v8 coupe
Veteran Member
So since I'm starting to run into the TDI portions of the build now figure it's time to post up on here.
I'm currently working on converting my 81 VW caddy (AKA rabbit pickup) into a completely mental TDI.
Car is a fairly good 81' CAddy I bought as a summer DD a few summers ago. I loved the thing. Slammed it on the stock 13's via a flipped axle, drop plates, and cut springs (it's a mk1 didn't make it any more bouncy). I rocked it like that for a summer and drove it everywhere. The 1.6L CIS engine only had ~61k when I bought it and i drove it ~7k miles. After sitting for a winter the E10 fuel that I was running took it's toll on the CIS. The system leaked, ran horrible and eventually failed, by flooding all the time.
Been trying to decide which route to go and started repairing the body. Being a MK1 from northern IL/southern WI area it had seen salt. Floors were toast, needing the rear suspension mount fixed and basically a full pan. I looked at a few different swaps, but really wanted a "work" truck. I haul lots of different things from engine blocks, to interiors for my other projects and selling things. A tdi swap sounded cool, but the only spare tdi I had really needed AWD to make it viable for even semi daily use. I had looked at putting it in my coupe, but plumbing and mounting issues made it more difficult then the V8 I already had. So I toyed with the idea of AWD TDI caddy.
Did a bunch of reading on here, and caddy forums about different swaps from haldex to RWD. I really didn't like the expense and complexity of haldex, and RWD just didn't seem much better then FWD. I wanted real permanent AWD, AKA quattro. I have lots of old quattro parts in my collection collecting dust so I started mocking things up and measuring and well the math wasn't telling me no. So I went a little deeper and test fit an engine. Confirmed a few things I feared, but also proved that the math though slightly flawed was not far off. So began the build. It's going to progress a little slower now, do to having to relocate, but hopefully that doesn't slow it down to far.
Basic engine specs
ALH block/crank
BEW pistons with valve pocket work
Girdle
Rosten I-beams
Race ALH head, oval ports, lots of porting, .475/.438" lift cam, 38/35mm valves
Custom intake (from 10vt audi)
Compounds
10mm with .341's for now
Some pictures:
the caddy
bay coming apart
oil cooler mounting in new bumper.
engine mocked up
axle flange centers are 190mm from bellhousing
I'm currently working on converting my 81 VW caddy (AKA rabbit pickup) into a completely mental TDI.
Car is a fairly good 81' CAddy I bought as a summer DD a few summers ago. I loved the thing. Slammed it on the stock 13's via a flipped axle, drop plates, and cut springs (it's a mk1 didn't make it any more bouncy). I rocked it like that for a summer and drove it everywhere. The 1.6L CIS engine only had ~61k when I bought it and i drove it ~7k miles. After sitting for a winter the E10 fuel that I was running took it's toll on the CIS. The system leaked, ran horrible and eventually failed, by flooding all the time.
Been trying to decide which route to go and started repairing the body. Being a MK1 from northern IL/southern WI area it had seen salt. Floors were toast, needing the rear suspension mount fixed and basically a full pan. I looked at a few different swaps, but really wanted a "work" truck. I haul lots of different things from engine blocks, to interiors for my other projects and selling things. A tdi swap sounded cool, but the only spare tdi I had really needed AWD to make it viable for even semi daily use. I had looked at putting it in my coupe, but plumbing and mounting issues made it more difficult then the V8 I already had. So I toyed with the idea of AWD TDI caddy.
Did a bunch of reading on here, and caddy forums about different swaps from haldex to RWD. I really didn't like the expense and complexity of haldex, and RWD just didn't seem much better then FWD. I wanted real permanent AWD, AKA quattro. I have lots of old quattro parts in my collection collecting dust so I started mocking things up and measuring and well the math wasn't telling me no. So I went a little deeper and test fit an engine. Confirmed a few things I feared, but also proved that the math though slightly flawed was not far off. So began the build. It's going to progress a little slower now, do to having to relocate, but hopefully that doesn't slow it down to far.
Basic engine specs
ALH block/crank
BEW pistons with valve pocket work
Girdle
Rosten I-beams
Race ALH head, oval ports, lots of porting, .475/.438" lift cam, 38/35mm valves
Custom intake (from 10vt audi)
Compounds
10mm with .341's for now
Some pictures:
the caddy
bay coming apart
oil cooler mounting in new bumper.
engine mocked up
axle flange centers are 190mm from bellhousing