AHHHHHH! that's it! Thanks. The mental pic just poped back into my head.

Here's a pic of an IDI (indirect injection) engine head. You can see the valves are machined in just a wee bit. Above the valves, you can see the precumbustion chambers. The glow plus and injectors are up there.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1145640017.jpg

Add me to the legion of diesel dorks. My dad has an 85 MB 300sd turbo diesel 3.0l straight 5, and i have a 2001 vw beetle tdi, 50mpg without ac, 45 with :D. BTW, someone mentioned glow plug harness, yeah they still suck, but if you live in a warm climate you won't really notice it.

You're probably going to want to go with an '04 at the oldest. There were quality control problems with Mexico VW's prior to that. I've got 3 Jetta TDIs - 03/04/05. I've had a few weird problems with the 03 that started at around 100K miles. The 04 and 05 are bulletproof.

Cegerer,
Aren't the VW built in Mexico still?
I don't know. I like the new GTI and the TDIs but am so gun shy about the quality of the VW. I had a good 86 Golf, a bad 93 Golf, and a bad 99 Jetts TDI.
Troy

I was under the impression that the entire Jetta/Golf/Beetle platform was built in Mex.

Cegerer, how many miles on your cars? As you stated earlier the '03 is >100k...

i just got a new gti...german built. in the past the quality in Mx was not that great, but having worked at VW during the a4 run...i am suprised that you had that many issues, the maf was a warrantiable item on ALL tdi cars till 01, the new ones are awesome...i am looking to get a rabbit tdi or a good used golf 4 tdi to replace my 96 golf(444k miles )
:D

My beetle has 130k miles on it. When i got it at 90k, i did an immediate timing belt and water pump change, and while i was in there i deactivated the EGR system, as it is the culprit to having thick amounts of carbon build up in the intake system. When i got in there, there was so much carbon that the air was flowing through roughly a 1" diameter hole, as opposed to the intake tracts complete 2" intake size. After doing that, it got rid of the hesitation and got a lot of it's torque back.

damn tree huggin hippies.... :D :D :D

So does anybody know whether the entire VW line will be made in Germany, or just the GTI?
Thanks,
Troy

The Passat has always been made in Germany. Not sure about the Touraeg though.

Speaking of Passats...Is VW shooting itself in the foot by having every single Passat engine (and Jettas too, I think) requiring high test gasoline?

Cliff, you might be able to find one here:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zeroforum?id=861

edit: you can also find them in their respective forums (MkIV, MkV)

Is bio-diesel cost competitive yet?

Around here you'll see a lot of "Bio-diesel - No War needed" bumperstickers on cars filling-up at the big-oil pumps.

We've got an '85 MB Turbo-Diesel Wagon;in-line 5,great torque and gas mileage-we've had it 13 years. Right now it's my landscaping vehicle-use it to haul loads of mulch etc. with my utility trailer all the time. Still holding up remarkably well-only has 270K-good for another 200! Very comfy car to drive and quite often leaves other cars at the stoplight-just have to keep the turbo "on"! (Even has bun-warmers)!
PS-gas has just hit $1.16/litre-expected to be $1.30!
Cheers, Richard

(oops!-health care good,but not THAT good!)

Wow, ~$500 a gallon?? That must be some damn good health care y'all got up there. ;)