[Vwdiesel] Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon

[David J Hatzenbuhler]

My second car was an 81 Omni with the 1.7L VW engine. The 1.6 Diesel could 
probably be dropped into this car with minimal massaging.  It had a Chrysler 
transaxle, Carb, and alternator.
The early Omni was a cheesy pop-can on 12" wheels so unless you already have 
one of these get a Rabbit or an early Jetta There are more VWs out there for 
parts.  The real thing will handle better and is a higher quality machine. 
And dropping a diesel in a Rabbit will be just that dropping it in.

The K car is the Lebaron Aries and Reliant chassis that were also morphed 
into the Chrysler Minivan  http://www.allpar.com/eek/k/k.html
The Omni & Horizon sedans were much smaller and similar in shape to the 
Rabbit...  Probably not a mistake  http://www.allpar.com/omni/omni.html
My Dad had an 84 & 86 caravan with a 5 speed stick and the ubiquitous 
Chrysler 2.2.  A dog on acceleration but tough to kill.  4 kids learned to 
drive stick on that 84 (beat the crap out of it) and didn't kill it.
The 2.2 and 2.5 were Chrysler motors not those 2.6L Mitsucrappy engines.

----- Original Message ----- 
> Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:14:25 -0700
> From: "William J Toensing" <toensing at wildblue.net>
> Subject: [Vwdiesel] Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon
> To: <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
> Message-ID: <004501c6ac95$4fd26190$332dad48 at hcctower>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> You are right, I forgot about that. A VW Rabbit diesel might fit in a 
> Horizon/Omni. Also, I recall Mitsubishi 4 cylinder gas engines were used 
> in as an engine upgrade for the Plymouth/Dodge/Chrysler minivans. I have 
> also seen a few of these minivans with 4 speed manuals rather than 
> automatics. I believe, not sure, that the Horizon was sold in Europe under 
> the Simca, Chrysler, & Talbot brands. Chrysler bought the French Simca 
> company which was originally Ford of France. Chrysler had also bought the 
> British Roots company which made the Hillman & other brands. When Chrysler 
> got into financial difficulties in the early '80s they sold their European 
> operations to Peugeot/Citroen which renamed the Simca & Chrysler brands 
> Talbot. I don't recall if they renamed the UK Roots division Talbot but I 
> think they did. I also understand Chrysler sourced some of the 
> Omni/Horizon plus K car CV joints from Citroen as well as a couple of 
> American vendors & that you have to know which CV joint it is in ordering 
> repair kits. There is a parts interchange publication known as the 
> Hollander Exchange Manual which is used mainly by junk yards. It tells 
> what parts from one make or model will fit another. I don't know if they 
> cover foreign cars.

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