Leaks fixed time for a sunday drive.

 

Though I read about a lot of people burning up starters, I did not do enough to prevent this and now I have to park on a hill or tap the starter with the hammer to get it to crank.
If any of you all are going to do this swap, I suggest what I am going to do, which I should have done to start with. I will be adding a heat shield wrap that is made to protect starters and possible one that covers the turbo up, in addition to the exhaust wrap the I installed from the turbo down 18".
Some people have installed different turbo manifold plumbing or got a custom gear reduced starter that can be angled down away from the turbo. These are both great solutions, but I like that I can get a new starter for about sixty bucks. I have tired to keep things stock that I could for easy of maintenance, and to keep this thing from sitting for an extended period of time because I have to wait for a custom part to come in or be built.
I will also be wrapping the intercooler and intake plumbing with a heat barrier to get that forced air a bit cooler.
I also re-welded the exhaust system with the 3 chambered flow master, which was a mistake as it is not flowing as well as a strait pipe, so I am removing it and adding a strait through glass packed, resonator in it's place so that the turbo can do it's job more efficiently. I plan on having a pro reduce the exhaust system with a larger diameter pipe made with stainless steel, as soon as this one rusts out.
My fuel burn has been impressive so far, I don't have any hard numbers yet, but the engine has spent several hours idling and I have put about 125 miles on the odometer and the fuel gauge has just made it to the 1/4 mark, before with the v-6 we were at a half tank at about 125-150miles. So far it looks like my fuel mileage has doubled, and I only expect it to rise as add the new turbo and larger pump. Though I have not yet adjusted the speedometer for the larger tire size, so these number are not totally accurate.

 

nice job on the swap! any pics of the finished product yet minus those last upgrades? Also are you going to be getting the kit that allows you to run veg oil and diesel?

 

my camera go lost in the garage some where, so more pics to come soon. I have been thinking about veg. oil, but I need to spend some time to reserach into it before I start running that stuff through my injectors. I need also need to find sources for me to pick up used oil also, which will need to be processed before use it.

 

Well, went to town for a Sunday drive and a bike ride. On the way home heading back up into the hills the engine began smoking excessively from the crankcase breather tube and a bit out the exhaust, time to pull the head and see what's going on in there.
The engine was not smoking at all previously and I cranked the boost up a bit more today, also the head gasket was already leaking oil on the out side, so I'm guessing that I blew that head gasket out today with the extra presure and that is what was causing the excessive crankcase pressure which was blowing smoke and oil out the breather tube and allowing oil to leak into the combustion chamber prior to combustion causing the tail pipe smoke, If that's not the case it's time for some new rings, I'm hoping that's not the case.

 

I think you probably overboosted her a bit... maybe you need to look into an aftermarket headgasket that is reinforced for higher boost if such a thing exists...

 

I like this swap. Sounds like the tiny motor is doing pretty good. Getting around the same mileage numbers according to the gauge as my 1kz does. Highway I get 130-140 miles for the 1st quarter and around 120 with idling and around town in the cold weather. Sucks bout your headgasket though. Hopefully though it is the gasket. Nice fairly cheap and easy fix vs the other possibilities. Hopefully it will last a while running higher boost and fuel.

 

So good new and bad news, the head, block, valves and head gasket seem fine, but two of the pistons took a hit, time to order a new set.
So this setup does not work; 33" tires with no re-gearing and larger injectors with out larger turbo to flow the correct amount of air to keep temperatures down. I cranked the boost up a few more psi into the 12-15psi in an attempt to push more air through and drop the EGT's, but that little turbo was restricting the air flow and the EGT's spiked causing one of the pistons to burn a hole in it. Luckily a new set is only $250, so it's not a huge set back, just more time in the garage. Before I get this thing back on the road, I'm going to do the ring and pinions also, I think 4.56:1 ring and pinions should keep the engine from working to hard, and slow my crawl down on the trail a bit.

 

IDK if you can do it with that engine but you may want to look into CHT sensor to monitor the cylinder temps.
just my 0.02

 

keep us updated alot of us are learning from your build. one of these in a long travel 2wd would be cool

 

Well I think It will be OK with the EGT gauge, I just need to not push the little German engine to hard and balance out the things that I do to it, also proper gearing will be essential to make this swap work properly with these big tires. This truck should have been re-geared long ago when the stock size tires were removed.
Everything was fine, temps were staying good until I cranked the boost up over 10 PSI. I am certain that that turbo was the week link, I should have waited to install the new injectors until I had the new turbo to match, but I pushed it beyond its capabilities that the stock turbo will flow, I kept shoving air and fuel in there and all that heat could not get through the exhaust side of the turbo fast enough.

 

Pulling the rest of the engine back out of the truck this weekend so I can remove the pistons and inspect and measure the cylinder walls and pistons to determine if boring will be necessary. Hoping to be back on the road in a couple of weeks.
I have also decided that I'm not going to mess around with the gearing, I'm going to just go for it with 4.88 to 1 ring and pinion gears with the 33" tires. I decided I don't need to be going 100mph in this truck and this will be me creeping a lot better in 4L, the truck had been going a bit fast for my taste in 4L and first gear at idle for my taste.

 

Updates?

Also interested to see what kind of mileage you're getting out of this little diesel that could.

 

update, engine rebuild parts are in transit and should be here soon along with Yukon 4.88to1 ring and pinion. Next week is spring break so I'm going to bust my but in the garage and get this thing dieseling around town again.\
So far ruff milage is it took about twice as many miles to get to 1/4 tank before the burnt pistons, even with lower gears shoud be pulling around 30mpg, but I should have some hard numbers in the next couple of weeks.

 

^^ this is what makes me want to do this swap

sweet job, man!

 

Just remeber it is what it is. It's only 1.9L, not a hot rod. You can hot rod it a alot with the computer controls and some people tune these things to so pretty high numbers considering the displacment, but i don't want to be stuck out in the sticks when my VW computer puts the engine into limp mode, so I went mechanical injection.

 

Given they are forecasting gas to go to $1.50/L around here by the summer I may have to do the swap sooner rather than later... that works out to roughly $6.00/gal...
either that or get my motorcycle lic. and buy a bike for a DD...

 

did you turbo an N/A 1.9? does it have oil squirters for the bottoms of the pistons?

 

Yes, there are oil squirters. I took a 97 1.9TDI and put a mechanical injector pump on it.

 

I spent all day today and got the engine back together. Got a few pics of the re-build today, hope to post some pics up tomorrow. Hoping to get the engine in tomorrow, start the break in process and get the new ring and pinion installed in the rear so I can drive this thing around.