VW/Audi diesel Conv. Options

[partwerks]

Had got some ideas from a fellow 914 enthusiast pertaining to the VW/Audi side of things. Does VW have a 6 cyl. in the diesel here in the states?


He writes:
Over here Audi sells A4's and A6's with 2.5L to 3.0L V-6 Diesels with about 150 to 200HP. The torque is incredible and the fuel mileage is out of this world. 40MPG on the V-6 and 50MPG on the 4cyl. The engines are mounted longitudinally in the engine bay even if the car is only FWD. That makes their FWD transmission basically a transaxle like the 901 in our cars. I think they are cable shifted as well. Not all of them are 6 speeds. They redline at around 5K RPM so the 6 speed is worth it. I believe they use hydraulic valve buckets so no more valve adjustments. The only problem with the V-6 diesels is that they are not sold in the US so getting parts for them would be challenging and probably expensive if something does break. The four cylinder would probably be a little better as a version of it was sold by VW in the Jetta and Passat. They can be tuned for some pretty serious power too. Just not as much as the V-6.

As for mounting it up it would be no more trouble than a v8 or a subaru. Obviously it would take a radiator setup up front. The nice thing is that the radiators are not that big compared to a gasoline engine so you would still have a decent trunk up front. I have included some german ebay links for you to check out. I don't speak much german so I can't help you out there. My wife speaks german but the auto related terminology doesn't translate well so she can't help me either. Maybe Sir Andy. The Euro rate is horrible right now. Even if you found exactly what you needed it would probably cost a fortune and then you would still have to pay to ship it to the states.


http://cgi.ebay.de/Audi-A4-A6-Passat-3BG-2...1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.de/1-9-TDI-130PS-Bj-04-VW-...1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.de/Audi-A4-A6-6-Gang-Getri...1QQcmdZViewItem

Yeah the Jetta TDI is the 4 cyl diesel. They can be reprogrammed to over 150hp and a huge amount of torque. This cuts back on the fuel economy some but it is still better than the gasoline engines. I don't think the 901 would work well with the diesel. It seems like the gear ratios would be really off and the torque from the diesel would probably shred it in no time. I have been doing some research on TDI's in the US and the 05 Passat diesel puts out 137hp and 250 ft/lb torque. I am not sure if they came with manual transmissions or not. It wouldn't be too hard or expensive to source a 6spd Audi diesel transmission from Germany.

Any suggestions on this?