| Author |
Message |
jason Windecker (198.81.17.179)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 6:25 am: | |
am looking for a VW passat diesel for a toad, do any of our fellow canadians know if they sell the passat diesel in canada, they dont here in the us, but do elsewhere was just curious if it would be worth a trip and inquiry to find out, any help will be appreciated |
DaveD (216.18.113.69)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 11:43 am: | |
I did a check on the VW website and made a quick call to a local Canadian VW dealer. Passat's are not available with a diesel in Canada.
DaveD |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 2:59 pm: | |
I have an '81 VW Rabbit Diesel which I got from an estate sale. Seems it was towed wheels down behind a motorhome for ages. No problems.
Although it looks like a war zone surviver, mechanically it is in excellent condition and gets an honest 50 plus mpg on the road.
The neat things about VW Rabbit diesels are that with a little fiddling, you can burn almost anything thru the engine, including, but not limited too......
Number 2 diesel, #1 diesel, #2 fuel oil, #1 fuel oil, a mix of diesel and kerosene, a mix of #2 diesel and gasoline, corn oil, filtured deep fry vegetable oil, etc., etc..
Plus, like Fast Fred said, you can park it ANYWHERE and people just feel soosss sorry for it, they leave it alone. I love VW's. Inexpensive, realiable, towable. Good luck. |
DaveD (216.18.113.69)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 3:15 pm: | |
Does it smell like french fries when you burn vegetable oil? |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 3:30 pm: | |
Funny you mentioned that. About 2 months ago, there was an older Gillig ex-school bus with the old (but good) 220 hp 743 Cummins engine runing thru town fueled with recycled, filtured deep fry vegetable oil.
The exhaust kinda smelled like, well, you know, diesel stink, but with a slight odor of McDonalds french fries with salt. Maybe a slight odor of Big Macs and onion rings too. He he he. |
johnwood (206.252.250.66)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 4:46 pm: | |
You can burn vegtable oil in a diesel, BUT; first you need to process it with lye and heat. This yields "biodiesel" and glycerin as a by product.
If you are into processing used fast food fryer oil, this would be a source of very inexpensive and "green" fuel. And yes; exahust DOES smell like french fries!
Yields slightly less power than #2 and gells easier. Cold weather fuel needs to be a blend with either #2 or #1 depending on how cold it gets.
There was a great how-to article in home power magazine about a year ago giving instructions. |
Chuck Harris - PD4104 (207.172.11.147)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 5:10 pm: | |
Actually, straight vegetable oil (SVO) burns just fine in a diesel, but the oil must be hot. 150 - 190F will do.
To heat the oil, most folks just use a heat exchanger to the engine coolant system.
Ordinary diesel fuel is used to start the engine, and once up to temperature, the switch is made to SVO. The engine should be switched back to diesel before stopping. This is to purge the system of SVO, and make starting possible.
-Chuck |
Jason Windecker (152.163.188.227)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 6:44 pm: | |
wow, thanks dave that was far and beyond what I expected from anyone, thanks for your help, guess i'll have to import one form europe< thanks again
Jason Windecker |
Darryl (24.241.78.169)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 8:47 pm: | |
Jason, the VW Passat diesel was available here in the US. The last year is 1997. You can sometimes find them in Florida more than any other state for some reason. The most likely place to find one is ebay. |
Johnny (63.159.125.29)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 8:47 pm: | |
www.greasel.com for a cooking-oil conversion.
I plan to do this with my F-350 & my wife's K-5 Blazer. |
dougwoodin (24.170.175.22)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 9:10 pm: | |
I had a diesel rabbit a few years ago, and it did get an honest 50 MPG. There was a problem in the early ones like I had[1980] The seal between the injector intake and crankcase would sometimes leak, and at high speed[ 70 MPH] it would take off on its own by burning its own crankcase oil. You could hear a loud ratteling noise when this happened.. look in the rear view mirror and see thick black smoke coming out the exaust.Turning off the key made no differance, just hit the brakes a little and it would stop. It only happened a few times befor I had the seal replaced. VW had a recall in 1981 because of this seal, but mine never got fixed until I owned it. They also made a nice little pick-up truck with the Rabbit front end. I live in Fl. and you still see them on the road every now and then. Great little cars. |
Scott Whitney (66.82.9.38)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 12:17 am: | |
Jason,
Check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1858439350
2002 Volkswagen: Jetta TDI
2002 VW Jetta Diesel - Leather, Sun Roof A+++
Scott |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.164.175.155)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 4:28 pm: | |
Did burning your lub oil help your gas mileage? |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 23, 2002 - 5:26 pm: | |
Sorry we strayed away from your first question. Have you considered a VW Rabbit diesel passenger car as a towed toad for your motorhome?
These were made I think from around 1979 to around 1984 or soooosss (diesel) and the 5-speed is much better than the 4-speed.
My '81 even had functional AC when I got it and it worked great around town. Have had the car about 6 years now.
Expect to pay no more than around $2500.00 for an excellent condition/rebuilt VW Rabbit 'XL' model 5-speed diesel 2 door with updated factory AC.
These cars tow wheels down with no problems. Also cheap, realiable, and fairly plentiful. Parts are cheap. 50+ mpg on the hiway. Handle just fine.
Only they are kinda slow as they only have around 50 hp or soooosss, but for a toad, I think it would be a very good choice. Good luck. |
Buswarrior (Buswarrior) (64.229.215.64)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 9:33 pm: | |
Don't ask me, but...
I was walking in the neighbourhood this evening here in Toronto, Ontario and there parked at the curb was a new Passat with TDI on the grill, Ontario plates.
Only noticed it because of this thread.
Maybe VW Canada needs their web site administrator kicked in the rear?
Perhaps your Passat TDI toad is closer to reality than we thought?
happy coaching!
buswarrior |
RJ Long (Rjlong) (24.127.74.29)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 2:42 am: | |
BusWarrior -
Are you sure it wasn't a Jetta TDI?
Hard to tell the Jetta and Passat apart. . .
Golfs, Jettas and the New Beetles are available with the TDI powertrain, at least they are here in CA. Not sure about the Passat, tho.
Checking the Kelly Blue Book site shows the Passat available with the TDI engine in both the sedan and wagons in '96 & '97, the sedan only in '98.
Just helpin' w/ the research. . .
RJ
PD4106-2784
Fresno CA |