Hi everyone...


First post, so.... name's Ben, hail from Tassie, 35 years of age, graphic designer turned TIG welder by trade and... I don't own a Volkswagen. To be honest I wouldn't mind a nice Passat Wagon in the near-future, but we'll see...


My reason for being here is to ask a very specific question - are there many of the old mechanical-injection 1.6, 1.6TD or 1.9TD engined VWs in Australia? As far as I can tell, these were common in late 70s to early 90s VWs, which appear to pre-date Australia finally getting onboard with diesels in passenger cars. Then again, a fair number of Mercedes oil burners made it here in the 80s (I used to own a 190D 2.5) so anything's possible, I guess.


I ask because I currently own a Suzuki Vitara with a sick engine, and swapping in one of the old-school VW diesels is a very popular conversion both in Europe and the US, where the donor engines are common, sort of our equivalent of Commodore Ecotec V6s... but, y'know, much much much better-er...


I realise this may well be sacrilege to some (!) but I'm currently toying with options for the Zook, and quite frankly a little turbo-diesel is preferable to the usual petrol options. Conversion kits and a wealth of knowledge are easily found however if the engines themselves just don't exist locally then the point is obviously moot.


Cheers and thanks in advance!


Ben.