Diesel Westfield is finished!

PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
Hi,
A few of you might remember my project to put 1.9TDi into a Westfield SEiW (Lotus Se7en type kit-car similar to a Caterham). I posted on here a couple of times regarding the project, but most of that was some time ago. Well, after more than two years, the car is finally finished and on the road!

I thought I'd post a few pics and let people know how I went – the project was also part of a series of build-story articles in a UK magazine called “Practical Performance Car” – I can scan and post up some PDFs of them as well if anyone’s interested...

I’m sure most of you guys are familiar with the concept of a Kit-Car – basically you take delivery of all the basic components (steel spaceframe chassis, a pile of aluminium panels, fibreglass bodywork, suspension parts, etc.) and gradually piece them all together. It’s great way to do it because you can really stamp your individuality on the car and spec it as high or low as you like – no two ever turn out the same.

Here’s the car at a very early stage – I’d just spent ages drilling hundreds of holes to rivet the aluminium panels on. That’s the chassis loom laid out on the ground next to it.


Front suspension, brakes and steering rack fitted


Rear suspension and diff fitted – the car uses the differential from a Ford Sierra (European mid-size car built in the 80’s). There was a diesel version of this car that had a longer final-drive ratio than most (3.14:1) – I had to search long and hard for one of these a they are very rare. I re-built the diff with a Quaife LSD as well.


Here’s the car at rolling chassis stage


This is the donor car I used – ’96 A4 Avant 110hp model with AFN engine. I chose this one as I thought the simple electrics/electronics in the earlier model would make it easier to get the engine running standalone – before the project I’d never built a car from scratch before, and had zero experience with diesels, so was looking to make my life a little easier.


Here’s the motor and gearbox bolted up together – I used a pre-engineered kit from Acme Adapters. Gearbox is a Toyota Supra W58. The kit wasn’t cheap, but was built really well and worked exactly as promised, no complaints at all...


Here’s the motor installed in the car – I’m really happy with its final position – nice and far-back in the engine bay, well behind the front axle line. There were a few clearance issues in the transmission tunnel as the Toyota gearbox is a bit bigger than the boxes normally used in these cars, but it went in fine in the end.


Westfield make a version of their car with a VAG 1.8t engine, so I got hold of a pair of the engine mounts they make for this installation, as the blocks are basically the same. The mount was fine of the right-hand side and bolted up nicely, but on the left there’s a large aluminium casting for the water-pump and alternator mount that I guess the 1.8t doesn’t have, so it wouldn’t fit. Luckily the original mount out of the A4 was a perfect fit and came down perfectly on the chassis rail!


I had to convert the clutch release mechanism to use a hydraulic release bearing, as the standard release fork was fouling up against the foot-well bulkhead with the engine in its final position. Clutch is a little heavy, but not too bad.


 
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PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
I put a bigger turbo on it as well – both because I plan to bump up the boost at some stage (obviously), and also because the exducer outlet on this one has a better angle for my installation – the original VNT15 had the pipe fouling one of the chassis rails.




I mounted the ECU up under the dash. It was reasonably easy to get the motor up and running. Basically all it needed was power to the ECU and starter, a solid earth and fuel, and away it went. I’ve just put the immobiliser box next to the ECU with a key permanently taped to it. I also took around a metre and a half out of the length of all the wires going to the engine bay.


I’ve used a Subaru W2A intercooler out of a Legacy GT instead of an A2A one mounted in the nose, mostly because there was absolutely no way I was going to get ducting of any a decent diameter past all the bodywork and suspension. I also chose it because I like the way you can have the W2A heat exchanger mounted so close the turbo and inlet manifold – the intake tract is nice and short.


I used an alternator off a Daihatsu mini-car as there was no way the huge original Audi one would fit. This one only has a small capacity (around 55 amps I think), but I’m reasonably confident it’ll be fine in my car. There’s not much in the way of ancillaries to run – and I’m not using the glow plugs and water heaters at all.


These are the two separate prop-shafts I needed to marry up to make a single one for my application – Ford Sierra at the top, and Toyota Supra below.


This is the finished article – Toyota slip yoke on one end, and Sierra diff flange on the other


Not long to go now!


Here’s the bodywork going on


This is me on my first shakedown test – I trailered the car to a track-day and ran it around (very cautiously at first) for the day – this was at Mondello Park for anyone who knows Ireland. It went really well and nothing burned, burst, boiled or broke...
 

PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
I couldn’t resist this:


I was having so much fun I forgot to think about how much (or how little) fuel I’d put in the car – and had to suffer the embarrassment of being towed off the track!


In theory it was just finishing touches from then (they still took me six months though!). The interior and exterior fittings and the rest of the body work went on next. You can see I had some clearance issues with the bonnet though – nothing a dirty great hole and fibreglass scoop didn’t fix though.


Here’s the dash – I’ve used this really cool little digital unit. You just connect up all your sensors to it and calibrate each one (e.g. tell it how many volts equates to 100 degrees etc) accordingly. It also takes inputs from the ECU for the tacho and a wheel speed sensor for the speedo. So the one little unit gives me: Speedo, Tacho, ODO/Trip, Coolant temp, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp and Fuel level. Besides that I just have analogue boost gauge and a couple of switches on the dash – I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.


And here’s the finished product – I’ve got to say I’m really happy with the way it turned out.




 

PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
Thanks - yeah, it's pretty quick alright. Tips the scales at around 650kgs, which is around 1400lbs... full throttle in second or third is "scary fast"...
 

PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
tditom said:
nice job!!! how long did this take?
Thanks Tom - took me a bit over 2 years - a lot longer than I originally thought...

I'd never built a kit car before, and this combined with the fact that a lot of the bits and pieces to do with the TDi installation had to be custom made really caused my timelines to blow right out. I got there in the end though!
 
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PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
aja8888 said:
WOW factor is 5 STARS!!!;)

Got an idea of the total cost, less your labor?

Tony
I guess it's safe to assume that my wife won't be browsing this forum, so I can give you the numbers...

Total build price was around GBP16k, that includes the donor car and selling off a few bits and pieces here and there. You can do these cars for much more, or much less, it's up to you as to how high you want to spec it. I tried to save money wherever I could by buying bits from Ebay and junk-yards etc, instead of just getting everything from the manufacturer (Westfield). The cost can very rapidly get very high if you do that.
 

aja8888

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Location
Texas..RETIRED 12/31/17
TDI
Out of TDI's
Thanks for the update. That's about $24,200 US dollars which is about the same as you can buy a new TDI Jetta here for. But your car looks like a lot more fun!
 

eb2143

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 26, 2005
Location
Rhode Island
TDI
None
Awesome, thanks for sharing. I probably missed it, but who did the remap? I'd love performance numbers if you ever get them!
 

PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
eb2143 said:
Awesome, thanks for sharing. I probably missed it, but who did the remap? I'd love performance numbers if you ever get them!
A company called "Derv Doctor" in the UK did a mild re-map and nozzle upgrade for me when the engine was in the donor car - not sure what the output would have been then.

It's bound to be a bit better now though with a basically straight through exhaust, and a more efficient intercooler.

I'm hoping to get it on some rollers, and also do some performance measuring, in the next few weeks - will post results when I have them.
 

markward

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Location
Loxahatchee, Florida
TDI
82 Vanagon and 2011 JSW
I am very impressed. Beautiful car. I'd like a little more information on the instrument panel please when you can post again. Thank you
 

Honeydew

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 28, 2006
Location
Florida
TDI
13 Passat DSG
Very nice, way to follow-through! I'd love to see those scans and some MPG #s when you have them.
 

shortysclimbin

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Location
Virginia currently
TDI
Kubvan, mk2 golf, mk6 golf
I wish I could run that on the roads where I live! Nice build. care to show any underside pics and the details of the engine to tranny setup and mounting?

Its funny you posted this because I was thinking that might be my next project car lol
 

phazersonstun

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 28, 2009
Location
Southern California
TDI
Only parts...
This thing is AWESOME! I have a couple of MG's that my TDI could go into, but I don't have the budget for that kind of work. That thing is well thought out.

Do you have any dyno run information? I would really like to see what your mean HP and Torque is, along with your powerband.

Again, well done!
 

jjordan11

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Location
Lehi, UT
TDI
1988 Audi 80 quattro PD130, 1982 Westfalia TDI
Nice project, I'd bet it's pretty fun on the track. What turbo is that?
 

TDIsyncro

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2005
Location
Saskatoon, SK
TDI
Audi/TDI x 2
Excellent! I have a friend building one of these (with a suby drive line). I will have to forward the link for inspiration. :cool:
 

Lug_Nut

TDIClub Enthusiast, Pre-Forum Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 20, 1998
Location
Sterling, Massachusetts. USA
TDI
idi: 1988 Bolens DGT1700H, the other oil burner: 1967 Saab Sonett II two stroke
Hmmmm..... two of these... or a starting bid on the West Philly's K1 Attack...
I'd take this anyday.

Whose front spindles? Custom, that is made specifically for the Westfield kit? Or are they stock from a production model road car and supplied with the kit?
A mate over here has just had his Caterham completed. I noticed the tie rod end boot is in contact with one brake rotor on his. Yours has inches of clearance.
 

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
I always wondered what happend to this project. Looks GREAT
 

PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
shortysclimbin said:
I wish I could run that on the roads where I live! Nice build. care to show any underside pics and the details of the engine to tranny setup and mounting?

Its funny you posted this because I was thinking that might be my next project car lol
Hi - thanks.

I was at work yesteday putting those first posts together (slow day...) and didn't have access to all my pictures.

Here are a couple of shots of how the engine and gearbox went together.

This is my gearbox sitting next to the stuff I got in the kit from Acme - a TDi to Toyota adapter plate and a toyota flywheel that'd been re-drilled for the TDi crank.


I had a bit of weight taken out of the flywheel by a local machine shop. The Toyota one was quite heavy and with the type of car it is, I wanted to try to get some reasonable throttle response. Not much came out, but most of it's around the outside so hopefully will make some sort of difference


Here's the back-end of the TDi block - you can see the original pilot bearing in the end of the crank.


The first thing to do is remove the pilot bearing and replace it with the oil impregnated bronze bush that's supplied in the kit. It's sized to both fit in the TDi crank and accept the Toyota gearbox input shaft


Then you fit the adapter plate:


After that the (Toyota) tin plate and flywheel goes on


Then the clutch. The clutch you use is a Supra or Toyota Hilux (2WD) unit. I ended up buying a kevlar high performance one, but to be honest I think it's overkill. My car only weighs 1400lbs and the clutch pedal has ended up being a bit heavy...


Then the gearbox goes on and you're ready to install in the car




Here's the gearbox mount I made up to replace the original Toyota one sitting next to it. The end of the gearbox was sitting up way to high so the one I made up brought it right down
 
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Mathyas

New member
Joined
May 14, 2010
Location
Hungary
TDI
Passat B5.5 96kW After tuning: 155kW 440NM
Hi,
excellent job!


Congratulations from Hungary
 
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Whitbread

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Location
Johannesburg, MI
TDI
Several
You sir have one of my dream projects! Very nice job. How many people have you spanked with a "slow diesel" at the track?



A car like that is begging for a big turbo common rail 2.0 tdi with a standalone ecu. That would be the tdi version of sex on wheels :D. One day I'll build such a thing....
 
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PPC_CGL

Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Sydney, Australia
TDI
Westfield
Hi guys - I haven't posted in a while - I've now moved from Ireland back to my native Australia after 10 years away. I couldn't leave the Westfield behind so loaded it up into a shipping container and brought it with me!

As is always the case for self-built cars, the list of jobs and improvements is still long, but with the warmer climate, upgrading the cooling system with a better radiator and adding an oil cooler have now moved right to the top.

I'm in Sydney, so if anyone around would like to take a look at the car, or how I got the TDi running stand-alone or whatever, drop me a line...
 
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