So, it has come to this. Poorly prepared to make a thread, forgot to take pictures for almost all of this so far.
Backstory:
While tossing the 0A6 in my golf I realized that I'm making conversion axle shafts and mounts to do so. This is already engine swap territory, and I'm more of a honda weenie than a VW guy, honestly. Driving the insight around I realized that the golf is a very handy size, so it'll stick around until it tears in half from rust.
Bought an 04 insight with the CVT, put about 300 miles on it to see 'how it do', 'what it be', 'am I able to drive this car without needing to shoot hordes of gay-bashers', and all of life's other important questions. It was amusingly slow, handled kind of poorly, lacked cruise control, the hybrid system charged at steady state cruise until the battery was topped up so it wouldn't regen brake, and applied power when I didn't really care for it to. Once the hybrid battery had set enough codes to stop trying to work it made it even slower.
So, this answered the question of "TDI and dumb automatic, or kubota and stock CVT with hybrid stuff?"
Got a buick regal GS from a friend, had trans issues so he parked it. Sold it to me for $150. Got $200 for the motor, still got the catalyst and wheels, dragged in the rest to the junkyard for nothing. Direct clutch had burnt up, 4th gear hub was almost worn through the splines, various thrust bearings were burned up. Had the 1.21 overdrive chain in it, and a 3.05 final drive, so 2.93 final drive. Got a 2.86 final drive for an overall final drive ratio of 2.55:1, good for the diesel, should cruise 70mph at 1800ish. You'll see more of the final drive bits later on.
Got a blown up alh for cheap, ate a valve so honed it out until it cleaned up, .004 piston/wall so neatly prepped for severe use. Got together a bunch of used pistons and rods (every ALH I take apart has had 2 and 3 hydrolocked), cut the bowls out and tossed it together.
Tried for a while with a tin block plate, an oil pan and the trans case sitting horizontal to come up with a reasonable angle to mount the block at to make the adapter plate, came up with tilting the engine back 25 degrees (though after drilling the plate and looking at it, 26 or 27 would have been much better). Finally stacked it all up tonight and it's looking like 50 degrees would make for a much more compact package. May well redrill the plate once again.
Anyways, here's some pictures. Car didn't get a picture of it stock, oh well.
and the engine bay, recently vacated
Trans with newly drilled adapter plate, note how the upper right bolt could be a little further up and left, by rotating the engine just a couple degrees more. This is also the one that the hole in the block is a through-hole, with the alignment dowel tube, the perfect storm of "weakened adapter plate"
here's the 25 degree tilt,
other side is here:
Now, these are with the engine at 50 degrees backwards tilt.
nestled in there a lot tighter, makes for a shorter package, too.
Undecided on if I should make another plate, redrill this one, or just run the 25 degrees because lazy reasons. Spent a good few days of frustration relearning cad to overlay the two bolt patterns...
Onto the final drive, on the left is the stock HD final drive, with 3.0x ratio, HD differential gears and open differential, on the right is an abomination. These are very neat in that they have a planetary final drive, not normal gears like an 01m which is why they weigh the same despite being enormously stronger. Also drew me to them for other reasons to be seen shortly.
The 2.86 gears only came in the non-HD differential carrier, no big deal but I don't have an axle shaft or diff cover to fit the non-HD differential. Well, if I'm doing strange things already, may as well go all the way wierd and get a torsen out of the deal. So, on the right to the bottom is a piece of 1018 bar stock turned into a final drive carrier to fit the 2.86 planet gears, with the other end adapted to the torsen center differential from a burnt up ZF 5HP-19FLA that I found for $30.
The smallest spline (34 teeth) way down in there is one side gear, the middle spline is the carrier itself, where it would normally be driven from, and the biggest spline (49 tooth) is the other side gear. They run tubular shafts and all sorts of gears to get the power out of the side gears to the front and rear, I'm doing something a little simpler.
Rather than driving the carrier off the middle spline and needing to use tubular shafts with gears to get the power from the side gear out and around let's just use those three lightening holes as drive keys. Machined three nubs on the final drive carrier to press fit to those three holes. Took a lot of thought to get it measured out, and then even more to how I'd cut it. I'm limited to a manual milling machine with no digital readout, so 'hard mode' on all the machining. All of it done with a rotary table and patience.
The other end of the carrier looks similar to this peek inside, just that it is pressed together with the final drive carrier, disassembly involves heat, and hammering, so no pictures.
Backstory:
While tossing the 0A6 in my golf I realized that I'm making conversion axle shafts and mounts to do so. This is already engine swap territory, and I'm more of a honda weenie than a VW guy, honestly. Driving the insight around I realized that the golf is a very handy size, so it'll stick around until it tears in half from rust.
Bought an 04 insight with the CVT, put about 300 miles on it to see 'how it do', 'what it be', 'am I able to drive this car without needing to shoot hordes of gay-bashers', and all of life's other important questions. It was amusingly slow, handled kind of poorly, lacked cruise control, the hybrid system charged at steady state cruise until the battery was topped up so it wouldn't regen brake, and applied power when I didn't really care for it to. Once the hybrid battery had set enough codes to stop trying to work it made it even slower.
So, this answered the question of "TDI and dumb automatic, or kubota and stock CVT with hybrid stuff?"
Got a buick regal GS from a friend, had trans issues so he parked it. Sold it to me for $150. Got $200 for the motor, still got the catalyst and wheels, dragged in the rest to the junkyard for nothing. Direct clutch had burnt up, 4th gear hub was almost worn through the splines, various thrust bearings were burned up. Had the 1.21 overdrive chain in it, and a 3.05 final drive, so 2.93 final drive. Got a 2.86 final drive for an overall final drive ratio of 2.55:1, good for the diesel, should cruise 70mph at 1800ish. You'll see more of the final drive bits later on.
Got a blown up alh for cheap, ate a valve so honed it out until it cleaned up, .004 piston/wall so neatly prepped for severe use. Got together a bunch of used pistons and rods (every ALH I take apart has had 2 and 3 hydrolocked), cut the bowls out and tossed it together.
Tried for a while with a tin block plate, an oil pan and the trans case sitting horizontal to come up with a reasonable angle to mount the block at to make the adapter plate, came up with tilting the engine back 25 degrees (though after drilling the plate and looking at it, 26 or 27 would have been much better). Finally stacked it all up tonight and it's looking like 50 degrees would make for a much more compact package. May well redrill the plate once again.
Anyways, here's some pictures. Car didn't get a picture of it stock, oh well.

and the engine bay, recently vacated

Trans with newly drilled adapter plate, note how the upper right bolt could be a little further up and left, by rotating the engine just a couple degrees more. This is also the one that the hole in the block is a through-hole, with the alignment dowel tube, the perfect storm of "weakened adapter plate"

here's the 25 degree tilt,

other side is here:

Now, these are with the engine at 50 degrees backwards tilt.

nestled in there a lot tighter, makes for a shorter package, too.

Undecided on if I should make another plate, redrill this one, or just run the 25 degrees because lazy reasons. Spent a good few days of frustration relearning cad to overlay the two bolt patterns...
Onto the final drive, on the left is the stock HD final drive, with 3.0x ratio, HD differential gears and open differential, on the right is an abomination. These are very neat in that they have a planetary final drive, not normal gears like an 01m which is why they weigh the same despite being enormously stronger. Also drew me to them for other reasons to be seen shortly.
The 2.86 gears only came in the non-HD differential carrier, no big deal but I don't have an axle shaft or diff cover to fit the non-HD differential. Well, if I'm doing strange things already, may as well go all the way wierd and get a torsen out of the deal. So, on the right to the bottom is a piece of 1018 bar stock turned into a final drive carrier to fit the 2.86 planet gears, with the other end adapted to the torsen center differential from a burnt up ZF 5HP-19FLA that I found for $30.

The smallest spline (34 teeth) way down in there is one side gear, the middle spline is the carrier itself, where it would normally be driven from, and the biggest spline (49 tooth) is the other side gear. They run tubular shafts and all sorts of gears to get the power out of the side gears to the front and rear, I'm doing something a little simpler.

Rather than driving the carrier off the middle spline and needing to use tubular shafts with gears to get the power from the side gear out and around let's just use those three lightening holes as drive keys. Machined three nubs on the final drive carrier to press fit to those three holes. Took a lot of thought to get it measured out, and then even more to how I'd cut it. I'm limited to a manual milling machine with no digital readout, so 'hard mode' on all the machining. All of it done with a rotary table and patience.
The other end of the carrier looks similar to this peek inside, just that it is pressed together with the final drive carrier, disassembly involves heat, and hammering, so no pictures.

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