> 
> I asked him about the injection pump, he replies:
> 
> See my post on the diesel vanaogn email group about that... 
> It's a real mechanical tdi injection pump from France.
> 
> The van is, indeed, more sluggish than I would expect from a 1.9L with a
> turbo. 

It's a Fiat Chroma mechanical tdi pump by Bosch. (see sale ad at:
<http://www.turbovans.com/1982%20SuperVan%20For%20Sale.html>)
Honestly, I'll never understand what it is diesel people have against ECU's. 
They'll build a highly idiosyncratic hybrid engine out of parts from three 
different designs instead of just using the dang electronic TDI pump and ECU 
that VW made just for that purpose. Presumably it's all in the name of 
"reliability through simplicity", but it doesn't seem to work all that well. 
Very strange.