Rob built a gen set with an older VW Rabbit engine. I believe they were rated at 58 hp peak.....
I think they would be a better choice and reliable its also a precup engine.
If you asked about 20 Hp of it at 1800 rpm I think that would be a very reliable alternative
Doug is right. I put together a plant using a 1.5 litre, 4 cyl diesel IDI from a 1980 Rabbit. I run it at 1800 RPM and it makes 9 kW of E, 3 kW from each of three phases. I can not get any more power out of it at 1800 RPM so that suggests I am making about 18 HP. My alternator is similar to an ST head but 3-phase and puts out 480 VAC. I use a large xfmer to reduce this to 208 Y and 120 volts per leg.
I started out with a similar 1994 Jetta engine at 1.6 litres. Unfortunately this engine had insufficient oil pressure and massive blowby, but in the short time I had it running it seemed to make slightly more power than the 1.5L. Either of these engines would be a good choice for a generating plant. I have a 1992 Jetta with a 1.6 TD engine in like new shape having low hours since a rebuild. I am thinking of using that as is as a drop in replacement. The turbo will be effective at 1800 RPM and I think it will easily make 15 kW of E.
I managed to break an eyebrow shaped piece out of the thread that holds #4 injector in the 1.5 head. For a time I ran the engine with 3 cylinders. Noisy as a gattling gun with the air being forced in and out of that open injector hole. The energy needed to make that noise caused the rack to be more open than on four cylinders and fuel economy went down as well as useable power. I have a mechanical speed regulator on this plant. I didn't put more than a couple of hours on it in that mode. It also vibrated a lot on 3 cylinders because of the imbalance of power strokes and the lights flickered horribly. I was lucky enough to be able to arc weld with stick, the broken off piece without removing the head and it now holds an injector once again and runs great.
I do not recommend shutting off any cylinders in a 4 cylinder VW diesel. These engines are very economical, even with all four holes lit up.
When I do not need power from the engine for shop equipment but wish to continue running it for a bit of heat and light I wedge a piece of precut hardwood into the governor linkage to the rack. It throttles the engine down to about 1200 RPM. Even at this speed there is enough AC that the incandescent lights hooked up and the resistance heaters all continue to put out at a reduced rate. Fuel use in this mode goes way down. You can get about 2-3 kW at this speed (40-45 Hz) IIRC.
I like the VW engine in that it is very much quieter than the big singles I have. I am leaning towards the singles though for any additional plants because they cost much less in parts and rebuild time when maintenance is required. You can buy a Changfa 1115 for what the parts and machine work on the head will cost to rebuild a VW diesel. You can buy a Changfa 195 for what an injection pump rebuild will cost for a VW diesel.