[Vwdiesel] Basic questions from diesel owner wannabe

[LBaird119@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/18/2005 12:43:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
AndrewBuc at staxman.net writes:

> (I've 
> never owned a rice burner in my life, and I'm asking for reasonable 
> reliability, not Toyota reliability.)

  and you still won't have.  VW is (if anything) a saurkraut burner.  No 
rice.  ;-)  Oil burner tends to be the slang other than the basic "my car's 
better than yours because it's a diesel"  :-D
  I have an '85 4KQ and if you get a good TD Jetta, you'll be surprised 
at the zip.  Trunk space is MUCH larger.  It's actually really close to 
a 5K/Q trunk!  You may need to do things like a bigger exhaust, new 
injectors and a tad of tweaking to get the power up there but you shouldn't 
be disappointed.  The non turbo (Naturally Aspirated) will be slower but 
a little work and they aren't bad either.  :-)
  Head gaskets tend to be the main issue, low oil pressure can be one 
due to disintegrating int. shaft bearings.  If injectors are much over 100K 
then replacement generally helps.  Turbos last a long time if the right 
oil was used and they weren't heavily abused.  Still rebuildable.  Otherwise 
just the basic, older car stuff like leaks, worn bearings, etc.
     Loren