You know..

[wolf_walker]

I've been a diesel guy, old IDI stuff, for a long, long time. Most of my life really. I learned to drive on the 81 caddy sitting behind the house right now back west.

My Scirocco is my first VW gasser. I sold the 300D a year or two ago and have had an 86 Saab 9000 turbo with a stick and a 90 BMW 325I with the M20 since then that were both exceptional vehicles in there seperate ways, but I was not content with them. The Mercedes was damn good, w123 chassis, but it would never handle well, and had a crappy auto trans and swaping a stick correctly on a 5cyl is not easy or cheap, but I'll get back to them one day.

I like the rocco, I really, really like the little car. And it's in good enough shape to be worth holding on to scarce as they are.
I'd planned to do the ABA 2L motor thing, nothing drastic really, I don't have much desire to go way fast in a light FWD VW to be honest, but I love the way they feel in general, not to mention asthetics.
But cleaning out the shop today, I remembered I still have my old 1.6 turbo diesel block and head in there, assorted other TD parts, Father just pulled the turbo and mani from the 1.9 in the 82 Caddy(that I should have kept), so I can snag that again.
I'm really thinking about going that route instead of the ABA motor. I don't think the difference in power is going to be that dramatic for what I do, and the mileage should be excellent with the aerodynamics of the Scirocco as opposed to the pickup or the Jetta's I've had.
I know it's been done before and should be a pretty simple swap.
I've got a tall 5th trans I can snatch from the pickup that's in good shape, and it still has the NA 1.6 if I wanted to do that I guess. I know I'll have to rebuild the TD motor, hell that thing probobly has 600K on it now. You can wiggle the valves around in the head the guides are so gone, and the idle oil pressure was about 2psi hot(hello intermediate shaft bearings), but overall I don't think it'd be more greif really than doing the ABA correctly.

Thoughts?

[Shiftlink]

I think that would be pretty damn cool, actually. And probably smarter than building a gasser, as far as milage and viability.

My wife is looking at new rabbits, she needs a dependable car with AC, I wish they had a diesel model out, that 2.5L in the rabbits is only rated at 30mpg highway! It does have alot of HP and Tq, though for such a small car. and alot of potential as a racing car one day. Still wish she'd find a diesel that she likes!

[wolf_walker]

I've looked at the TDI swap, and father and I did the canadian 1.9TD IDI on the 82 pickup, and I've had 1.6 TD and non for years. I'm starting to think for the money and time I should just crutch the JH along and build my TD motor back up. Still pondering..

[dexter047]

sounds like a great idea. i personally believe diesel will be much more common with the advent of low sulfur diesel fuel. once manufacturers dont face the hurdle of EPA regs with the swill we have pumping now we will see alot more diesels, just none as cool as a Scirocco. go for it.

[spence]

Dude, do it! That would be bad ass!

[sciroccodriver]

Go fer it!!! Let me know how you get around the emissions..... or maybe it doesn't matter now since its pre'95?

[wolf_walker]

Funny story, buddy with 05 TDI jetta goes to get inspected at a little joint he's gone to for years. They take the car in and after a few minutes he notices the guy at the computer looking kinda confused, "ah, what kinda motor is this?". "1.9" says my buddy. "but there's only a 2.0 or 1.8 listed" says shop guy. "That's because this is a diesel" says buddy.
"Oh" says shop guy.
Five minutes later and $10 it's inspected and he's done.
The rural south ain't all bad.

When I took the rocco by there he just gave me a sticker and a scraper.
Sometimes it's good to be the parts guy..

As for the diesel swap, I'm still pondering. I have a great deal on a low mile ABA motor, and would like to take some time to really build my 1.6TD, I have all the basic parts now. We'll see..

[sciroccodriver]

Yeah I've always wondered if they'd let a car that was not originally produced with a diesel get by with a diesel motor. I'd go TDI with this passat wagon I have in a HEARTBEAT if I thought I wouldn't run into a roadblock when I get it inspected.

[jnecr]

Somebody swapped a TDI into a Corrado, but I don't know of any Scirocos. That would be cool and it seems you have the knowledge to do it... It shouldn't be too hard if you're using the older TD engine...

[wolf_walker]

Yeah, the TD is pretty easy, about as easy as the ABA swap everyone likes it seems. The TDI wouldn't be *too* hard, depending on which TDI you went with. I shy away from the newer ones for several reasons, there are evern guys makeing hybred mechanical TDI pumps that I've been reading on for awhile.

[jnecr]

yeah, the newer TDI motors all have the electric gizmos that you have to work into your older car that never had them, much harder to do.

You been reading TDIclub? sounds like it if you're talking about the mech. pumps.... :)

[wolf_walker]

yeah, the newer TDI motors all have the electric gizmos that you have to work into your older car that never had them, much harder to do.

You been reading TDIclub? sounds like it if you're talking about the mech. pumps.... :)

I follow TDIclub some but not daily, couple friends do. So much info there..

The potential in the mech pump TDI's is interisting, but info is still a little iffy.
I'll get to it one day when the TDI's are cheaper, looking for about $500 or less for a good runner, most of em ain't that cheap yet.

It wouldn't be all that bad doing the TDI conversion, but personaly I think one is loosing a LOT of what makes these old cars desirable when you go that route. I sell salvage parts for a living, Frema VW called looking an ECU for a mk3 TDI last week, I couldn't find them one(which is saying something), and you DON'T want to know how much a new one lists for.
It's like old Mr. Scott said, the more complicated you make the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.. :)

That all being said, the torque and MPG is impressive, not to mention it's fairly quiet operation, though they don't seem to rev like the IDI's used to.

[sciroccodriver]

My buddy Eric did the corrado tdi swap.... he's one of the Scirocco dot org guys.

[wolf_walker]

My buddy Eric did the corrado tdi swap.... he's one of the Scirocco dot org guys.


It was a beautiful job, I'd love to do something like that one day, need a better shop and a lot of $$ worth of equipment, or to live closer to my father..