Roadster with a Diesel engine...

J

joel rapose

Member
I have a 31 Std Roadster that I drive every day...and long distances...sometimes I need to maintain freeway speeds...(night mostly)

So I installed an Opel Diesel... 60hp.. with a top end of about 3500rpm... it was not very hard and it gets 40mpg...goes faster than I want...sounds about right..is 100 pounds lighter than the original (that I kept) and it a ton of laughs at the gas station when someone says "Hey your putting diesel in your car, your gonna wreck it" and I always say....Nope these things love diesel..

I used a Model A bellhousing, a model A flywheel , clutch and transmission ...I did have to modify the nose piece of the transmission to fit into the rear of the crankshaft... she starts easy..and runs super.... I have almost 40,000 miles on it and have never had to touch anything....

I did need to make my own disk brakes ....I am a machinist so that was not hard....I ran 19" wheels for years, but changed to 16" and very high profile radial tires...even has a heater under the seat...
 
I've also thought it would be fun to install a 1980 VW Rabbit diesel engine into a Model A. It would be a great daily driver and get fantastic mileage. It has 48 HP and is much lighter than the A engine. I'd do it as a bolt in unit, without drilling, cutting, bending, or welding any original Model A parts.
 
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I often thought of building an A from my parts pile and using a Rabbit diesel in it.The obstacle I never figured out how to overcome was the clutch/flywheel arrangement.Volkswagen had it backwards in those cars.The clutch pressure plate bolted to the crankshaft flange and the flywheel bolted to that.It is supported by the transmission housing back in there.The clutch is activated by a rod coming in through the input shaft.Very odd.When you pulled the engine out of those cars the flywheel would flop around on the end of the crank like it was mounted on rubber.
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
I've also thought it would be fun to install a 1980 VW Rabbit diesel engine into a Model A. It would be a great daily driver and get fantastic mileage. It has 48 HP and is much lighter than the A engine. I'd do it as a bolt in unit, without drilling, cutting, bending, or welding any original Model A parts.
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Hey Tom,
Ha, you and Keith can 'raise' wabbits and sell them to A owners. I had a bud who raised them and made lots of $. he said that they don't drink much(diesel?):)

Joel, how long ago did you do this install and what caused you to think of using diesel ?
 
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Ha ! I had 3 new diesel motors and lots of free time at work... plus... I enjoy building stuff that is different... I usually had lots of time between classes...(I worked at a college) a machine shop next to the auto shop helped too....I think I did the build about 1996...

The Opel diesels have all their torque at the low end so I did not have to change gears or anything to the running gear...it pulls just like with the original engine...I would worry about the Volkswagen diesel as it is a high revving engine...same problem with the Pinto engine conversions...no torque at the low end...

If I can figure out how to post pictures I sure will..

Joel
 
To post pictures click on the Go advanced box below the Quick Reply box..

Type your text

scroll down to Manage Attachments and click

A window will open that has a Choose File box...

Click Choose File to select your picture, Click open

when it appears in the line next to the Choose File box click Upload....

Wait till it's loaded and click Submit Reply..
 
Yes, that backwards clutch/flywheel setup on the Rabbit is why I put the thoughts on the back burner. Too many other things going on before I could get to the diesel project. I think the Rabbit diesel has all the torque it needs to run the stock Model A running gear. I used my Diesel Rabbit to pull my car trailer with cars on it, and it did fine.

All my Rabbits got 55 to 57 MPG whether they were 4 speed or 5 speed, but the 5 speed was so much nicer with the lower RPM from 5th overdrive.
 
LOVE IT. I'm a diesel guy and am building a '31 Model A deluxe delivery with a 2.4L mercedes diesel. I'm using the Mercedes 4spd std as well. Engine is exactly the same length as the banger and only a couple small mods needed to make it fit. This is where it's at so far.
413239222.jpg
 
Forget the rabbit diesel- I had a couple of those dogs. Use the VW TDI diesel. Small, Low RPM, cheap and 55 MPG. And fast- I drive one as my everyday car and get 52 MPG in the city.
 
SteveB31 said:
Forget the rabbit diesel- I had a couple of those dogs. Use the VW TDI diesel. Small, Low RPM, cheap and 55 MPG. And fast- I drive one as my everyday car and get 52 MPG in the city.
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Okay guys you are killing me here !!! I was talking about this very thing yesterday in Church with some of the guys. Must be Divine intervention :rolleyes: Please Joel I NEED to see pictures. You can even email them to me if you can't figure out how to post them here. I need to put a TDI into the model A pickup that I need... Great my minds gonna run with this all day, probably won't sleep tonight:D
 
I sold my TDI to my grandson or I was thinking of putting the engine in one of the coupes. 90 hp that runs like 150, 45+ MPG. All kinds of good stuff here. But it was a "slush pump" automatic! I'd want a 5 spd.
Terry
 
I like the look of the Mercedes and I do think the VW could be done, but I would throw away that clutch stuff.... I would adapt the Model A bellhousing to the back of the block..then adapt the flywheel to the end of the crank...it would work perfect...you might need to modify the oil pan...the deep sump of the diesel needs to be in the front to clear the wishbone... the bellhousing will be your rear mounts and the front mount is easily built using a stock front motor mount and some trick welding... I made a U shaped bracket out of tool steel around the front of the motor and bolted and welded it to the front mount...easy peezey

Your stock starter when used with 12 volts will easily spin the diesel...
 
Licensed to kill said:
LOVE IT. I'm a diesel guy and am building a '31 Model A deluxe delivery with a 2.4L mercedes diesel. I'm using the Mercedes 4spd std as well. Engine is exactly the same length as the banger and only a couple small mods needed to make it fit. This is where it's at so far.
413239222.jpg
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007,

That looks great. Bet it would look even better in an AA. Aren't those Mercedes motors expensive though?

David Serrano
 
SteveB31 said:
Forget the rabbit diesel- I had a couple of those dogs. Use the VW TDI diesel. Small, Low RPM, cheap and 55 MPG. And fast- I drive one as my everyday car and get 52 MPG in the city.
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Steve,

Isn't that the TDI Diesel engine that VW put in special software that kicked in to pass inspection and automatically disconnected it after the inspection? Do they still pass inspection?

David Serrano
 
California Travieso said:
Steve,

Isn't that the TDI Diesel engine that VW put in special software that kicked in to pass inspection and automatically disconnected it after the inspection? Do they still pass inspection?

David Serrano
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TDI stands for "Turbo Direct Injection". These came out about 1991. They were mechanical injection with a simple turbocharger, no tricky software. These are 500,000 mile engines if you change the oil and don't try to run them on putrid french fry oil like the hippies try to do. In 2009 the ingenious software was added to get past the ridiculously strict EPA standards set by tree huggers. By then (2009) these engines had horribly complicated electronic controls so wouldn't work for an engine swap unless you're an electronics engineer.
As an aside, I bought a new TDI Jetta in 2011 A great car. Then the nonsense started in Sept. 2015. VW could not sell any more 2015's (a lot were still on dealer lots). Well, last April VW jumped through EPA's hoops, fixed the 2015's and released them for sale at a $5,000 discount. They were also mandated by a court settlement that they buy back any 2009-2015 TDI if the owner didn't want it. They paid top Blue Book as of early Sept 2015 plus $5100. So I got a 'new' 2015 with 119 miles in place of my 2011 with 94,500 miles for only the cost of sales tax.
 
I like driving the TDI's,but they're something I don't want to own.I had one in the garage a few years ago that the dealer had pulled the head off.They said blown engine.It had a broken timing belt tensioner.That is usually a disaster on those engines.The valves are absolutely vertical,and when the piston hits them they look like a valve guide tool for a Model A.The head cannot be milled at all.The machine shop said all they would do was to skin over the surface cleaning off the material around the bolt holes,where the pressure had pulled it down.After I got it together again I had to have somebody come over and hook his computer to it and tell it what to do again.It was a fly by wire car and had sat with the battery unhooked for a year.The only linkage to the injection pump was a bundle of wires.I thought it was a 99.It did go another 120,000 after I fixed it though.
 
40 Deluxe said:
TDI stands for "Turbo Direct Injection". These came out about 1991. They were mechanical injection with a simple turbocharger, no tricky software. These are 500,000 mile engines if you change the oil and don't try to run them on putrid french fry oil like the hippies try to do. In 2009 the ingenious software was added to get past the ridiculously strict EPA standards set by tree huggers. By then (2009) these engines had horribly complicated electronic controls so wouldn't work for an engine swap unless you're an electronics engineer.
As an aside, I bought a new TDI Jetta in 2011 A great car. Then the nonsense started in Sept. 2015. VW could not sell any more 2015's (a lot were still on dealer lots). Well, last April VW jumped through EPA's hoops, fixed the 2015's and released them for sale at a $5,000 discount. They were also mandated by a court settlement that they buy back any 2009-2015 TDI if the owner didn't want it. They paid top Blue Book as of early Sept 2015 plus $5100. So I got a 'new' 2015 with 119 miles in place of my 2011 with 94,500 miles for only the cost of sales tax.
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40 Delux,

Thanks for the background. So 1991 through 2008 is the good engine.

Glad you got a great deal out of it.

David Serrano
 
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