Does anyone know anything about the TDI engine for the Paris Dakar?

Endless discussions about the maximum performance of the 1.9 TDI engines have already taken place here.

VW states the power output for their rally car at 160 kW / 218 hp. This naturally interests me, and I'm curious about what modifications have been made. Because durability is also an important consideration for the engineers in rally racing.

Does anyone know?

Regards, caddy

Hi!

According to my research, the chassis of these buggies will come from the USA. The engines are 1.9L TDI with a power output of 154 kW (210 hp). The cooling system, suspension, and bodywork have been modified or redesigned by Volkswagen Racing.

More information: www.jutta-kleinschmidt.de, www.vw-racing.de and www.dakar.com.

Source: Volkswagen - magazine, Issue No. 4/2002, December.

Regards, D.

Hi everyone,

I think, considering the amount of money you have to invest in such a motor to achieve those performance figures, you can expect quite a bit more.

Apparently, a friend has been driving a similar motor for over 80,000 km without any engine problems. I haven't checked it myself, though ;)

But who knows how often he had to replace the head gasket, or needed a new transmission, etc.

One thing is for sure! If you own such a motor and even drive on our roads, you should probably be an employee of a tire company. :D

See you,
Thomas

Hello,

it seems the issue with durability has been resolved.
http://www.eurosport.de/home/pages/V3/L1/S239/sport_Lng1_Spo239.shtml

Best regards,
Christian

[quote="Thomas"]
Hi everyone,

I think, for the money you have to invest in such an engine to achieve those performance levels, you can also expect quite a bit.

See you,
Thomas

Hi,

:lol: That's how mistakes happen. Who knows what caused it?

See you,
Thomas

Hi,

or maybe not... check out the VW Dakar pages.

Timing belt jumped a tooth, valves are bent, but the rest has survived. Replacing the cylinder head seems allowed, so they're still in the race - in 11th place.

I wonder why they didn't use a solid chain instead. Timing belts can also break in "normal" engines, and that doesn't really matter for the application - I can imagine that the mid-engine buggy with the TDI and a definitely not quiet racing gearbox is already incredibly loud.

Best regards,

Jan

Hi,

[Schadenfreude ON]
I actually think it's quite okay that they had a problem with their timing belt in such a prestigious competition -
for VW, this is prestige for the average user, the money is
[Schadenfreude OFF]

[quote]
I'm wondering why they didn't use a solid chain instead. Timing belts in 'normal' engines can also break, and that makes a lot of noise. I think that would be completely irrelevant for this application. I can imagine that the mid-engine buggy with the TDI and a definitely not quiet racing gearbox would already be incredibly loud.
Okay, then one would officially admit that the timing belt drive is useless. After all, the rally should also be advertising for the series cars.

Best regards,
Wolfgang

[quote="Jan6K"]The timing belt jumped a tooth, valves are bent[/quote]

This is just a result of such poorly designed cars... I'm just saying, timing belt replacement every 75,000km instead of 90,000km...

Has anyone actually invented a conversion kit for timing chain yet? I mean, there are water injection, V-shaped manifolds, and all sorts of other things! :P

Best regards,
Thomas

That would be a truly meaningful tuning!

I can already see the questions: How many horsepower does it produce? *grins*

Rainer: This machine probably wouldn't even come close to those kilometer performance figures...

But the question is, does VW have sustainable reasons for not addressing this weakness in the racing TDI? After all, hardly any part would meet what we're driving, and the chain issue would be more of a small exercise for someone with VW-Racing's capabilities.

Or are there serious reasons why timing chains are not used on VE-TDIs? Other manufacturers do use them...

Best regards,

Jan

[quote="Rainer K."]...because of such poorly designed parts... I'm just saying, replace the timing belt every 75,000km instead of 90,000km...[/quote]
Hi everyone,

Here's the official comment from VAG regarding the rally incident, in case anyone asks:

"The timing belt issue is [b]clearly [/b]
Here's a translation focusing on the core meaning, while preserving the original HTML/BBCode tags and URLs:

"This issue is attributed to a manufacturing defect and does not indicate any general weakness in our engines."

Okay, let's see. It's probably the same with VW-Racing, right? Something has to happen before action is taken. Who knows, maybe this incident will finally be addressed? :)

I think with the G60 engines, people sometimes used a double timing belt because it kept blowing the G-charger apart when the belt broke. Maybe we could do the same with our transmissions...

Best regards,
Thomas

Hi,

There were conversion kits available for the G60 engines that included modifications for the G-charger. This involved replacing the relatively narrow timing belt between the secondary shaft and the compressor drive shaft with a wider one (wider sprockets for both shafts were also included in the kit).

However, this doesn't affect the timing belt of the engine itself. The G-charger is also driven by a V-belt.

Best regards,
Andy

[quote='ulf']
'The incident with the timing belt is [b]clearly [/b]'
Here's a translation focusing on clarity and impact, while preserving the original structure and tags:

'This issue is attributed to a manufacturing defect and does not indicate any general weakness in our engines.'
I'm currently considering whether to sue VW for compensation due to a stomach cramp from laughing.

CU Gremlin

Hi,

[quote]I'm currently considering suing VW for compensation due to a stomach cramp from laughing...[/quote]
I think, Gremlin, you'll have to sue Ulf...

P.S:
You shouldn't also constantly complain about VW + timing belts (although I enjoy doing that too). There have been and are several manufacturers that use this design. And at least, new TDIs use timing gear technology or timing chains.
You could also see this with the VR6.
(Oh dear, now I'm starting such a fundamental discussion... )