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I ran a JH (no squirters) for years and had no issues so I don't think this is a problem so long as you don't keep it in boost for long periods of time. If you've had experience with this though, please let me know.
There's a fundamental difference between diesels and gas engines. Diesels don't have throttle plates. They always take a full load of air. So diesels always run in boost if the engine RPM's are high enough to generate boost. They do generate more boost when the injection pump is injecting more fuel, because there's more post-combustion expansion in the exhaust manifold as the last of the fuel burns. But you'll find that turbodiesel engines run in boost a lot more than gas engines do.
So far I've managed to scrounge up a few parts that I think will help this thing go faster. I was just planning to hack off a toilet bowl manifold and weld on a garret flange. With the low EGT's of the diesel I figure this should be fine.
Do a search for "EGT" on this message board before you jump to conclusions. Diesels run lean, so EGT's can get quite high, especially when operating in boost under moderate to heavy loads.
I then have a turbine off a volvo with the diesel regulator and a good center cartridge with a .42 compressor. I also have a .60 compressor but something tells me that's just too much. I have an MX-6 intercooler that's going to be retired from the Rabbit and now I just need to come up with an injection pump for proper fuel enrichment. I've heard a peugeot injection pump is a good candidate.
So, if you guys think I'm crazy for some reason, or maybe I'm forgetting something, let me know. I'm mainly posting here hoping to hear someone elses experience with what I'm about to do. Thanks
Personally I think you're crazy.
It is possible to turbocharge a normally asthmatic VW diesel engine. With a lot of work and a lot of expense, you can get one up to 65-70hp. Going much beyond that is asking for reliability problems.
If you start with a VW 1.6L turbodiesel engine, you'll have that amount of power out of a completely stock configuration. And if you make a few mods, you can get up to 90-100hp and near 150 ft. lbs. of torque. And at that level of performance, the thing will still be solid and reliable if you take proper care and make sure your maintenance is good. You'll never reach that level of performance starting with a normally aspirated engine and adding to it.
The following things are different in the turbodiesel engine (compared to your normally aspirated engine):
- Head - different alloy for the casting
- Exhaust valves - different material
- Block - oil squirters and oil galleys to feed them with oil
- oil pump
- injection pump (LDA)
- oil cooler (not present on the n/a diesel)
I'm probably forgetting some other things.
On top of all that, your 1981 has the older, weaker head bolts. So keeping head gaskets in the thing is a problem. Those bolts can barely hold the gasket in a normally aspirated engine. VW switched to the stronger 12mm bolts for all of the diesel engines in mid 1982.
If you want more power, you'd be better off findind a 1.6 TD engine and starting there.
Basically, you can reach stock 1.6TD performance levels by adding a turbo to a normally aspirated 1.6D, but that's very near the upper end of the performance envelope for a 1.6D with a turbo added. If you want more power, you really want to start with a real 1.6TD and start modding it further from there.