My dad bought my Bro a car..

[skeeters_keeper]

Well my brothers 16, and my dad hadn't been planing on getting him a car yet but its become a bit of a nuisance having 2 cars and 4 drivers, so we started shopping around for a small fuel efficient car, preferably a festiva or aspire of course! But we didn't find a festy or aspire, instead my dad bought a 92 VW Jetta turbo diesel! its a 4 door, and rather ugly, but i think the engine is neat, and it should get as good or better gass milege than my B6 Festy (were hoping better).

It was $225, $75 ceaper than my car, and doesn't run and looks like crap ops:






its got 280k on the clock... yep, its a beater, lol. We went today and towed it about 2 miles to one of our friends houses and were planing on getting it running there and driving it home for a surprise christmas gift for my brother. Were hoping all it needs is a battery and glow plugs to get it started, but it will also need a bunch of other little stuff... like a paint job!! at least i've done that before, lol.

My dad's had countless VW's before (vans, beetles, pickups, etc), but all older than this one.


well, just thought i'd share, if anyone has an experiences w/ one of these it'd be interesting to hear!

the 1.6 TD has 58hp and 91ft*lbs of tq... weights 2300lbs.

should be tourquey, if not fast!

[nonamekid]

looks like it could use some love. Hopefully it doesn't take much to get her running again. Good luck on your guys new project.

[FB71]

Find a Festy, and swap the diesel into it!!! I'm sure your bro will be excited to have his own car!

[skeeters_keeper]

If my brother wrecks this thats exactly what i'd like to do with it!! I'm sure in a car as light as a festy the 40-45 mpg's it gets now will go up to 55 +, because thats what the VW Golf with the same engine got. The engine looks smaller than my B6, the hardest part would be figuring out the trany. Would probably have to use the VW trany, and that might be difficult... at least its a 5spd.


My brother *wanted* a festiva... how many teens want a festiva? lol. He's not exactly the mechanical sort, but hopefully he'll take some interest in the car and do something nice with it...


The car has only had 20k put on it since '99, so it hasn't been driven much in the past 7-8yrs, but a number of things have been done to it (receipts were in the car); struts, brake rotors and pads, shoes and e-brake cable, power stearing pump, water pump, belts (including timing), muffler, etc. The body is in pretty good shape, a little bit of rust on one of the rear wheel wells but not much, and one fender's got a dent but not terrible. The intererior is also worn but not terrible, a little cleaning and it should be alright. The windows don't go up and down though, and the rear door handles are broken etc... If it runs I'm thinking it was probably a good deal for $225.



One thing i did notice tonight is its got 14x6 4x100 wheels, which should fit my aspire swap, but the center bore seems to be 57.1 and the aspire is 54.1, so am i correct in assuming i should be able to put the VW wheels on my car but not the aspire wheels on the VW? or will i need a spacer to put those wheels on my car? (I'm not planing on it, but was wondering..)


Another thing i noticed is that the tiny little turbo is mounted on the back of the engine, on the exhaust manifold obviously, and there doesn't seem to be any intake manifold like you would expect on a gasoline car, how does that work? I didn't have time to look @ it closely but it seemed a little strange... Just wondering if a small FMIC/ BOV would help it at all... but thats a long time in the future i guess, i just get exited about small different cars (only 4% of the jettas sold in the US had this engine)

[shorestiva]

fmic would help. I don't think a bov would even work on a diesel since there is no throttle plate.

[skeeters_keeper]

^^good point... guess i've got a bit to learn, lol. Didn't realize diesel's don't have throttle plates, though that helps explain the lack of a normal intake. Do you know how air metering is accomplished? ... I'm a bit too impatient to wait for the manual to arrive! I love learning new stuff

[Dave G]

I've had a couple of Jettas, and would get another :-)

[Axlander9289]

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/diesel2.htm

[FB71]

I think I might be qualified to answer your questions (I teach Diesel Technology at the Community College of Baltimore County). Diesels still have an intake, but do not have a throttle plate. Air is not metered. Its at full throttle all the time, essentially. Engine speed is controlled by the volume and timing of fuel delivery, directly into the combustion chamber. Diesels are, by design, a lean-burn engine, which is one reason they're so fuel efficient. Turbo diesels benefit most from charge-air cooling (intercooling). This increases the density of the incoming air charge, which provides for a more comblete combustion event, which raises cylinder combustion pressure, which generates more power at the crankshaft for the same amount of fuel. Ask anything you'd like to know, and I'll answer it.

[skeeters_keeper]

I read the howstuffworks article and it was a bit too elementary, Jim, however, answered some of my questions very nicely in one paragraph!

I've also been doing a little searching and found _this_ site on VW turbo diesels, ours is the ECOdiesel, some nice diagrams and interesting (if perhaps a bit elementary) discussion about charge air cooling on the link at the bottom.
On this engine the exhaust manifold and "intake manifold" are on the same side of the head! no wonder things looked a bit strange to my gas-minded brain...

Well i'm pulling an all niter studying for Physics, and so far i have learned much more about diesels than about physics, so i should go study phys a bit but i find this so much more interesting


A question for you Jim (and you can decide how much you want to go into this): what do you think of bio-diesels? I've heard of these quite a bit before but never gave them much thought since i had no intentions of having a diesel, but is running B20 (or higher) as good a thing as they seem to say it is? i know i have read articles in PopSci on how to make your own bio diesel, but i don't remember how hard it is...

I'm sure i will have more questions sooner or later i really want to put this engine in a festiva now... XD

[FB71]

funny you should ask about BD. CCBC is part of the National Alternate Fuels Consortium, headed by WVU. I've delivered a few lectures on biofuels, bio diesel, specifically. Bio diesel is basically solubilized fatty acids, which contain a high volume of hydrocarbons. There is tremendous difference between RVO (Raw Vegetable Oil) and refined BD. RVO goes thru a transesterification process to become BD. Essentially, RVO is refined to remove strings of protiens which attack certain metals and most rubbers, and reduce the coagulation of the oils. You can run RVO, but you need to change several fuel system components for it to be reliable. Also, RVO coagulates around 65deg F. Meaning, to use it as fuel in cool to cold weather, you would first need to preheat it for it to flow properly. As for refined BD, its nearly fully compatable with current fuel systems (older systems will still need to change out some rubber fuel lines), blends easily with petrol-based diesel, and offers significantly increased lubricity for critical fuel system components (injector pump, nozzles). There is still the drawback of the relatively high coagulation temp, between 50-65deg F. This is why most BD are blends, up to 20% (B20) bio.

The transesterification process is relatively simple, but requires some investment in equipment (wash tubs, hoppers, pump, heater) and some careful chemistry. If you mix the methanol and lye in the wrong proportions, and/or at the wrong stage or temp, you'll wind up with a greasy soap instead of fuel!

[Safety Guy]

Jim wrote:

If you mix the methanol and lye in the wrong proportions, and/or at the wrong stage or temp, you'll wind up with a greasy soap instead of fuel!

So if you make a bad batch, just use it to wash your car with! Especially in the winter, to keep your paint nice and soft.

Karl

[Pu241]

Jim wrote:

If you mix the methanol and lye in the wrong proportions, and/or at the wrong stage or temp, you'll wind up with a greasy soap instead of fuel!

So if you make a bad batch, just use it to wash your car with! Especially in the winter, to keep your paint nice and soft.

Actually, Karl, if you use the resulting sodium methoxide to wash your car your paint will be soft! :lol:
Just before it falls off. :shock:
Along with much of the metal behind it.
Na-methoxide is very corrosive!
And needs extreme care in handling.
But this same material mix properly in VO produces Biodiesel and glycerol as a by product.
The gycerol is the same as that used used in hand cream, which so many of you are familar with, but in crude form!

[FB71]

exactly!