolant system
2. Accessory wiring (fans, A2W pump, etc)
3. clutch master to slave line
4. Rear drive shaft
5. Put interior back in
6. VNT control system (vanes zip tied open right now)

Even with all this I couldn't help myself, Had to take it for a ride.
I threw in the front driveshaft and ratchet strapped up the rear shaft.
Started it in gear and away I went....


This thing is ridiculous. Video is with both tcases in Low and the trans in 3rd.
When I started it in 1st gear, it literally ran for a couple of seconds before the slop was taken out of the drivetrain and it started to move...

Anyway, I think I'm in love....

The vibes are pretty bad at idle (maybe poly mounts were not the best idea??) but off idle it is smooth as can be. Sounds amazing as well.

A pic:


Unfortunately, I leave for work until July 5th, so no more progress until then......

re: the idle. You might try having your tuner turn it up to 975 RPM. That's where I asked Malone to set mine and it's far smoother at idle than 923 was. You can get an idea by reving the engine to 975-ish. Maybe you won't need to change your mounts after all ;-)

P.S. Truck is badass!

MTDI... I can just up my idle with a screwdriver... ha. Good idea though, I will try that. I also have a high idle switch via vacuum actuator that is not hooked up yet.

awesome truck man...sounds like a kubota tractor!! ....you carry a ladder in that thing? ....I'm diggin' the SAS and thinkin' bout going that route myself...would simplify T case gearing choices for sure ...if you start having starting issues in cold weather you could do the 2.0KW tacoma cold climate option starter like I'm using but you'll have to mod the bell housing a bit...still cheaper than a mean green and works awesome

Jimbote, I just watched the video again and I think you are spot on... It sounds identical to my dad's little 3 cyl diesel John deere tractor. I friggin love that sound coming out of that truck....

I should have explored the starter options a little more. MEAN GREEN is NOT a good company to deal with. I have been getting a serious run around with those guys. After almost a month I am supposed to receive my new starter tomorrow. I'm curious to see if this one is junk out of the box again. You would think that if you spend $300 on a starter the QA would be slightly better than what I have experienced. Unfortunately, I will not get to even try the starter as I take off to Hawaii for work until July 5th. I guess that isn't really all that unfortunate. haha.

how did you make the light bar?

Good to see this thing chugging around, sounds just like a tractor. Love the grey stripe down the side too! Beautiful truck.

rushjay: Not really sure what you mean by the light bar??? Unless you are talking about my jetta, in which case I used my hydraulic pipe bender and some scrap electric conduit and welded it up. I used the fatory tow point to anchor one side and grabbed a couple random mounting points in the other lower grate on the drivers side.

ToyotaTDI: Thanks, it is very encouraging (just watched the video again). Another 25days and I'm home again and I can really get cranking on that machine. Nothing worse than having all kinds of spare time and being 4000miles from the truck....

Fuel system utilizing stock EFI pump and NO regulating device??? Good Idea??

So I was reading another forum with a guy doing a 4bt cummins powered purpose built 4x4 wheeling rig. He used a small fuel reservior up under the hood as part of his fuel system in order to feed the motor at crazy angles or terrain when the fuel pickup may be out of the fuel in the main tank for extended periods without the motor dying. Not at all the same thing I am envisioning here but it is what spawned an idea for me that utilizes the stock efi pump with no regulating device whatsoever. Curious as to what you guys think???

It consists of a fuel canister up under the hood (~1/2gal or so, could be much much smaller) ideally mounted at the highest point in the fuel system, would work if not but creates a gravity feed at the injector pump this way. Here is the diagram I am visualizing:



Basically the pump keeps this small reservoir full and returns all unused fuel back to the tank. The pump is able to draw from the bottom of this reservior with very little restriction or line length (this is where having the canister mounted high in the engine bay would be an even added advantage). The reservior could also be made to act as a sort of sediment/water bowl pre-filter. For my 4x4 off road build I would even get the added advantage of a fuel supply whether the fuel pickup is in the tank or not. Seems kind of neat to me (prolly completely unneeded). Also NO pressure ever makes it to the pump, so there is no chance of blowing out seals. Nothing mechanical and nothing to break either...

For the fuel canister, I am think just a pc of 3" thick wall aluminum pipe with some 3/8" end caps welded on and tapped with NPT threads for the fittings. You would also want a drain to periodically drain off sediment/and or water. If you wanted to get fancy you could also set it up with a dual wall and run coolant thru as a fuel heater and shut it on and off. WVO? not for me, but maybe someone?

Opinions???

When I get home in July, I just might convert to this system. Seems like a good idea to me.

I like your idea. One variation would be to use a Racor 500 in place of your 1/2gal tank, with return plumbed to top cap. Would have the same effect, but you get filtration and a water separator with clear bowl on the bottom.

JayTee - I saw you comment earlier about the oil pan and the reason for the lift. I really LOVE the way your Jetta looks 'lifted'...have you thought about DieselGeeks belly pan? I have one on my Jetta and it SAVED me big time in West Virginia in May. I bottomed that thing a few times and said to myself "thank god that plastic pan fell off in Dallas and gave me the excuse to get this metal pan"....lol. It certainly has scratches on it, but that's what it's for! lol

I will be watching for updates as I'm looking at the MTDI route for my Toyota for the simplicity of wiring (I'm NOT good with that stuff yet). You give me inspiration to get back into my 4Runner again....around dealing with the effing legal battle I'm in with my ex.... :/ I may start a thread....but it will be SLOW.......

Keep up the work!!!

My advantage on fuel system is, my stock tank won't fit anymore with the custom long arm 4-link, so I'm going to have to go the route of a custom built tank to fit where the spare would be and have it built with a diesel pick-up and use an Airdog or something mounted on the frame.

I'd recommend a F.A.S.S.

So here is my VNT vacuum control schematic. Not built yet but this is what I came up with after reading through alot of others designs when controlling the VNT without an ecu. I had originally thought of going all mechanical like many have but all in all that seemed just too cumbersome and lots of people have problems with the vanes sticking as it is difficult to creat a direct linkage to the lever arm. Not saying this eliminates that problem but hopefully it will help as a vacuum actuator was used from the factory and isn't "that bad" as far as this problem. The main reason I chose to go vacuum over mechanical is the tune-ability of the system. The problem with the mechanical setup, is that any tuning to be done requires a remake of alot of parts and changing one thing can mess with others. Again not saying this will be better but in my mind this should be more easily tuned.



This system is controlled via a relationship of boost and throttle position which hopefully will relate to engine load in some predictable fashion. There is no RPM input. I realize that the boost curve might be a little "clunky" here but I think it will work sufficiently to keep boost up when power is needed (high load) and boost down in low load situations.

Basically it is two dawes devices setup in parrallel. One set at a lower threshold (I'm guestimating somehwere between 5-10psi) and this dawes will be closed at approximately 1/2 throttle (again will need to be tuned) via vacuum solenoid and microswitch. At that point the second "high boost" dawes (18-25psi) will own the control of the turbo. When going from high load to low load (assuming low load has less than 1/2 throttle) it will hopefully work in the same fashion, so cruise boost levels will be in the mid single digits (where my ecu controlled jetta likes to sit). This system should allow you to control the power with your right foot and may take some getting used to drive it right. I will be the one driving it so I don't mind having manual control over what the turbo is doing. You can also see the second Vacuum solenoid which is utilized for No load or idle conditions. This will open the vacuum actuator to the boost side of things at little to no throttle. I.E. let off hard and the the vanes open. The higher the boost at letting off the faster the vanes open. That's the theory anyway. There is also a restrictor in there which will need to be adjusted to work properly.

What do you guys think? already ordered up all the parts so it will be interesting to see how it performs. This is my own design with bits and peices taken from other "successful" controllers I have read about.

Mostly from:
http://www.chaz.yellowfoot.org/Manual%20Boost%20Controller.htm but I didn't like how he was killing his bottom end spool up with an open needle valve all the time so that is why I added the second vacuum selenoid and I'm thinking that when plumbed to boost it will allow a quicker opening of vanes when coming off the pedal hard. I could be wrong but only one way to find out...

My other idea is to hook that second "vane opening" solenoid to a switch on the dash with brake lights as its input to allow use of an exhaust brake. That would be kind of cool for steep downhill descents while wheeling. Just a thought, probably won't get addded right away...

Let me know what you think???