So I just got an 81 Rabbit, and want to know what all I can do with it. I have already turned up the fuel screw 1 turn and i thinkin that is where it should stay till i get some gauges on it. What else can I do. I wanna turbo it some time, but i have seen that there are some draw backs to doing so having to do with internals not made for the pressure. Then again I have been told that if I put a thicker head gasket on and keep my boost reasonable I shouldn't have a problem. Also I have seen some injector nozzles that are said to work for a performance mod that were originally for a Mercedes, good idea or bad. Lastly I really want a tach, and though I have seen some kits they all seem to require a bit of electrical wiring knowledge, witch would defeat one of the reasons I bought an all mechanical injection engine. So does any one know of a good simple tach kit. I don't really care if I have to add a gauge on the dash.

 

Thanks for the info, though do you know where I can get some performance nozzles, delivery valves, ect.

 

So the 81 is a non turbo? Thats not good.
The turbos have different pistons(hypereuretic) and oil jets to cool down the pistons.
Also the cam is a bit different which is neglectable. A thing which isn't neglectable are different exhaust valves the turbo gets a " bit" hotter so you need better valves too.

You can gain (or better say expect) 125 hp with a turbo and a mercedes sprinter intercooler and stock injectors and turned up volume. You must have an additional oil cooler! Expect to change the head gasket every three month when you drive hard- thats what I had to do...
Don't worry when you get used to it you are done in three hours.
The heads will develop cracks between the valves- normal and thats not really serious dangerous as long as they don't get bigger.

The funny thing is going 120mph and sipping a bit diesel on the autobahn while belching black smoke.
Let me now if you need any infos- had VW diesels a couple of years and can tell you a bit.
Greetings from germany

 

Suggest to go the route I did; get a gasser cluster with the tachometer in it, and replace the big clock with the tach. using a DSL-1 (Dakota) signal converter for the 4 cylinder. Either way ... unless you want to use TinyTach ... requires wireing mods, but this method is a piece of cake. There is a good writeup under 4crawlers web site ... and many recent forum discussions. I know ... I created or reactivated many of them. Just this week got mine calibrated to within 200rpm accuracy ... and will 'fine tune' in the next few days. Seeing a tach on the 1.6L diesel is a kick. VW shop that I recently had do some grunt work ... owner ... said in his 30 odd years of working on diesel rabbits, had never before seen a tach on the 1.6.

EDIT: FORGOT THIS. WILL NEED AN ALTERNATOR WITH THE 'W' PLUG, ALONG WITH THE DSL AND A REEL OF WIRING.
TO REPLACE MY CLOCK, GOT A CONSOLE CLUSTER AND PUTTING A 2 1/16TH VDO IN IT IN PLACE OF ONE OF THE GAUGES THERE NOW.

 

Do you have any pics of this mod?