- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
I realize a lot of people won't get this and that's OK... 
This mostly a 'bench racing' discussion.... I love the idea, just want to write it down. I have enough projects right now.
I've had a compact car as a daily driver for many years, mostly due to the fact that I've traveled around the country for work and needed something efficient & reliable. My car of choice for a long time has been a VW Jetta, have owned a few with TDI diesel engines and the current DD is a '14 Jetta with a 1.8T gas engine. IMO they're good cars, but a little small. A couple years ago I was rear-ended in my '03 while sitting at a red light. The car was totaled and my shoulder was injured in the accident. Recently I was almost hit at a round-about by a large SUV when the driver failed to yield when I had the right of way. There have been other close calls.... people don't mind pulling out in front of a smaller car versus something larger.
So here's what I'm thinking... I'd like to have something that had beefy steel bumpers front & rear, heavy-duty rock sliders down the side, etc.... if someone wants to play bumper cars with me, I'd like to have the advantage. I understand the whole crumple-zone thing, but I'm thinking low-speed collisions and giving people a good reason not to pull out in front of me.
Being in Colorado, I like the idea of having something with 4WD. My garage that I park in isn't big, the door is only 7' wide.... the Jetta is a tight fit already, so fitting in the garage is a limiting factor. I like VW TDI engines, they last a LONG time, get amazing MPG and are tiny. I don't plan to go back to driving around the country for work, but still want something that's efficient on fuel. I do need to occasionally drive my personal vehicle up to 500+ miles per week, so that's a big part of this. Most of the driving I do is on the freeway, so something a little longer would help with stability at freeway speeds. I *think* an S10 would fit in the 7' wide garage door, they're 68" wide excluding mirrors.
I'm thinking that a late 90's to early 2000's Chevy S10 with an extended cab, 4WD and a manual transmission would be a good start. Set it up with a little lift and 31" tires, like the ZR2 optioned trucks. Beefy bumpers as mentioned.... and then swap a built-up VW TDI engine into it. With aftermarket injectors, a larger turbo and a tune the TDI is capable of making 300 ft/lbs of torque at low RPM. Even with a S10 weighing around 1000#'s more than a Jetta, I think combined with the manual transmission it should be capable of 35+ MPG.
Swapping the TDI is the hard and expensive part, they're small though and have been swapped into all kinds of other vehicles.
There's an adapter for $1125 - http://gastodiesel.tdconversions.com/adapter/
Another option just came out for TDI to Jeep 4.0 for $900 - https://whitbreadperformance.com/pr...-4-0l-adapter-kit?_pos=2&_sid=bcba1f2c6&_ss=r
It would need a standalone engine harness that starts around $500 - http://www.fastforward.ca/standaloneharness/
Used TDI engines with decent miles are priced around $1000.
A Malone tune costs around $500.
Aftermarket injectors and a good turbo won't be cheap... $1500+ or so.
You'd still need misc parts, clutch, intercooler, etc, etc.
Obviously not a cheap or easy swap, but the final product would get similar or better MPG as my current '14 Jetta and operating costs will be similar, as I need to run 91 octane. With a 15 gallon tank and 35 MPG, it should be possible to get 500 miles per tank. I'd love to add a slip tank in the bed for even more range.
Anyway.... that's on my mind today.
This mostly a 'bench racing' discussion.... I love the idea, just want to write it down. I have enough projects right now.I've had a compact car as a daily driver for many years, mostly due to the fact that I've traveled around the country for work and needed something efficient & reliable. My car of choice for a long time has been a VW Jetta, have owned a few with TDI diesel engines and the current DD is a '14 Jetta with a 1.8T gas engine. IMO they're good cars, but a little small. A couple years ago I was rear-ended in my '03 while sitting at a red light. The car was totaled and my shoulder was injured in the accident. Recently I was almost hit at a round-about by a large SUV when the driver failed to yield when I had the right of way. There have been other close calls.... people don't mind pulling out in front of a smaller car versus something larger.
So here's what I'm thinking... I'd like to have something that had beefy steel bumpers front & rear, heavy-duty rock sliders down the side, etc.... if someone wants to play bumper cars with me, I'd like to have the advantage. I understand the whole crumple-zone thing, but I'm thinking low-speed collisions and giving people a good reason not to pull out in front of me.
Being in Colorado, I like the idea of having something with 4WD. My garage that I park in isn't big, the door is only 7' wide.... the Jetta is a tight fit already, so fitting in the garage is a limiting factor. I like VW TDI engines, they last a LONG time, get amazing MPG and are tiny. I don't plan to go back to driving around the country for work, but still want something that's efficient on fuel. I do need to occasionally drive my personal vehicle up to 500+ miles per week, so that's a big part of this. Most of the driving I do is on the freeway, so something a little longer would help with stability at freeway speeds. I *think* an S10 would fit in the 7' wide garage door, they're 68" wide excluding mirrors.
I'm thinking that a late 90's to early 2000's Chevy S10 with an extended cab, 4WD and a manual transmission would be a good start. Set it up with a little lift and 31" tires, like the ZR2 optioned trucks. Beefy bumpers as mentioned.... and then swap a built-up VW TDI engine into it. With aftermarket injectors, a larger turbo and a tune the TDI is capable of making 300 ft/lbs of torque at low RPM. Even with a S10 weighing around 1000#'s more than a Jetta, I think combined with the manual transmission it should be capable of 35+ MPG.
Swapping the TDI is the hard and expensive part, they're small though and have been swapped into all kinds of other vehicles.
There's an adapter for $1125 - http://gastodiesel.tdconversions.com/adapter/
Another option just came out for TDI to Jeep 4.0 for $900 - https://whitbreadperformance.com/pr...-4-0l-adapter-kit?_pos=2&_sid=bcba1f2c6&_ss=r
It would need a standalone engine harness that starts around $500 - http://www.fastforward.ca/standaloneharness/
Used TDI engines with decent miles are priced around $1000.
A Malone tune costs around $500.
Aftermarket injectors and a good turbo won't be cheap... $1500+ or so.
You'd still need misc parts, clutch, intercooler, etc, etc.
Obviously not a cheap or easy swap, but the final product would get similar or better MPG as my current '14 Jetta and operating costs will be similar, as I need to run 91 octane. With a 15 gallon tank and 35 MPG, it should be possible to get 500 miles per tank. I'd love to add a slip tank in the bed for even more range.
Anyway.... that's on my mind today.
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