My 81 Rabbit Diesel project

[Pre95]

Well I have left the Audi side of VAG with dreams of good MPG and smog exempt goodness, and heres what I brought home. vduber_g60's old 1981 VW Rabbit Diesel 1.6 N/A. 248k on the clock but running strong (well... now...). AVO GTX coilovers, 13" mags, a "ram" air tube (kind of.. to be replaced) and an idle cackle only a mother could love.

The first day driving her home on the highway the car -would not- reach 65mph unless it was downhill (and the wind was right). After the highway it almost didnt make it up my driveway to my house (up a kind of steep hill). I of course figured the diesels are slow... but nothings that slow / gutless. I hit the Hayes manual and did some tinkering, found the injection pump wasn't tuned properly (fuel was set too lean, and the WOT/rpm stop adjustment was set at a point so you couldn't actually ever go full throttle  ). 20 mins later I was giddy as a school girl. Bombed back down the hill, the car was a new beast. Hit 60 in third gear getting on the highway when it couldnt hit 65 in 3 miles before. Climbed back up my driveway in 2nd gear without touching the throttle pedal  .. I figure I have the tuning set pretty much good for now. I want to wait to replace the high mile injectors before continuing messing with anything.

Car has the bumpers pulled (came with em), also came with the stock wheels, caps & trim rings. With 247k (now 248k) on the clock I am glad she's running strong but I will be bench building a 1.9T AAZ & a 5 speed for swapping in sometime this coming winter (hopefully).  I ordered an EGT kit and will be mounting that up whenever it arrives, try to keep this old 1.6 going as long as I can.

About 2 days later I realized I had no running lights. Brake lights worked, turn signals, headlights, but no rear running lights. I traced the wiring loom searching for shorts but nothing, turns out the headlight switch (very common to fail) burned out & melted the pot where the running lights connect to. When replacing the switch I will be relaying the front headlights, using LED bulbs in the rear & putting an inline fuse on the wire that shorted with a 5a fuse in just in case I missed something along the line. Got some shopping done over the weekend, now waiting for the mail man...

Parts on order:
injectors x4
heat shields x4
new tail lights
new headlight switch
new front turn signals (clear)
mercury bulbs for front signals
new e-brake cables x2
timing belt service items (belt, tensioner, waterpump)
air filter
fuel filters
oil filters
low temp thermostat
low temp fan switch
LED rear running / brake lights (to reduce draw on headlight switch)
2x 30a relays (to relay the headlights, further reducing draw on the switch)
new rear hatch struts x2
3" silicone connecting tubes (for my CAI build)
valve cover gasket


Anyways, enough blabbin, time for pics..




(TD badge to be removed..)







I am going away from the 13's and will be mounting up some 195 45 15's in the near future so i can utilize the coils and bring her down low. Right now with the 205 60's there's no way i can go much lower without larger flares and some sawzall work. I also need to adjust the coilovers as the car doesn't currently sit completely flat (in the rear, driver side has a 1 finger gap, passenger side has 2.5, in the front the driver side has 1.5 gap, passenger side has .5).

Looking for a few parts as well, if anyone knows where to find em it'd be greatly appreciated:
New headliner
black side trim


More to come....

[Rabbit on Roids]

is it a common thing to have your drivers side back up light broken or not there on these 81 2 door cars? mines gone too...

[allsierra123]

Looks good I like the vents that cover the bumper holes.

[Pre95]

Looks good I like the vents that cover the bumper holes.

Just need to make a pair for the rear as well, but have actually been searching for a source on small black european bumpers. A dealer in Canada used to supply them but currently state that the manufacturer stopped producing them

[Pre95]

Ok so it turns out the diesel injectors have been on back-order since January (at both GermanAutoParts and AutoHausAZ) so that little project is put on hold. Anyone know where to source a ref. set?

All I can seem to find are NA12x and NA11x (boht I believe are for turbo applications). To confirm, I am looking for NA13x injectors correct?

[theman53]

Somebody like Giles or Dr. Diesel could rebuild your injectors.

If I were you I wouldn't remove the cold air vent unless you are going to replace it with another. You will get a ton more cool air. With the cooler air you can turn up more fuel. I hacked up my airbox just to run 3" pipe to it, unreal difference in performance I little louder though.

[catlin_cava]

On my AAZ I took out the Air Box and ran a TechRacing Cold Air Cone Filter...It worked Alot better...BTW What A Sweet Car...I wished I had one like that

[Pre95]

Yea I have left the make-shift tube on there for now. I plan on making a 3" ram with a 5" collector behind the grill, K&N box filter. I was going to run a 3" tube down to a cone filter (remove the box filter) for cold air but figure the ram deal could work just as well.

[jwspin]

germanautoparts.com has euro bumpers pretty cheap too. call them if they dont have it on their site, they have put in some special effort for me for certain performance parts...

-jared

[theman53]

I call dibs on the TD badge if you get rid of it.

[Rabbit TD]

Well I have left the Audi side of VAG with dreams of good MPG and smog exempt goodness, and heres what I brought home. vduber_g60's old 1981 VW Rabbit Diesel 1.6 N/A. 248k on the clock but running strong (well... now...). AVO GTX coilovers, 13" mags, a "ram" air tube (kind of.. to be replaced) and an idle cackle only a mother could love.

The first day driving her home on the highway the car -would not- reach 65mph unless it was downhill (and the wind was right). After the highway it almost didnt make it up my driveway to my house (up a kind of steep hill). I of course figured the diesels are slow... but nothings that slow / gutless. I hit the Hayes manual and did some tinkering, found the injection pump wasn't tuned properly (fuel was set too lean, and the WOT/rpm stop adjustment was set at a point so you couldn't actually ever go full throttle  ). 20 mins later I was giddy as a school girl. Bombed back down the hill, the car was a new beast. Hit 60 in third gear getting on the highway when it couldnt hit 65 in 3 miles before. Climbed back up my driveway in 2nd gear without touching the throttle pedal  .. I figure I have the tuning set pretty much good for now. I want to wait to replace the high mile injectors before continuing messing with anything.

Car has the bumpers pulled (came with em), also came with the stock wheels, caps & trim rings. With 247k (now 248k) on the clock I am glad she's running strong but I will be bench building a 1.9T AAZ & a 5 speed for swapping in sometime this coming winter (hopefully).  I ordered an EGT kit and will be mounting that up whenever it arrives, try to keep this old 1.6 going as long as I can.

About 2 days later I realized I had no running lights. Brake lights worked, turn signals, headlights, but no rear running lights. I traced the wiring loom searching for shorts but nothing, turns out the headlight switch (very common to fail) burned out & melted the pot where the running lights connect to. When replacing the switch I will be relaying the front headlights, using LED bulbs in the rear & putting an inline fuse on the wire that shorted with a 5a fuse in just in case I missed something along the line. Got some shopping done over the weekend, now waiting for the mail man...

Parts on order:
injectors x4
heat shields x4
new tail lights
new headlight switch
new front turn signals (clear)
mercury bulbs for front signals
new e-brake cables x2
timing belt service items (belt, tensioner, waterpump)
air filter
fuel filters
oil filters
low temp thermostat
low temp fan switch
LED rear running / brake lights (to reduce draw on headlight switch)
2x 30a relays (to relay the headlights, further reducing draw on the switch)
new rear hatch struts x2
3" silicone connecting tubes (for my CAI build)
valve cover gasket


Anyways, enough blabbin, time for pics..




(TD badge to be removed..)







I am going away from the 13's and will be mounting up some 195 45 15's in the near future so i can utilize the coils and bring her down low. Right now with the 205 60's there's no way i can go much lower without larger flares and some sawzall work. I also need to adjust the coilovers as the car doesn't currently sit completely flat (in the rear, driver side has a 1 finger gap, passenger side has 2.5, in the front the driver side has 1.5 gap, passenger side has .5).

Looking for a few parts as well, if anyone knows where to find em it'd be greatly appreciated:
New headliner
black side trim


More to come....

I really like the front end like that, I'd be afraid not to have a bumper though myself but it really looks good with the lower valance and all

[Pre95]

Ok so some unexpected things came up. Looks like the brakes are getting overhauled this weekend (thought the ebrake needed to just be fastened, looks like a cable snapped). I live in the hills now but my driveway is flat, however when I move in 3 weeks both my driveway and the street are at a slope, and I dont want the stress put on the trans parking it in gear. The e-brake cables were already in the mail figuring I was going to get around to em sooner or later... guess it'll be a lot sooner then later hahaha.

In the mail (UPS blue, friday is brake day):
rear drums
rear drum hardware kit
rear shoes
front rotors
front pads
rear wheel bearing kits



As for the euro bumpers on GermanAutoParts, the ones I am looking for are pictured below. Are they the same kit as what German Auto has only without the outer plastics on? Or are the earlier euro bumpers different (smaller)? Help appreciated. As stated above, I too am afraid of not having a front bumper, and while the euro bumper doesn't add too much protection, they will at least ad to my confidence.

[Pre95]

A bit of an update here. Finally got some time to fiddle with some of the side projects going on, got the running lights relayed so now I can drive at night...


tossed on some new tail lights, new bulbs all around, it was a serious PITA removing the "turbo diesel" aftermarket badge..


removed the duckbill spoiler and can now get up to 80mph on the highway! Yea it takes some time but she does it under her own power 


And someone had requested a side shot with the 205/60's on her. The front is about as low as it can go, I will bring the rear down a bit once I have a coilover wrench...


New timing belt & idler were installed Monday so that worry is put to rest. Now on to other worries. The alternator seems to be starting to go out (well at least it's internal voltage regulator) so got a new one in the mail, very surprising how cheap parts are for this thing. After that, just about all the quarrels I have with the car will be addressed. I still need to relay up the headlights to get the strain off the switch but I just need some free time to get out there and do it. Also still need to put on all her new brake parts but am waiting to do it in my new garage... Probably next weekend as we dont start moving until Friday.

I have also been thinking it'd be nice to get a 5 speed swap in the works sooner then later. It'd be a lot nicer then the 4 speed she has now thats for sure. Any suggestions on a 5 speed that'd work well with the low horse diesel that frequents the highway? I'd like to mate the AAZ swap I have in mind up to it as well so any suggestions appreciated, not sure if it can use a gas trans or not.

[arb]

I like the FF 5 speed I have in my Caravan. The 020 looks very good too. Since you have some time, you could find one for cheep and send it to Ohio http://www.brokevw.com/ for a quality rebuild.

Here's a nice list for you of some of the trans http://scirocco.org/gears/

[Rabbit on Roids]

omg, get rid of that transmission unless it is a 4 speed freak of nature with a .71 4th gear.