Getting the Engine Out

First step in pulling the motor was removing the front of the car.  It is much easier than what I was thinking, it is really the first step whenever there is work needing to be done on the TT's engine.

 

Once the radiator and other front parts are removed there were a bunch of wires to disconnect and label.  Most will not be reused with the electric motor but I didn't want to start cutting as I was not sure what would be reused at this point.  The way all the wires snake around made it fairly easy to disconnect and peel back the wiring harness.  Takes a lot of time to disconnect everything that the computer monitors to keep this engine running.

With all the wires out of the way there was very little left to pull the motor.  I did some measuring and found that the center of the crank shaft is 10" below the front engine mount.  I plan to reuse the engine mount with some modification, so I will be able to use this measurement to make sure the new motor is correctly line up with the transmission.

It was tight and I had to pull the power steering pump, Air Conditioner Compressor and the front engine mount to be able to get enough room for the transmission shaft to be removed from the clutch.  Looking back it would have been easier to pull the motor and transmitting at the same time.  If I had to put this engine back in I don't think it would be posible to get it back in this way. 

The advantage of doing it this way was after getting the engine out of the way I was able to measure the available length I would have for a motor.  The space between the transmission and the opposite frame rail is 19 1/2 inches.  I started to worry because I was remembering that the Warp9 that I plan to use has a length of 20 inches.

I had to go back to the Warp9 drawing and found that the over all length is 20" but the case is 16".  The motor shaft is not an issues since the 10" below the motor mount puts it below the frame rail.  Doing research I found that the 1.8l turbo that TT uses is the same as the engine in "New" VW Beetle from the same time frame.  This means that there is are adaptor plates available to mate the Warp9 to the transmission and I will not have to have one custom made.  

After emailing Randy at Canadian Electric Vehicles I found their New Beetle adaptor is 1.5" thick which will allow the Warp9 motor into the TT without modifying the frame.  



The adaptor is designed to reuse the fly wheel, clutch and pressure plate.  This is where I ran into a problem, the bolts used to attach the pressure plate and fly wheel use a unique "triple square" drive.  I had to order the tools before I can move forward.  More to come when I get tools in..