1989 944 s2 TDI BHW swap!!!

Hey guys so im going to try and update this as much i can, the swap is 90% complete running and mobile just have to finish up some esthetics mainly and some stuff which im waiting to be delivered during this pandemic... How fun!, but on the bright side im working full time still so proper $$$ is comming in !


SO where do i start.


I acquired a 1989 944 s2, for those that dont know what this is, its a 4 banger 3.0L !! porsche. yea thats acurate a 3.0l!! motor

The car wasnt destined for anything. i had inquired about it from the previous owner and had a lot of back and forth for months.

When i finally went to see the car i got 50%of the back story... saddly the less helpful part...

The car had been brought in for a service to replace the clutch, and well from there it all went down hill.. not long after the cars engine, trans, and pretty much complete drivetrain had been removed.... how fun.

long story short the engine had been sort of damaged and they dismantled it to fix, which they did... But the mechanic doing the work quit and the project died.... with the engine in pieces.

years later the guy i bought it off of acquired it. the body and tub itself had sat in a container for about 15 years... so it was pretty mint!

i basically made a deal to acquire the car and any parts of whatever we could scrounge up.. which started off good... than it was oh well i dont have the keys or paperwork but blah blah blah...

the car was at one point towed to my house... yet to have documents or a key...

This is where it sat for about 2 years until i myself finally tracked down what i needed etc and BAM! NEW KEY BAM!! proper documents in my name.. and bonus no road safety or mechanical inspection needed ! HOW SWEET


that was probably 12 months ago....

A few months forward.

what do i do with this 4 wheeled immobile lump on the side of my house....

For those of you who dont know, most 944 engines are not cheap to maintain nor repair.. depending on the work and or parts needed. i calculated that to properly bring the engine and car to an operating functional state with the original engine would be in the $ 5k + range... which is a lot of money considering what i paid for the car...

Now dont get me wrong, a clean running S2 will/should easily fetch 10k canadian

so i started looking in to fun swaps that everyone has tried here and there...

20v 1.8T.... 2.2L AAN....pretty much any LS motor... all projects that have been tried tested and proven fun and expensive... ( in my eyes..)

I drive a 2006 Mk5 Jetta tdi. the newer style... BRM engine
I BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF THIS THING AND NEVER HOLD BACK..

- 1 turbo down, 1 exhaust valve.., 1 head gasket, 1 cam...

a couple ditches... and such.

shes still kicking and rocks !

but the body is slowly saddly rusting away and i dont have the pocket nor desire to dump money into a car that well really wont last.. its beyond saving.

But that doesnt mean i wont continue driving it as is.. im not the kind of guy who polishes his car, i wash it occasionally and now well washing makes it look worse.. takes off more paint than dirt ! ha... sorry if that upsets people i just have more important things to do .

SO back to engine swaps...

Hmm i wonder has anyone actually ever tried to TDI there 944? or 924?..

I searched and searched and searched some more...

i have only come across 1 lonely diesel swapped 924.944 series car.

a guy in sweden? or somewhere arround there swapped in a 1.6 Turbo Diesel.. i believe, he made a lot of stuff himself and well it was only maybe a 80hp motor from what i remember... so KUDOS to him!

now 80hp doesnt inspire me at all... nor does it sound worth my time and effort..

So i started looking into longitudinal TDi engines available...

youd be surprised but there arent that many or at least not that many that fit my bill..

Boom, a BHW engine seems pretty simple, Quite a few across North America... But only automatics... HMMMM

So started my research into 03-05 passats...

Well it turns out a tdi b5.5 can be had for quite a cheap deal when there casual Autotragic gearbox decides to fail, which well from my research is pretty much guaranteed pendent on mileage.

So i began my search,

I found a lovely 2004 grey passat tdi in toronto.. About a 5hour drive from my place.

the guy originally wanted i think 1500$? maybe more maybe less...

i talked to him quite a few times and found out, it was actually his mothers car and she had just passed and by just i mean like 3 days prior to listing the car. Yowza... in a hurry much?

Anyway i explained to him my hopes and desires to TDI swap one of my porsches and he was actually kind of excited though not too wiling to budge $$ wise...

Long story short.. we worked out a deal where, i agreed to buy the car but continue to let him use it for about 4 months? or something like that.. and only paid 700$ CAD! sweet jeebus!

oh and i forgot to mention the car had 356k km... but ZERO ISSUES! trans perfect, turbo perfect blah blah blah.

so we arranged a time and date and bam. picked her up with a fun day trip to toronto and bam drove her home.

Woops forgot to mention.. upon picking up the car pulled out of his place at 8pm... not 1 burnt headlamp but 2... so driving arround with 1 highbeam and 1 same side foglight,... how exciting.. not 2 minutes from leaving the guys house did i get pulled over by local law enforcement.. but was for lack of visiblity of the tempporary license plate... thank god he didnt check the headlamps!!

Fast track... So i realized the s2 has been sitting on the side of the house about 24 months.. so my 12 months forward or whatever was a year off my bad.

Anyways.

now began the.... Can i make a TDI engine fit, work, and function properly enough to validate a lot of time and effort to drive this sucker!


So began the slow and long road of benchwork.

It started with lots and lots of measuring.

* I actually had a spare BEW short block on the shop floor so i used this for a lot of sampling and calculations.


- the stock 944 engine is something ridiculous like i dont know... 30" long? say... where the tdi engine was more like 18? something much less...

So space shouldnt have been an issue length wise.

Now height... most swaps into a 944 generally have ample space except for those with a front mounted sump...

Why you ask, well the main subframe on a 944 for engine and steering mounting runs under the motor in a vary flat V or U shape.

Ugh oh... where does the oil sump fit well right on top of that. so thats no good..


SO plan 1... will need a custom subframe no matter what...

** Ps i did a lot more planning and work prior to touching the car but only recall most of it.

Second.. how do i mate a VW TDI block to a 944 Torque Tube...
For those that dont know what a torque tube is... picture... well if you know corvettes the same thing they use... a driveshaft inside a carrier with a bunch of bearings which generally spins the same speed of the engine.

You have Engine---Torque Tube---- GEarbox/diff.

SO yes if you didnt know the trans and diff are together and mounted in the rear on a 944.

But back to my point, how do i connect 1 to the other...

Well ****... there must be some sort of adaptor or something someone has designed which costs way more than im willing to pay!

Well the answer is No, An adaptor does not currently exist.. unless one is currently being made and its a big secret.. not sure why.

So that made another challenge.

So what did i cover. engine height/oil position issue, engine to drivetrain issue, well to be honest those were the 2 biggest ones..

So i began to work... well theres a ton of details which i have pictures of and once i figure out a practical way to display them i will help and add captions to them if i can do that.

Long story short, i Measured the length of a Stock TT, which is just about 72" the problem being, how do i adapt the TT 4 bolt flange to the engine all while including a, Flywheel, Clutch,PP, Slave, and release bearing..

well crap i dont know... Tada, lots of research planning and trial and error...

boom... Well i built myself a custom made bellhousing... How you ask.. well i actually bought a perfectly good DVZ 5 speed 2.8 gearbox and well i cut the **** out of it until it was something that could maybe resemble a bellhousing.. And than i cut more, and more, and more...

The stock Vw bellhousing of the gearbox gives a good starting point for multiple factors !

1. the 2.0L BHW starter works on a 1.8T flywheel.. which also works on a TDI Crank
2. The TDi crank gives lots of options, for now i chose a 23lb SMF... maybe not the best choice. but weight wise im happy and well when your cost is 0$ for a stage 4 1.8T clutch/flywheel setup you cant really complain, mind you i did find it on a Pick&Pull engine.. who cares as it looked like it didnt see 1km... YAY
3. Well now the release bearing on a VW Passat or A4, has a very similar principle to the 944.. a push/pull type but in similar locations.. Interesting... to further investigate.
4. The BHW crank doesnt stock have a pilot bearing, but lucky enough it has a perfect size hole to fit 1 and so i did

That about does it for basic info on regards to why this destroyed trans made a perfect start for a bellhousing.. and i paid 50$ USD for the whole gearbox already pulled... couldnt go wrong for a testing.. was a sad story for a good working gearbox though.

So now we have an engine Platform. and a cut up gearbox to work out with as a bellhousing.

Now how can this really work.

well after lots of cutting measuring, welding and nice HD aluminum My custom made bellhousing was born, I had to calculate down to the MM the proper length for minimum engagement into pilot bearing and rear end(6 Speed swap shhhh)
And yay it still works with stock tdi bolt pattern, and starter and clutch and bam ! release bearing and fork... (slave to be adapted)

now... Can i properly wire, provide fuel, and incorporate a TDi system into the 944?

Well let me tell you, i think for a newer but still old tech car the 944 is a perfect car for a swap!

Lets start off here.

1. Pretty much every wiring circuit and or type of management is indipendent..
air bags INDIPendent.
ABS independnent
Engine Independent
AC indpendent.. and so on.

What this means is, well like a lot of other cars, the 944 engine and DME(ecu) harness can be removed from the car and well it maitains pretty much 99% function of everything it has still

So removing the engine wiring was simple, now how much and which parts of the passat wiring should i try to keep and or use...

Well i removed everything... Engine bay, Interior (until B pillars) and threw it all on my downstairs ottoman. Lets just say i probably spent 2 weeks of 3 or 4 hours after work depicting labeling and such of this wiring harness. i finished by having a Interior harness(mandatory controls only) and an engine bay harness(engine relays etc).

I chose to upgrade to the VW cluster for about 100000 reasons... main 2

1. porsche cluster has the worst visibility ever.. its just a bad design, 2 its all old analog basically... and fragile motors crap out, gagues blah blah,
2. well it didnt have a glow plug light ( to me this was important but i dont have a reason why..)
3..... i wanted it to be a nice complete transplant and stand out.

SO i did what needed to be done. i spent numerous hours and hours more deciding where to tap in and what i needed to wire everything to keep the vw stuff independent.

I ended up using i think 2 fuses in the porsche fuse box, 1 additional wired in fuse, and than a little mini fuse box with 3 Maxi bolt on fuses for the VW **** like it sort of had in the stock harness.

The interesting Issue not clearly noted already....

A Passat ECU is located on the driver side firewall/shocktower basket thingy... well the porsche harness is on the passenger floor.. behind some ****.. but in the cab... hmm thats a long way to go.. or is it.

I redirected whatever wiring needed to be moved and well instead of having all the wiring pretty much under the hood well i have 40% of it inside the passenger foot welll..

Now the problem being.. all the colored connectors for VW harness arent very long.. especially to get from the passenger floor all the way up to the cluster.. so i found in all my wiring left overs color matching wires and basically extended everything.

Yes this meant, finding exactly which cluster wires, gas pedal, brake pedal, OBD2 plug wires etc etc i needed and well mattered.

Long days past and well bam i had essentially made a harness to drop into the 944 ! YAY!

So wiring was doable.. How about fuel..

Well for those who dont know(likely most..) the 944 has a 75L plastic fuel tank.... DING DING DING plastic... another good thing about this car having sat for about 15 years a super dry gas tank.. so a little cleaner here and there and bam a fresh clean tank waiting for some new diesel... only issue... diesel isnt very high pressure hmmm

A 944 fuel pump is actually external, though obviously flows way more than needed. so after lots of calculating and research i sourced a nice nifty Solid State inline Diesel pump, i think it primes to 11psi, and stays about 9psi which is more than enough for supply and to keep fuel cooling down ! Tada fuel system pretty much good

Thats another good note Yay

Fuel Check
Wiring Check
Bellhousing(sort of) Check
subframe.... hmmm

okay time to get busy, ( honestly by this time i had already removed and completely rebuilt my BHW from ground up... A-Z rings, bearings hone cylinders new injector seals the works.

So i got to cutting and making some space, lets just say by the time i got the engine in what would be a rough idea where it needed to go.. there wasnt much left.. and well height became an issue...

Which meant engine has to go lower, and angled and yay more complications !

I eventually clocked the engine at a similar angle to its stock position in the passat.

So i started by making side mounts for the control arms(built into subframe) and well went from there, if i had a basis that i could built mounts and or such off of that would be good, so those were fabbed up. all in house, yea i might not be 100% square or what not but as long as there was adjustability i could pretty much correct it down the road yay!

further on engine was mounted hurrah! now to figure out a lot of unknowns...

PLumbing... Coolant, Intercooler... steering? Ac? Oil...

Ill start simple NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE, yup thats pretty much what worked from how it was !

1. coolant nothing works as is.. first off all or most of the passat coolant lines or piping was quick connects YUK and yuk, hard brittle plastic no thanks so that all went out the door.

2, intercooler, well for those that know what a 944 turbo is, well it actually has a nice front mount(top area) intercooler perfect to use since i have one or two laying around ! Bam, actually very simple ish to plumb but for now not an issue ish.

3. steering well this car had power steering but forget that... space work. cost no thanks, I actually resorted to a manual steering, very common, but out of a 924 not the 944. for my own reasons(simply put the mounting design, and MUCH MUCH CHEAPER !)
4. AC... well i wont lie it is and still is a dream to maybe incorporate functional AC into this car and honestly it is doable, just a lot of fab work and costs which im not ready to dig into until i have tested this car for quite some time to deem it worthy as i barely use AC as it is in my other cars(yes we get +30' C but who cares...)

And last but not least... 5. OIL.. well let me just say yuk yuk and yikes the stock passat oil cooler is huge, unneccessary for my application and ugly ! So here is 1 spot where i actually cheated and bought a TDI block off external oil cooler plate availble through IMED? or whatever his ID is. It was costly but clean and well it made a lot simpler things.( honestly if i choose to chase a different design for parts of my setup down the road i could probably use the stock cooler/filter housing but im not complaining regardless)

Im not one to post or what not, but i wanted to let the world know ! and well thats it for tonight cheers guys, ill work on figuring out pictures...

Sweet. If you really want to make them groan in Stuttgart: hood stack.

Big motivation for me to get working on my 944 project. Dont worry tim, we will have plenty to talk about lol

quick larger image tutorial; click on the icon beside the thumbnail link, you'll get a dropdown, select and copy "medium image" link ...paste on your thread.

Thanks I'll try and make some time.to upload more.

My Porsche forums are so much easier to work with...

Nice that you found such a good condition 944 S2, especially to one come to own one in salt-encrusted QC. Bigger bonus that you managed to register it without needing the SAAQ inspection. I only wished my experience 7 years ago with my Euro import went as smoothly as yours. See the backstory in the link below if you like.

The BHW is a good base with very good performance potential. One part of me might have suggested a newer common rail engine for such a fine and ultimately collectible project, but it means a lot more work fitting into the car and getting all the electronics to work seamlessly. You'll want to do lots of research of what gearbox, gear ratio and final drive options you have to get the most performance, economy and driving pleasure out of the TDI engine / 944 chassis combination for your intended use case.

Good luck with your project.

TDIMeister said:

Nice that you found such a good condition 944 S2, especially to one come to own one in salt-encrusted QC. Bigger bonus that you managed to register it without needing the SAAQ inspection. I only wished my experience 7 years ago with my Euro import went as smoothly as yours. See the backstory in the link below if you like.

The BHW is a good base with very good performance potential. One part of me might have suggested a newer common rail engine for such a fine and ultimately collectible project, but it means a lot more work fitting into the car and getting all the electronics to work seamlessly. You'll want to do lots of research of what gearbox, gear ratio and final drive options you have to get the most performance, economy and driving pleasure out of the TDI engine / 944 chassis combination for your intended use case.

Good luck with your project.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Yea there is a lot.of backstory nonsense for passing so easily st the Saaq. But I'm trying to leave that in the past ha. I've owned about 9 944s in total still have 4 including the s2.

I actually already have my gearbox. Bit I am getting a 2nd one to see how I like the different gear ratios.

And to see how they both handle the torque comparatively. I like the pump duse engines. I honestly apart from nornak issues on my Brm. Love it. Has never let me down. Even driving home on 3 cylinders a while back. And was a super cheap alternative. I work on quite a few all motors for customers... And as much as they can put our more I have zero desire to own one... too many margins for error through my eyes. We will see in the long run how the bhw runs, having never really owned one or such before it will be an adventure.

Neat project. Been a while since I drove a 944, but it seems I remember them being geared pretty tall (which is good for a TDI especially the torque monster BHW). Sadly, the last 944 I drove had a slushbox which was NOT geared tall.... you want to talk about a quick way to ruin a great car. Wow. The same 010-based 3-sp no lockup automatic VAG put in everything from a Rabbit to a Vanagon to any number of Audis from around 1974 through 1993. Good transmission for reliability and durability, but for driveability they suck. Bad.

Yea ! I love the 944 or water cooler series. Haven't works dup the bank account yet to buy a 911... one day.

And I'm not running the stock boxes. For now I'm trying an 01X 2.0l Audi box. But I also picked up a 2.5tdi box to try. One is more speed the other fuel efficiency. Curious to see how driveability will be.

You addressed it in your posts above this one already so this is now kind of redundant, but...

I seem to remember that the 924/944 use the 016 transmission, and it is possible to swap an AWD 01E tranny and lock/not use the front axles.

Yep, checking Google, that is the case.
https://rennlist.com/forums/944-tur...150972-944-01e-swap-details-and-pictures.html

So with an 01E you have limitless options to match the TDI to ideal gear ratios, plus have a stronger tranny to begin with. Although panned as weaker than the 01E, my original 01A mated to my modded AFN TDI has met my needs perfectly well, shifts nicely and is appreciably lighter weight than an 01E, which may be a factor you want to think about.

The 944 uses the "front" axle of the transmission, though, which is I think what you meant. If you were using the AWD variant of the FWD transmission, you would block off what was the shaft to the rear axle. All the 944 (and 924) did was essentially take an out-of-the-box FWD Volkswagen/Audi gearbox and move it complete with the bellhousing to the rear end of the car.

The 928 was a little different and for automatics those got MB 4sp units with a little diff stuck on the rear end.

The Boxster is just like the 924/944/968 except the engine is right up against the transmission, no torque tube in between.

And, useless trivia: the Plymouth/Chrysler Prowler uses an LH body (Intrepid, etc.) powertrain except they split the engine and trans with a torque tube...so the 42TE transmission is in the rear. But same concept.

oilhammer said:

The 944 uses the "front" axle of the transmission, though, which is I think what you meant. If you were using the AWD variant of the FWD transmission, you would block off what was the shaft to the rear axle. All the 944 (and 924) did was essentially take an out-of-the-box FWD Volkswagen/Audi gearbox and move it complete with the bellhousing to the rear end of the car.

The 928 was a little different and for automatics those got MB 4sp units with a little diff stuck on the rear end.

The Boxster is just like the 924/944/968 except the engine is right up against the transmission, no torque tube in between.

And, useless trivia: the Plymouth/Chrysler Prowler uses an LH body (Intrepid, etc.) powertrain except they split the engine and trans with a torque tube...so the 42TE transmission is in the rear. But same concept.

Click to expand...

Like some contemporary Corvettes, thanks for setting me straight oilhammer! Being out of posting has made me rusty .

Corvettes are like the 928, yes. They use a conventional RWD setup, just moved the trans and engine apart. But the differential is still behind the gearbox.

I have to be honest, though, the only 928s I have ever been under were automatics. Unfortunately. But the manuals are arranged similarly (diff behind the gearbox).

You are correct Oilhammer,

so i am starting with a 2.0l a4 01x box because i imported one pretty cheap and it has like 20k km on it.. so why not. its gearing isnt bad, but im also getting a a4 cab 2.5tdi 01E box to try as an alternative, the big difference being not that much but a better top speed and crusing rpm in 6th for highway.

Also, the 01x uses abs for speedo(already setup using stock 944é968 parts) and it has the like pressed in axle stubs with the c clip lock. I stole some stubs from another 01x or older vw model and swapped to 108mm joints on the box side, and may later swap to 108s also on the hub side to give an even beefier joint, where as the stock stubs from a 944 actually bolt on, like the 01E boxes, its a tried and tested swap but mainly for High HP cars. For me the gearing is perfect and much stronger and more parts readily available to my view.

i will be trialing with the 01x for now, i have sourced a few of the 01e boxes i want, just waiting on final numbers before i commit. Since the 01e will require different setup but not by much, well see after some break in testing how she runs,

glad to see some knowledgable people took interest though ! i have a ton of more info and pictures just lack the time to write it up and post, im currently at work and shouldnt be on here .....

later.

But yea, all the boxes i would be using are FWD ONLY, no space for the quattros and not needed, serves no benefit.

the oem porsche boxes are 016 style correct, and the later 92-95 porsche 968s run a variation of an 01E.

I am enjoying following this build. I missed an opportunity to purchase a 1976 911 when I was in high school in the mid 80's because my father thought it was too much car for me at the time. I still never figured that one out because I had a big block 66 Chevelle and a 360 powered Plymouth at the time.

I have done IMS bearing/oiling upgrades on water cooled 911's and Boxsters, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the same trans case hanging off the Boxster that I used to convert my B5.5 Passats to 5 speed.

Yup. I contemplated just swapping a boxster box on. But I really want to utilize a 6 speed to keep the low revs range for highway cruising.

If love to own a 911 but frankly they cost way too much even projects. And in my opinion they aren't that enjoyable for driveability.. occasional cruise yes. But regularly nor for me..

My goal assuming driveability is very nice, will be to drive this thing. Spring summer fall. And park it during the winter. I have salvaged and kept everything original in fact packaged away to be able to restore the original 3.0 s2 package it came as.... that is if the value ever gets high enough to validate the expense!

Will hopefully have some time later this week to write and upload more.

Cheers.

The 912's were pretty affordable for a long time. Even those are astronomical now. Keep up the good work, your persistence is impressive! I think this is one of the tougher swaps out there. Can't wait to see some video (hint, hint) once it's running to your satisfaction.

Well the work is already done. Just documenting it... And yea I found a 912 a couple years back for arround 10k usd.... I even went to see it and such but wasn't in the books the guy decided to keep it for s few more years sold it for like 25k... hadn't done anything to it since sitting... crazy....

And can you upload videos here ? I don't have and don't want to make a YouTube acc. Or instagram or Reddit or whatever else...

And I agree on difficult swap... my guess as to why I found dozens of people talk about the swap but couldn't find any written or talked about completed ones really..

Took a very creative mind. Luckily I like tinkering and when I get on a role I don't stop !!

I think it would be neat (and there is probably room for it under the hood) is to do a 2.5L I5 TDI swap. 25% more fun!

oilhammer said:

I think it would be neat (and there is probably room for it under the hood) is to do a 2.5L I5 TDI swap. 25% more fun!

Click to expand...

Very possibly... again cost is my main thing I have no need to spend thousands on a swap....

Also I sent you a message concerning something wondering If you know about
Cheers.

tims944 said:

And can you upload videos here ? I don't have and don't want to make a YouTube acc. Or instagram or Reddit or whatever else...

Click to expand...

The TDIClub picture server can accept the following file formats:
but it's highly bandwidth and storage constrained. There are user storage limits so it's not for uploading many hours-long videos at Full HD resolution or the anything close to that. But smaller videos (you may have to downsample - putting them first through Whatsapp and uploading the file it generates is quite easy and effective for that) should be fine and yes, I believe that speak for many when I say that we're very interested to see more photos and videos of your build.