rebuilding my vw diesel engine

[jimfoo]

No, I'm not driving it yet. I spent an entire day wrestling with the motor, trying to get it mated with the bellhousing. Since the turbo is a pain to deal with when the engine is in, I tried putting the whole thing in together, twisting, turning, prying and pushing. Not happening. So I lift it a little for better access and take the turbo off. Lower the engine in and begin again. No, plates on the engine for the motor mounts are in the way. Remove them and try again. I finally seem to have gotten it started and start putting some bolts in, but forget that one hole is for a short bolt. As I put in the long bolt, I seem to remember as it pushes the two halves of my adapter apart. GRRR, start from square one. I do finally get it started again, but it seems like it doesn't want to go. Realization hits me and I loosen the bolts and rock the truck in gear. Bang, the splines align and slip in place. I put the rest of the bolts in and test the clutch since I took some shims out from behind the pressure plate. The pedal is spongy, which is weird as it's a fairly new master. I pump it a few times and am greeted with a firm pedal, a clutch that works, and a stream of brake fluid running down the floor pan. I think Castrol GT LMA still must not be compatible, or maybe the seals hold until you put in ANY brake fluid, where their destiny of slowly dissolving begins. The next day, I wrestle with the motor mounts. I guess I should have tried making slots instead of holes, but I finally get them on. The turbo then goes on with a little fighting. I hook up the oil lines to the cooler and remote filter. I hook up everything else required to start it, and turn it over with the ignition off. No oil pressure shows, but the key probably needs to be on. So I crank it with the key on but no fuel and still nothing. So I hook up the fuel and start it. At least something still works. It runs, but I'm seeing no oil pressure. Crap. Crawl underneath and remove the filter as maybe I put the lines on backwards, and crank the starter. No, oil is coming from the right place. I go back in the car, turn the key, start it and still no pressure. Then I realize the two gauges that normally light up with the ignition are dark, so probably none of the gauges have power. All the fusebox wiring looks good as do the fuses, so I'm thinking ignition switch, but my radio works, ruling that out. So I pull apart the dash where the gauges are. I see nothing amiss back there, and with a jumper, they work. So I pull the main dash off, and nothing looks out of place there. Looking at the fusebox again, I push on all the connectors again and some move a tiny bit. Finally the gauges light, but I'm tired and sore from lifting and contorting all day, so that's where things currently stand.

[jimfoo]

WOHOO!!! First short test drive last night! The timing sounds a little too advanced, and unfortunately with my weird engine setup, I can't set it how I normally would with a dial indicator as it hardly runs when it's already showing advance over the stock setting. So I had to guess and advance it more. It's close though. The bad part is my clutch is slipping when I give it some pedal. It had gotten some oil on it in the past, but I thought it had gotten over it.
Hopefully it will burn off. Also unfortunately I forgot to put a bolt on my inner right wing, and when I turned sharply, my tire grabbed it and started bending it upwards. At least it was a little beat to start with. I also think I have a boost leak between my manifold, turbo, pump and gauge as I get no reading, and probably no extra fuel. The worst part was getting stuck in the snow on an almost flat part of my driveway. I had broken a front halfshaft a while ago, and hadn't replaced it yet, so only have 2wd. I will hopefully get it all fixed today.

[jimfoo]

Did my first significant test drive today, about 65 miles of very mixed driving. About 20 of 30 mph road, 25 of stop and go city driving, and about 20 highway, mostly uphill with a head wind. Average of 27.5 mpg. That's close to the best(30) just highway mileage I ever got with a broken in engine. Also I don't think my fan ever came on as the temp never got high enough, which was the biggest problem with my old AAZ. EGT's did get to around 1300, which may be due to timing or the fact that for some reason my boost doesn't get as high. Maybe being more efficient, a TDI puts out less exhaust gas? I know the turbo can make it as the actuator got off center a little and boost got way higher, but the setup was the same I had on the AAZ. It made 18 where I had it set on the AAZ and only 10 on the TDI. I did put another spring in the actuator before the drive, which brought it up to 15 psi. Power seems decent, at least what the AAZ had from what I can tell with the slipping clutch.

First short test drive.