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

[Sandy Cameron]

At 11:59 AM 31/12/2005 -0800, you 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 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. 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 thought
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

Yes, the mounts are the same, but keep all the mount stuff from the cars you
trash, as sometimes they  are different from gas at the engine side.

Are you dealing with power steering or A/C? you may need different
compressor bracket/alternator bracket

Since allthe cars you are dealing with are pre-85, (A1)  everyting is
exchangeable. After 85 things change a lot, esp. the engine mounts.

Having said that, I'm driving an 87 Jetta (A2) with an 82 1.6 turbo in it.
Had to do some minor surgery on the forward mount, lucky I had all the mount
hardware from the previous diesel 
engine.

I also have a 87 Carat GL, formerly a gasser, that I put a 1.6NA diesel in a
year ago. I used the mount hardware I saved from the donor car to mount it.
It is together and running, but not on the road due to licencing issues.
Have 2 others on the road, so no hurry. The carat, low mileage, is to
replace the other 87 Jetta, which has 500,000 on it and is getting rusty in
serious places. the turboD from it will eventually go in the Carat.Bottom
line is they are as imterchangeable as LEGGO blocks.
Small details like fuel and electrical systems are easy to deal with. The
diesel is infinitely simpler electrically

Go for it, p-mail me with questions.

Sandy
VE3AAC