Tacoma TDI project

[the german]

Got it, that makes sense now. My guess is you wouldn't feel or notice any difference, but might as well make it right while you're in there. Keep up the good work!

[dana]

Got the motor aligned up and mounts built. I copied this design from a couple other people and added my own touches. I used 3/16 plate and .120 wall ERW tubing. The mounts are hydraulic passat BHW TDI mounts from a b5.5. The engine angle ended up at about 5 degrees, and the rear diff is about 6, so that should be good. Hopefully these dont get ripped apart. I know these mounts cannot survive in a quattro without a snub mount, but the force pulling up on them is much greater with the front axle outputs on a quattro trans. On a truck, the only real force should be the engine twisting counter clockwise. I dont want to do anything stiffer because the vibes from a 4 cylinder diesel are really bad with harder mounts.

[ringbearer]

Very nice! It should help not to twist/rotate under load with the mounts so far apart.

[dana]

Thats kind of what I was thinking. They are about 25" center to center!

[PRY4SNO]

Well done. Looks legit. Decent welds too, should be plenty strong.

[dana]

I added some additional bracing I added to try and relieve some of the stress off the top two bolts. I made it removable separately so the whole truss can easily come off in the truck to service the front of the engine. Just tack welded in these pics.

[PRY4SNO]

Nice addition.

Amazing what one can devise, with serviceability in mind from the outset! *looking at you, VAG.

[the german]

Look at you getting fancy with your plastic tube caps! That’s a great idea for keeping junk from building up in there.

Looks great!

[dana]

getting fancy with tube caps for sure! Still cant seem to make pretty welds, its kind of driving me nuts. I just dont have a stready hand. I've never had one fail, but they never look nice either.

[themagellan]

Looking spiffy - nice work

[dana]

I actually got this truck running and drove it up and down the driveway. My wife had our daughter on sept 4th, so I was home with them for a while. I got a bit of shop time in while they both slept.

First impressions, Damn, its acutally pretty fun. It breaks the tires loose and slides around on the gravel easily. Way way better than the stock engine.

Things to complete
-wiring cleanup
-fab coolant piping
-fab exhaust
-swap rear diff from 3.59 to 4.10

Not sure how long this will take, the newborn thing is pretty all consuming, but at least I can start the truck and move it around when needed.

[Afterthought]

You’ve built the ultimate truck dude I always wanted to build a diesel taco...
nowadays I’ve seen a few hilux and hilux surf imported , since I’m right next to the border here and they are super popular in Vancouver BC

And yeah, agree, having a child has definitely changed my amount of shop time and I feel like I have 5 too many projects now

[DE80q]

Congrats Dana! On both fronts, becoming a dad, and getting this thing moving. I know all too well how much time a newborn takes from your day. Mine is almost 10 now, and I swear she takes just as much time now haha

[PRY4SNO]

Wait.

Did Dana say something about a diesel drift truck?

Vids. Or it never happened >_<

And congrats on the newborn!

[dana]

Thanks dudes! I am excited about the truck, I am glad I forced myself into the shop earlier this year to get it as far along as I did. Shawn came over and busted a couple nights on the oil pan, which was a huge pain in the arse, but is working excellent. So I only have cleanup and tidy work left to finish it. I wont drive it on the main roads in the winter, but I can see myself having it out and about on the back roads (no salt) at some point this winter.

As of right now, the only actual free time I have is on weekends when my mother in law comes over and helps, and I have to use that time to maintain the daily drivers, get firewood cut and stacked and keep progress moving on the house build.

I am hoping that once we get a halfway decent sleep routing established I might be able to do a few evenings in the shop per week for a couple hours. We shall see.

Having a mini person is a trip, she has my eyes, which I have been told can give an intense angry look. Its pretty funny to have a tiny person give you your own death glare.

[dana]

Also, sliding the truck around is pretty tricky with half of the interior apart, no power steering, no power brakes, and the throttle pedal being a mk4 vw DBW pedal held loosely in my hand! Its damn spunky though, much more than my mk4 wagon that is theoretically the same tune. The truck engine does have the larger fuel pump, and bigger (new) injectors. I think the MK4 injectors are getting pretty tired and have lost quite a bit of spunk.

[dana]

I have been really bad about taking pictures. This one is shitty, but the charge piping is all done, and looks halfway decent considering how pipes have top run all over the place with a counterflow VW motor mounted longitudinally. As you can see, there is lots of cleanup to do in the bay, but I love that part.

[vt10vt]

Congrats on the daughter! Let me know when you need a hand (car, house, firewood or otherwise), I want to come meet her.

And also, where are the pics of the pan welding process?!

[dana]

I managed to squeak in some fragmented shop time between working and newborn care. Got the downpipe done and the exhaust tacked together. I made the muffler in a straight section so it can be removed and straight piped if "need be"

I got fancy and polished the welds where the pipes can be seen, mostly because my MIG welded stainless welds are not very pretty.

I got the exhaust to exit just like the stock, maybe even fit a bit better than stock with plenty of clearance over the rear axle.

[DE80q]

Looks really good Dana! Is that a real cat on there, or one of those fake stainless shelled ones?

[dana]

Looks really good Dana! Is that a real cat on there, or one of those fake stainless shelled ones?

[DE80q]

That's what I thought.

[dana]

"ALL FLOW"

[Afterthought]

That looks sick . I tried doing that on my cooling pipes and it’s definitely time consuming .
There is a local guy I met here who does professional metal work , he does full hot rod exhausts that way , tig welded polished stainless and it looks seamless. Crazy .

These are really handy

https://www.empireabrasives.com/2-x-36- ... ding-belt/

[dana]

That looks sick . I tried doing that on my cooling pipes and it’s definitely time consuming .
There is a local guy I met here who does professional metal work , he does full hot rod exhausts that way , tig welded polished stainless and it looks seamless. Crazy .

These are really handy

https://www.empireabrasives.com/2-x-36- ... ding-belt/

Woah, yea those belts would probably speed things up quite a bit. I just use the following in order
flap wheel on grinder-120 grit on orbital sander-220 on orbital 320 on orbital-400 grit hand sand- 600 grit wet, 1000 grit wet, 1500 wet.

Doesnt take too long really, there is something therapeutic about polishing ugly metal, not sure why.