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Date:         Tue, 18 Jul 2006 02:39:40 -0700
Reply-To:     Mike Miller <mwmiller@CWNET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mike Miller <mwmiller@CWNET.COM>
Subject:      Re: anyone know how the 1.8 TDI compares to past VW diesels?
              (long, lvc)
Comments: To: roomkes@ZONNET.NL
In-Reply-To:  <20060718103159.pc7fdewo8nuoo84k@webmail.versatel.nl>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Belts are quieter, and cheaper.

Mike

On 7/18/06 1:31 AM, "Robin Oomkes" <roomkes@ZONNET.NL> wrote:

> Hi, > > I don't think there's a 1.8 VW diesel. There are 1.9s and 2.0s. > > All of them are based on the same shortblock that started life as the > 1.5 diesel in the Rabbit generation of VWs, and subsequently made its > way into the Vanagon. Even the latest TDIs in essence still use this > block, which originated as a gas engine. > > It is such a legendary engine that the Deutsches Museum in Munich (one > of the largest technology museums in the world) has a cut-through > sample of an NA 1.6d on display (you can turn the crank by hand and see > all the parts moving). The same museum also has the last Westfalia > Joker (European Vanagon) that came off the production line. > > Had the timing belt snap long before due on my first NA 1.6 diesel > Joker as well. Not funny. > > As a daily driver I now have a BMW 320d - great car, 150 hp, 330 Nm of > torque, 41 mpg (really!). It uses a timing chain instead of a belt - > which is a great comfort. Does anyone know why engine builders use > belts instead of chains? > > Robin > 88 Westfalia Joker 1.6TD > 02 BMW 320d touring > 03 BMW R 1150 GS > > > > Citeren Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>: > >> I'm not sure I get what you're saying... but it's late, or it could just be >> me (!). I had an '80 Rabbit diesel, and I remember somebody telling me at >> the time that those engines weren't really diesels from original design but >> were 'converted' from the gas I4, much like the way GM converted the 350 to >> a diesel (we had one of those too, and it sucked), though apparently VW had >> much better results. Maybe that's what he meant. >> >> That car gave me some weird problems... it was my first VW and seems to me >> now to be kind of typical of VWs of that era... ran pretty well when it ran >> but was susceptible to odd faults. For one thing the vibration from the >> diesel kept breaking other things like mounts and exhaust pieces. You >> haven't lived until you've had an accordion pipe in the exhaust on one of >> those things break at full rev- I thought the earth had opened up and was >> gonna eat me. >> >> I was driving a female friend home in one of those amazing southern >> thunderstorms one night (it was a dark and stormy night... ahem) when the >> thing just died and wouldn't restart. We had to walk back to my house about >> two miles in this storm (the upside was that we had to take our clothes off >> to dry 'em... ok, TMI). Turned out the timing belt had snapped about 20K >> miles before its time. I got it back in the garage with the help of a >> mechanic/racer friend that proceeded to explain to me the particulars of >> diesel compression and interference, etc. I took the valve cover off and he >> reached in and pulled out a piece of the cam about four inches long. He said >> 'here- have a souvenir'. I still have it... makes a good paperweight. After >> deciding the pistons and crank had survived I took the shortcut of just >> replacing the head. I didn't realize, and the guy at the yard didn't >> realize, that there were different displacements so I wound up with a 1600 >> head for a 1500 block, IIRC. The chief practical difference apparently was >> that the oil drain hole at the top of the block is about the size of a penny >> and the hole on the head was about the size of a nickel. I didn't even >> notice but somehow I got 'em lined up and it didn't leak- I think now the >> head gasket was for the 1500 and that sealed it off. >> >> I put about another 50K on that thing after that until it died one night. >> Turned out the #2 cylinder wall got about a 3" vertical crack in it right >> over a water passage. The thing was trying to run but it blew out an amazing >> amount of noxious thick white smoke until it finally died, which didn't take >> long. >> >> The body of that thing is still sitting out in the field behind my parent's >> house. I look at it now and then and think of that 40+ mpg and wonder if I >> should resurrect it. Then I wonder if I really want to. There's a diesel >> vanagon in a yard here with the drive train intact... I was thinking of >> pulling it just to have for a conversion, or sell- I suppose I could put the >> engine in that Rabbit and hold onto the mount and such... hm. What to do, >> what to do? >> >> Cya, >> Robert >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Mike Collum" <collum@VERIZON.NET> >> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> >> Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 6:23 PM >> Subject: Re: anyone know how the 1.8 TDI compares to past VW diesels? >> >> >>> It's as much of a "ground up" diesel as the Vanagon diesel was a ground >>> up diesel. The 1.8 TDI NBs (New Beetles) came that way from the factory >>> and the engine is a diesel no matter what it's put into. >>> >>> The NB TDI owners I know swear by them (I have a 2000 NB 2.0 gas model). >>> >>> Mike >>> Houlton, Maine >>> >>> >>> Wil Haslup wrote: >>>> I looked at a new Beetle diesel with the 1.8 TDI engine the other day. >>>> >>>> Is this a gas converted to diesel or a "ground up" diesel? >>>> >>>> They put this engine into the Jetta and Passat and I haven't seen any >>>> bad press on it. >>>> >>>> Anyone have any thoughts on it or how it compares to old school diesels >>>> in VWs? >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> Wil >>>> >> > >


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