North America's First Turbo Diesel VW Fox

[RabbitJockey]

in mexico and south america they have alot of interesting vws

[adi]

Yes they do, such as old style beetles (still in production I believe), and the "citigolf" which is a mk1, with the interior from Europe's Fox!

[R.O.R-2.0]

Yes they do, such as old style beetles (still in production I believe), and the "citigolf" which is a mk1, with the interior from Europe's Fox!

old style beetles god discontinued in the early 2000s. like 01 or 02 i believe.. no more old style beetles..

[macka]

Yes they do, such as old style beetles (still in production I believe), and the "citigolf" which is a mk1, with the interior from Europe's Fox!

old style beetles god discontinued in the early 2000s. like 01 or 02 i believe.. no more old style beetles..

01 but you can order parts from Brazil still

[R.O.R-2.0]

Yes they do, such as old style beetles (still in production I believe), and the "citigolf" which is a mk1, with the interior from Europe's Fox!

old style beetles god discontinued in the early 2000s. like 01 or 02 i believe.. no more old style beetles..

01 but you can order parts from Brazil still

yea, thats it! i knew it was something like that..

[adi]

I've just been on the VW latin american and brazilian sites and discovered some VW's I didn't even know existed! Like the Parati, Gol, SpaceFox, CrossFox, Bora (which was our saloon mk4 Golf, but I think it's their Passat), Voyage, Suran etc. Wouldn't it have made life eaiser for VW just to have shared all the models and names across the globe? I will admit the interior quality of some Latin American models looks very poor though!

[R.O.R-2.0]

I've just been on the VW latin american and brazilian sites and discovered some VW's I didn't even know existed! Like the Parati, Gol, SpaceFox, CrossFox, Bora (which was our saloon mk4 Golf, but I think it's their Passat), Voyage, Suran etc. Wouldn't it have made life eaiser for VW just to have shared all the models and names across the globe? I will admit the interior quality of some Latin American models looks very poor though!

the mexican/south american VWs are notorious for having cheaply built interiors, and wiring systems..

[JGWarner]

Yup, the Gol platform (Fox) was definitely built to a third-world standard... but we learn to love and live with it.

I would be careful not to lump Mexican and Brazilian build quality together. Brazil was/is MUCH better than Mexico, hands down. I know many of folks with worse electrical problems in A2s and A3s made in Mexico. This Fox of mine has had comparatively few wiring issues. I still think nothing compares with German quality, of course. And I'm more than glad to be replacing Brazilian parts with German ones.

Prospectus (copied from the vortex thread):

Still have to do the front and rear main seals and carrier gaskets, the cam seal, intermediate shaft seal and o-ring, check the oil pump gear lash (possibly also run a plastigauge under the bearing caps for peace of mind) then button up the oil pan, install the vac pump and seal, water pump and seals, thermostat and cover and seal, wire up the glowplugs, install injection pump and new fuel supply line, new heatshields for new injectors (that's a new wrinkle), fuel return lines, fuel hard lines, reference boost line from the intake to the LDA, install the exhaust manifold heat shields, the turbo and it's gasket (w00t!), the turbo hard oil supply line and soft oil drain line with their seals, install the crank sprocket and pulley, intermediate shaft pulley and water pump pulley, injection pump sprocket and cam sprocket, timing belt, set initial timing, sort out an acceptable alternator mounting and belt arrangement, front mount (another wrinkle), install the essential coolant hoses (some fox, some quantum), steal the oil deflector from the fox, install the pilot bearing, flywheeel, clutch, pressure plate and THEN start thinking about fitting this mess into it's new home!

That's not even mentioning stripping out the old motor AND transmission AND fuel system AND fuel tank and replacing it ALL, finding a place to wedge the new fuel filter, possibly cleaning/painting the engine bay, altering the bay wiring, building the glowplug system, routing the cold start cable, deleting A/C and EGR systems, swapping in a new radiator and coolant reservoir and all hoses and rad ducting cardboards, sorting out a downpipe and mating it to the existing exhaust, installing the intake filter and hoses, cleaning/draining/refilling/installing the 5speed transmission with it's new throwout bearing, starter bushing and 5speed linkage (with new bushings, of course!), new clutch cable, new mounts all round, the starter, AND finally working out the inevitable kinks and stuff I forgot along the way.

What the hell was I thinking when i started this??

I'm planning to take some time off work, maybe 4 days straddling a weekend (so 6 days total) to practically live at my uncle's garage to get the lion's share done. This diddling around for only a few hours at a time is costing me a fortune in gas, but I have no TIME!

[sdwarf36]

Only been out a few years, they replaced the Lupo. I don't recognise your Fox as anything we ever got. The new Fox doesn't seem to sell as well as the Lupo did though.

I dunno about wagons-but I believe the euro equal to the Fox was the Audi 100.

[the caveman]

I could tell so many stories about the ones i had. Seriously tough chassis, and could fix one blind.

[JGWarner]

Today: replaced front main seal and carrier gasket, rear main seal and carrier gasket, cam seal, intermediate shaft seal, checked oil pump gear lash for wear (it's like new, less than .007mm), installed freshly POR-15'd oil pan and it's new rubber gasket, painted a few random parts. My uncle very kindly dug up a place that could get my 155 bar injector nozzles and I ordered a set. turbinepowered will be rebuilding my injectors for me, since he's got a pop testing rig.

Changing those seals was a challenge without many (or at least the correct) special tools. The REAL trick is getting the smaller main crank sprocket off, since you have to lock the crankshaft somehow. That big bolt is held on with 150ft lbs of torque. The flywheel was off and the timing belt removed, so I was scratching my head. I know they make a special tool if the flywheel is in place (or you can attach the pressure plate and one transmission bolt then jam the flywheel with a wrench between them) but in this case I didn't have enough room to fit the flywheel with the motor on the stand and I can't get enough torque with the motor swinging around on the lift. I turned the motor upside down to do this job and my uncle came up with a handy solution. We jammed a hammer in the crankcase. It was a mini sledge hammer, just slipped the head under one of the crank lobes and let the handle jam across the bottom of the block (the oil pan gasket surface). No marred surfaces, no risk. Worked like a charm. To reinstall the bolt I just jammed it the other way.

I'll be back at it tomorrow night. I'm hoping by this time next week to have the gas motor out of the Fox! 

[JGWarner]

Query for the assembled knowledge base:

I want to add an EGT gauge, should I bother with the 1/4" probe or splurge for a 1/8" probe? Is it really worth the faster response? Bear in mind this isn't a hi-po project, just looking for some peace of mind and a sight for fine tuning.

[JGWarner]

Thank you! I am sold on the smaller probe! Even 23 seconds seems slow.

Any preferred source for a small probe that works with VDO brand EGT gauges?

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

Do they make EGT probes smaller than 1/8 NPT? Less mass = faster response.  Something like 10- 32 or 10- 24 would have much less mass. Can you get probes in those sizes?

[JGWarner]

Awesome information there libby, thanks!

Updates with pics soon in the vortex thread, link in my sig.

Here's a teaser: