TDI to be LUV

So the story goes that a while back I got my Chevy LUV stock as could be, rebuilt the 1.8 in it and did little things, couple years later was bored and built a pretty mean Chevy 4.3 and dropped it in with a 5 speed. Few years later I am tired of barely getting double digit mpgs and I almost never have a need for the power the truck has.

So at this point the plan is to sell the 4.3 and buy a TDI donor car. Was considering an ahu since donors are so cheap and I don't have to worry about immobilizer deletes or as much wiring but I do like a lot about the alh.
Still deciding how I want to go forward with the transmission. I can either get a Toyota trans and an acme adapter setup and have a new driveline made. Or I can go buy a steel plate and see about adapting this tdi to my Chevy 5 speed seems like it is brought up a lot but I don't see it done. already have a real nice custom driveline i had made to put the chevy 5 speed in the luv and it's a V8 style trans so with over 10" of clutch the tdi can live happily on a stock clutch even with a lot of modifications.

Conveniently I already did a ton of rewiring in the luv so everything is set up on standalone circuits through a Jeep Cherokee fuse/relay box and the whole stock system firewall forward was removed and rerouted to that box. So if I need to pull 12v or set up a trigger system I have to hardware available and easily accessible

Mainly looking for the huge mileage increase and not dealing with a carb anymore. And of course having a TDI luv would be pretty sweet in its own right.

I do a Chevy V8/V6 adapter. You could leave the Chevy drive train in place.

evguy1 said:

I do a Chevy V8/V6 adapter. You could leave the Chevy drive train in place.

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Would that work? I have the post 86 (I think 168 tooth) flywheel. Price is kind of steep for my budget range but that would tie up a lot of the problems for me.
Thinking about it, $500 for an acme kit, $300 for a yota trans and $200ish to have yet another drive line made is $1000 plus my time fabbing new mounts and crossmembers... May have to look into one of your kits. Would really like to keep my current drivetrain in place

You might want to do some reading up on the Acme adapter. There are reports here of issues that lead to quite a bit of additional work required.

john.jackson9213 said:

You might want to do some reading up on the Acme adapter. There are reports here of issues that lead to quite a bit of additional work required.

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Just came across something about that. I wasn't aware there was a kit to adapt to my current drivetrain. Thinking hard about doing that

as an acme user i recommend evguy's kit...

Do not use a acme adapter!!!!

I bought one for my swap and it's giving me fits

Find a production machine shop. Take your motor and transmission you intend to use and tell em to make the adapter. I've gone that route before and the result was perfect

That will be a sweet truck! I would highly recommend using an ALH over and AHU. This is coming from someone who has put a couple hundred thousand miles on my ALH car, and used an AHU for a swap. Really I cannot think of a good reason to use the AHU in your application. Just my thoughts, I can elaborate if you are interested.

vtpsd said:

That will be a sweet truck! I would highly recommend using an ALH over and AHU. This is coming from someone who has put a couple hundred thousand miles on my ALH car, and used an AHU for a swap. Really I cannot think of a good reason to use the AHU in your application. Just my thoughts, I can elaborate if you are interested.

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Only reason I was thinking ahu was to avoid the $300 immobilizer delete and have a bit less wiring to screw with. I'm not afraid of the wiring I already read the alh pinout thread
Does seem like the donor cars are getting pretty close to the same price at this point. Is there a big difference in economy between the two? A couple mpg isn't a game changer but 5+ is. Performance looks to be better and easier to increase with an alh.
I fabbed a really nice exhaust system for the truck with 2.25 pipes off the headers in to a single 3" pipe all the way out the back so I should be able to route the downpipe over to the 3" pipe and keep the system in place. Overkill a bit but its already there and is layed out perfect

If you have some more to input I'm all ears I didn't come into this hard headed like I know everything lol.

Like I said, I would never consider doing another swap with an AHU given the availability of both.
Quick advantages that I can see
-Much more ALH engines out there, more parts availability for longer
-better engine setup (internal waterpump, less oil leak potential)
-more advanced ECU control with minimally more complicated wiring
-the ability to do flash tuning, if doing your own tuning might ever be your thing.
-you will likely want a tune for either, so the immobilizer can be part of the tune
-ALH has a more user friendly timing adjustment (in my opinion, a bigger deal than you might think when you are tweaking timing)
-easier to upgrade ALH
-VNT turbo stock

Basically the ALH is a little better in every way, and WAY better in the parts availability just because so many more were sold.

The overall cost of a swap like this is in the thousands, so what is a a few hundred on the front end.

I wish I understood this when I did my audi swap, but i had the same through process as you, and I was in error with my logic.

Alright good to know. I will have to look into finding a decent donor once I find a buyer for my current v6

Alh ftw !!

I'd definitely recommend the ALH as well. The wiring is certainly simpler on the AHU but the external water pump can cause some interference issues with the steering box and the intake will be pointing the wrong direction for a truck application. I wish I had grabbed an ALH insted of the AHU.

Also, another vote for evguys adapter. He makes good stuff, far superior to the acme kits. I made my own adapter for a tdi->sbc and it took quite a bit of planning/fiddling to get the starter to even fit at all so if your not a tinkerer at heart then its well worth the money. Otherwise, I could go digging for my drawing if you want it. Its kind of on the rough side though.

While you are checking prices for the AHU or ALH engine - give the 2005 Passat engine a good look. Yes, more $ up front. BUT it is designed for fore/aft mounting - not transverse mounting. Easier fit in the truck. Also, much more torque than the ALH/AHU, 240 lb/Ft vs 159 lb/ft and a simple tune can push you close to 180/200 hp. Yes, wiring is a bit more work.

This is the time for a good look at all the costs.

Well from very quick number crunching I came up with

$1000 +/- Tdi donor car (-8-900 for ahu, 1000+ alh) maybe less at insurance auctions with body damage etc
$1,125 evguy adapter kit with starter for small block Chevy transmission.
(2,125)
$300+ immobilizer delete/tune
(2,425)
+intercooler piping and couplings,
Some exhaust tubing for down to existing pipe,
Steel plate to fab motor mount adapters,
radiator hoses,
Timing set,
misc odds and ends
($3,000ish total)

-resale for the 4.3 v6 $1,000-1,200ish
-parting donor car ??
-scrap value of donor 100-140
So out of pocket hopefully in the $1,200-1,500 range if all goes well.

Already have a nice 19"x 22" aluminum radiator with 16" e-fan so cooling will never be an issue just need to route flex hoses to the gm locations from the TDI probably need reducers for hose size difference.
Have my 3" exhaust from about back of cab back I can route the downpipe to

Surprising amount of room in my engine bay, I relocated my battery to the bed and threw out anything extra the truck didn't need. I have ample hand room all around the v6 and can even access the bell housing bolts without a bad fight

I am in no rush to dive into the shallow end here I definitely don't want a repeat of the 4.3 swap that took 13 months because in was 20, worked at McDonald's, made a bunch of bad choices with it, changed plans a few times on how I wanted to do it and what parts to use. Was just a fiasco through and through. Came out good but was way too long and expensive of a process.

If my above list leaves out something else I will definitely need let me know! Ignorance is only bliss until you have to shell out more money than you plan for

Post up some pics at some point. My neighbor has a fairly rare(but rusty) 4x4 LUV. Well, I guess they're all pretty rare at this point.

Will do.
Mine was 4x4 but there wasn't room for a tcase with the 4.3 so I removed the front center axle section​ to shed the weight. Rwd only now.
Will take a few pics later. Truck isn't very pretty but one day I will fix that

Front end, my truck is an 80 but I converted to the 76- quad light setup because I didnt like the bigger single lights. It has a hood this was when I did the v6 swap. Also replaced 2 bulbs and their associated wiring so all 4 are hi/lo instead of the traditional 2 hi only and 2 hi/low or 2 low only. Can't remember which cuz I never had them on as they come


The surprisingly roomy engine compartment. Painted it harbor blue since I eventually plan to paint the truck and didn't want to deal with it later. Exterior was left alone other than the headlight change. Kept it just ugly enough to not attract attention parked.



Just a glamour shot at the ocean in Gearhart, OR


All are older pics I don't take many pictures unless I'm working on something. I have probably 100+ pics of every aspect of the build I did on the truck. Was a full body off semi-resto. Took the frame down to bare metal and painted with John Deere black implement paint which is very heavy duty stuff. Left the exterior totally alone and it is getting a bit worse for wear but no real rust minus a couple little pinholes in the bed.
Installed some volvo S60 leather seats on rails I cannibalized by removing all the motors and crap and welding to the lower stock luv rails.
Huge list of small things done along the way
Almost miss 4wd but really I have dirtbikes to thrash on in the dirt just makes no sense to beat on an old truck like this one in the forest. Was my first vehicle so I will probably just slowly evolve it as I age and hold on to it have had it almost 10 years already

Very nice. I prefer the look of the quad headlights too. Must be quite quick with that pretty 4.3. I had a '87 Monte Carlo with that engine- great motor.

I have a 4.3 in my Samurai crawler,it has never let me down,it can sit for
months and starts right up.

turbobrick240 said:

Very nice. I prefer the look of the quad headlights too. Must be quite quick with that pretty 4.3. I had a '87 Monte Carlo with that engine- great motor.

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Oh yeah it scoots along real well. It is built pretty well just has stock compression ratio. It has a compcams 270 roller cam, has the 500cfm 4 barrel on the edelbrock intake, gasket matched and lightly ported vortec heads and intake, headers, that 2.25 off header into 3" exhaust, all the other goodies. It is a heck of a fun little truck, had to replace the 195/75r14s with some 30x9.5 tires out back to get it to get grip when I wanted it and help with gearing, still has no grip when it's even damp out, and uh... Washington, so it's always damp. Just horribly impractical to actually use for commuting