1981 Rabbit Truck TDI (afn)

Ok! Finally figured out the pictures. Near impossible to do on a tablet...

Ive been looking for the last 3 months for a good swap candidate and finally found this one. It's all original as far as I can tell, and I even drove it over 60 miles back home. It smelled like gas fumes the whole way, and I had to drive with the windows down while it was raining to avoid passing out. It won't have that problem anymore when I'm done with it .
This swap has always been a fantasy of mine, but with two young kids, I knew it couldn't be a reality in the next decade or two. Luckily I have a family friend who is just as crazy as I am and has always wanted one of these too. When I told him about the TDI option he had to have one. So, here we have it!

The Drivers side is super nice: very straight and the paint is even still shiny. The passenger side is straight, but must have been parked in the sun or something because it's all oxidized, and there is some surface rust at the bottom of the door. The floor pans have no rust! And the bed is similarly intact. I've never seen a canopy like this one on one of these; I really like it! The whole thing will swing off if you want and you can use the tailgate then. Of course, this one didn't come with a tailgate, so that's just imaginary at this point.

Anyway. I don't think mine will be as fancy as some out there, but it'll have a beauty tdi engine and 5 speed in there. I think I'm going to put a modern instrument cluster in there too. The old one was stuck at 170,000 or so, and basically all it did was tell you the time and the speed. New and updated drivers seat for sure. Enjoy the pics. I'll update as I go.

Andrew

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I like your truck! Mark

Engine is out! This happened today after a long fight with the axles. Angle grinder settled the issue. For the first time in over 30 years the Rabbit is liberated from its stinky gas overlord.
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...And I took the door off and got all the dash taken apart!

Wednesday I'll pressure wash the bejesus out of the engine bay. I'll post pics of the shiny sparkly goodness, and update then.

Andrew

oops. double post. I'll edit with something else later...

Always wanted a pickup, even had one (project) for a while. It finally came down to just not fitting inside very well, even with Scirocco seats installed, just not enough leg room.

Steve

Wow... Sparkles!

Steve Addy said:

Always wanted a pickup, even had one (project) for a while. It finally came down to just not fitting inside very well, even with Scirocco seats installed, just not enough leg room.

Steve

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Yea, it seems like this swap is the dream of many and the reality of fleetingly few; for a multitude of reasons. Ultimately, it's probably a clown car for all those reasons, but it's a car that gets unparalleled mpg's, has overwhelming power, and is maybe useful in hauling a little something. Not a bad fantasy, if you can make it a reality.


Just got the engine bay pressure washed. OMG. It is just insane pristine in there. Earlier today I was reading about an 2003 jetta that had rusty bits here and there and everywhere, and then I was taking all the bits out of the engine compartment of this rabbit (washer bottle, relays, horns, wiring harness, etc.) thinking: "This car is 20 years older and I can put a screwdriver or socket on any bolt and it just twists right out!" Pretty nice.

Before and Post engine bay pressure wash pics below:

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My last conversion was an 89 Fox, installed a 1.6D and 5 speed from a Audi 4000 D. The car is very light and easy to drive but in reality lacked any ability to haul anything at all. It's nice if you need a runabout but I ended up thinking that a wagon was a better option and hence why the AHU B3V came into play. The wagon though will be the first electronic conversion I've done, and probably the last.

The Fox was pretty straight forward, here's the end result. It'll be going to live in Omaha permanently in a few days.

If the 1Z had shown up sooner I would have converted it to tdi instead of idi but that's the way it works out. There still would have been an issue of the transmission though, which isn't an easy situation on the longitudinal cars to sort out for TDI, especially on the Fox where the tunnel isn't that big.

Early pic, just post conversion.



recent as sold



Steve

annieneff said:

Just got the engine bay pressure washed. OMG. It is just insane pristine in there. Earlier today I was reading about an 2003 jetta that had rusty bits here and there and everywhere, and then I was taking all the bits out of the engine compartment of this rabbit (washer bottle, relays, horns, wiring harness, etc.) thinking: "This car is 20 years older and I can put a screwdriver or socket on any bolt and it just twists right out!" Pretty nice.

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Yay for the pacific nw!

oldpoopie said:

Yay for the pacific nw!

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Have to say that seems to be true, even vehicles this old out in the PNW tend to be in pretty good shape, unlike those in the mid-west rust belt.

I want to see the rear swing out....

-Todd

ToddA1 said:

I want to see the rear swing out....

-Todd

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I'll take a picture of it next time it's out. I'm waiting on the engine and all the conversion bits to get here, and in the meantime it's tucked away in the garage and I'm working on my other million projects. It'll be a week or two before anything more happens on it.

Updates and progress! The engine for it is en route! Hence the picture below .
And last night I jacked it up on ramps, and drained the gas out of the tank. What a stinky miserable job that was! Only 5 gallons left in there, but 5 gallons of hell. If I would have been in a better ventilated area it probably would have been almost tolerable. But along with the rest of the country right now, it's cold here, so I suffered inside the shop. By the end I felt like I could have ignited the fumes in my lungs. I thought about taking a picture, but I opted instead to just get it done.

Here's a question: I was thinking of removing the tank entirely to clean it, but after my little gas chamber bath last night I'm less excited about that idea. I'm going to swap out all the fuel lines from the tank to the engine as the old ones were weeping and I'm sure they wouldn't react well to a bunch of diesel suddenly flowing through them.
But what do people think about just leaving the tank alone? I'll put at least 5 gallons of diesel in there before I start it, and Im sure there is less than a cup of gas left in there now. Is it too stupid of an idea to not clean a tank that's 33 years old?

Andrew


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Sweet! Following this thread!

When my conversion was underway, I drained the tank and left the filler cap off and all lines dangling. It was like this for weeks so I figured anything left would be evaporated. Also, I heard the VE pumps will handle a small amount of gasoline and that it may even be advised in cold climates.

Short answer - I think you'll be OK.

Looking forward to the thread!

Mark

...And the engines did not arrive today. The sadness and disappointment are nearly intolerable. Perhaps the Dove crunch bars in the freezer might ease the pain somewhat, but they are only a temporary vice, not a solution.
Looks like France took issue with them and are giving them extra scrutiny. Nobody likes France in the first place; they aren't doing themselves any favors here!
Of course on a friday, no one with any answering or decision making ability or power will be in again until monday... So the waiting game weekend begins.
Massive quantities of suckyness.
Waiting and patience is so un-American. Oh, also my 3 year old daughter is sick-- 102.3 fever, so that's fun too. And the wife is away on a retreat this whole weekend, probably cheating on me (... and if she's not, she should be... I would, because as of this post I have reached terminal pathetic mode).
Seahawks better win sunday against the racist other washington team... One thing needs to go right this week!

Andrew

I would drop the tank and get it dipped, cleans the inside and gunk on the outside. Mine had a good bit of fine silt like rust still inside. I tried flushing the hard lines, and replaced the rubber ones. New fuel to flush the tank, Replaced the filter 3x and was still full of the silty rust, so then i dropped the tank and took to engine builders to be dipped. Got it back cleaned and then new paint. Well worth it. JMO. [/URL][/IMG]
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Familiar part of the engine:



Less familiar:

Installed the motor mount on the passenger side today. Not much information out there for it! I got Epytec motor mounts, but I only ended up needing the transmission parts of it... Photo explanation to come. Hopefully this explanation turns up for anyone else looking in the future! There was precious little out there about it and these are great mounts for this conversion!

I think I'll need the clutch cable that came along with it, so it won't be a wash or anything. But evidently you can take a motor mount off an engine from 1981 (or 1978 for that matter)-- gasser even!!!-- and put it on a TDI motor that was made in 1998 (or later!!!). There are fleetingly few differences, and instead of pressing out the (almost) new bushing for the mount, I just mounted the old to the new... 1981, meet 1998 . With a s-ton of cleaning of course! The old unused bosses were filled with rusty crap. Lots of pb blaster and paper towels later and they were useable again.

The new mount is pictured first. I might end up still using that one. But the old mount from the 1980's fits just fine, and has the bushing in, and in the right orientation... Makes the 1980's version a lot more appealing at this point.

The kind of unfortunate part about the motor mount progress is that I had the timing all set and perfect, and then I figured out I had to cut the back part of the tb cover away to make room for the passenger side motor mount. I'm an experiential learner though, so I accept the process.

The Transmission mounts are completely intuitive and don't need any modifications... I don't think... I haven't installed them yet .

I should have the engine in tomorrow, or Wednesday with any luck! There's a truck that has some gas gauge issues that I'm going to look at with a friend tomorrow, and if that takes too long, I won't have enough time with the Rabbit.

So close though! Having the engine in will be a big psychological victory and milestone: I'll be sure to share when that happens .

Andrew

OMG is that a 140 hp tdi afn in a rabbit truck???!!!!

Victory!!! Just enough time between other shenanigans and sunset (@4:30!). It is installed .
My wife said "Lets go for a ride!" ...Not quite ready for that yet, but it sure does look like it belongs. If I do say so myself.

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Here is the dramatic progression:

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Well done! Nice time too.

Thanks sccaddy. Your build is inspirational.
I don't think mine will ever look as fancy as even one of your rims (man your truck looks nice!), but I'll make sure it runs and functions flawlessly.

Now on to the minutiae and the rats nest wiring harness. Installing the engine is fun because it looks like so much happened all at once. The reality is that until I have functioning pedals, wiring, computer, instrument cluster and oh so much more-- all I've really done so far is bolt one big hunk of metal to another big hunk of metal.

Time to go push some wires and plugs!

Andrew

Its all one step at a time, trust me it don't happen all at once, just keep plugging away, it was all fun for me

Little updates .

In welding in the gas pedal I took out the hvac system. What a difference from a b4!!! When I took the heater core out something poked me:
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Here it is removed the whole way:


Someone lost a knife in there! At least it wasn't drugs... In the last 3 cars I've converted, they've all had drugs of one kind or another hidden away in some cavity in there.

Anyway. Got the gas pedal welded in there. Looks perfect, works perfect. Couldn't ask for more there:


The things that are the same on cars that are 30 years apart continue to amaze and amuse me. It would be nice if they kept good useful things the same like the hvac system and the super easy heater core, but instead they keep the vacuum nipple into the booster identical:


And the exact same width for the relay and fuse panel:

I've got the wiring more or less all laid out and mostly hooked up. Got the clutch cable on and hooked up. The epytech cable and slave that came with the motor mounts fits like stock and is intuitive to install. The clutch pedal is definitely more stiff now! But the action is nice. If it becomes bothersome I'll put hydraulic bits in there. Doesn't look like too hard of an upgrade.

Today I had limited time, just an hr or two to dork around on it because my kids school was delayed 2 hours. He didn't start until 11:00!
But I got the intercooler figured out. There's this really tempting space between the radiator and the grille. Perfect place for an intercooler if you have one that size... I don't so I tortured myself with considering other locations. Finally I went and looked at what an air to water job costs and for under $100.00 one can be mine. Otherwise, I was looking at changing the direction of the intake via an alh intake manifold and intake feed pipe into the turbo, and then spaghetti boost pipes everywhere.
With the air to water I'll literally have less than 3 feet of boost pipe, and I can just stick the intercooler between the battery, and the overflow bottle. Done, cheap, and easy-- I like it!

So, wiring is 90% done (just need to switch/splice plugs like headlights, rear tail lights, rad fan and etc.). Pedals are all hooked up and work! Intercooler is solved and on order. I cut a hole in the firewall and fed the ecu plug through it so the ecu is going to live inside the cab on the passenger side somewhere. Just need to bolt it somewhere it won't interfere with anything (glovebox mainly), and feed a vacuum line through for it, and it'll be done too. Got the stick shifter installed. Little modification needed to bolt it to the exhaust and shifter cable gunnel, but it was pretty simple to adapt the old to bolt to the new.
Still need to figure out axles (the old ones are wasted), but that's about it!
I'm going to need to start ordering oil, filters, and coolant soon!!! Nice place to be

Andrew

Vw nut has air2H20 on his caddy. Ask him about it. I agree w the cleanliness and less spaghetti under the hood. Ditto on the ecu in the cab too.

Annineff, I went with an even smaller air to H2O cooler my pipe will be less than 2 ft, I have had no problems with it in 50,000 miles other than I had a pump burn up it was my fault had a small hose leak, it goes in a shop in 2 weeks to have all the pipes fabricated

I rolled the caddy out into the wild yesterday! I kind of wanted to drive it out of there once it was all done, but that was never going to happen because I couldn't get to the passenger side at all, and it needs bearings and axles to be drivable. Axles especially.

Which leads me to my next question. I pm'd Will about this and he had some good advice, but thought I'd throw it out for everyone here; what do folks do for axles for these? Will the original ones work?

I'll try to get a picture of the re-powered truck sometime today, and a picture of the badass rear canopy door action for Todd1 .
Yesterday I was in crazy person mode getting work done and I didn't even think of snapping a pic of it. Come to think of it, it looks kind of pathetic right now... I just pushed it out of the garage and tucked it in at the edge of the woods. I can't tow it back up the little hill right now because of the 3" of snow and ice that I keep hoping will finally melt away.

Anyway. Onward! Let me know what the options might be for axels.

Andrew

Andrew, I believe mine are 16v scirocco axles 100mm flanges