96 Canadian Diesel

OK, I have a 96 canadian AAZ Diesel Jetta and want to upgrade a bit. I was told that I could put a 2.0 turbo kit, which includes an ABA manifold and T3/T4 turbo and nozzles and it would pep it up a bit. Does this work? If not what will fit my 1.9? Oh and there is NO ECU so skies the limit.

all the VW 8V exhaust manifolds are the same bolt pattern soooo.... yes it will bolt on.

BUUUTTTTT.... thats not the turbo you want. you will wanna do more research on VWdiesel.net and see what others have done. You arent re-inventing the wheel, the guys on that site have done anything imaginable to an IDI engine.

There are no VW 2.0 "kits" that will drop in place to your AAZ, because there was no 2.0 IDI Diesel from VW except for an ancient 5-cylinder IDI from an 80's Audi 5000.

Your first upgrade for real performance gains should be in upgraded injectors. The Euro-spec GTD injectors are a good first step:
http://www.kermatdi.com/bosio-vw-gtd-set-of-nozzles-308/
(Photo is wrong)

There are also pump tweaks for some gains there, and then you can dial up the boost with a bleed/manual boost controller to bring the smoke down.

With stock fuelling, you are nowhere near the limits of the stock turbocharger and there is nothing to be gained by upgrading the turbo without increasing fueling.

As alluded above a gasser 2.0 turbo won't suit your needs. Most gasser bolt-on turbos are sized to deliver something like 8-10 PSI at 4k+ RPM. For a diesel you're looking for more like 15+ PSI at 2500, totally different animal. Very different requirements for compressor and turbine sizing.

AAZ injectors are fine the way they are, unlike TDIs. The IDI engines don't rely on the nozzle for proper mixing the way TDIs do, the swirl chamber takes care of that. As a result the stock nozzles are quite large and will support virtually any achievable power level that the head can survive.

The stock turbo can be turned up a bit - you probably have a K14 currently which is a pretty good street turbo. It'll survive 18+ PSI without issue, though you're going to need an intercooler to actually make use of that.

The injection pump is the real place to be focusing - it's the "brain" of the engine. You'll never get anything more than what it delivers. Upgrading the LDA (boost) pin and playing with the max fuel screw would be a good first step, getting a built pump would be the ultimate goal.

As mentioned above http://vwdiesel.net is the best place to find info on tuning / improving the IDI engines.

Sent from my XT1097 using Tapatalk

It's all about the K24/T3 swaps from 1.6TDs with 1.6 boost pins and a dialed in pump, if you want to talk cheap power that is. I would get a boost and EGT gauge, manual boost controller, and see what you can do to get the pump cooperating with 15-18 PSI on that K14. That will give you a better understanding of the workings of the pump, you can basically tune these with a flathead but it does take some finesse. You'll want a light haze wide open and to keep EGTs under 1600 or so under extreme use. I would go for 15 PSI and consider a bigger turbo after that since the gains start to dwindle off and the heat starts to build up. Look into the governor mod as well.

To beat a dead horse, vwdiesel.net is the best site for idi info.

If you want to get serious and have money to spend on a pump, Giles is the go to. Have seen a couple T3s at 20-22 PSI on his pumps and they ran beautifully without intercoolers (albeit up in Canada we barely see 90F). Obviously running an intercooler is better and safer, I'd stick more around 15 psi.

An intercooler is a total no-brainer to improve performance and reduce thermal stress. I can only put it to laziness, ignorance or worse if this is skipped...

25°C ambient being raised to 22 PSI boost @70% compressor efficiency is pumping out air at 159°C. Pressure ratio is 2.5, but density ratio (the more important parameter about how much more mass of air is actually going into the engine) is only 1.76.

Also comical that people still like to match 80s turbocharger technology -- and way-too-big at that -- when there are so much better options now affordably available. A GTD1449VZ would be an absolute revelation in a 1.6 or 1.9 TD.

A T3 or K24 is something you can typically find for maybe 100 bucks or might have lying around. Not everyone wants to experiment with aftermarket variable vein turbos and buy nozzles they don't need, or go through the effort of fabbing something up or making a standalone vein controller when both of those turbos fit fine from factory. More likely to run excessive fueling and clog those veins than if it was a traditional setup. Of course the GTD1449VZ is a better turbo, of course running an intercooler is better and you should run one for performance use. Of course there are better options than 30 year old turbos, might as well do a tdi swap while you're at it.

Some people just want to dance with the girl they brung and keep things simple. Not everyone wants to try to turn an idi jetta into a race car when you could get your kicks from a couple hundred bucks in parts and a weekend.