Building a TIDI from a couple motors plus new parts

At some point I heard that Justin from R&D IDI offers machined PSD forged rods for TIDI application. The big question is do they weigh the same? If not it would throw off balance. If they weigh the same I could put one in. Sure it's a cheap move, but I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work. It's not a tow vehicle and won't see hard use. That daughter is careful.

Her big sister, OTOH, ruined my best Bully bed and has hit curbs several times in her CVPI. Thanksgiving we spent wrenching on her P71 putting in new control arms. I don't let her drive our trucks anymore, and she moved away anyway. Still looking for an rust free Texas Bullnose bed to fix her mess. Women drivers, don't get me started.

Ferdy Mint said:

At some point I heard that Justin from R&D IDI offers machined PSD forged rods for TIDI application. The big question is do they weigh the same? If not it would throw off balance. If they weigh the same I could put one in. Sure it's a cheap move, but I can't see a reason why it wouldn't work. It's not a tow vehicle and won't see hard use. That daughter is careful.

Her big sister, OTOH, ruined my best Bully bed and has hit curbs several times in her CVPI. Thanksgiving we spent wrenching on her P71 putting in new control arms. I don't let her drive our trucks anymore, and she moved away anyway. Still looking for an rust free Texas Bullnose bed to fix her mess. Women drivers, don't get me started.

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No, you have to balance the rotating assembly when you install them.

Your "no" is to the big question is do they weigh the same?

That doesn't surprise me. I might have to buy a whole set from Justin.

someone has been through that engine before.,
the factory does not number the rods.
i found a set of rods through facebook, and sent them out to get reconditioned.

What do you guys think about the snail? Does it make sense to upgrade that setup on a nice TIDI build? We have a stock turbo and all the plumbing including snail. But it looks hecka restrictive.

Are there any alternatives to the snail?

Whatever I do, it needs to fit under a standard Bricky hood and be suitable for a girl daily driver. No wild stuff. She knows her way around wrenching with us but on her own on the road the genes take over.

Leave it stock, if it's just going to be a daily. No sense in upgrading it if it's driving lightly loaded regularly.

If you feel that you have to upgrade the intake hat/snail, both Russ and Wes sell ones with a bigger attachment for incoming air. I believe these are designed to be used with an intercooler.

I still need to locate one good TIDI rod/piston. I found a +20 piston for sale on fleabay and suddenly I realized that I don't know if the donor pistons are overbore or not. My plan is to have our known low-miles IDI block sleeved to stock, then install inspected used donor TIDI pistons and rods. Because I found the donor BIB caps stamped with cylinder numbers, somebody has already been in my donor block and it may have been overbored. Plus I only got 7 pistons and rods from that donor motor, one set was damaged.

I reckon I'll take one of the donor rod/pistons to the machine shop and have them mic it. My little Aldi digital mic doesn't have deep enough jaws to get accuracy. I also own a better analog micrometer but its jaws are barely bigger.

FYI I found this good link about measuring the reciprocating parts.

I also spoke with Tim at Accurate Diesel and he hasn't seen any TIDI rods for sale in a long time. I'm beginning to think I may have to break down and buy a set of machined PSD forged rods. Which are expensive and weigh more.

Not exactly giving that tool away.....$5K

I have not seen any 94 TIDI engines in PNP.
Only one now in the yard is a 93.

Goat

Classic Diesel Design has one TIDI parts truck but it's not torn down yet, and they are moving soon ... so I'm still looking.

I'm doing something similar to my '87 CC dually that I'm converting to 4x4. Came with a 6.9 that was seized, so I sourced a IDIT that had been rebuilt. Unfortunately, it was .040, so I junked the block and kept everything else. I then bought an '88 F350 4x4 plow truck that was falling apart from rust -- I plucked the low-mile 7.3 from it and sold the carcass. I plan to rebuild the plow truck 7.3. If I can find turbo pistons, I will likely use the turbo rods will depend on if I can find turbo pistons.