90 Golf TDI conversion

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
this friday i started converting my 90 golf 2.0 16v into a TDI. the swap parts came from both a 98 jetta and a 96 passat that i parted out. the fuel tank, fuel lines, engine bay harness, subframe, steering rack and p/s hoses, heater case and instrument cluster came from the jetta, the rest from the passat. luckily my boss is cool about me doing the swap at the shop after hours so i have full access to a lift and good compressor. im hoping to have her up and running by the end of next weekend.

enjoy the pics!











 

phazersonstun

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 28, 2009
Location
Southern California
TDI
Only parts...
Are you converting from CES 1 to CES 2? How hard were the sub frames? THe wiring? Could you show more steps? Sorry to be a pain, but I am just damned curious about how all this goes together. My swap is into a 1986 golf diesel.

How was the swap to cable shift? How many hours have you put into it?
 

mogly

Veteran Member
Joined
May 27, 2003
Location
Sarnia, ON, Canada
TDI
MKIV TDI + B5.5V AVF/01E
Seeing that you're from NY and how clean that car is, I must presume it's from the south!

Looking good.
 

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
phazersonstun said:
Are you converting from CES 1 to CES 2? How hard were the sub frames? THe wiring? Could you show more steps? Sorry to be a pain, but I am just damned curious about how all this goes together. My swap is into a 1986 golf diesel.

How was the swap to cable shift? How many hours have you put into it?
nope, the car is a 1990 which makes it a CE2. everything is pretty much plug and play except theres a couple little individual wires at the fuse box that need to get powered up. for those wires i used the factory bridges that clip onto the top of the fusebox so it looks completely factory....no scotch-locks or butchered wiring here! :p the jetta subframe bolts in with 4 bolts - passat sub wont fit. the passat front crossmember bolts in with 4 bolts - jetta crossmember wont fit.

if you need help with wiring i could give u a hand. i spent the good part of a saturday nite identifying all the individual wires that dont plug directly into the fusebox and i labeled each one with masking tape so the harness would be easier to wire up properly once i got it in the car.

the cable shifter box is simple to install. its a little narrower than the stock A2 box but i just put some large washers over the bolts and it holds the shifter in just fine. after tonite i have somewhere between 35-40 hours into the swap
 

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
mogly said:
Seeing that you're from NY and how clean that car is, I must presume it's from the south!

Looking good.
it actually came from connecticut, not sure where it was before that
 

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
last nite i landed all the wiring at the fusebox, tonite i installed new ball joints, tie rod boots on my new tie rods, replaced the oil cooler o-ring, changed the oil and drilled holes as needed in the rain tray for the wiring harness. hopefully tomorrow ill have some more progress pics
 

bozwell

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Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
got some more work done on the car tonite but again i forgot my digital camera :mad:

i started mocking up the passat rad and found its alot bigger than my old rad on the 16v, so much bigger that i had to cut the entire tow hook off the passenger frame rail. i also finished up the wiring under the dash (had to extend the mk3 heater box/A/C wiring ) modified my dash to accept the mk3 jetta instrument cluster, ran the engine bay wiring down the passenger side rail, buttoned up the ECU and wiring in the raintray and started plumbing the A/C
 

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
phazersonstun said:
Will the R-12 lines mate with the R-134a Compressor?

Does the harness have enough length or did you extend it?
im running the entire R-134 system from the 98 jetta. the heater box was a pain in the nutz to install. al the mounting points were different from the A2 box and it ended up sitting lower on the drivers side which is making it interesting to install all the heater tubes and whatnot. as far as wiring i had to extend the wiring for the A/C switch and the heater box itself, everything else is reaching no problem
 

bozwell

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Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
ive been really burning the midnight oil with this project so i appologize for not posting more pics. i got alot done in the engine bay tonite, pretty much got all my wiring laid out and landed and everything plumbed and mounted. should be lookin good to turn the key on saturday :D
 

bozwell

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Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
so i turned the key today and she fired right up and ran like a champ! after clearing DTC's with vagcom no faults returned

this swap is almost done, now i just hafta take care of the little details. i promise ill have new pics tomorrow nite
 

dzljerk

Member
Joined
May 4, 2009
Location
Bozeman, MT
TDI
98 AHU
I love it! I've been looking for a GTI to swap my tdi into as well.... Did you have to make room for the crank pulley or serp tensioner?
 
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bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
dzljerk said:
I love it! I've been looking for a GTI to swap my tdi into as well.... Did you have to make room for the crank pulley or serp tensioner?
i did hafta clearance the rail. i first put the engine in and realized the crank pulley was hitting the rail so i pulled the motor back out and beat the snot out of the frame rail with a 3lb drilling hammer. it clears nicely now but i still wont be able to change the belts without removing the front motor mount and dropping the motor down a bit
 

bozwell

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Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
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diesel hoverboard
so i forgot the digi cam again today :mad: but i did get alot done and i actually got to whip the car around the parking lot. it actually moves alot better than i thought it was going to!

tonite i finished the cooling system, vac'd and charged the A/C, modded my rad support, cut open the drivers fog light cover panel in the bumper, made custom aluminum radiator mounting brackets. i should be driving the car tomorrow, just need to install the grille and align the front end :D

and ill make sure to remember the camera tomorrow!
 

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
Spulen81 said:
What are you using to control the AC? All MK3 stuff?
yes sir, im gonna hafta perform a little surgery on the dash to make it work. for now the control head is just hangin out behind the trim panel till i get time to mod it
 

GiGGer

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Location
Quebec
TDI
GTI TDI 130
Nice project. My first TDI was a '92 Jetta with a '98 TDI engine. Pretty cool considering the weight of the car, you'll have fun with it!
 

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
GiGGer said:
you'll have fun with it!
oh i am!!!! :D i took it out today for the first time on the road and logged about 60 miles.....its soooo much better than i expected!!! power delivery is smooth as butter, torque is incredible after having a 16v that didnt come to life until 4k rpm and its alot quicker than i thought it would be too!!!

why didnt i do this sooner?!?!?
 

bozwell

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Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
btw i did notice today an occasional flashing glow plug light. i just did a search and found ppl saying to replace the throttle pedal position sensor however im not losing power like the other cars were.

anyone have an idea what could be the prob?
 

G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
scan the car and let the car tell you what is wrong. It very well could be the brake pedal switch. I know mine was bad and the glowplug light would flash at me sometimes.
 

bozwell

Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
G60ING said:
scan the car and let the car tell you what is wrong. It very well could be the brake pedal switch. I know mine was bad and the glowplug light would flash at me sometimes.
i have scanned it amd the only DTC i have is a p1403 because i temporarily disabled the EGR until i can go in with vagcom and drop the duty cycle. u think the EGR DTC could be the cause of the problem? and yes the brake light switch is hooked up
 

G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
The EGR will only cause the cel to come on. Have you driven the car yet? My experiance with flashing GP lights is that it will occur while using vag and it will also flash once the car is moving for issues in the throttle switch and brake switch.

were you doing anything diagnostic related with VagCom when it was flashing?
 

diesel-dave

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2007
Location
earth
TDI
2003 wagon TDI, 2003 wagon Tdi, 2013 Q7 Tdi
wow your hacking up the cool 16v GTI? i wish i still had mine.
 

bozwell

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May 17, 2009
Location
your mom's
TDI
diesel hoverboard
diesel-dave said:
wow your hacking up the cool 16v GTI? i wish i still had mine.
its actually not a GTI, it started life as a 1.8 8v automatic and i swapped in the 16v when i took possesion of the car.

back to the glowplug light, my brake light switch is connected and working and when the light flashes there is no change whatsoever in the drivablilty and no DTC's set
 
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