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Offline sardolik

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The best donor option?
« on: April 14, 2016, 01:41:09 pm »
Hey, folks.

I'm wondering what would be my best option for tdi engine donor for conversion? I have 96 Passat TDi with 151k. miles or should I look for a newer donor?

Thank you! 

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Offline andrew

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Re: The best donor option?
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2016, 01:46:11 pm »
I think the Passat is the better donor, personally, but I've never used a Jetta so my opinion may not be worth much. You can swap the cluster directly and the wiring harness doesn't need to be modified hardly at all.

With only 150k miles the engine is probably in great shape so that should make things significantly less expensive in the long run.

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Offline sanfranman

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Re: The best donor option?
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2016, 09:22:57 am »
I'm looking for similar advice for a 2003 Weekender.    Anyone have a suggestion for the best donor.   It seems like the AHU/1Z engine will mount but the ECU and Instrument cluster are a big question.    I'd like to retain Cruise control, ABS and ESP after the conversion.    A multi-function display in the instrument cluster would be something nice to end up with too.   

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Offline andrew

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Re: The best donor option?
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2016, 03:33:59 pm »
I just thought about a plus for the Jetta donor last night: if the car came with keyless entry (and your van doesn't have it) it'd almost certainly be able to accompany the swap.

Regarding the long-nose vans, I don't know anyone with one around here to get a close enough look at them. Take a look at your fusebox: if it looks like this :

then it's probably a very similar wiring situation. If it is closer to the MkIV platform with much smaller fuses you'd probably have to do a fair bit more work. I strongly suspect it's the former case, which makes it much easier.

I don't really see the point of installing an ALH over an AHU, with regard to performance, except for the somewhat more sophisticated ECU when the weak points (pistons, injection pump pressure, VNT vs waste gate turbo)— all of which can be mitigated and retain the easy mounting.

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Offline sanfranman

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Re: The best donor option?
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2016, 08:05:44 pm »
Thank you for the response Andrew.  The reference to comparing fuse boxes is very helpful. 


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