[Vwdiesel] How hard to change early 80's gasser to diesel?

[David Cook]

Hey Arnie-

That would be really a very easy swap to do.  To make
things easier when I built the 'vert, I had the two
cars sitting right next to each other the whole time. 


The engine/trans mounts will all be the same.  In
fact, you could just pull the engine/trans out as a
unit in each vehicle and move it to the other.  

Likely, the instrument clusters share the same plugs,
but if not, I found that when putting a Jetta TD
cluster into the 'vert, the wiring colors were the
same so splicing was easy.  Off the top of my head,
the gasser OXS light will be the glow plug light on
the diesel cluster, and you will need to extend the
tach signal wire from the gasser's coil to reach the
output on the diesel alternator if so equipped.

You will want to swap the fuel fillers to have the
larger diesel hole.

You may need to slightly alter your fuel lines up
front.  On the 'vert, they ran across the back of the
engine compartment to the driver's side.  I simply cut
them off on the passenger side and ran rubber hose up
to the filter.

Out back, [assuming the Rabbit tank is similar to the
'vert's] you can simply remove the fuel injection
pressure pump and run rubber line all the way from the
fuel pickup to the hardlines.  On the gasser tank, the
pickup will be on the top of the tank, with an in-tank
transfer pump.  (Diesel pickup is on the side of the
tank.)

I chose to reuse the in-tank pump.  To make it work, I
had to replace the factory fuel pump relay with a
standard, high-amp automotive relay.  (I pulled one
out of a junkyard VW, the spades are bigger than
normal, when you pull the relay out, you'll see what I
mean.)  

I did remove the lift pump from the tank to pull off
the screen at the bottom of the pump.  I was afraid
that it could clog if the diesel fuel started to jell.
 (May not be an issue, but I did it anyway...)

That is all I can think of at this time.  Hope it
helps.

David

PS, did you ever have a chance to check for an extra
cold start mechanism?
--- Arnie Grubbs <vhuntertdi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> Long story short, I have 2 - 81 Diesel rabbits that
> are not in very good shape.  Engines are OK,
> (one just rebuilt) but the rest needs lots of work.
> I only have 1 good radiator between the two
> cars... I was going to make one good one out of the
> two this summer, but it would take a LOT of
> work.. Replace steering column, and probably rack,
> lots of body work, windows in back don't work
> on either car.. ect ect ect..
>  Then I broke my leg in April and so I didn't do
> much of anything except look at the two rabbits
> sitting in my dad's back yard until now. 
> Anyways...on with the tale..
> 
> I Spotted a gasser rabbit with 140K miles on it in a
> used car lot on the way to work last week. 
> Went back today and looked, and it looks in very
> good shape.. Saw very minor rust and the inside
> looks to be very good. Didn't get to talk with
> anyone to find out price, or how well it runs, but
> thought that it was low enough, I might pick it up
> and drive the car this winter or until the gas
> engine pukes up, then do an engine/tranny swap along
> with maybe inst cluster and glow plug
> wireing.
> 
> How much trouble would I be getting into if I dive
> in to this?  I though that the engine/tranny
> mounting should match up gas/diesel, or did I
> mis-think? :)  Any hidden 'gotchas'?
> 
> Thanks for any light you can shed on this...   
> 
> Arnie - KA0NCR

David Cook
Red '86 Cabriolet Diesel Powered
Red '90 g60 Corrado 
Brown and White '78 Westy Campmobile "Bear"
and others in various states of disrepair
Pictures here: community.webshots.com/user/superdave5599


	
		
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