Please advise about 5k turbo diesel

[Eyvind Spangen]

On Tue, 04 Dec 2001 13:59:53 -0700, you wrote:

>Looking for a 5k Avant for my mom. I saw one in the paper that is a 1985
>turbo diesel. I don't know much about the diesel engines.
>
>Could someone please tell me about these engines.
>
>Are they reliable?

Generally speaking, yes, but the cylinder heads tend to crack around
180-200k miles (300-330000 km), just like the VW 1.6 diesel engines
and the I6 Volvo diesel (VW/Audi engine) Unfortuneately, used,
uncracked cylinder heads are almost impossible to get, so you have to
by a new one, which will run about $1000..

>Would they be difficult to start in the winter?

If everything is OK (injectors, glow plugs, compression), no. Will
start fine even far below zero.

>Anything else I should be aware of?

Except the cylinder head trobles, the engine is a lot like the other
I5 engines. Same timing belt/water pump layout, pretty much everything
not diesel specific will be the same as a 5k gasser.. Check out the
cold start advance system, you don't want advanced injection all the
time - this raises combustion temperature and could cause head gasket
damage. A diesel will run hotter when rich and colder when lean, the
opposite of a gasoline engine.
The only other thing to warn about is diesel addiction, when you get
used to getting 45 mpg on a big car, driving a gasoline powered car
will never be the same again..

An injector overhaul ($100) is recommended every 90k miles to keep the
power and mileage at top. The injector pump should be trouble-free
when driven on regular diesel. Be sure to get the correct oil filter
when buying filters, the gasoline filter cannot be used, and the NA
diesel filter is too long and will sit below the oil pan. The
turbodiesel has its own filter, a short, wide thing.

--
Regards,
ES
'87 5k Turbodiesel (sold and sorely missed)
'90 200TQ (a lot faster, but half the mileage)
'90 V8 (even thirstier, even better)