Diesel Donor car (NAC)

[Mark J. Besso]

The 4000 was available with a diesel engine for the 1982 model year.  As far 
as I know they only turbocharged the diesel in the 5000 for this market. 
The 4-cyl in the 4000 was @ 48 horsepower., the 5-cyl in the 5000 was closer 
to 75 without the turbo.  A 6-cyl version of [essentially] the same engine 
was available in many Volvo's. (They still had the VW/Audi logo on the block 
and valve cover)  The VW/Audi 4-cyl diesel engine was used in many 
industrial pieces of equipment.  The parts availability is pretty good 
through the dealer network too.  Everything is shown on their microfilm and, 
probably, on ETKA too.

I'm only guessing, but I would think the Rabbit/Jetta, et al, 4-cyl diesel 
is the one you'd have the best luck with as far as finding parts.

~Mark


> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Brett Dikeman"
> Subject: Re: Diesel Donor car (NAC)
>
>
>>
>> On Sep 1, 2005, at 10:01 PM, Jim Dupree wrote:
>>
>>> There are probably better industrial engines available
>>> but there were a lot of small diesel engines used in
>>> cars in the early eighties.
>>> The vw diesel engine was used in the Rabbit, Jetta,
>>> Quantum, Rabbit Pick-up, Vanagon, Audi 4000 (was even
>>> a few 4000 turbo diesels)
>>
>> The 4000 never received the diesel- it was too heavy.  Only the 5000
>> got the diesel in the US, and it was -exceptionally- rare, with good
>> reason; they were reportedly garbage (I think the pump was
>> unreliable, and cost more than the car was worth.)
>>
>> Buy a Honda generator.  They're quieter, more fuel efficient, better
>> emissions, produce cleaner power, more reliable, easier to service,
>> won't kill you if you look at it funny, and they're rather compact.
>>
>> Or, just keep an eye on craigslist and ebay.  Occasionally industrial
>> equipment goes for a song on both.
>>
>> There's a site dedicated to completely home-brew electric generation
>> devices; they have an impressively efficient generator design that
>> doesn't require too much in terms of fabrication skills and fancy
>> materials.  If I can find/think of the URL, I'll let you know.
>>
>> Brett
>> -- 
>> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
>> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
>> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
>