Eeek! Its 2016!

Its been a while!
Nothing much to report since last time we were here (over a year ago!!!).

20,000km under the belt now, and all has been going swimmingly... until last week.
Normal day... sun was shining so I did some errands and went for a run.
Everything has been pretty normal recently, in fact i'd only commented in the morning how well it was running.

Then it all went wrong.

Driving hard up a very steep hill (Holme Moss if you want to google it), lost boost and power.
It was the first time since I fitted the TDI that i'd had a boost pipe come off. Odd.
So i did what anyone would do, put it back on and continued.

Half an hour later, similar happened but this time with a lot of smoke and a lot of noise.

This time it was the internals of the turbo that had made a bid for escape and tried to exit stage left through the chargecooler.
That wasn't going to be fixed with a screwdriver and an oily rag.




I have no way of knowing what caused it. I suspect that the failure of the turbo is related to the boost pipe suddenly popping off under load.
One things for sure, the chargecooler full of buts of turbo and engine oil wasn't what I was hoping for.

So... where does that leave me. Broken down for starters.
However, theres a silver lining to every cloud of dense, black, oily exhaust smoke.
I'd known from day one that running a VNT on the original manifold from the JX wasn't ideal as the oil drain was very shallow. I have no idea how much this contributed to the death of the VNT.
So, I now had the opportunity to do it right, and hopefully make it more reliable in the process.

We have a turbo now (LINK), specifically for this application. Its a Wastegate turbo using a housing that bolts direct to the original (JX) manifold. Internals and wastegate setup are custom to give it boost characteristics similar to an AHU/1Z and at the same time, its assembled to allow it to be sat low down like the original setup on the JX so shallow oil drain will be no more of an issue than it was on the original KKK K14 fitted to the JX.
Its pretty much a bolt on swap as far as the turbo goes. And the bonus is that it uses original JX Oil Feed and return pipes with a spacer to lower the turbo down a little it means that everything including the exhaust lines up perfectly.



As mentioned, its a wastegate turbo, so needs the N75 valve to match, so thats been swapped. Ive also swapped to a 68pin AHU ecu (and had the immobiliser turned off at the same time). All wiring is the same.

Results... to begin with there was a worrying amount of smoke. I put this down to oil still in the system and sure enough after 15-20 miles its cleared up.
Low down torque is slightly reduced, which is to be expected, but mid and top end it actually feels quicker than with the VNT.
Throttle is more sensitive, This is likely down to differences in the ECU.

Really pleased with the way it drives so far, and the puff of smoke at startup is also gone.

Right... where were we?

Oh thats right... Engine in and running. Turbo dripping a bit of oil... ECU wedged in the Engine bay...

Right. Ive now done a good 400 miles trundling around locally to work and back and a couple of short bursts on the motorway.
Turbo oil drip/smoke seems to have calmed down.
I do get a puff of smoke on start up, but other than that its no worse than the AAZ that came out.

Main observation afte the first 400 miles or so is how quiet it is.
I put this down to using the JX airbox setup.
Turbo noise is quite loud... sounds kind of like a police car following sometimes :)
No major issues apart from a dodgy N75 valve (see below).

Power and driveability is fantastic. Its so much more driveable than the AAZ.. and that was pretty good if I'm honest.
Cruise control is so much better than the mechanical vacuum operated version, and the first high speed motorway run was great!

This was my first "official" test drive... snowy day in the North... TDI's have a reputation for running cool, and this is no different. Many TDIs have a coolant heater for this reason... something i may look at for next winter!

Oh yeah... as I'm now officially cable free, accelerator cable and cold start cable have both been removed. I now have this nifty panel that replaces the Cold Start Handle :)
Available HERE

After a few test drives I had my first "wobble".
Foot to the floor hard acceleration, always uphill. Power would drop, and it would struggle until I turned off and back on again.
Read the fault codes...

00575 Intake Manifold pressure control difference... points to a faulty N75 valve.
Replaced with a new Pierburg unit and all seems fine.

No faults since, and no fault codes.

Next was the timing... It was close, but the final adjustment is made with VagCom...
This is as close as my patience would allow to the "optimal".

First tank of fuel... averaged 26mpg.

On the face of it that doesnt seem that great, but that includes a lot of time idling... warming up to bleed the rad... warming up to do the timing... and generally sitting around just idling.

Also, ive probably driven it a lot harder at times than I would normally, and the N75 fault will ive no doubt have cost a few MPG too.

Second full tank will be a better indication....

Quick catchup...

Turbo arrived and swapped but still getting some oil in the exhaust when cold.
I'm putting this down to the shallow angle of the oil return, which is still a "cobbled" version.
I'm going to get a proper on made up now and see if that changes anything...

So.. Ive wired the cruise control up.
It turns out the Sharan I stripped had slightly different wiring to the digrams I had.
Turns out the Sharan has 2 more wires to the switch than the T3 original stalks (6 vs 4). A bit of faffing about and it all works.

For future reference...

Black wire is IGN live.
Red is the SET button
Blue is the RESUME button

White connects to the Grey wire from the ECU to tell it that Cruise is ON.
You also need to connect the Black/Green wire that goes to Pin 66 on the ECU to this wire.
I still dont know why, but the ECU needs to see 2 "ON" signals.

Anyway I turned the cruise on with VagCom:
Connect to the OBD port.
Goto "Engine"
Select "Login"
Enter "11463" and click "Do It!"

That should turn it on.

Erm... what else...

Not much really. Van drives really well and pulls really strongly.

Ive reset the rev counter so its closer to the readings given by the ECU, as the rev counter gets its signal from the alternator its not accurate. There is a trim screw on the back of the rev counter under the white sticker to adjust... it'll never be 100% accurate, but its close...

Speaking of VagCom, im not a fan of having the OBD port just dangling, so ive made a bracket to house it under the dash cover:

Ive also tidied up the wiring in the engine bay a little. I'll do this in stages as its really time consuming and tedious :D I could also do with shortening all the wires to the pump really as theres a lot of wire to lose there. For the moment its in and working and once its proved i'll finish off the engine bay.

For now, i'm going to drive it around and see if any issues develop.

Its now officially a TDI!

Slow and steady progress...

Silicone hoses arrived, and Ive now fitted the maf and airbox in the factory locations.
TDI conversions are quite common in a T3 nowadays, but I'm not a fan of the way the engine bays always look. I wanted it to look standard... Battery and Airbox in the standard locations, and as little evidence of the conversion as possible.

Ive also made a wiring loom for the front end wiring... 16 wires in total.
6 for the throttle pedal, 4 for the cruise control, 2 each for clutch and brake switches, and one each for the speed sensor and the immobilser wire.
All sleeved and routed sensibly down the chassis and up into the front through the original wiring grommet behind the headlamp...

Immobilser is mounted in the dashboard.
Ive fitted speed sensor to the speedo that will give the ECU the correct signal... As mine already had cruise control, it had a speed signal unit in the speedo, so its simply a case of removing it, fitting the RJES unit, and connecting the wiring.

Cruise control wiring is connected to the stalks, and pedal switches are wired.
The Sharan brake pedal was a 4 pin switch, as the ECU requires 2 signals from the brake switch....but to simplify things ive used a 2 pin switch on the pedal and given the other signal to the ECU from the brake ligt wiring in the box in the engine bay.
Front end loom connects to the ECU with 3 multi connectors. That way if i need to split the loom for any reason, I dont have to remove the whole lot.

A couple of other bits... one is the Intake Air temp sensor that up until recently was just dangling. Its now fitted into the intake pipework from the chargecooler using a fitting from Mario at M V Engineering.

Ive also blanked the blow off valve on the original JX manifold with a machined plate.

Accelerator pedal has been mounted on the bulkhead, im not particularly happy with this as there is quite a bit of flex in the bulkhead when the pedal is pressed. I'll add a bracket here to strengthen it before I call it "done", but for the time being it works...

Ive discovered that the turbo is passing a lot of oil into the exhaust, so will fit a new replacement.
The AFN with a JX pump seems to produce about 6 bar of oil pressure at idle when cold, which may be something to do with the oil in the turbo, but I figure a new turbo will have the best chance of keeping the oil where it should be.
Currently waiting for the Turbo, but Ive assembled the exhaust and done the maiden voyage... a short drive of about 10 miles. Nothing to report really... It pulls incredibly well, especially at the bottom end of the rev range. Sounds great too! Just smokes a little which I put down to the turbo.

Once the new turbo is here I'll swap it and refit the exhaust and undertrays properly.

Other jobs... mount the ECU properly, wrap up the wiring loom in the engine bay, and sort the cruise control... Then decide where I'm going to take it for a shakedown :)

...and a Happy New Year...

In't Christmas Brilliant!

By the Sunday after Christmas I was bored of the Eat, Drink, TV, PS4. Repeat... so I shuffled into work to get on with getting the  AFN in the back of my T3...

Putting it in was obviously not going to be as straightforward as pulling it out (fnarr fnarr), but by "teatime" it was in the hole, piped up and looking the part.

Not much to report here really... I fitted the bell housing to the engine first as I knew it would need a slight but of tickling with the grinder to clear the Dual Mass Flywheel.
In Reality its a tiny amount on the metalwork near the timing mark, and on the other side on the raised by that the release arm passes through.
I just fitted the bell housing and turned the engine by hand until it locked up, the removed, ground away, and refitted. It took 3 goes before I had just enough to spin the engine without it touching.

Then, simply a case of refitting the bell housing to the gearbox, and refitting the engine.
Oh... oil pump and sump were fitted before i put the engine in.

Pipework is exactly as the AAZ that came out. Ive changed the top coolant flange to lose the connection to the header tank on the Sharan, but thats about it. 

In the centre of the image above you can see the Starter Motor Adaptor.

This bolts to the bell housing and allows you to use the TDI starter motor matched to the flyweel.

The added advantage of this patented German design is that the TDI starter is more powerful than the original... bonus.

I had a mental list of jobs to do before tackling the wiring, and it was getting shorter and shorter...

Drill and tap for the EGT probe into the turbo adapter...tick

Oil Return line... this was going to need a little "bodging" to get it going, so I made one out of part of the AFN oil return and part of the JX. Joined with some oil hoses and it will do the job to get it running. I'll then take it off and have one made up... tick... ish

Its a bit "pikey" and its not the kind of thing I'd be happy with in the long term, but to get it running and tested, it'll do.

Lastly, I blanked the Oil Filler point on the sump with a Blanking Plate. I can fill the oil from the rocker cover, but I would like to refit the standard oil filler a some point. For the time being the power steering pipe onto the Sharan pump fouls it, so this is the simplest short term solution...

Now I'd done a lot of work on the loom when I took it out of the Sharan. Id removed most of the excess wiring and was left with pretty much the engine loom. I had about 12 wires not connected to anything so I set about figuring out where they all went.

Now I have 2 wiring diagrams for the Sharan ECU, one from ElsaWin and one from Autodata.
Both are slightly different, neither is exactly right, but it all makes sense once you start plugging stuff in.

I was left with some earths, connections to the ECU power relay, oil pressure sender wiring, coolant temp, glow plug light, and a couple of others I cant remember.

I figured the best way to tackle this was connect everthing up, check it starts and runs and then tidy the loom up. So I set about splicing stuff into the T3 loom. This is actually a lot simpler than you may think. VW are pretty clever with wiring and a lot of the wiring colours are the same. Theres a few "gotchas" but on the whole its obvious where stuff goes to. All the wiring connections can be made in the "black box" in the engine bay. Having said that, for the time being theyre connected to the original wiring for the sake of getting it running. I'll then work through the connections joining them in the Black Box and getting rid of the original T3 engine wiring from the engine bay.

The exception is the ECU relay, which obviously doesnt have an equivalent on the original vehicle, so ive mounted the relay and run fresh wiring.

Sounds easy when you type it quickly, but its actually quite time consuming and I'd say 4-5 hours were spent checking wiring, making connections, and double checking with a multimeter. So by 2pm, i was almost ready to fire up... I was just waiting on Yodel with a delivery of silicone hoses to join the air intake to the MAF and air box... tired of waiting I did what anybody would do and joined it all together with gaffa tape....

I plugged the immobilser unit in... with the chip from the key tie wrapped to the coil for the time being... thats for another day... and connected the battery.
No smoke, no flames, no explosions. Which is always a good thing...

So i put the key in the ignition, and turned it on. Glow plug light on, then off... flicked the starter and it burst into life!

A couple of coughs as the air found its way out of the system and then it settled down to a fast idle.

At the moment... it runs.

No exhaust, No N75 valve connected, and no intake air temp sensor. Pedal is in the engine bay, and the loom is still spread across the engine... No OBD port connected so I cant read the fault codes (which there will be lots), but it starts on the first touch of the key and idles nicely. Which considering its over a year since it last ran is pretty good.

It'll be the New Year before I see the silicone hoses now, as for some reason its still at the Yodel depot due to "bad weather"! So for the moment its running with gaffa tape and a "bad boy" noisy filter.

Next job is to sort the intake, tidy and hide the loom, and plumb the N75 in.
I'll then run some wires to the front for the pedal and the OBD port and read some fault codes.

And hopefully then go for a drive...

Merry Christmas...

Early finish on Christmas Eve, and nothing in at work until January means Simon has allowed me to use the ramp and pull the engine.

At Midday on Christmas Eve I still had a running Bluestar...

and by 2pm it looked like this:

Engine out, mounts, sump, manifolds stripped off and everything bolted up to the AFN read to go in.

Ive also pulled off the bell housing and swapped the input shaft for one to suit the DMF fitted to the AFN. This took me up to 4pm so time to go home and do Christmas.

TDI Input shaft fitted - Note the South African Oiling plates fitted when I had the box rebuilt a couple of years ago.

AFN all together and ready to go in. Im Leaving the dipstick in the engine bay for the time being, I may rethink that later...

And the AAZ minus the Diesel bits I need for the AFN

Turbo continued...

Spun the compressor side of the turbo to match the alignment of the K14 on the AAZ, so now the turbo is pretty much in position.

Also made up an oil feed pipe temporarily by straightening out the original one from the Sharan and shortening it. Route is pretty much right, its just a bit wibbly wobbly in places...

Thats pretty much as much as I can do with the engine out, so the next step is to pull the AAZ, swap the engine mounts, sump and a few other bits and pieces over... then chuck the AFN in,