914 Diesel build.... Options

[PatrickB]

Here goes nothin....
Been planning this for a while, but it was supposed to be a winter project. Wasn't quite ready yet. KEP adaptor parts have been sitting here. Timeline moved up because of a failure.
Had a chirp that turned into a BAD miss, valve seat issue on one cylinder.

Had a fresh 1.9 AAZ diesel sitting in my storage trailer that had never been fired. (honed, rings, bearings, injection pump reseal). "new" engine was destined for my daily beater . Same engine in the beater is getting a little tired, I've put at least 350,000 km on it and the compression is getting down. Still runs okay though. Swapped the "new" engine into the beater. 16 year old son is learning...

[PatrickB]

Using the 901 trans. The engine I'm using is an older mechanical injection AAZ.I don't think I'll get more than 150 horse out of it as it sits. Fuelling is up, timing is advanced, and if I can figure out a nice way to fool the wastegate the boost will be up. Wastegate isn't adjustable. IF I remember correctly engine will turn about 2800 at 60 mph. Online calculator tells me it was turning 2641 at 100 kph in the Jettta. Close enough. We autocross the car, gearing should be fine, especially since I put on a bigger turbo that's going to be a little slower to spool. Old school diesel stuff. The bigger turbo didn't start making good boost until at least 2600 or 2800 on the slightly smaller 1.6 I took it off. The K14 I took off stared at about 1400 and made good boost by 2000 but is much more limited higher up, very restrictive onte h exhaust side and won't flow nearly as well. Moves less air at the same boost as the bigger turbo does.
It will for sure have a fair amount more torque, especially when the turbo is coming on hard. I don't think it will be enough more to be an issue. If it is.... I have 2 more 901 side shift transmissions under the bench!
The 901 looks a lot bigger to me than the 020 in the Jetta, and I've only ever broke one of those in 20 years or so of daily driving. Engine has enough torque that we had tires breaking loose halfway through second gear when we autocrossed it once last year (914 was down for wheel bearings).

I do want to figure out how to get a higher gear in 5th, maybe 4th too. First thought was go see DR Evil. Maybe a taller ring and pinion and bring all the gears up? Someday...
Swapping out the trans for the stuff you guys are talking about might happen eventually but not this year.


Besides... I'm CHEAP! Aim is to do this for less than 500 bucks other than the KEP adaptor. The only out of pocket other than that so far is the starter. Bought 2 high torque starters for 80 bucks for the pair from another guy that gave up on his swapping. the other expense will be the cooling. Also trying to figure out an easy way to put heat in the car, mostly for drying out windows on wet mornings. Going to tear apart one of my mark2 Jetta parts cars to see if I can use a complete heater box. Open to other options too. Probably a later date thing, not now.

I like to keep my projects within a family of parts.... Early ones included a Pontiac Astre with a 3.8 Buick (all GM) 82 firebird with a 400 small black (all GM). Various engines in various old chevy pickups. Only exception to that rule was a 354 perkins in a 4 door 3/4 ton chev pickup. I figure VW in a Porsche is all in the family.


Next auto cross is july 22, don't think I'm going to make it.

[Dave_Darling]

Maybe a taller ring and pinion and bring all the gears up? Someday...
Besides... I'm CHEAP!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! A new ring and pinion and CHEAP do not go anywhere near each other. The only alternate R&Ps that I am aware of for the 914-based boxes are from the Sporto cars, or custom-made. I'll give you three guesses how cheap those are, and the first two don't count...

The CHEAP way to make your gearing taller is bigger wheels and tires. Get some 18s with 50- or 60-series tires on them and that should drop the revs everywhere. The speedo will be off at that point, though.

--DD