Well another update.

I had a leak on the adapter thing I made for the back of the head. I made it out of a chunk of alum and threaded in a hose barb. The problem was that I just used some high heat sealent where it bolts to the head, this did not work. I took it off (pain in the aasss) and spun a groove in it for an o-ring. All good now.

I have all the body panels painted and just have to do the main cab. I will finish the exhaust this weekend and maybe paint the whole truck. Then its DRIVE TIME. My biggest worry now is the custom drive shaft I made........Hope it doesn't vibrate. I will throw some pics up tomorrow.

 

Aviator is right when it comes to emissions. When you do a motor swap to a diesel you can have it registered as either a diesel or a hot rod as it is a motor swap. When you get it registered as a hot rod it goes by 1980 emissions standards. I asked about this when I did my swap. I registered mine as a diesel as we don't have emissions here anyways so no problem but its only a smoke test anyways.

I think I will put a muffler on mine as the loud exhaust is now starting to get old as I have the windows open alot. Would like it quieter.

Your driveshaft shouldn't be too bad as long as you lined it up properly and all. I had to shorten mine and it worked out fine. I did it with the lathe. I'm looking forward to hearing how it drives. And some pictures of the nice shiny new truck too.

 

Double post sorry.

 

I did my shaft in the lathe as well but I made it out of 1/8 wall which is heavy compaired to normal shaft. I think they make shafts thin so that the balance is not so critical, also less rotating mass. I am not worried about the mass with the diesel, just the balance.

 

If you do have vibration problems you could probably just find a place and get it balanced. I don't know where you'd get them balanced though. The shop I used to work at made driveshafts for all sorts of things. The ones for dump trucks had real heavy walls on them and I'm quite sure they didn't have any balancing equipment there. They just made sure they had them lined up very well. I know that some of the trucks were used on the highway and they never had any problems. Hopefully yours works out.

 

Well I took it for a drive today for the first time. Well only in the driveway (75-100 feet). I think I am going to be very happy with it. I could not get it out of first but when the turbo came on she pulled the same or better then the 22re. I even got a bit of a squeak out of the tires as well when the power came on!!!! mind you I have 0 weight in the back.

I am relieved that the power is there and that all this work was not for nothing. Here is a video of it running. It sounds way louder on the video then in real life.

 

She sounds nice and healthy. Its good to know its got some get up and go as well. Good to know the VW diesels will work well in these trucks.

 

Sounds great Flash... probably be quieter once you get the rest of the tailpipe on. I'd be interested to know how she handles once you get the bed on.

 

wow you did a great job, that diesel must be fun.

 

The turbo will definately take all the "pop" out of the exhaust note. I've run a 24" strait pipe off the turbo on the merc TD and it sounded like a charter bus. In the 'merce-jeep' I ran a resonator can without a muffler, and it sounded excellent. In all honesty, you could probably just use a tractor "cherry bomb" style muffler and still be happy. Strait-through design glass pack thing.

You are going to want to eliminate all possible exhaust restrictions. Unlike a gasser, diesels have zero need for backpressure. Especially in a small displacement, short exhaust run setup like yours, there's no need for exhaust scavenging flow (works like a siphon, the flow pulls the exhaust gasses from the cyl head). Fortunately we have no emissions down south, so I've never had to deal with stuff like this, and only had to worry about "noise pollution". You find though that as we get older, our taste in exhaust notes get milder, lol.

 

Ya I am not big on loud. After driving it, the turbo is the loudest thing you here with the muffler on there. I like it like that. Small displacment engines don't have a rubble like a V8 anyway so it does not sound good being loud, just anoying.

Plus the less attention I get the bettter. I don't want the MTO (ministry of transportation) checking me out.

Diablo, Love the Avatar!!

 

So you can still hear the turbo nicely with a muffler on it? I was wondering if you would be able to or not. It probably sounds really nice going on down the highway. I'm starting to get tired of my loud drone.

 

Ya the turbo is louder then I thought it would be. This may be due to the intake as well being short with no air box. I like it. This engine has the K03 turbo on it and it is whistling even at idle because it is so small (0.2 PSI boost).

I also noticed that the reaction of the motor is way faster now then it was in the car. If I grab full throttle it responds right away. In the car it was slower to rev. I am thinking that intake is making a big difference.

 

Mr. Flash... do you think you could post a video/sound demo from the in cab perspective? with windows open and closed if pos.? I'm curious how much noisier it would be when "in the saddle".

 

I know I'd love to see a video of it going down the street? But I know that's asking a lot.

Great build! I've been really enjoying watching it and reading about it.

I look forward to more feedback after you start driving it too.

Keep up the good work! It looks good.

 

Well I painted the cab today so I can put it all together and do a video of in and out of the cab. The driving down the road may be a while but will see what I can do. I have to put all the windows back in as well.

 

The less restriction there is in getting the air in, and the exhaust out, the better the diesel performs. It's basically just a fuel-driven air pump. BIG open aircleaner, BIG open exhaust, BIG grin. My 05' dodge 2500 sounds like an airliner taking off with the AFE intake and 5" exhaust. You can never go wrong by decreasing the resistance and bottlenecks in either manifold. The best sound-suited setup I've seen so far was a simple cone filter on the intake side of the turbo and a glasspack on the slightly oversized exhaust. That pretty much took all exhaust sound out, gave a pleasant but not overpowering turbo whistle, and was cheap.

 

Well thats what I got except the exhaust is the same size as the downpipe,
2". I am 2 1/4 after the muffler but that probebly does nothing its just what I could get (free, thanks Mike) so I used it. I am happy with the sound.

 

have you figured out how to make your tach work?

 

No not yet. I think I will buy one of those Dakota coverter boxes for the alternator. It takes the VW alternator W terminal and makes the signal into a regular tach signal. I still don't know why my relay signal would not work....