Marinizing VW turbodiesel engines

No, you cannot modify the starter motor. There are helical splines on the shaft that push the bendix out and there is a unidirectional coupling in the bendix.
I think the starter will fit at the transom side, but I'm not sure and cannot check because last year I sold the boat. The starter is small one that has a planetary set of gears. If you prefer the starter at the engine side, buy one for a VW Passat, they run in opposite direction.
I used the layout of the VW transporter because there was plenty of room at the gearbox side and the engine gets pretty crowded with all the pipes and hoses.

The Bowman manifold has 4 flanges that connect to the cylinder head, 1 exhaust gas output flange at the end, 2 flanged coolant circuit studs at the bottom side, 2 rubber tube connectors for the raw water circuit and a coolant filler cap on top of the header tank.
The rubber elements carry the heat exchanger to prevent metallic contact with the aluminum body.
I bought the manifolds from MESA-Glenwood in the USA because at the time they were cheaper than Lancing Marine in the UK.

You can of course have the manifold made from inox if you can find a really good welder, but then you'll need a separate heat exchanger and an expansion tank.

I mounted a small V-belt driven Johnson pump under the manifold, plenty of room there and threaded holes in the block. Unless the donor car had air conditioning you have to mount an extra pulley on the crankshaft.
Bowman makes one 4 cylinder manifold that fits all.

Because VW does not use a separate bell housing I made the adapter plate from the drawing, attached it to the engine with 5 long bolts and spacers made from steel pipe to obtain the right distance to accommodate the flywheel. Then I cut sheet steel and welded it between the spacers to form an enclosure.
At that point I forgot to drill a hole in the top to observe the TDC mark on the flywheel, something I dearly regretted several years later when I had to adjust the injection timing.

 

Vw

Thank You, things becoming more and more clear now. I believe other people will aso find those informations helpful. I especially appreciate information regarding starter motor, i didn't know that i can find what i want in Passat! So i gave up the idea of the modification. Thanks to Essenmein too on his arguments.
About adapter plate... 5 bolts? On your photo i can see some of details you just explained. There are two bolts and spacers on the left side, another two on top are visible. That means, there is just one bolt/spacer somewhere on the right side of engine ? Do you have pattern for those bolts to be drilled thru adapter plate?

 

Vw

After better looking (glasses also helps sometimes) i realised that those outer holes on your drawing actually ARE for engine side, earlier i wrongly assumed that they are for your gear. But looking at the picture, it still seems to me that bolt positions don't match with drawing.. I suppose drawing shows "looking aft" and top - bottom correct view?

 

I understand the confusion.
The pictures at the beginning of this thread show the starter on the left hand side, the drawing is looking aft, so it is mirrored. There are 5 bolts/spacers connecting the adapter plate to the engine; I can't remember if there were 5 or 6 threaded holes in the engine block but I used only 5. The wings on both sides were later drilled to attach engine mounts, the engines stood on 4 feet.
I am not familiar with the Volvo transom housing, your pictures suggest it can take the engine weight directly. A Mercruiser stern drive has two high mounted engine supports.

 

Right, the original Volvo engine is fastened to bellhouse only, no other supports. However, my plan is to install front engine mounts in order to remove high stress on bellhouse and transom.

 

Vw

Do You actually know what Passat models has such a starter? I saw one '95 Passat 1.9 TDI recently, but with "traditionally" mounted starter motor (at gear side). I suppose I should replace flywheel too, so it can match opposite mounted strater...

 

No, I can't help you there.
Try vwdieselparts.com, they have a forum that was really helpful to me in the past.

 

I am currently marinizing an 1.9 TDI

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/diy-marinizing/vw-audi-1-9-tdi-marinization-52760.html#post732663

 

Hi, I'm hoping that CDK is still around. I'm considering buying a project boat (It's already been established that I'm crazy.) that has a marine converted VW diesel aboard. The engine appears to be normally aspirated with Bosch mechanical injection. The conversion features a Bowman heat exchanger and a crank mounted pump. I know nothing about these engines and on line information is sorely lacking. Anything that you can tell me about problems, idiosyncrasies, reliability, parts availability, etc., or any info source you could point me to would be highly appreciated.

The last owner was working on the boat for his family's use when he passed away. He was a design engineer with a machine shop and he did a very professional looking installation. I won't have a chance to test the engine before purchase. It's on the hard, and there are access and time constraints. However, from what I can see of the owners work here and on other projects, it wouldn't have made any sense to have put this much work into installing a faulty motor. I did turn the crank with a wrench enough to see that the engine isn't seized. I'm attaching some photos to help with identification. Really anything you could tell me would be a help.

 

Yes, sixtharmy, I am still around.

To me this looks like a 1.9 VW passat engine because it has the starter at the engine side. Mine were VW transporter engines with the starter at the transmission side.
Impossible to tell from a few pictures whether or not the conversion was successful and what the engine condition is, but I agree it would have been stupid to put so many hours in a project based on a rotten engine.

The L-shaped iron profile between the timing belt pulleys is a bit weird because the belt cover doesn't fit anymore, the deceased engineer probably decided the cover was unnecessary.

 

CDK still like to know what happened to your boat with the props in the tunnels..??

 

Hi pistnbroke,

We did use the boat for several years until the port engine blew its head gasket.
I did manage to replace it, but I didn't succeed in getting the timing right. My arthritis made it almost impossible to stand between the engines and work on things near my feet, so in the end I gave up.
Sold the boat to a guy on the mainland who came here with a young, agile mechanic who solved the problem in less than an hour.

When his wife and lots of luggage were on board I told him he had acquired an old lady that deserved to be treated with respect. He said he would, but he had a 7 of 8 hours trip ahead, so once the ropes were loose he pointed the bow towards open sea and pushed the throttles as far as they could.
Never saw or heard from him again!

I now have a 6m RIB with a 100HP Yamaha. Life has become much easier....

 

I also did a marinisation of a engine of the VAG group. It is already about 12 years ago. Here s little video how it is now:
https://youtu.be/AaZN2nHcMaE

 

for CDK

Many thanks CDK. I had an odd experience today. I was in traffic and a car pulled up next to me. It was a mid 70's Rabbit pickup with a diesel. I haven't seen one in easily 35 years. I'm wondering if I should take it as a sign. At any rate, I got the proud driver to pull over and talked about the diesel with him for a bit. He was pleased with it's longevity. He said he didn't have to rebuild it until it was well past about 300K miles.

 

Ahoy...Hello...looking to contact forum member CDK. I just purchased a Pathfinder marine diesel and need advice please. Thank you.
Cheers, David