> Similarly enjoyed your photos. Would be interested in a brief story
behing the red and green syncros that apparently needed towing out
when crossing the stream.
Well, that was a poor action. The green syncro is mine. It has
installed a water-boxer (benzin engine). Through some crossings
before, i had some water in my ignition distributor. When i wanted to
cross the last river i didn´t have enough power and my motor stopped.
The underground was not as hard as i expected. The red syncro wanted
to pull me out. But he didn´t take a look on the water depth. Because
of a deep trench the front of the syncro was catapulted out of the
water and the back sliped back into the trench.
That´s what happend. After this we had to fix severel hours our
engines. I had to change my oil and some relais for the fuel pump.
The red ones was a TDI. He just had to remove some small stones out
of the alternator and timing belt.
> Seems also that you could add something objective on the constant
debate on the best engine for a Syncro, given that you have 2
varieties to compare.
Well, after this event i discribed, i decided to change the benzin
motor to a diesel engine. I just was looking around. All I wanted was
a quite strong turbodiesel with a mechanical injection pump. I hate
electronic and i hate it mutch more when you have to trust into a
electronical based engine.
The 4-cylinder Turbodiesel with 1,6 liter has not enough power. The
next one is the 1,9 Liter Turbodiesel, fitted into the VW golf III.
This motor has a lot of problems with overheating in the syncro.
The only motor i found was a 5-cyl turbodiesel from the old audi 100,
type 44 (build from 86 to 89). It has 2000 ccm and about 87 hp. With
a intercooler and small modifikation to the injection pump you get
quite easily 120 hp with about 220 NM.
To fit this motor into the syncro you have to arise the engine
compartment. Thats all. For connecting it to the gearbox you can use
the south african´s transmission bell housing.
I really like this engine. It is very powerfull, has a quite strong
character up from the start and is running quite cold.
In my girlfriend´s syncro we installed a 1,9 TDI with 90 HP. This is
our cruising syncro. The TDI is very friendly to drive, has a lot of
power BUT electronic every where. You need a laptop to repair some
essential parts of this engine.
I think the best motor for the syncro is the 5-cyl turbodiesel with
2,0 liters. I will remove the tdi somewhere in the future when the
second 5-cyl is back from the refurbisher.
I realy don´t like benzin motors because of their electronic and also
the sensitivity of leak air. An other point is that a diesel engine
does not need so mutch fuel. Here in germany it is quite expensive.
We started driving with salad-oil!!!
>
> (Am currently working in China for about another 2 months so am
looking for reading as having to enjoy my syncro vicariously)
hei, now you have time to think about your new engine-modifications :-
) some minutes ago i was in a sandbox with my girlsfriends tdi. Well
i have to say this motor isn´t as poor as i said above :-) The big
advantage: If you need power, just push the gas. You do not have to
wait till the bigger turbo brings power as it is in the syncros
turbodiesel engine :-)
Thats for now folks,
have a nice evening. We will start a barbecue this evening. I think
it will be the last one for this year. Winter is coming...
See you,
Dirk