A 944 diesel wait what !

[tims944]

Hey fellow pelicans!

Not sure how much hate I'll get from this but. I'll explain first.

I got this 1989 944 s2. Engine dismantled needing a rebuild etc. I work as a mechanic drive a diesel. Love it to death. But my mk5 is rusting away.

So I decided to buy a full car strip it out.

And we'll made my 944 s2. A 2.0L tdi.

All with hopes to get my 75L tank as close to 1500km on a full up as I can !

Only time will tell.

I will do a full write up eventually but don't have time now.

Snow/winter is on my Montreal.QC door step so she is now going into to her winter home.

But here are some pictures. Got her running and mobile yesterday!

Cheers.

Will upload pictures on my computer later.

Phone isn't working.

[Golten951]

Wwwootttttt!!!! Great swap choice man!

[Golten951]

[Steve3]

Great choice man

[tims944]

Hey guys so im going to try and update this as much i can, the swap is 90% complete running and mobile just have to finish up some esthetics mainly and some stuff which im waiting to be delivered during this pandemic... How fun!, but on the bright side im working full time still so proper $$$ is comming in !


SO where do i start.


I acquired a 1989 944 s2, for those that dont know what this is, its a 4 banger 3.0L !! porsche. yea thats acurate a 3.0l!! motor :P

The car wasnt destined for anything. i had inquired about it from the previous owner and had a lot of back and forth for months.

When i finally went to see the car i got 50%of the back story... saddly the less helpful part...

The car had been brought in for a service to replace the clutch, and well from there it all went down hill.. not long after the cars engine, trans, and pretty much complete drivetrain had been removed.... how fun.

long story short the engine had been sort of damaged and they dismantled it to fix, which they did... But the mechanic doing the work quit and the project died.... with the engine in pieces.

years later the guy i bought it off of acquired it. the body and tub itself had sat in a container for about 15 years... so it was pretty mint!

i basically made a deal to acquire the car and any parts of whatever we could scrounge up.. which started off good... than it was oh well i dont have the keys or paperwork but blah blah blah...

the car was at one point towed to my house... yet to have documents or a key...

This is where it sat for about 2 years until i myself finally tracked down what i needed etc and BAM! NEW KEY BAM!! proper documents in my name.. and bonus no road safety or mechanical inspection needed ! HOW SWEET


that was probably 12 months ago....

[tims944]

A few months forward.

what do i do with this 4 wheeled immobile lump on the side of my house....

For those of you who dont know, most 944 engines are not cheap to maintain nor repair.. depending on the work and or parts needed. i calculated that to properly bring the engine and car to an operating functional state with the original engine would be in the $ 5k + range... which is a lot of money considering what i paid for the car...

Now dont get me wrong, a clean running S2 will/should easily fetch 10k canadian

so i started looking in to fun swaps that everyone has tried here and there...

20v 1.8T.... 2.2L AAN....pretty much any LS motor... all projects that have been tried tested and proven fun and expensive... ( in my eyes..)

I drive a 2006 Mk5 Jetta tdi. the newer style... BRM engine
I BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF THIS THING AND NEVER HOLD BACK..

- 1 turbo down, 1 exhaust valve.., 1 head gasket, 1 cam...

a couple ditches... and such.

shes still kicking and rocks !

but the body is slowly saddly rusting away and i dont have the pocket nor desire to dump money into a car that well really wont last.. its beyond saving.

But that doesnt mean i wont continue driving it as is.. im not the kind of guy who polishes his car, i wash it occasionally and now well washing makes it look worse.. takes off more paint than dirt ! ha... sorry if that upsets people i just have more important things to do .

SO back to engine swaps...

Hmm i wonder has anyone actually ever tried to TDI there 944? or 924?..

I searched and searched and searched some more...

i have only come across 1 lonely diesel swapped 924.944 series car.

a guy in sweden? or somewhere arround there swapped in a 1.6 Turbo Diesel.. i believe, he made a lot of stuff himself and well it was only maybe a 80hp motor from what i remember... so KUDOS to him!

now 80hp doesnt inspire me at all... nor does it sound worth my time and effort..

So i started looking into longitudinal TDi engines available...

youd be surprised but there arent that many or at least not that many that fit my bill..

Boom, a BHW engine seems pretty simple, Quite a few across North America... But only automatics... HMMMM

So started my research into 03-05 passats...

Well it turns out a tdi b5.5 can be had for quite a cheap deal when there casual Autotragic gearbox decides to fail, which well from my research is pretty much guaranteed pendent on mileage.

So i began my search,

I found a lovely 2004 grey passat tdi in toronto.. About a 5hour drive from my place.

the guy originally wanted i think 1500$? maybe more maybe less...

i talked to him quite a few times and found out, it was actually his mothers car and she had just passed and by just i mean like 3 days prior to listing the car. Yowza... in a hurry much?

Anyway i explained to him my hopes and desires to TDI swap one of my porsches and he was actually kind of excited though not too wiling to budge $$ wise...

Long story short.. we worked out a deal where, i agreed to buy the car but continue to let him use it for about 4 months? or something like that.. and only paid 700$ CAD! sweet jeebus!

oh and i forgot to mention the car had 356k km... but ZERO ISSUES! trans perfect, turbo perfect blah blah blah.

so we arranged a time and date and bam. picked her up with a fun day trip to toronto and bam drove her home.

Woops forgot to mention.. upon picking up the car pulled out of his place at 8pm... not 1 burnt headlamp but 2... so driving arround with 1 highbeam and 1 same side foglight,... how exciting.. not 2 minutes from leaving the guys house did i get pulled over by local law enforcement.. but was for lack of visiblity of the tempporary license plate... thank god he didnt check the headlamps!!

[tims944]

Fast track... So i realized the s2 has been sitting on the side of the house about 24 months.. so my 12 months forward or whatever was a year off my bad.

Anyways.

now began the.... Can i make a TDI engine fit, work, and function properly enough to validate a lot of time and effort to drive this sucker!


So began the slow and long road of benchwork.

It started with lots and lots of measuring.

* I actually had a spare BEW short block on the shop floor so i used this for a lot of sampling and calculations.


- the stock 944 engine is something ridiculous like i dont know... 30" long? say... where the tdi engine was more like 18? something much less...

So space shouldnt have been an issue length wise.

Now height... most swaps into a 944 generally have ample space except for those with a front mounted sump...

Why you ask, well the main subframe on a 944 for engine and steering mounting runs under the motor in a vary flat V or U shape.

Ugh oh... where does the oil sump fit well right on top of that. so thats no good..


SO plan 1... will need a custom subframe no matter what...

** Ps i did a lot more planning and work prior to touching the car but only recall most of it.

Second.. how do i mate a VW TDI block to a 944 Torque Tube...
For those that dont know what a torque tube is... picture... well if you know corvettes the same thing they use... a driveshaft inside a carrier with a bunch of bearings which generally spins the same speed of the engine.

You have Engine---Torque Tube---- GEarbox/diff.

SO yes if you didnt know the trans and diff are together and mounted in the rear on a 944.

But back to my point, how do i connect 1 to the other...

Well ****... there must be some sort of adaptor or something someone has designed which costs way more than im willing to pay!

Well the answer is No, An adaptor does not currently exist.. unless one is currently being made and its a big secret.. not sure why.

So that made another challenge.

[tims944]

So what did i cover. engine height/oil position issue, engine to drivetrain issue, well to be honest those were the 2 biggest ones..

So i began to work... well theres a ton of details which i have pictures of and once i figure out a practical way to display them i will help and add captions to them if i can do that.

Long story short, i Measured the length of a Stock TT, which is just about 72" the problem being, how do i adapt the TT 4 bolt flange to the engine all while including a, Flywheel, Clutch,PP, Slave, and release bearing..

well crap i dont know... Tada, lots of research planning and trial and error...

boom... Well i built myself a custom made bellhousing... How you ask.. well i actually bought a perfectly good DVZ 5 speed 2.8 gearbox and well i cut the **** out of it until it was something that could maybe resemble a bellhousing.. And than i cut more, and more, and more...

The stock Vw bellhousing of the gearbox gives a good starting point for multiple factors !

1. the 2.0L BHW starter works on a 1.8T flywheel.. which also works on a TDI Crank :P
2. The TDi crank gives lots of options, for now i chose a 23lb SMF... maybe not the best choice. but weight wise im happy and well when your cost is 0$ for a stage 4 1.8T clutch/flywheel setup you cant really complain, mind you i did find it on a Pick&Pull engine.. who cares as it looked like it didnt see 1km... YAY
3. Well now the release bearing on a VW Passat or A4, has a very similar principle to the 944.. a push/pull type but in similar locations.. Interesting... to further investigate.
4. The BHW crank doesnt stock have a pilot bearing, but lucky enough it has a perfect size hole to fit 1 and so i did

That about does it for basic info on regards to why this destroyed trans made a perfect start for a bellhousing.. and i paid 50$ USD for the whole gearbox already pulled... couldnt go wrong for a testing.. was a sad story for a good working gearbox though.

[tims944]

So now we have an engine Platform. and a cut up gearbox to work out with as a bellhousing.

Now how can this really work.

well after lots of cutting measuring, welding and nice HD aluminum My custom made bellhousing was born, I had to calculate down to the MM the proper length for minimum engagement into pilot bearing and rear end(6 Speed swap shhhh)
And yay it still works with stock tdi bolt pattern, and starter and clutch and bam ! release bearing and fork... (slave to be adapted)

now... Can i properly wire, provide fuel, and incorporate a TDi system into the 944?

Well let me tell you, i think for a newer but still old tech car the 944 is a perfect car for a swap!

Lets start off here.

1. Pretty much every wiring circuit and or type of management is indipendent..
air bags INDIPendent.
ABS independnent
Engine Independent
AC indpendent.. and so on.

What this means is, well like a lot of other cars, the 944 engine and DME(ecu) harness can be removed from the car and well it maitains pretty much 99% function of everything it has still

So removing the engine wiring was simple, now how much and which parts of the passat wiring should i try to keep and or use...

Well i removed everything... Engine bay, Interior (until B pillars) and threw it all on my downstairs ottoman. Lets just say i probably spent 2 weeks of 3 or 4 hours after work depicting labeling and such of this wiring harness. i finished by having a Interior harness(mandatory controls only) and an engine bay harness(engine relays etc).

I chose to upgrade to the VW cluster for about 100000 reasons... main 2

1. porsche cluster has the worst visibility ever.. its just a bad design, 2 its all old analog basically... and fragile motors crap out, gagues blah blah,
2. well it didnt have a glow plug light ( to me this was important but i dont have a reason why..)
3..... i wanted it to be a nice complete transplant and stand out.

SO i did what needed to be done. i spent numerous hours and hours more deciding where to tap in and what i needed to wire everything to keep the vw stuff independent.

I ended up using i think 2 fuses in the porsche fuse box, 1 additional wired in fuse, and than a little mini fuse box with 3 Maxi bolt on fuses for the VW **** like it sort of had in the stock harness.

[tims944]

The interesting Issue not clearly noted already....

A Passat ECU is located on the driver side firewall/shocktower basket thingy... well the porsche harness is on the passenger floor.. behind some ****.. but in the cab... hmm thats a long way to go.. or is it.

I redirected whatever wiring needed to be moved and well instead of having all the wiring pretty much under the hood well i have 40% of it inside the passenger foot welll..

Now the problem being.. all the colored connectors for VW harness arent very long.. especially to get from the passenger floor all the way up to the cluster.. so i found in all my wiring left overs color matching wires and basically extended everything.

Yes this meant, finding exactly which cluster wires, gas pedal, brake pedal, OBD2 plug wires etc etc i needed and well mattered.

Long days past and well bam i had essentially made a harness to drop into the 944 ! YAY!

So wiring was doable.. How about fuel..

Well for those who dont know(likely most..) the 944 has a 75L plastic fuel tank.... DING DING DING plastic... another good thing about this car having sat for about 15 years a super dry gas tank.. so a little cleaner here and there and bam a fresh clean tank waiting for some new diesel... only issue... diesel isnt very high pressure hmmm

A 944 fuel pump is actually external, though obviously flows way more than needed. so after lots of calculating and research i sourced a nice nifty Solid State inline Diesel pump, i think it primes to 11psi, and stays about 9psi which is more than enough for supply and to keep fuel cooling down ! Tada fuel system pretty much good

Thats another good note Yay

[tims944]

Fuel Check
Wiring Check
Bellhousing(sort of) Check
subframe.... hmmm

okay time to get busy, ( honestly by this time i had already removed and completely rebuilt my BHW from ground up... A-Z rings, bearings hone cylinders new injector seals the works.

So i got to cutting and making some space, lets just say by the time i got the engine in what would be a rough idea where it needed to go.. there wasnt much left.. and well height became an issue...

Which meant engine has to go lower, and angled and yay more complications !

I eventually clocked the engine at a similar angle to its stock position in the passat.

So i started by making side mounts for the control arms(built into subframe) and well went from there, if i had a basis that i could built mounts and or such off of that would be good, so those were fabbed up. all in house, yea i might not be 100% square or what not but as long as there was adjustability i could pretty much correct it down the road yay!

further on engine was mounted hurrah! now to figure out a lot of unknowns...

PLumbing... Coolant, Intercooler... steering? Ac? Oil...

Ill start simple NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE, yup thats pretty much what worked from how it was !

1. coolant nothing works as is.. first off all or most of the passat coolant lines or piping was quick connects YUK and yuk, hard brittle plastic no thanks so that all went out the door.

2, intercooler, well for those that know what a 944 turbo is, well it actually has a nice front mount(top area) intercooler perfect to use since i have one or two laying around ! Bam, actually very simple ish to plumb but for now not an issue ish.

3. steering well this car had power steering but forget that... space work. cost no thanks, I actually resorted to a manual steering, very common, but out of a 924 not the 944. for my own reasons(simply put the mounting design, and MUCH MUCH CHEAPER !)
4. AC... well i wont lie it is and still is a dream to maybe incorporate functional AC into this car and honestly it is doable, just a lot of fab work and costs which im not ready to dig into until i have tested this car for quite some time to deem it worthy as i barely use AC as it is in my other cars(yes we get +30' C but who cares...)

And last but not least... 5. OIL.. well let me just say yuk yuk and yikes the stock passat oil cooler is huge, unneccessary for my application and ugly ! So here is 1 spot where i actually cheated and bought a TDI block off external oil cooler plate availble through IMED? or whatever his ID is. It was costly but clean and well it made a lot simpler things.( honestly if i choose to chase a different design for parts of my setup down the road i could probably use the stock cooler/filter housing but im not complaining regardless)

[tims944]

ps. i thought i would comment this is actually my thread from the TDI forums, for the time being i dont have time to write 2 full threads so am just copy pasting, so yes it might sound like i expect people to not know a lot about 944s... its for the vw crowd who likely doesnt.

cheers

[tims944]

Some Un organized photos but its a lot of work to do it the other way i lack time.. u

[tims944]

[tims944]

[tims944]

This is the car currebtly.

Sitting on 245/50/16s all arround
Front 16x8 bbs rs
Rear 16x9.5 bbs rs

Front m030 struts. Turbo cup progressive springs. Racers edge camber plates.

Rear bilstein escort coilovers. With 150lb springs and stock 24mm torsion bars.

I lifted the car to test the height limits with the suspension setup to my surprise easily reached a raised height even though the front springs are much shorter.

Right now sitting at 26" rear. And 28" front I will likely drop the front to about 26 aswell and try it. More photos to come. Just very busy.

Cheers.

[tims944]

New update. The car had just a regular 5 speed gearbox installed but I will have finally co.plete my 6 speed audi swap. As of this evening 😁

I DID NOT INSTALL AN 01E.

But have installed a newer version.

A 6 speed audi a4 2.0 tdi pd170. 01X2 gearbox.

Some photos to follow.

[tims944]

01X 6 speed with custom cross member.


Gearbox mated to stock 944 torque tube.



Suspension setup.

[tims944]

[tims944]