I inherited my grandfather's '78 Rabbit that has been parked for 27 years, only 55k miles on the engine. The head warped and gasket leaked so I may not be able to get it running. How much work is it to put a 1.6TD in there? I would probably go for eco-diesel. Any advice or guides out there?
I'm experienced with the diesel Vanagon TD upgrade but the Rabbit is unknown to me.
78 Rabbit would have the 1.5 liter engine and most likely a 4 spd transmission. If I was looking to replace the engine I would look for a 1.9 TD from an early Jetta, and try to grab the 5spd trans with it. A new shift kit for the five on the floor and the rest is pretty much a bolt on.
But, But before you go that route you could just put a turbo on the 1.5. Use one from the same era of the jetta mentioned above. I just tonight got my truck back from the exhaust shop and they did a fab job on putting on a 2.25 pipe, muffler and redoing the flange off the turbo. They needed to cut it and rotate it about 180 degrees. I grabbed it used from a guy that had the other style of mount of the turbo. Exhaust needs to flow out the drivers side on a Rabbit. Turbo mounts up top.
I bet all in all I didn't spend 900 bucks on the turbo, intakes, and exhaust and all the needed hoses and oil lines. Drilled the oil pan myself rather than try to find one off an engine that already had it on there.
How does it run? Sooo, smooth and boosts to about 10 psi right around 2500 RPM. I am blowing some coal so injectors and IP tuning up for this weekend. Been trying to do this project for over a year. Things just got in the way. Hoping for more mileage and that extra kick of power when needed. I already noticed the EGTs were way down from what I was running on the slight hills in town. Dropped about 300 degrees and under boost it barely rises.
Lots to do on a old sitter like that. Seals didn't get lubed, bearings and brakes likely dry as well. Engine might be the later thing to be working on.