Rant cont.
As far as anemic diesel engines go the 4-cyl IDI 1.9l NA 1X engine was another offering in the rest of the world in the T4, along with the slightly more powerful IDI 4-cyl 1.9l TD ABL eng. These two engines were important engines in that they set the proving ground for the viability of a 4-cyl eng in the later T5 chassis. These can also be viewed as "gateway" engines in a similar way that marijuana is a gateway drug to crack, heroin and crystal meth according to Reagan era drug policy :-)
These 4-cyl T4 engine options provide the factory eng mounting parts and concept for installing "more power-wise apropos" 1.9TDI engines. These engines were based on the 1.9TD engines and were a natural progression in diesel engine technology. The block castings are nearly identical between the early 1.9 TDI engines (1Z, AHU, AFN, etc) and the indirect injection (IDI) 1.9 engines (ABL, AAZ, 1X, 1Y, etc). In fact, the only significant block differences between the two are on the TDIs there is a port machined into the front of the block for the crank position sensor--that's it. There are other differences: pistons, rods, cyl head, injectors, etc, but the take home message is the early TDI blocks mentioned above have the same block architecture as the earlier 1.9l diesel engines that came stock in T4s in the rest of the world, and this is the starting point for understanding the oft asked: "why use the AHU/1Z eng and not an ALH or BEW, BRM, BHW, etc?"
TBC....
Justin
2000 EVW 5-spd TDI