914 Diesel build.... Options

[PatrickB]

Here goes nothin....
Been planning this for a while, but it was supposed to be a winter project. Wasn't quite ready yet. KEP adaptor parts have been sitting here. Timeline moved up because of a failure.
Had a chirp that turned into a BAD miss, valve seat issue on one cylinder.

Had a fresh 1.9 AAZ diesel sitting in my storage trailer that had never been fired. (honed, rings, bearings, injection pump reseal). "new" engine was destined for my daily beater . Same engine in the beater is getting a little tired, I've put at least 350,000 km on it and the compression is getting down. Still runs okay though. Swapped the "new" engine into the beater. 16 year old son is learning...

[914forme]

I used to Auto-x an A3 Jetta, loved that little car.

Fooling the actuator is pretty easy, most people just used an aquarium air valve, old school. Small restrictor will also work.

As far as the 901 goes you will be fine. The Evil Dr. will be a great resource I would look for an H or HA 5th, and play around with the rest of the gearing. His Evil one can tell you what gears can be sourced cheaply and should work with the diesel. I used to launch my 914-4 in 2nd gear at the auto-x so with the diesel you should be fine in second. That removes the weakest part of the trans.

Cooling should be easy as this engine only really produces heat under load. So a small rad should be easy. Just look at the size of the stock Rabbit Rad and calculate the cooling area. Then find something that fits. You might be able to use a couple well placed Heater cores from a large truck, and get enough airflow to keep the front trunk like Brant's oil coolers on his race car.

I love cheap builds, and mine start that way and spin out of control with while I am in their itis.