Build TDI-J70 - LJ70 TDI Swap (Erika)

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What will you do with the deleted harness? At least safe the plugs: They are scarce.
Cheers Ralf
Haven't tossed anything, I'm a parts hoarder. Some may get reused elsewhere
 
Been knocking off some mostly small stuff recently. Modified the fan shroud for a 16" fan. There's a bit of oil canning because I was impatient but the fan seals up to it alright.

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I then soldered up the top cap of the radiator, just to find out after a pressure test that the core was leaking in a few spots. One of which was my fault for dropping it on something, but could not get the leaks to stop with solder as the heat just broke up the brazing on the core and made a new leak somewhere else nearby. The core had a decent chunk of fin damage as well already. So, I'm ordering a new radiator.

Wiring harness showed up, did not take long to get it ran. With this harness, it made more sense to put the ECU on the inside. One downside of this universal harness is that it has extra length to work with a variety of swaps, so I'll have to stuff a decent amount of wire loom under the dash until I eventually shorten parts of it up. (i.e. never)

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I have the flying lead wires mostly figured out, I will be tying them in directly at the back side of the gauge cluster. I did notice though that the line for the 4wd light is broken, so will have to make a little jumper eventually. (See previous "eventually" note)

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Only wiring related thing I am not confident in yet is the alternator exciter wire. There is a 2 wire plug on the alternator, which is internally regulated. From what I have gathered, one is the exciter, and the other communicates with the ECU to bump up idle when under load. The later is usually not used in swaps, and that is the case for this harness setup.

My understanding on the exciter wire is that it simply gets wired to the battery light on the dash to supply the alternator with 12v to initiate charging. Could not quite decipher that looking at the back of the gauge cluster, so decided to look at the original external voltage regulator setup.

For fun, hooked up my jumper pack and turned on the ignition. Starter relay clicks which is a good sign, still need to run a wire over to the solenoid yet. On the dash, I got the battery and timing belt lights. I then unbolted the original regulator from the engine bay and turned the ignition on, and no lights. I then cut the wires and found that the yellow wire must be grounded for dash lights to work. The black wire with yellow line and brown stripes also provides 12V, but blows the 15a engine fuse when grounded. I am thinking this is probably the wire I need to use for the exciter, but need to look into that more. White wire is direct to battery and needs to be removed along with the original alt charge wire.

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In the interest of trying to have this thing make it on the Wyoming trip, I am holding off on building the front bumper. Cut out the frame nuts what had broken off bumper bolts and tacked new ones on, threw the old POS bumper back on. May try to straighten it up a bit later. Mounted the new power steering cooler up front there, did not want it blocking the rad sitting on top of the frame.

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I also have the intake from air box to turbo and turbo to intercooler made. Waiting on EGR delete to cut the last charge pipe to length, then need to weld on MAF and MAP bungs and a barb for the PCV. Exhaust parts are ordered, I am doing a simple run along the outside of the frame rail and dumping out the side in front of the rear tire.
 
Stock downpipe was uncomfortably close to the starter solenoid plug, and not pointed where I wanted it. So I cut off the pipe and ground it out from the inside, opened up the hole a bit and redid it with 2.5" 45 elbows to a V-band. Flex pipe runs down to the outside of the frame. Plan is to finish mocking up the muffler tomorrow and that will be about it until I get back from my glacier trip.The list of things to do to get it running is growing shorter, but still lots of small things...

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The EGR delete also came, so got the last charge pipe cut to length.

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Exhaust is 90% done, just need to weld on some hangers and an EGT bung. Welds aren't the prettiest. It's hot AF, and I was getting frustrated at everything so after a few burn throughs I gave up on trying to make it look nice.

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That about wraps it up till after this trip. I will be working on some wiring, but that's about it.

As far as what is left to get it running, here is my mostly inclusive checklist of what is left to do.
  • Winch mount
  • Pick up G27 battery, modify brace to fit
  • Remove original alternator and voltage regulator wires
  • Extend power lines, fan power, starter solenoid wire, reloom
  • Terminate dash wires and put interior back together
  • Ground wires
  • Alternator Exciter wire
  • Make new intercooler mounts on new radiator, weld on cap housing, mount
  • Fan controller and final radiator hose hookup
  • Roll beads on charge pipes
  • Weld on MAF & MAP bungs and PCV barb
  • Final intake piping over to driver headlight
  • Idler bracket
  • N75 boost and turbo lines
  • PS hoses
  • Exhaust hangers and EGT bung
  • EGT sensor, wiring and gauge
  • Mount throttle pedal
  • ECU immobilizer disable
  • Remove intake manifold and clean out carbon buildup from EGR
  • Clamps on all hoses
  • Wheels and tires
  • VCDS pump timing

For power steering, I have an adapter for the high pressure fitting on the box to convert to 6an, and will get an m16 to 6an banjo for the steering pump and order a custom high pressure 6an line. For the low pressure, I just need to route some 5/8 from my steering cooler over to the barb on the back of the pump.

Feeling pretty good about getting this thing driving in not too much more time, but I feel the list may be too long to get it driving in time to get enough miles on it to work out the kinks before taking it on a 1700+ mile road trip. But, we shall see. Planning to order stuff to have most of what I need when I get back to dive back in. Really want to take this thing...
 
Yeah yeah.

Anyways, glacier trip was great. Just slightly smokey until the last day when it really rolled in, but we had already done all the stuff I wanted to do anyways. Bout 15 miles of hiking, unfortunately did not get to see any tourons eaten by bears or yeeted by bison this trip. Stopped to see the new Theodore Roosevelt presidential library on the way back too.

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Had a pile of stuff delivered when I got back Saturday to work my on wiring mostly. Sunday I finished up running and looming all the wires on the engine bay. Just need to pick up a battery so I can cut wires and cables to length and make the battery terminals. Needs to get cleaned up a bit, but that can wait. Just trying to get it driving right now. Got some of the dash wires hooked up, need to figure out if I need to use the switchboard to make the gauges work, but I can survive without them for now and use Torque off the obd2. But, my understanding is the ECU grounds out the flying leads to turn the lights on, and that's how the original setup appears to work. Managed to yank a wire off the lift pump, so have a new one coming.

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Power steering stuff also arrived. PSC SF06 fitting to adapt to 6an on the steering box, and an m16 to 6an banjo on the pump and a high pressure line from ICT billet. This is a 12" line, I could have gotten away with the 10" but this will work fine. Supply line hooks up to a U and into the back of the pump.

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MAF and MAP bungs came today, radiator will come Friday. Unfortunately I'm leaving for a work trip tomorrow so not much will get done till Friday, but I'll be getting set up to do all the TIG'ing in one go.

Looking for a tuner nearby to see about having the ecu immobilizer disabled, going to run the stock tune to start. One guy nearby not responsive at all so someone else is getting my money. Only other bigger items are to get the throttle pedal mounted, making the belt idler mount, and cleaning out all the EGR gunk. If it's not running by end of this weekend, it'll be dang close. Which reminds me, I should order wheels and tires soon.
 
Since you bothered me @sogncab , I figured I better do something tonight while I can. So pulled off the intake manifold. Pretty grody where the egr valve was, but cleans up by the time it gets to the head ports. Going to scrape it out best I can and torch the crap out of it to get it as clean as possible.

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Doesn't look terrible but always nice to get rid of any buildup. I soaked mine in some diesel, burned it out and then taped up all the ports with some 3/4 crush gravel inside and shook it a bunch. Seemed to do a pretty decent job of breaking up whatever was left.
 
Doesn't look terrible but always nice to get rid of any buildup. I soaked mine in some diesel, burned it out and then taped up all the ports with some 3/4 crush gravel inside and shook it a bunch. Seemed to do a pretty decent job of breaking up whatever was left.
I'll have to try out the rocks trick, pea gravel would probably work great. I just finished scraping it out, soaked it with some sea foam intake cleaner that you are supposed to spray in while running then torches it and sprayed again to hot soak, torches once more and now hot soaking again. Will torch it again when I get back and shake some rocks around. I'll finish off the rest of the can in the intake once it's running.
 
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