'87 Fox 1.8

Hi all, I'm new on this forum, me and a friend are working on a '81 1.6D Rabbit engine project, we were looking at a '87 fox to see about dropping the engine into. Anybody know if the transmission from the Fox would bolt onto the 1.6D or is it completely different??

The Fox used the same inline 4 cyl engine configuration as your Rabbit, so the block will bolt right on. If you stripped the Fox's 1.8L gas engine down to just the bare block, and stripped the Rabbit's 1.6L diesel engine down to the bare block, and set them side by side, you could barely tell them apart.

What you will run into problems with is getting the small details of some plumbing and control stuff ironed out. But since the old diesels are so simple, especially the non-turbo ones, you should not have much trouble.

The airbox is on the intake manifold, so you just need an intake tube to a cool inlet area. The Fox's entire exhaust system will bolt right on, but you may want to gut the three way catalyst first. Accelerator cable should not be a huge deal. Plumbing for the cooling system can be made to work with a visit to the 4 cyl diesel Quantum or Audi 4000 parts bin (they had longitudinal mounted engines like the Fox), and the glow system is brutally simple so that should not be a big deal to figure out. You may need to change something on the fuel tank pickup and delete the Fox's CIS filter/pump arrangement underneath the rear.

I swapped a 1.6TD and 5spd from a Quantum into my 1979 Audi Fox. It's a blast to drive.

Thanks for the info, guys. It looks like it should be do-able, and looks like a lot of fun for us shade tree mechanics lol

The engine positions are completely different. The Mk1 Rabbit is transverse and the Fox is longitudinal. For the Fox you need to find a Longitudinal trans that will work with a TDI engine.

You might take a look at the B2 Passat forum on Vortex, there was a guy in europe who did a very cool B2 Passat conversion with tdi and basically built up a trans for it.

Now if you're dropping the 1.6D into the fox that's a different story, the 4 speed MT will work fine for that, or get the 5 speed from the later 92/3 Foxes, that would be good too.

Just take basically everything from the Fox engine that's specific to the mounting and install that on the diesel.

The only thing you will have to go look for is the alternator mounting. That has to be mounted down on the lower right side of the engine because the IP will be in the way where the Fox typically mounts the alternator.

When I dropped the 1.6L diesel into my 89 Fox I got the alternator mounting bracket from a Dasher diesel with no AC. That will work correctly but those mounting brackets are few and far between now.

Good luck, the Fox is a great little car and I had a blast with my project, drove like a dream when it was done.

Steve

Any idea where I might be able to get a Dasher alternator mount??

Back in 2012, Labor Day weekend, a damn thief got the only Dasher Alternator Mount bracket that I had (among many other items, second day was when I nailed his arse) ....... (He's pulling the last 2 years of a 6 year sentence.). Otherwise, I'd send it to you for free + shipping.

Look for Brian Wilson in the Samba. He traffics in that old stuff. Do a search on Dasher or Quantum parts and you'll most likely see something he has for sale. Then, you can PM him. He also sells on eBay. I don't recall his handle in either location.

81-1.6 said:

Any idea where I might be able to get a Dasher alternator mount??

Click to expand...

I think the person Andy's referring to is Bryce, and he's out of Norman Oklahoma, but last I knew he was out of the B2 alternator mounting brackets for non-AC cars.

I got my bracket from Bryce back ten years back but when I sent someone to him a few years ago he didn't have any more.

Best thing to do is post up in the Vortex B2 classifieds, you might get one there.

Steve

We finally got the Fox going on saturday, the project went great! We actually ended up modifying the Fox A/C mount for the alternator. Glowplugs and radiator fan are hot-wired to manual switches but everything else is working just like original. Thanks guys for your help!!