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There was a table in the rEDsTAR today with some of the most fuel-efficient cars. Number one was that hybrid gas/electric thing from Toyota (Echo? Or was it the Honda thing? anyway...) Number two and three were the VW diesel Jetta and diesel Golf respectively; both getting 45 mpg.
....sorry, just fantasizing about how cool it would be to have a diesel Tacoma or 4-Runner....
...just an update: number three was the VW Beetle (diesel-45 mpg,) not the Golf, sorry. Number one was the Toyota Prius-48 mpg (Prius-wtf?) but the best overall was the Honda Insight-64mpg, but it's a gas/electric hybrid too.
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Putting a VW TDI into a Toyota can be done. Haven't looked at one up close and minus the transaxle assembly, but if it has it's own oil pan then it shouldn't be TOO hard to do. You'd need to fab up a VW bolt pattern to Toyota bellhousing adapter, making sure you don't interfere with the starter and flywheel engagement. You'd need to either shorten the tranny input shaft or fab up a "thingy" to support the pilot bearing in the right place, and you'd have to have someone fab up a clutch friction plate with a Toyota spline and VW all other dimensions. Oh, and you'd have to figure out how to adapt the throwout bearing setup, too. Motor mounts are the "easy" part and then there's the computer and all it's wiring and stuff.
Then toss in your 5.29's so that 90hp can push the truck...
If you're putting in a computer-controlled engine, why not also add in an electric motor and controller setup for a diesel-electric hybrid? The electric motor, if series-wound in design and equipped with a ballsy enough controller, will generate enough torque to snap a Ford 9" pinion off... WITHOUT a transmission... (That from a drag-racing electric vehicle setup.)
It'd be fun to do, either way, but for now if I can even swing it at all I'll have to live with the 10-14mpg of the 2F... :-( -Will
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I wouldn't do the 5.29s like you say Will because i think the TDI redlines at like 3-4000 rpms so you wont be able to go over 50 without redlining in 5th gear. If it can't push the truck at normal engine RPM for the TDI motor then you chose a truck that is to heavy.
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who asked for your opinon chad??? i dont remember anyone asking you a god-damn-thing! Posts: 771 | From: Farmington | Registered: Oct 2000
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I'm thinking a 4Runner might be a little on the heavy side for the 1.9L TDI engine available in North America. My 4Runner is about 4000lbs, my Jetta is 3000 so that extra grand might make it a bit sluggish acceleration-wise. The TDI redlines at 4700 rpm. 4000 is the theoretical limit where diesel can't combust fast enough unless you have a really high cetane number (50 or better) although I have had mine up around 4700 for short periods of time and the car zinged along at about 130mph (weeeeeeeeeeeee!). In any case, the engine is most happy running at 2000 so you'd want to gear it to keep it around 2-3 grand whenever possible. I don't know what a Toy pickup weighs but I think that'd be a better match. You're only working with 90hp but don't forget, you've got 155ft/lbs of torque at just 1900 rpm to work with. My Jetta will idle up a sizeable hill in 3rd gear (1.36:1 gear ratio x 3.39:1 final drive ratio = 4.61 overall ratio) without complaint. That ability would be a beautiful thing to have on the trails. With the Upsolute chip, my engine now makes 120hp @ 3750 rpm and about 200ft/lbs @ 2200. That's considerably more torque than the Toyota 3.0L V6 makes and close to that of the 3.4L. Even with all that power, I still get 50+ mpg if I stick to "reasonable" speeds. It's not unheard-of to transplant TDI's into old VW vans/buses so there's info out there on how to do this. It would definitely be cool.
FYI - from what I've read, the 1.9L TDI which has an efficiency rating of 43% is actually slightly more efficient than a hybrid which is about 41%. A pure electric car has an efficiency of around 50%. The Audi/VW TDI engines are likely the most efficient internal combustion engines in existance today. I don't know about the Insight, but someone on the TDI web forum I use has a close friend that owns a Prius and according to him, the best mileage he's gotten was 43mpg. The hybrids are really designed to be used for city driving so you don't see a huge mileage increase when you go on a road trip. The VW Beetle on the other hand, has deeper gears than the Jetta and as such, doesn't do as well on the long highway trips. The best I've seen from 'das Jetta' is 56 mpg coming back from Yellowstone this summer (lots of downhill coasting - the ECU shuts of the fuel in that case). The worst was about 41 mpg (oh darn!) crossing South Dakota at 100+ mph summer before last.
[This message has been edited by ProfBooty (edited 12-03-2001).]
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