Belts are quieter, and cheaper.

Mike

On 7/18/06 1:31 AM, "Robin Oomkes" <roomkes@ZONNET.NL> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I don't think there's a 1.8 VW diesel. There are 1.9s and 2.0s.
>
> All of them are based on the same shortblock that started life as the
> 1.5 diesel in the Rabbit generation of VWs, and subsequently made its
> way into the Vanagon. Even the latest TDIs in essence still use this
> block, which originated as a gas engine.
>
> It is such a legendary engine that the Deutsches Museum in Munich (one
> of the largest technology museums in the world) has a cut-through
> sample of an NA 1.6d on display (you can turn the crank by hand and see
> all the parts moving). The same museum also has the last Westfalia
> Joker (European Vanagon) that came off the production line.
>
> Had the timing belt snap long before due on my first NA 1.6 diesel
> Joker as well. Not funny.
>
> As a daily driver I now have a BMW 320d - great car, 150 hp, 330 Nm of
> torque, 41 mpg (really!). It uses a timing chain instead of a belt -
> which is a great comfort. Does anyone know why engine builders use
> belts instead of chains?
>
> Robin
> 88 Westfalia Joker 1.6TD
> 02 BMW 320d touring
> 03 BMW R 1150 GS
>
>
>
> Citeren Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>:
>
>> I'm not sure I get what you're saying... but it's late, or it could just be
>> me (!). I had an '80 Rabbit diesel, and I remember somebody telling me at
>> the time that those engines weren't really diesels from original design but
>> were 'converted' from the gas I4, much like the way GM converted the 350 to
>> a diesel (we had one of those too, and it sucked), though apparently VW had
>> much better results. Maybe that's what he meant.
>>
>> That car gave me some weird problems... it was my first VW and seems to me
>> now to be kind of typical of VWs of that era... ran pretty well when it ran
>> but was susceptible to odd faults. For one thing the vibration from the
>> diesel kept breaking other things like mounts and exhaust pieces. You
>> haven't lived until you've had an accordion pipe in the exhaust on one of
>> those things break at full rev- I thought the earth had opened up and was
>> gonna eat me.
>>
>> I was driving a female friend home in one of those amazing southern
>> thunderstorms one night (it was a dark and stormy night... ahem) when the
>> thing just died and wouldn't restart. We had to walk back to my house about
>> two miles in this storm (the upside was that we had to take our clothes off
>> to dry 'em... ok, TMI). Turned out the timing belt had snapped about 20K
>> miles before its time. I got it back in the garage with the help of a
>> mechanic/racer friend that proceeded to explain to me the particulars of
>> diesel compression and interference, etc. I took the valve cover off and he
>> reached in and pulled out a piece of the cam about four inches long. He said
>> 'here- have a souvenir'. I still have it... makes a good paperweight. After
>> deciding the pistons and crank had survived I took the shortcut of just
>> replacing the head. I didn't realize, and the guy at the yard didn't
>> realize, that there were different displacements so I wound up with a 1600
>> head for a 1500 block, IIRC. The chief practical difference apparently was
>> that the oil drain hole at the top of the block is about the size of a penny
>> and the hole on the head was about the size of a nickel. I didn't even
>> notice but somehow I got 'em lined up and it didn't leak- I think now the
>> head gasket was for the 1500 and that sealed it off.
>>
>> I put about another 50K on that thing after that until it died one night.
>> Turned out the #2 cylinder wall got about a 3" vertical crack in it right
>> over a water passage. The thing was trying to run but it blew out an amazing
>> amount of noxious thick white smoke until it finally died, which didn't take
>> long.
>>
>> The body of that thing is still sitting out in the field behind my parent's
>> house. I look at it now and then and think of that 40+ mpg and wonder if I
>> should resurrect it. Then I wonder if I really want to. There's a diesel
>> vanagon in a yard here with the drive train intact... I was thinking of
>> pulling it just to have for a conversion, or sell- I suppose I could put the
>> engine in that Rabbit and hold onto the mount and such... hm. What to do,
>> what to do?
>>
>> Cya,
>> Robert
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Mike Collum" <collum@VERIZON.NET>
>> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>> Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 6:23 PM
>> Subject: Re: anyone know how the 1.8 TDI compares to past VW diesels?
>>
>>
>>> It's as much of a "ground up" diesel as the Vanagon diesel was a ground
>>> up diesel.  The 1.8 TDI NBs (New Beetles) came that way from the factory
>>> and the engine is a diesel no matter what it's put into.
>>>
>>> The NB TDI owners I know swear by them (I have a 2000 NB 2.0 gas model).
>>>
>>> Mike
>>> Houlton, Maine
>>>
>>>
>>> Wil Haslup wrote:
>>>> I looked at a new Beetle diesel with the 1.8 TDI engine the other day.
>>>>
>>>> Is this a gas converted to diesel or a "ground up" diesel?
>>>>
>>>> They put this engine into the Jetta and Passat and I haven't seen any
>>>> bad press on it.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone have any thoughts on it or how it compares to old school diesels
>>>> in VWs?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Wil
>>>>
>>
>
>