Tweet
So awhile back, fellow MIVEr Brad (klodkrawler) bought this '82 diesel Caddy off CL thinking it would be a fun extra commuter/parts hauler. On his way home from purchasing it, the timing belt tensioner failed, tossed the belt, and it chewed on all the valves. Meanwhile Brad's actual race cars demanded attention, and after running out of time and a failed attempt to put this back together, he needed it gone. We struck a deal, I brought a dolly,we pushed it on and I got it out of Brad's hair by dragging it to my buddy Brian's (killjchu) house to help sort out the mechanicals.
Basics:
'82 Rabbit Truck Diesel
5-speed
Raceland coils in front
Axle flip in the back
Technically it didn't come with any wheels, so first thing I did was bolted on some 16x6 Porsche 7-slots I had re-aquired that I actually used to own a decade ago, along with adapters, and a nice set of 175-50-16 Yokohoma S-drives. It didn't run, but it at least looked cool in the garage.
After that, Brian and I set into figuring out how to put humpty back together again. A new head had been sorted from another old MIVEr Rich Brennick. Brad had also aquired all new gaskets/belts/tensioner, etc. to put it back together again. Shiny parts:
so purty:
This was actually a mk2 turbo diesel head, which has a different second oil galley, and it's apparently a common mod to just tap and plug the unnecessary return where's there's not a receiving port on the block on a non-turbo mk1 engine. So the machine shop that refreshed this head did that long ago, and it had been sitting that way on Rich's shelf prior to our aquisition.
So, attempt one after putting this all together...
and it wouldn't roll over by hand. :cry: it kept hitting a valve. something was not right. Durrr. verified TDC timing mark on flywheel, timing marks line up. can't roll it over. So, we took it back apart again. After over thinking it, and rechecking all kinds of things, verified the cam was right... rolled over engine without the head... ruled out all kinds of things, we went back to basics. We had falsely assumed TDC and not actually verified TDC by piston position. Turns out, and some point in the truck's history, the flywheel was put on in the wrong orientation, so the timing marks no longer lined up. Once we figured this out, Brian re-marked the flywheel, and bolted it all back together again. This time, it made smoke. Hooray!
Awhile later, I showed up to take it home, and we just had a few more things to do, so we wanted to fill it up with coolant first, as it had been fired just briefly dry, and almost immediately, all the coolant began pouring out of the motor. :cry: Fail again. So, we took it all apart again to find out why.
It turns out, that mk2 diesel head with that oil galley port that was plugged... well there's a coolant port that runs "up" from the block, and into the general area where that plug now resides. Since the plug wasn't flush with the block, it basically formed an upside down bathtub type shape and nicely funneled all the coolant that flowed up the coolant jacket, up into that head recess, and redirected and shot it right back out down the front of the block.
You can see that this coolant hole in the head gasket was flowing into that head void in this pic:
I searched various alternate head gaskets hoping to find one with that hole plugged for an easy way to seal it, but in the end there was no such option. Basically we just needed the hole plugged, so we ended up just filling both the block side and the head side with RTV, sandwiching it back together to plug it closed, and letting it sit awhile to set up nicely. I wasn't afraid of the RTV "falling into the motor" because the block side coolant port is like a funnel shape with a small hole at the bottom, and this seemed far easier than machining/welding or drilling/tapping the block. Put everything back together again, and filled it up again.. .and this time no leaks! Hooray. I took it on it's maiden voyage around the block.
So now the truck physically runs and drives. There's a lot of terribly done mods done by prior owners that need to be undone. Some people just shouldn't work on vehicles. For some unknown reason, I'm guessing the original fuel tank was bad, and new replacements are not available, so somebody decided to "mount" an old air tank in the bed as a makeshift fuel tank. They did so by placing it in the worst possible location, right in front of the tailgate, and cutting a big hole in the bed floor.
For max scene points, the exhaust was also re-rerouted up through where the fuel filler neck used to be, with a side exit through the bedside.
Additionally, they hacked the piss out of the wiring and made their own "harness" to make it run. These things only need like 3 wires to fire, so 12V to the injection pump to let fuel flow, 12V to the glow plugs prior to firing, and 12V to the starter. They bypassed all of the original wiring, and just put toggle switches in the dash. It's done very poorly, and with no grommet. Sketchy. :cry:
To make matters worse, the entire fuse block is no longer in the loop, and NOTHING else works. No lights. No blinkers. Nada. Oh, and the cluster is gone. ...and they hacked all the wiring should somebody want to reinstall a cluster.
So that's where I'm at with it now. It fires and runs. The A/C delete home made bracket for the alternator is built crooked and the belt doesn't fit well, so I'll look at options to improve that as well.
Next 2 projects are:
1) Mounting an old cheap fuel cell under the bed in place of the current tank, and plumbing it in.
2) Rewiring the circuits using a replacement fuse block so I actually have lights and what not, and hopefully putting a cluster with a new pigtail back in as well. I'm not sure if this will just get wired race car style, or if I'll try to reintegrate the factory keyed ignition switch like it's supposed to be.
I hope to get it to where I can put some real miles on it. It was a way bigger PITA than I originally intended, and it's still proving to be so going forwards, but it puts a smile on my face. Driving a double digit horsepower mk1 diesel recalibrates the driving experience of my 1-series BMW :rofl:
Basics:
'82 Rabbit Truck Diesel
5-speed
Raceland coils in front
Axle flip in the back
Technically it didn't come with any wheels, so first thing I did was bolted on some 16x6 Porsche 7-slots I had re-aquired that I actually used to own a decade ago, along with adapters, and a nice set of 175-50-16 Yokohoma S-drives. It didn't run, but it at least looked cool in the garage.
After that, Brian and I set into figuring out how to put humpty back together again. A new head had been sorted from another old MIVEr Rich Brennick. Brad had also aquired all new gaskets/belts/tensioner, etc. to put it back together again. Shiny parts:
so purty:
This was actually a mk2 turbo diesel head, which has a different second oil galley, and it's apparently a common mod to just tap and plug the unnecessary return where's there's not a receiving port on the block on a non-turbo mk1 engine. So the machine shop that refreshed this head did that long ago, and it had been sitting that way on Rich's shelf prior to our aquisition.
So, attempt one after putting this all together...
and it wouldn't roll over by hand. :cry: it kept hitting a valve. something was not right. Durrr. verified TDC timing mark on flywheel, timing marks line up. can't roll it over. So, we took it back apart again. After over thinking it, and rechecking all kinds of things, verified the cam was right... rolled over engine without the head... ruled out all kinds of things, we went back to basics. We had falsely assumed TDC and not actually verified TDC by piston position. Turns out, and some point in the truck's history, the flywheel was put on in the wrong orientation, so the timing marks no longer lined up. Once we figured this out, Brian re-marked the flywheel, and bolted it all back together again. This time, it made smoke. Hooray!
Awhile later, I showed up to take it home, and we just had a few more things to do, so we wanted to fill it up with coolant first, as it had been fired just briefly dry, and almost immediately, all the coolant began pouring out of the motor. :cry: Fail again. So, we took it all apart again to find out why.
It turns out, that mk2 diesel head with that oil galley port that was plugged... well there's a coolant port that runs "up" from the block, and into the general area where that plug now resides. Since the plug wasn't flush with the block, it basically formed an upside down bathtub type shape and nicely funneled all the coolant that flowed up the coolant jacket, up into that head recess, and redirected and shot it right back out down the front of the block.
You can see that this coolant hole in the head gasket was flowing into that head void in this pic:
I searched various alternate head gaskets hoping to find one with that hole plugged for an easy way to seal it, but in the end there was no such option. Basically we just needed the hole plugged, so we ended up just filling both the block side and the head side with RTV, sandwiching it back together to plug it closed, and letting it sit awhile to set up nicely. I wasn't afraid of the RTV "falling into the motor" because the block side coolant port is like a funnel shape with a small hole at the bottom, and this seemed far easier than machining/welding or drilling/tapping the block. Put everything back together again, and filled it up again.. .and this time no leaks! Hooray. I took it on it's maiden voyage around the block.
So now the truck physically runs and drives. There's a lot of terribly done mods done by prior owners that need to be undone. Some people just shouldn't work on vehicles. For some unknown reason, I'm guessing the original fuel tank was bad, and new replacements are not available, so somebody decided to "mount" an old air tank in the bed as a makeshift fuel tank. They did so by placing it in the worst possible location, right in front of the tailgate, and cutting a big hole in the bed floor.
For max scene points, the exhaust was also re-rerouted up through where the fuel filler neck used to be, with a side exit through the bedside. Additionally, they hacked the piss out of the wiring and made their own "harness" to make it run. These things only need like 3 wires to fire, so 12V to the injection pump to let fuel flow, 12V to the glow plugs prior to firing, and 12V to the starter. They bypassed all of the original wiring, and just put toggle switches in the dash. It's done very poorly, and with no grommet. Sketchy. :cry:
To make matters worse, the entire fuse block is no longer in the loop, and NOTHING else works. No lights. No blinkers. Nada. Oh, and the cluster is gone. ...and they hacked all the wiring should somebody want to reinstall a cluster.
So that's where I'm at with it now. It fires and runs. The A/C delete home made bracket for the alternator is built crooked and the belt doesn't fit well, so I'll look at options to improve that as well.
Next 2 projects are:
1) Mounting an old cheap fuel cell under the bed in place of the current tank, and plumbing it in.
2) Rewiring the circuits using a replacement fuse block so I actually have lights and what not, and hopefully putting a cluster with a new pigtail back in as well. I'm not sure if this will just get wired race car style, or if I'll try to reintegrate the factory keyed ignition switch like it's supposed to be.
I hope to get it to where I can put some real miles on it. It was a way bigger PITA than I originally intended, and it's still proving to be so going forwards, but it puts a smile on my face. Driving a double digit horsepower mk1 diesel recalibrates the driving experience of my 1-series BMW :rofl:
Comment