New Owner of a 1981 4door VW Rabbit Diesel**47.5MPG**Baseline

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by bigchelis

wow, you guys are throwing a lot of great ideas....

As of last night. I have it ready to do my 2nd MPG test. Of course this time I will actually try and drive conservatively. I plugged my Oil heater and it appears to not be working...arghhhh

• removed passenger mirror
• removed passenger winshield wiper
• filled up the tires from 30PSI to 45PSI. Tires say max of 35PSI on sidewall
• exterior antena is removed
• front bumper is pushed in 2inches

results comming soon

I have a road test which I believe is for your car,performed by CAR and DRIVER back in the day.They show a MPG profile for steady velocities up to 80-mph.I'll try to find it.

[Cobb]

Not sure how much pushing in the bumpers on their shocks will help you mpg wise vs a low speed accident. I recall my father bumping someone and he got no damage other then pushing in one of the supports.

Now if you are in for looks remove both.

[deejaaa]

here's info about mk1 and mk2 bumper fitment.
VWVortex.com - mk2 big bumpers on a mk1?

[Cobb]

You might want to hit the bone yards and look up the copy cat Chrysler omni or horizen for bumper parts.

[ECONORAM]

Originally Posted by bigchelis

Does putting a smaller or muffler removal do anything for MPG's/HP on these?

Any air filter mods that would increase MPG/HP?

Thank you,
bigC

Yes! I recommend a Techtonics Tuning 2" exhaust. They dyno test their exhausts. You will need a early Rabbit/Audi Fox/Scirroco exhaust manifold, if memory serves. It's the 4-2 part of the 4-2-1 Tri-Y setup. Yes, a cat-back would fit, but why bother when you don't have a cat...
Yes, your car has 13" steel wheels. You could get the 14" GTI alloys, but I wouldn't go any bigger. Too much tire and too expensive.

I'd leave the CAI. It will help a teeny bit, but every bit counts.

For aero parts, look at AutoTech Sport Tuning and/or Neuspeed. They were big into that stuff back when I was driving Rabbits and Jetta 1s.

47mpg sounds about right for one of those. Mine would get 48, with the 5speed. Your pictures bring back memories...
VW Performance - Autotech Sport Tuning
Welcome to Neuspeed & NM Engineering
Techtonics Tuning, VW and Audi Performance Tuning and Repair Parts

[sarguy01]

There is an 81 Rabbit Diesel near me. Now I am curious...can this thing run on WMO (waste motor oil) easily?? I heard there might be some emissions concerns with WMO, but since it's usually free, it makes me wonder the possibilities...

[elhigh]

Waste oil, there's a thought. You could spend some time on the alternative fuels forums to see who has experience - and how it worked out - running an old VW on waste oil. I know of lots of folks who've had good experience running their Ford diesels and a bunch running Mercedes diesels on waste veggie oil, evidently they do really well on it. But I don't know about the VWs.

I'd recommend pulling the front bumper back out. It's deep inside the stagnation zone and I don't think pushing it in is going to make a noticeable difference. I've bumped into enough stuff - or been bumped into - to want the margin of collapse provided by those bumpers; I think they're worth their weight and collapse length in gold. Bump a new car and the bumper cover is hundreds of dollars to replace.

With that bolt-upright windshield, I tend to think pulling a wiper is marginal, too, for the same reason. I don't have experience with that, I get too much rain to try it.

[deejaaa]

used wvo, wmo, wtf and all, no matter how much i filtered, always clogged the oem filter real quick. even replaced THAT with a donaldson and it was just a matter of time. all savings was wasted on filters.
btw, i have a used centrifuge for cheap.

[Cobb]

Yeah, the vw diesels arent good with used vegatable oil. Its best to break it down or just buy biodiesel.

The mercedes on the other hand even with the similar bosch injector pump seems to do it ok. Of course most of the mercedes I see use an inline injector pump where the vw uses a rotary design.

[Jyden]

Originally Posted by elhigh

Waste oil, there's a thought. You could spend some time on the alternative fuels forums to see who has experience - and how it worked out - running an old VW on waste oil. I know of lots of folks who've had good experience running their Ford diesels and a bunch running Mercedes diesels on waste veggie oil, evidently they do really well on it. But I don't know about the VWs.

Runs fine on warmed veggie oils. Knew a guy who collected used cooking oil from restaurants, filtered and put in on his Golf MII D.
Need seperate tank, heation coil, and a device to switch from deisel to vegoil when engine har started (on diesel) and runs. Also has to be stopped on diesel. But otherwise no problem. Vegoil mut be warmed to thin it.