[dukegrad98]

After what felt like a very long search, and several failed deals with flaky craigslist people, I have obtained a G3F donor. The car is a 2001 Jetta TDI sedan, with about 211k on the clock. In the last month it has had a new turbo, alternator, AC condensor, and battery installed. I have not titled or insured it yet, since it's just going to sit while it undergoes a G3F transformation, but initial driving indications are that it is slow and generally in good repair.

It has a dented front fender that we'll be throwing out anyhow. Otherwise, it's in decent shape. The glove box door has failed and needs to be replaced. The leather is wearing better than expected for age and mileage. Dash is in good shape, along with the instruments and the "Monsoon" radio stuff. (Is there an easy double-DIN kit for this car that will let me put in an aftermarket nav-type system?)

I'll post up some pics here, then the dyno sheet below. I also have video of the dyno run, but have to get that out of my camera this evening and get it hosted up for you guys. It was...underwhelming. Such is the cost of 50mpg.

Because the car is a bit of a beater, I was calling it the ghetto Jetta. I towed it to Wayne Presley over the weekend, where it will be transformed, and we agreed to shorten the name to "JHETTO."

Pics of the donor:

More to follow.

Cheers, John

 

[dukegrad98]

And with its V10TDI cousin, my biodiesel-fueled daily-driver Touareg that also tows things pretty well:

The V10 pulled JHETTO on a UHaul dolly from East Texas to Wayne's over last weekend. I turned in about 18.7mpg on the way there, with a total rolling vehicle weight of close to 10,000 pounds. Driving empty on the way home, the Touareg gave me 24.2mpg. Not too shabby, especially for average towing speeds around 75mph on cruise control, with an engine speed hovering around 1850rpm. I actually really enjoy driving that car, and the fact that it runs well on homemade fuel is just a bonus! I'm glad the TDI-powered G3F will fit into the garage lineup so naturally.

Cheers, John

 

[dukegrad98]

Bone stock, the car made 80.2 horsepower at the wheels, and 117.1 lb-ft of torque. I think we're going to have to investigate a turbo and some bigger injectors, with a tune to match...

Here is the dyno sheet from Wayne's shop:

We also took time to put the car on the scales, so that we could look at corner weights and do a little before-and-after on the conversion. The weights are:

FRONT DRIVER: 899
FRONT PASSENGER: 897
REAR DRIVER: 572
REAR PASSENGER: 578
TOTAL WEIGHT: 2946

That's with all running fluids and a little over a quarter tank of fuel.

I will post the dyno pull videos as soon as I get them out of the camera. Stay tuned. While we wait on Mark to finish the body and ship kits, we'll do a little tuning on this engine and make sure everything is good and ready for the chop and change. I am ready to roll on the project now!

Cheers, John

 

[ixlr8]

I suspect that there might be reasons for poor dyno numbers. Have you checked the timing and the MAF? The 01 Jetta I just picked up as a donor seemed miserably underpowered compared to my Golf. I found the timing retarded off the bottom of the chart, looks like last timing belt was done by the Mark and Pray method. I also believe the MAF is shot, or at least marginal. My Jetta has 238K miles on it. Do you have access to a VCDS to check the timing? MAF's are easy to check.. unplug and see if it drives better. If MAF is shot, it will drive better unplugged, if MAF is good, it will drive worse. Unfortunately, if MAF is marginal.. there will be no difference.

 

[4229GL]

Dash is in good shape, along with the instruments and the "Monsoon" radio stuff. (Is there an easy double-DIN kit for this car that will let me put in an aftermarket nav-type system?)

Just an FYI, VW makes a factory sat nav for the MK4. It was a standard feature on high end MK4s in europe (the VW is seen as more of a high end car than it is here in the states) and may have been an option here (I forget, I got my MK4 brandy new in 05), and they look amazing (different trims available, woodgrain, black plastic, aluminum, etc.):

 

[dukegrad98]

Just an FYI, VW makes a factory sat nav for the MK4. It was a standard feature on high end MK4s in europe (the VW is seen as more of a high end car than it is here in the states) and may have been an option here (I forget, I got my MK4 brandy new in 05), and they look amazing (different trims available, woodgrain, black plastic, aluminum, etc.):

Interesting, thanks. If the VW nav sucks as much as the factory CD-based unit in my '04 Touareg, I'm not interested -- I would rather go with a more modern aftermarket solution. The climate controls in your photo are certainly a step up from the twist-knobs you see in a Jetta here -- but then again, those knobs are reliable and easy to fix/replace.

Cheers, John

 

[ARCJr]

Is there an easy double-DIN kit for this car that will let me put in an aftermarket nav-type system?

Cheers, John

Metra makes kits that match the OE VAG plastics in the dash/console very well. Those are the kits that used to (and still may) be included when you buy a head unit from Crutchfield. If they have a decent price, Crutchfield's good to deal with, as they include the harness adapter, the antenna adapter, the radio tools, and the double or single din kit for "free".

 

[dukegrad98]

Dyno videos

Finally got the video out of the handycam.

Here's the calibration run for the dyno. There's no easy tach pickup or spark on the diesel, obviously, so we just had to show the machine where 4000rpm was in the gear in which we planned to make the pull. The main point of the pretty boring video is just to show that there is zero smoke, even over 4000+ rpm in third gear. A bit of paper or trash does seem to blow up from the exhaust stream, though.

Here's the actual dyno pull. As noted above, it managed to turn out 80.2 hp and 117.1 lb-ft at the wheels. "You ready?" "If you are!"

Assuming 15% drivetrain loss, that's about 94hp and 138lb-ft. Factory specs for this year model were 90hp and 155lb-ft at the engine. Perhaps there's something to the thought that timing is a little off, or maybe not. We might replace the timing belt and water pump as preventive maintenance, so we'll have a chance to check it then.

Thanks for having a look, guys.

Cheers, John