David,

A couple of points:

The stock diesel starter is rated at around 2.3hp. The stock 1.6 diesel
engine has a 23:1 compression ratio. Would seem like the diesel starter
would be the way to go (of course assuming it can be fitted to your bell
housing, and the teeth will merge etc.)

The other thing is battery capacity. At -30C, the battery will have
approximately 56% of its room temp Ah rating (from Johnson Controls manual
for their Dynasty range of batteries - gel cells, but still a valid figure).
Battery voltage will also be lower, maybe around 11.95 volts. It may be wise
to use a battery warmer blanket and/or wire an additional starting battery
in parallel.

Alistair

albell@uvic.ca
'82 Westy, diesel=>I4 gas

/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign
\ / No HTML/RTF in email
 X  No Word docs in email
/ \ Respect Open Standards!

>>
>>> The question is, how do I START
>>> the motor???  With the TDI being 19.5:1 compression ratio the stock
> Syncro
>>> starter will have a very hard time spinning the motor, if it could spin
> it
>>> at all.  At -30C to the equation and there is no way it would spin.
>>> Any thoughts or suggestions???
>>>
>>> David Marshall
>