Nissan Hardbody TDI Swap

A-man930 said:

What exhaust manifold will you be using?

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The exhaust manifold is a one off totally custom piece. I used stainless and TIG welded the whole thing. Pics to come.

Next up, accelerator pedal time.

TDI is electronic and the truck was cable.

Bracket made to mount to existing studs.

On the firewall.

Looks like we are going to have some interference problems.

Modification time.


A little bit of 3M Panel Bond ought to do it. I work in a collision repair shop and the 3M rep told me to use this stuff if there was ever any doubts

Just to make sure though I riveted it as well.

And installed it.

Alright, next up was the transmission. The 4x4 ratios in these trucks are quite high so I was turning about 2700-2800 rpm at 100 km/h (60 mph). With my new found torque I could lower that. One way would be to change ring and pinion ratios, but that is pretty expensive compared to changing the ratios inside that trans. So I ordered a 4x2 input and counter gear from Midwest Transmission and proceeded to install them. This will bring me down to 2450 rpm at 100 km/h. I am on the stock tire size right now which is 29" tall. I might go up to 31" tall tires later on which would put me at about 2300 rpm.

Chucked that homie up onto the bench

And removed the t-case


Removed the back half

Then took the bell housing off (which is integrated with the front half of the case) and stuck the gear set into the vice

New input and counter gear

Sadly I had to use a smaller roller bearing than the 4x4 one

Pic of the keys that Jimbote was talking about

This spacer/shim had teeth on it that matched the old 4x4 ratio

So I removed them because they were not allowing the input and counter gear to mesh properly. I have no idea why they were there in first place. They added no extra strength and the trans still shifts just fine without them.

New gears and bearing installed

Front back on with new seals

And all buttoned up and ready to go back into the truck.

The little thin gear is an anti backlash gear... You don't see them very often in transmissions but you do see them used quite a bit in cam gears... I like the body panel adhesive idea, been hearing about it for a few years and would really like to try it out

jimbote said:

The little thin gear is an anti backlash gear... You don't see them very often in transmissions but you do see them used quite a bit in cam gears... I like the body panel adhesive idea, been hearing about it for a few years and would really like to try it out

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Oh good, I am glad I kept it. I had seen some pics of this trans on the web where somebody pulled it apart and it was missing. Though they reported not having any shifting problems.

Yah that 3m panel bond is some pretty crazy stuff. Its kind of expensive though and you need a special gun to squeeze it out. It is two part and the gun has two plungers that are different sizes. Also has a 24 hour cure time at room temp but only one hour if you put a heat light on it.

Alright, I know this is a little backwards but I started the exhaust from the back of the truck. I had these tips left over from a project on my g35 so hey, can't let them go to waste right!

Tacked up and ready for welding.

The exhaust will be 2.5" straight pipe with a couple of large straight through resonator/mufflers that I also had left over from the g35 project.

And here is how far I got before needing to have my trans and engine in place.

Gauges arrived! These are factory match 4th gen dodge gauges but I used them anyway cause they looked nice.

Time to make a custom pillar pod.
Step 1 remove original a-pillar trim to make new part off of.

Step 2 Add raised area for gauge wires to go.

Step 3 Cover with tin foil.

Step 4 Layer on fiberglass.

Step 5 Trim and add cardboard tubes that luckily fit the gauges perfectly.

Step 6 A little bit of filler.

Step 7 Got it primed at work and ready to be color matched to the trim later on.

Time to test fit in the truck.

J.Klassen said:

Step 7 Got it primed at work and ready to be color matched to the trim later on.

Time to test fit in the truck.

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those are sweet looking!

Now that's cool; thanks for sharing!
But just to be sure, the fiberglass piece you made attaches to the factory trim piece right?

A-man930 said:

Now that's cool; thanks for sharing!
But just to be sure, the fiberglass piece you made attaches to the factory trim piece right?

Click to expand...

Yes the gauge pod is attached to the original trim piece. I attached it with two sided tape, because I did not want to drill any holes in the original. Now that I have been driving it for a while I am going to have to redo the tape and add a little more because it is starting to come loose. It probably doesn't help that I put it on outside in December of last year lol.

Just so you guys all know, as I post pictures in this thread this is the order that things happened. A lot of it was done before I even knew if the engine was going to fit in the engine bay. I would have liked to put the engine in first but Randy (EvGuy) was working on my adapter which was essentially a prototype as it was the first one made for the this engine and trans combination and that kind of thing takes time haha.

So here is the beginning of the engine mounts. A plate made for each side of the engine.

Driver's side

And passenger side.


I was looking under the jetta donor car and spied this beauty. Supposedly only the automatic mk4s came with a fuel cooler. It will be mounted on the frame rail in the return line.

Holley fuel pressure regulator, new fuel filter and the stock clamp from the jetta engine bay. Time to make it all work together.


Final modifications and paint. Ready to go into the truck.


In its new home.

So next I hung the portion of the exhaust that was complete and here are a few pics of that.



I knew that the turbo oil drain was going to be custom so I scavenged the fittings from the original turbo oil drain.


I got to checking things cause what better time to do maintenance than when the engine is out right. The stock 90 Amp VW alternator was toast. So I replaced it with a re-man AC Delco unit which is actually a 120 Amp Valeo.
I looked into buying the parts to rebuild it but by the time I got the special tools and parts it was only a little more money to get the new one plus it was a 120 Amp where as the trucks original was a 60 Amp.



I wish I took more pictures of this part of the project but it was just so time consuming with tricky measuring that I didn't do it. I wanted to use the trucks AC compressor because it was smaller, the hoses already fit, and the wiring was correct for it. The only problem was that it is v-belt and the VW accessory drive is serpentine. I took both pumps apart and it turns out they use the same size bearing. The coil magnets where different sizes though. So after a lot of measuring and thinking (clutch plate has to be 1mm or less away from the pulley face so that when the magnet pulls on it, it will get sucked toward the pulley and engage the AC pump) a little lathe work from one of my dad's friends and some careful TIG action I ended up with a Nissan pump with a VW serpentine belt drive.

Ok next up was turbo manifold time. I had wanted to make a somewhat equal length manifold but when I got to looking at all the restraints (space, oil drain, connection to intercooler, bolt access, etc) I just had to make the best of the situation. So I call this my "tubular logish manifold" haha.

People talk about turbo manifolds cracking from the weight of the turbo hanging off of them. What better way to prevent that than to weld the two flanges together. I started by tacking them together.


The first runner tacked up.

And the second.

Test fit on the engine.

Third runner.

And the last one tacked in place.

Fully welded up, and yes I did back purge with argon. In the middle you can see the bung for the EGT probe. It sticks down through the merge collector and part way into the exhaust housing for a accurate reading.


For my first time welding stainless I think it turned out pretty good.

Bolted to the engine.

Complete with the turbo hanging off it.

Next I hung the engine in the bay even though it was not connected to the trans yet.

And ran into some issues. The AC pump was going to hit the front differential even though it is shorter in length compared to the vw unit. So I made some brackets.

These brackets allowed for me to swap the locations of the power steering pump and the ac.

Bracket for moving the power steering to the bottom.

A little massaging of the bottom to accept the new power steering bracket.

And mounted in place.

As you can see, a lot more room for the differential now and the belt lines up nice too!

The belt routing did not change at all, plus the pulleys for the AC and power steering are basically the exact same size. Later on I did modify the AC bracket so that the pump moved closer to the engine which gave me more clearance between the belt and the steering box that is mounted to the frame.

Wow nice work all around. Huge undertaking to get this thing on the road. We're going to be staying in the shuswap area for a couple weeks this summer. Would love to stop by and BS for a few if you have time one day. I too have a hardbody and would be interested in seeing this up close

CGDoig said:

Wow nice work all around. Huge undertaking to get this thing on the road. We're going to be staying in the shuswap area for a couple weeks this summer. Would love to stop by and BS for a few if you have time one day. I too have a hardbody and would be interested in seeing this up close

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I sent you a PM.

Jason

Ok while I had the engine hanging in the bay it became very obvious that the front of the oil pan where the oil pumps lives wanted to be in the same space as the steering link. Since moving the oil pump is not an option the steering link had to go in for some surgery.

I started by taking some measurements and then getting some pipe mocked up.



Joints to be welded were beveled and then first pass with the TIG was made without filler rod just to melt the pieces together.



After a couple more passes with filler rod we have a pretty solid piece.





Next step was to tack it to the steering link.



Then fully weld it and add some gussets from 1/4 inch plate in the corners.





And then the moment of truth. Cut the middle out and see how much the ends want to move inwards. Turns out it pulled the ends in by a total of 3/32 which is only 1.5/32 on each side. Easily corrected in the alignment.



Nice and shiny with a coat of black rust paint.



And in the truck. With the wheels straight this is as close as the link will get to the diff. When the wheel is turned in either direction the link moves towards to front of the truck and away from the oil pan.

Battery time. The big battery I had in the truck was not going to work. It stuck out into the engine bay right where I wanted to put my boost pipe. And of course boost pipes are more important than batteries right haha.

Anyway the battery was 7 years old and would probably die soon anyway, so time for a upgrade and a downsizing.



A little chopping of the inner fender.



New piece cut to fit.



Hold downs and rubber mat .



Tacked in place.



Painted and battery installed.

I had taken the mechanical fan off the gas engine and installed an electric one with those stupid clips that go through the radiator. In the process the fan shroud was also removed so it was time to make a proper one to work with the electric fan.

I started by measuring the rad and laying it out on some sheet metal.



Cut and folded. The notch in the bottom corner is for the steering box.



Lovely old rad still working great.







Painted and in the engine bay.

A lot of your pics are not showing up for me.

Same, apr 2nd onward.

I don't know what's going on with the pics but I have re linked them from my google photos account and hopefully its fixed. It looks like the image addresses had changed for some reason causing the pics to not show up.

J.Klassen said:

I don't know what's going on with the pics but I have re linked them from my google photos account and hopefully its fixed. It looks like the image addresses had changed for some reason causing the pics to not show up.

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No everything from the 2nd onward is still not showing. just shows a circle with a horizontal line for each pic.

Ok I am looking for ideas as to whats going on with the pics. I just tried Firefox instead of Opera and the pics were not showing up. So I logged in to edit the posts and scrolled down only to find that all the pics were showing up just fine now while I'm logged in.

Any ideas?
Could somebody try multiple browsers?

I logged out, closed firefox and then came back and the pics were not showing up. So I logged in and clicked edit and the pics were there. I canceled the edit and now I can see all the pics.

I am really confused.

Alright I linked the pics again and they seem to be showing up for me, so let me know if they are good for you guys.

No still not working. You can load them to the photo album on here for free and they will show up no problem. I think if your using google photo to host you can only do like 50 MB limit to 3rd party hosting then it cuts it off.