3 and 4 cylinder Diesel's

Buzby · Post by **Buzby** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:48 am

My 1.9tdi is in the dealers today to find a water leak. For a courtesy car I was given a 3 cylinder diesel. Its the first one Ive driven and it puts me in mind of a cross between a cement mixer and half a V6 engine

. (sorry)Sounds awful when idling, good when its revved.

Nowhere near the same amount of power though as the 1.9 has, seems to be a different type of power delivery, the 4cyl seems to give its power in a wave of torque, and the 3cyl seems to be there at a lower level all the time...

99 · Post by 99 » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:38 pm

I totally agree with you. I test drove a 1.4TDI before I bought the 1.9 and I was pretty impressed - I liked the way it sounded and it had a fairly wide powerband for a diesel. If I hadn't have found the "right" 1.9 when I did, I'd have almost certainly ended up with a 1.4.

The 1.9 is definitely out-and-out faster and I am glad that I bought it, but if I'm honest, I'm not struck with the way that you get a big ball of torque/power at about 2000rpm and then it levels out. Hopefully the remap will help this...

Rob123 · Post by **Rob123** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:01 pm

vw are just loving this 3cylinder thing, dunno why, cant see mcuh advantage over an equivalent 4cylinder, my 1.2 petrol is slow, sounds s**t, doesnt like anything below 1.5k and power drops at 4k and theres nothing up to the 6k redline....not particularly economical either.

ModifiedMadness · Post by **ModifiedMadness** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:22 pm

So all in all you're really pleased with it

IansMusical · Post by **IansMusical** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 9:31 am

Hi Guys,

I used to have a Mk3 Golf with 1Z 1.9 TDI (90bhp) and I think it was pretty quick really, not so hot on the cornering mind! It had bags of power from idle up and at about 1300rpm the turbo woke up and it would shift all the way up to 4000rpm

I now however have a Polo 1.4 TDI and think the 3 cylinder engine is fine. In fact given the car is about the same size as the Mk3 Golf and around 80-85bhp, it doesn't feel that much slower really! Admittedly the power isn't there from idle as such, at least not without wheel spin and it does fall off after about 3800rpm but it's still very nippy. I've noticed it tends to slide on heavy cornering though

Cheers,

Ian

Rob123 · Post by **Rob123** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:22 pm

ModifiedMadness wrote:So all in all you're really pleased with it

yer!!

the picture of my rev counter \/ should really have been taken at about 3k, seemingly where the most (very little) power is.

Goosey · Post by **Goosey** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 10:44 pm

I really like my 3 pot diesel thrum, it's a low deep growling thrum and I think it sounds more like V5 than a V6. yes I have got pefect pitch lol

The 1.2 petrol 3 pot ( which I had as a courtesy car) sounds awful, definately an octave higher than the diesel and reminded me of an angry wasp!