D24T.com  

Go Back   D24T.com > Technical Discussion Area > Member Showroom > The Garage

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #11  
Old 03-19-2013, 11:41 AM
v8volvo v8volvo is offline
Supporting Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Montana, USA
Vehicle: '86 745, '83 764
Posts: 1,618
Default

Wiring is relatively straightforward -- if you have done diesel swaps on VWs this won't pose any greater challenge. Some have done it by cutting and splicing wires; on this I was able to do all but one connection just by swapping around the pins in the harness connector where the diesel engine harness meets the gasser body. This is possible on cars within a few years of age, on much newer ones (e.g. 960, etc) it is more difficult. I can provide schematics from my swap for reference if you would like, if your swap is of a similar year they may be close enough to be useful.

Major tips about this job I would provide from my own experience:

*Use as much as you possibly can from the diesel: cooling system, little brackets under the hood, A/C hoses, crossmember, wiring harness, mechanical fan, radiator, battery mounting, etc, etc. I have seen this swap done in a number of different ways, including a couple done by a guy who thought he could do a better job and save time by starting from scratch fabricating his own engine and radiator mounts and doing wiring with butt connectors and heatshrink tube, rather than spending the time to take the appropriate parts off the diesel donor. Those vehicles ended up messy and unreliable under the hood, and many hours more work to complete in the end and get all the bugs out of. Swap is generally most clean/elegant/easy if you try to make the final product as close in its mechanical configuration to the original diesel car as possible. Electric fan setups, "custom" motor mounts, pushbutton glow plug control, etc end up presenting extra areas for problems to occur and make the final product look and feel less well finished.

*Don't get rid of your diesel donor vehicle until the swap is fully completed and on the road with all the bugs worked out. You will be surprised by the number of parts on the car outside of the engine bay that are specific to the diesel models, and if you junk the donor too early you're pretty well guaranteed to end up missing some parts you needed... and once they are gone, finding them elsewhere will be difficult.

*Having your chassis donor be as similar generally to the diesel drivetrain donor as possible, in terms of age and configuration, will save you time and work. E.g., automatic if donor is automatic; cars up through 1990 740 can use same type of gauge cluster so diesel tach drops right in without needing a converter; temp gauge is easier on earlier cars; turbo gassers have airbox and battery in correct locations while non-turbos do not; etc. Later cars have attractive advantages as well but will not be able to use as many non-mechanical parts directly from the diesel donor without some adaptation. A '92 turbo wouldn't be too hard to do, gauges probably only major part of that that would be considerably more tricky than what I had to do in the swap detailed above.

Don't forget that you will be better off using the front springs from the diesel car, so if you are going to rebuild suspension, doing struts on the diesel may be a better way to go.

Working cruise and a/c will be easy.

Don't forget to take pictures!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 11:02 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.10
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.