The heart of this project is the Volkswagen Turbo Direct Injection diesel engine. It was the only engine that had the efficiency, power, and weight that I was looking for. The fact that people had already mated them to Toyota transmissions only increased the attraction.

In order to make sure I would have everything to make the engine function properly, I bought a whole car that had been written off. I had proved that the engine was working, now all I needed to do was extract it from it's damaged body. I began by removing the front end and everything around it. Then I disconnected everything attached to the motor. When the axles didn't want to cooperate with me, I decided to cut the one in half to save time. I was then able to pull the engine and transmission and drop it to the ground.

It is at this point that I should have lined up the flywheel to the bell housing timing marks and made new timing marks on the front of the crank. But no, I was to eager to get the thing on the stand and admire it. I ended up making an aluminium template with the bell housing timing marks, and a couple of bolt holes to aline it with the block.

Once the engine bay was cleared of all its contents, it was time to clean out the inside. I focused on the wiring mostly at first. I wanted to get everything that I needed for the ECU out before I went to town on the rest of the car. When I had all the important stuff removed, I detached everything else and boxed it up and put it in my 4 door storage shed. In the end there was nothing but a shell of a car and a TDI bolted to a stand. Only the windshield and some suspension parts remained on the body.