|
Besides the rusty strut towers, look for rust in floor close to shifter tunnel. They will rust under the undercoating. Motor mounts could be broken or missing mounting bolts, or body under radiator or any place the mounts attach to car could be rusted. Vent windows in the door tend to fall out when the glue gives up. Check the fuse box. It is up and to the left of the clutch pedal. The cable for the radio antennae goes thru the chassis right above it into the left front wheel well. Seal goes bad, water comes in, rusts floor and moisture corrodes the fuse box. Rain tray at bottom of windshield/rear of hood will rust if drains are clogged.
Look at the cylinder head around the injectors. If they were ever removed or installed wrong the heads can crack or break there. Leaky injectors will cause internal problems you can not see until the motor is taken apart. Liquid diesel from dribbling injectors can cause pits to the seating area of the injector heat shield, also melt pistons, put holes thru head to the coolant. That is worst case, most likely just head gasket blown. Could also be bad radiator cap That year is solid lifter and to adjust vlaves you use shims. Metal fuel tanks tend to rust from the inside out. Thankfully diesels have fuel filter before the pump. Gas has no protection to the fuel pump. The engine code is stamped in a flat spot in the block by the head gasket between cylinder 3 and 4. Motor will probably be too gunked up to be able to read it.
I have a modified 1.6 turbo diesel running 21psi boost. I get 47 cruising with a close ratio GTI gearbox. I am a bit confused by the 35mpg comment. That’s what a friend’s 82 Scirocco gas got on the highway. If a TDi is getting 35mpg something is severely wrong. Leaking fuel, wrong transmission ratios, wrong tune, way over fueled, built for 200plus Hp, something?? The Jetta and Passat TDI up to 98 are the easiest to swap. Blocks changed for the 99.5 making motor mounts harder to fabricate. There are kits to put late model motors in the Mk1 Rabbit/Scirocco. 1.9 TDi is more efficient than the 1.6 IDI and will make more power on the same amount of fuel. A stock TDi gives the same HP as the 83/84 rabbit GTI with lots more torque but can be a rather involved, costly swap. Properly tuned the 1.6 will do you well. If you do need to put a later motor in, 85+ have hydraulic lifters and you can get a 1.9 non TDi that runs the mechanical pump.
There’s the high spots…Hope I didn’t repeat too much you already know. If you do buy the trucks, do yourself a favor and purchase a Bentley manual for wrench turning info. Money well spent to do it right the first time. VWdiesel.net/forum has more IDI info than TDIclub.
About strengthening the front. It is what it is. I believe every generation VW crashed better than the one before.
|