Hey all, thought I'd throw this question out to the knowledge pool in this forum.
I am checking out a 84 VW rabbit gti tonight with no fuel tank as its all rusted out. What can I do to start it up?
I'm not sure if starting fluid is a healthy thing to do to a fuel injected car??
Length of fuel line and a hot wired fuel pump in a gas jug.
small mason jar of fuel with a really long hose and a spare in line fuel pump wired in. course, you gotta try to come up with an empty mason jar. You should have the rest of the stuff laying around.
I have a fuel pump for a carborated car sitting around would this be enough pressure to fire it up?
Probably not as fuel injection systems need a higher pressure.
hmmm, well if I don't have a spare fuel injected fuel pump what can I do to see if it runs?
If you're only interested in confirming that the engine runs do the following.
Pull one of the vacuum lines from the intake tube and have an assistant spray carb cleaner in while you crank it. Always best to do the cranking yourself so the assistant receives any burns which may be forthcoming.
how immanent of danger are we talking?
Also, any recommendation of which cars run an inline fuel pump so I could possibly grab one from the junk yard?
Starting fluid is fine. There will be some easily accessed vacuum ports in the intake manifold's plenum. Use those to spray in the ether as the throttle body boot can be a little fragile. Now, about the tank. Is it rusted out as in it has holes and gas pours out or is it full of rust and clogging the fuel system? Either way, you've got problems. The GTI CIS has no internal fuel pump, but it uses an external pump with very high pressures. System pressure should be ~74psi. Std. FI fuel pumps won't cut it. Fortunately, the fuel pump is gravity fed from the tank with a regular slip on fuel line of maybe about 10-12mm ID, so slipping a feed line from a container to the fuel pump inlet shouldn't be a big deal - it's not a banjo bolt like nearly all of the rest of the fuel system's connections. If the tank is rusted through and leaks, you're just going to have to put a container under it, though, because the fuel return line enters the tank up high and the only reasonable way to get to it is to lower the tank. Lowering the tank involves lowering the rear axle, lowering the rear axle involves disconnecting the rear brake hoses (which are famous for seizing on A1s). Trust me - it's way to much work for a car you're just shopping for.. To test the hose/container rig, pull the fuel pump relay and jumper connectors 30 and 87 with key on - pump should run. If you buy the car and need a tank, check on VWVortex. I know there are threads there about aftermarket tanks that work properly and are priced at just over $100 or so. Apparently not all aftermarket tanks work perfectly for Westmoreland GTIs.
HTH
Flogger00, thanks for the help!
Actually it is an ABA swapped car so I'll just take the simple route and bring some starting fluid since I'm not sure how things got swapped until I see it.
Also, the car comes with a new fuel tank already, the guy just didn't have time for the car anymore.
Wish me luck!
if you're worried about the functionality of the efi, starting fluid won't tell you much. you could try hooking up a container of some kind that can handle the pressure and plumbing it to shop air regulated to 40-60psi. this would tell you if the injectors are firing and the ecu is figuring things out
In reply to captainkarl:
An ABA swap is pretty straightforward on these cars, and is usually done w/out significant mods to the CIS. Rusty tanks are a frequent problem on A1s, and downstream rust sometimes kills fuel pumps, fuel distributors, control pressure regulators, fuel lines and fuel injectors. I'd say it's worth it to make a rig to test the CIS. It's potentially the most fiddly part of the car, and while not magic, it can be tedious to diagnose. Also, compared to prices for non running A1s, even used CIS parts can be relatively expensive. As for the other post, I can't really recommend pressurizing gasoline w/compressed air for safety reasons. Also 40-60psi really isn't enough to test it. You want 68-78 per the Bentley. IME outside 70-76 causes problems and 72-74 optimizes power, smoothness and cold running. Also, CIS is not EFI. It's just FI. The injectors don't fire - they spray continuously. The ecu has as little to do with this process as possible.
Good luck
It depends on if it has the whole ABA, or just the bottom end. IMO, CIS is terrible if it isnt exactly right. The motronic ABA stuff is alot better, along with the crossflow head.
Grab a E-2000 in line pump sold under many brands as e2000 the OEM app was ford trucks. Used for allsorts of inject stuff in the race world. Find'em on e-bay for $30 or $80 at the local parts store.
Turns out it was the whole motronic setup, very nice! Jumper pack didn't have enough juice to turn it over more than a few times, but the swap looked good. It had a disc brake swap from a scirocco too. The body on the other hand maybe not so good. Thats alright though because I have a clean shell waiting in my garage 
I think this'll work out hopefully.
Ask Smokey Yunick about starting cars without gas tanks.
Will wrote:Ask Smokey Yunick about starting cars without gas tanks.
Plus a Gazillion,
He was the Man. Put it in the roll cage.
PIITRC?
