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.

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.

...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..

Turbo...
Im using a VNT from a Passat mated to a 1.6TD (JX) manifold using turbo adaptors from Ultimate Engineering.
My aim is to use as many off the shelf parts as possible, so in the future if something breaks I can just buy one and bolt it on... and this way I can use a standard exhaust instead of fabricating something, and everything will bolt together.

Once attached to the manifold the oil feed and return points on this turbo are almost horizontal in a T3 due to the angle of the engine, so no use at all as the oil wont drain from the turbo.

So, the turbo has to be indexed to suit the position in the engine. This was one of the only things I was a bit concerned about, but its really not a big thing...

It involves splitting the turbine housing (exhaust side) from the centre housing, and rotating it until things are where you want them. Obviously its not that simple. Turbos tend to be rusty dirty things, so getting it apart can be a challenge... and cleaning it a bit messy.

Things are a little more complicated with the VNT (Variable Nozzle Turbo) as it has a plate in the turbine housing (exhaust side) with a number of "vanes" that change position depending on engine speed. This helps the turbo spool up quicker and reduce lag... clever stuff.
On the outside of this plate is a moving ring that connects all the vanes together. On the outside of the turbo is a vacuum operated actuator which moves this plate and in turn moves all the vanes together.
This actuator connects to the plate with the vanes on it in one position only (see image).
So change the orientation of the centre housing in relation to the turbine housing we need to move the plate.
Its held to the turbine housing with 3 screws which luckily for us are evenly spaced. So that gives us 3 positions it can be in its simply a case of finding the best one.

In the image below, on the left is the original orientation. The red X shows the position of the actuator connection before and after moving the plate. You'll see its moved anticlockwise by 120 degrees. Effectively moving the centre housing around 120degrees anticlockwise too... which puts our oil feed and return right where we need it.

Its then a case of putting the turbo back together and moving the actuator around the body to put it in the correct position.

Its worth noting that before you remove the actuator to check its adjustment. They are adjustable on a small wheel and locknut. Check how much the arm is away from its stop with the actuator at rest, as you'll need to set it back to this position once youve moved the actuator...

The actuator attaches to a bracket on 2 of the 5 bolts which hold the centre housing to the turbine. In an ideal world you'd just use a different two, but as you can see theyre not evenly spaced so my bracket now bolts to the (unused) turbo mounting hole (top right) and the small hole next to it.
This puts the vacuum connection close to the block, but I think it should be okay...

So, here it is bolted up. You can just see the oil return connection in the middle, and whilst it looks as though its pointing sideways, the engine of upright in the photo. Once its tilted over in the back of a T3 it will be almost vertical.

Here you can see the actuator close to the block. The vacuum connection is on the right of the canister in pointing towards the block.
The compressor housing can now be loosened and turned to point wherever I need it, so i'll adjust that once fitted to line up with the existing chargecooler pipework.