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...

[Dr Evil]

I thought the little diesels like to rev high, though? The little 240D Mercedes I had would be screaming at fwy speeds. I actually though it was missing a gear.

[PatrickB]

I thought the little diesels like to rev high, though? The little 240D Mercedes I had would be screaming at fwy speeds. I actually though it was missing a gear.

Depends which one. engine was hooked to a VW 020 trans that had the engine turning 2641 at 100 kph (about 62 mph). This is a 1.9 Diesel mechanical fuel injection. Wasn't sold in the US. With the small turbo it's making lots of boost by 2000 rpm. Lots of torque, was always going to put together a trans with a taller final drive (3.67 instead of 3.94) with a big overdrive to drop the rpm at highway speeds but never got around to it. And the 914 weighs a lot less than the jetta... Jetta is about 2500 pounds.
I've gone with a little bigger turbo that's more efficient and expect to have to rev a little higher to get good boost, but I still think there's lots of torque for more gear. the earlier smaller engines (1.5, 1.6 with or without turbos) don't have as much torque.