New (to me) Car!
 

Picked up this 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel for 800 bucks
It has what I assume to be a 1.6l turbo diesel motor sans turbo and a 5 speed neither of which are original to the car its a 4 door no serious rust at all and its undercoated as well
http://i.imgur.com/QsBz34t.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KtetCNU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PQhlxJs.jpg
Oh almost forgot it has an obnoxiously loud and poorly designed stack coming up through the trunk and out the side... not sure what I'm gonna do about that

'81s didn't have turbos stock.

That stack shows signs of... of... Oh, just get rid of it.

I plan on
1. replacing the rubber guards on the ends of the bumpers
2. filling in the air gap between the bumper and the car with sheets of black plastic
3. pull the dent out of the rear passenger door
http://i.imgur.com/fy83oRj.jpg

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, who puts a stack there?

I know it also didn't come with a 5-speed, I believe at some-point it received a drivetrain swap from a turbo car and the stack... well yeah but then I have to weld in patch panels in the floor and the pillar which I do have a welder just no material yet

I would assume a wanna be redneck college student in the Bowling Green Area of Ohio

Replace #1 on your list with:

1. remove interior exhaust pipe

It's extremely dangerous to route something like that in the cabin as even a small leak could cause CO poisoning over a period of time, and you might not even know it's happening.

Was it a poor man's heater or something? It would have been less length of pipe to just run it out the back like sane people do. Heck, it would make more sense to pipe it straight up from the hood than into the car.

the 1.6 NA or TD are not the same engine. don't slap a turbo on it and expect it to last. oil squirters are among the list of differences.
I had an 81. best I could get was 45 mpg, driving 55 on the freeway. there's an OD that works great on this car. Audiovox makes it.
if I had no choice but to drive one again, I would:
drop in a later TD,
full boat tail while removing as much sheet metal to keep weight the same,
swap running gear to at least 14" wheels.
sure there are others but I won't drive one ever again.
bought it for 1200.00 and sold it 3 years later for 1500.00 if I remember right.

It has 2" pipe running all the way back to the stack my problem isn't even that its an interior exhaust its that it's all hard mounted, its connected at the manifold and welded to the floor where the stack comes up and with all those diesel vibrations somethings gonna give, also it does not leak into the cab so not an immediate concern it will be going just not right away.


As I've already stated this car has a drivetrain swap already It has a newer 1.6l and 5-speed which I assume to be a Turbo Diesel motor it has all of the exterior bits from one anyway just missing exhaust manifold and turbo, Even if it isn't a turbo motor the 4psi of boost I want to run are not going to destroy an N/A motor and it already has a 5-speed with a slight adjustment to the injection pump and injection timing 50-60 mpg should be within reach

you stated you assume, not that it had. do what you want.