2.0litre 16v Kjet from a passat ?

Hi people!
I am super new to all this.. and by no means am going to try and pretend i know lots about Mk1 Golfs, because i just don't!

But i have fallen in love with my 1983 mk1 Golf Gti!!

I bought it about a year ago from someone who had fitted a 2.0litre 16v engine from a VW passat. In my (possibly slight naivety) thought bigger engine… More power!?

Any way a year down the line.. and here i am FINALLY getting round to joining this owners club.. But sadly have a problem!!

My engine is not running right.. And i am out of ideas! The mechanics i take it too know NOTHING and are generally horrible about the engine i have.

Basically if i put my foot down the engine doesn't respond and you get a distinct feeling of the car shaking and gargaling (Sounds and feels like in my old mini when water used to get into the distributer).

The engine as i say is a 2.0 16v kjet from a 1990 Passat GT. and is on standard everything.. Bought New spark plugs and leads and distributer very recently.. and give it oil changes very regularly (every 3-4k miles)

The car is my pride and joy.. but also my daily driver!

Can anybody help at all?

Thank you very much in advance!

You are not going to get a magic answer on this one ! It could be a number of things [keep it simple] .

See http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=10919

I take it you have some basic mechanical knowledge? And have followed the Haynes manual fault finding / set up ? Is the fuel system clean and serviced , new fuel etc etc .

Has it ever run correctly ?

Cheers ……………….

Cheers man..

Forgot to mention that this decrease in power normally only crops up as it reaches 4000rpm? but it has its good and bad days.

It seemed to run fine during the summer period.. but it doesn't seem to last long!

Ummm.. I have some Very basic mechanical knowledge but i think as any newbie, was just hoping there was an obvious answer!  ops:

I am getting new fuel filter in a couple of days.. see if that helps.. i was then going to see if the timing was out a little?
Plus i got a new fuel cap the other day (Gti cabriolet one i think.. from crazy quiffs) and it seems that there is some kind of "bad" vacuum being created as when i went to fill up with petrol other day.. while undoing the cap a very loud "PPPSSSFFFFTTTTT" rang out? could this be stopping the fuel pump from pumping if there is a vacuum?

Sorry for all the questions.. i'm just trying to right as much as i can think of so that diagnosis can be more easily made by you guys that actually know lol.

2,0 16V from a Passat will have been on KE-Jet, not K-Jet. If its KE then has the cam been changed? Does the car have a lambda probe fitted? If its on K-Jet then which metering head has been used, which WUR too?

Basically, you need to check the basics as to why its not producing power - is it fuelling or ignition related? You can check for a spark and check the ignition timing so that the advance occurs with increase in rpm, and that there's a change when the vacuum pipe is connected/disconnected. Which system is doing the ignition timing, since all 16V dizzy have no advance characteristics of their own and rely on an ignition ECU of some kind or other.


For fuelling, you can do a basic check by checking mixture (CO) at idle, but ideally you'd need a wideband lambda and road tests (or rolling road) to check properly. If the fuel injection hasn't been set up properly I'd suspect this first.

I had a similar problem with my gti.
I changed loads of different things to try and solve it. I finaly changed the injectors which solved it.
So i would guess that your injectors are leaking

INjectors!! Thats a good one too check actually.. cheers man!

Jeez… the list sure does mount up doesn't it! lol.
Its a good job i love the car.

Do you know the best place to get injectors for my motor? Or what the best ones to get are?

Cheers for all the help guys! Much appreciated

I have some for sale, but they are for the DX 1.8 8v so not sure if they are the same.
Appart from that you could try gsf, but theyre not cheap, i think about ?150 for a set

Don't just randomly swap parts, you could spend a lot of money and get no closer to the solution.

This may sound simple, but it just could be the issue. Check that the throttle switch, full throttle, is adjusted and/or working. Also the themerature sender used for the ECU, check it's values against a theperature chart found in most repair manuals. Either could cause low power and would be cheap to fix if bad.

DX injectors I believe are the wrong thread size. The 2.0L Passat is really a Motronic managed engine I believe, KE I guess could be used for either the CIS-e or CIS-e Motronic, and uses a fine thread injector. You would have to replace the injector lines also to use the DX injectors (there is also an adapter to be found on the Internet). Also I never had this happen, but some have said that a bad knock sensor will cause a low power situation in KE systems, can't really say.

Hello mate,i had the exact same symptoms a while back,turned out to be the fuel pump.Not saying for sure,but thought i'd throw it in the mix :wink: .Good luck.

Hmm A lot of different options to think about there for sure..
I mean to be honest i looked into getting different Injectors.. Just out of curiousity really. My garage said that for my engine NEW injectors are aprox ?100 EACH!!! am i getting seriously ripped off on quotes here?

If its that much money just for injectors.. and it does turn out to be them that is the faulty part.. Im getting bike carbs or something.. cuz i am so sick of this "mechanical" injection crap!

Fuel pump may be a possibility for sure..

To be honest i am a little worried as when my chrome fuel cap got stolen off my car a few weeks ago.. i noticed that there was lots of SAND like substance around the very top of the filler neck. i hope that they haven't poured crap in my petrol tank

i am torn between fixing the current problem.. but also wanting to make it faster anyway.. so don't wanna spend to much money fixing it.. if i end up changing bits and bobs after to make it quicker anyway?

Thanks again for all the info.. its turning into quite a debate!

So….don't replace the injectors unless properly diagnosed! And I believe you can use Mk1 items, if its the wrong thread size then use the fittings from the 9A since I believe all mech injectors are basically the same.

Is your car using K Jet or KE Jet? Depends a lot on the diagnostic steps and possibilities!

Might be worth flushing the tank out, and filling with fresh fuel, if its suspected its been contaminated. Could also be rust/dirt contamination, just cos you have a passat engine up front doesn't mean the fuel tank is clean! They will suffer from a similar issue as all other Mk1 Golfs and its a common issue.

Other than that, do the basics - check for fuel delivery, check you have a spark, check its timed more/less correctly, etc etc. You could use cold start spray (ethyl diether) if you suspect the fuel, because so long as the ignition more/less works, it will run on this stuff.

Well.. The whole fuel tank and filler neck is actually brand new.. it was changed just before i bought the car.. and looks spanking!

I don't know whether its kjet.. or ke? How do i find out?

Really want to put bike carbs in there.. but it isn't as cheep as i thought it would be to be honest  

Detailed pics of the engine bay and fuelling system components under the bonnet, will help to identify.

Black painted steel fuel distributor with two fuel lines running down to a control pressure regulator (warm up valve) mounted on the motor block next to the oil filter = K-Jetronic or K-Jetronic w/Lambda. Aluminum fuel distributor with a gray plastic box mounted to the side having two wires running to it, the fuel pressure regulator mounted next to the fuel distributor (not all cars) and NO control pressure regulator = KE-Jetronic or KE-Motronic. There is a little more minor different stuff but that should get you in the right direction.

Ops, forgot it's a 16v. The control pressure regulator would be located on the transmission side of the cylinder head in that case. Not to normal for a 2.0L 16v to be set-up using K-Jetronic as it was only used on the 1.8L KR code 16v.

Here are some snaps of the engine bay.. hope this helps?






Ok.. hopefully this has worked?

Cheers guys

That's clearly K-Jet, from a Mk2 Golf GTI.