[Crazyrabbit]

Hello EcoModders,
I've got a 1981 VW Diesel Rabbit I've been trying to get some decent MPG out of for years. I always remembered when they where new hearing people say "Yeah drove to so and so and back and got 55 MPG" but I never could do that well. I live in Tempe AZ, which means the A/C is normally on high and the petal is to the metal, which explains a lot. A couple of months ago the crap they call Diesel these days got to the seals in the injector pump and I had to pull the pump to R&R some seals on the advace mechanism. Put her back in the car and sure enough the distributer head seal leaked like a sieve. Well Virginia, I can tell you for sure you can R&R that seal in the car. Leave two screws in place at a time to keep the parts from flying apart. Along the way I discovered there is conflicting information regarding the timing. From the results I seen I'd say pay no attention to VW factory literature or Haynes which I have always used before, Chilton's call for more advance and the improvement is significant! So I drove up to Globe AZ and back and got 54 MPG, but that is a mountainous trip and coasting is illegal in AZ. Inspired by that result, I switched to Full Synthetic Rotella T 5W40 engine oil. Then I drove to Tucson AZ and back which is pretty flat along with about 10-15% city driving and 3 cold starts - 245 mi. 4.04 Gal for 60.6 MPG. Mostly trying to hold 52-55mph, but drafting a few trucks that were going 60-65. Whoa Who! Pretty annoying in a way, it has me obsessing about what to do next to improve it, when I really need to finish a few little cosmetic repairs and sell it. Its got 80 K on it and would make a great SVO biodiesel WVO project, it already has an auxilliary tank. But I keep think about taking off the vacuum pump, putting on smooth wheel covers, adding a fuel solenoid interrupt switch to get engine braking at zero fuel flow, adding a solenoid to increase idle speed with a/c on so the base idle could be reduced, switching the tansmission oil, etc, etc.