Lifted 745 TIC build

[Louis95]

Hello guys!
I've never worked with diesels before so this is all new to me.
Start:
So I picked up an 86 745 turbodiesel from a guy in PA with the intent to clean up and daily. Turned out about 70% of the structual sections of the unibody were completly rusted away, engine is very strong though. Decided to swap into a 91 745 shell and lift it about 4"

As of now I have just about stripped the 86 shell. Drive train is out, front subframe and suspension, rear axle, dash, shift linkage, engine bay harness, and some nice interior parts.

I've been looking for a shop to do some maintinece but mone will touch it so I guess i'm doing the HG etc. Was able to find the tool kit on amazon for a good price. Ordered the rest of the parts from rock auto and tasca.as well as studs from arp. HG will take a few weeks aparently to ship in from sweden. Parts from rock auto like water pumps look like they have been sitting on the shelf for years.

I planed on running a .48 a/r exhaust housing with a larger compressor, but the shaft was very rough. Going to run the larger compressor with stock exhaust side on the stock chra. But would like to run an external gate. Turbo will push air through a 2.5 " vertical flow intercooler so both charge pipes will be on the right side. I'm looking for an n/a intake if anyone has one.

Cooling will be run through a dual pass gm radiator with in/out on left side to keep the cooling system tidy and clean up engine bay.

Suspension will be lifted about 4"

[ngoma]

Make sure you get all the engine mount pieces for the crossmember. Also the diesel fuel tank and fill neck. For the best performance you want to get the correct HG thickness corresponding to the measured piston protrusion on the block deck.

Member v8volvo has talked about the waterpumps for Audi 5-cyl have fewer cog teeth for better circulation, which is helpful in controlling temps.

[v8volvo]

Sounds like a great project, keep the updates coming.

If you got the whole front subframe out of the diesel donor then it should give you everything you need to bolt the diesel right into the gas car. Hopefully the engine crossmember doesn't have structural rust. The crossmember from a 1989-1991 gas 740/940GLE with the 16 valve B234F engine also uses the same welded steel lower motor mount bracket on the driver's side that none of the other gas cars have so those can provide a replacement if needed.

The radiator idea is interesting, will be good to see how that turns out. It can be a challenge to keep these engines cool when they are working hard. The stock cooling system in the original diesel cars is just barely adequate when everything is in tip top condition with a brand new radiator. If you use a different rad it probably will need to be at least as large and efficient as the stock setup. But eliminating the long snaking lower radiator hose would be an improvement if you can get the in/out on the same side so will be good to hear what you find that works.

As ngoma mentioned you can also use a slightly different water pump from an early 1990s VW Eurovan with the 2.4L 5 cylinder diesel. On those the pump housing is the same but the pulley is slightly smaller so it spins the pump a little faster for more volume.

Head studs and a fresh gasket are a great upgrade to do at the start and will help it hold together when you turn it up.

In the 1991 gasser you will probably have the oddball Rex/Regina EFI system and its high pressure tank mounted fuel pump. Those deliver 60+ psi which is too much for the diesel injection pump. If you want to keep that pump you may need to install a bypass style regulator or put a tee to the return line to bring the pressure down, or install a low pressure tank lift pump instead from a car with Bosch FI. You could also swap in the simple diesel tank pickup without a lift pump but might need to get creative to make the fuel level sending unit compatible with the later gauge cluster.

Keep us posted on what changes are needed to the suspension to do the lift. I raised mine around 2.5" but didn't think it could go much higher than that without having to do major changes both front and rear to prevent popping the ball joints out at full droop and other geometry problems. I think for 4" you might need to space the entire front cradle down to lower the control arm pickup points and the steering rack, and maybe extend the trailing arms in the rear and build a drop bracket for the panhard bar. Solvable problems though and with a locker in the rear it'll go everywhere. Looking forward to seeing it come together.