VR6 engine mods - what benefits?

[Robbo149 0]

Hi all,

 

I'm now seriously looking at possible engine mods on my VR as I think it could do with a head rebuild anyway. I'm just wanting to know what to go for to get the best gains. I'm probably going to go for a ported & polished head (best so far £495 exchange from C&R), what sort of gains will this give me on its own? Should I get cams at the same time? what sort of additional gains will they give? are they worth the extra £500? Or should I forget the cams & save for a Shrek?! (I do have a limited budget btw!)

 

Any advice welcome!

 

Cheers,

Robbo

[PhatVR6 0]

£500 for a port and polish! you could buy a compressor for that and start doing your own! seriously, that is a sh1t load of money for just a quick port clean up.

 

Speak to grant motorsport about proper headwork.

 

check german ebay, there's usually some schrick 268 cams on there for about £480. which will worck very nicely with the VGI.

[dr_mat 0]

Yeah but that ported+polished head is an exchange, so presumably you are getting refurbed valve stem seals, lifters, valves, etc etc for that at least.

You get the opportunity to send your old knackered head back..

[PhatVR6 0]

I bet you don't get new valves, lifters and all that for £495. maybe new guides and stem seals, but I bet that's it.

[Robbo149 0]

I didn't think £495 sounded too bad, other places I've looked are £600 - £700!

 

A couple of things to bear in mind - my mechanical skills/knowledge are pretty basic, so a DIY job is out of the window, & also I don't want my car off the road for too long, so I think an exchange head is probably gonna be best for me. I've tried a few local scrappers to see if I can get hold of a head to get refurbished, but so far no joy! what gains can I expect from headwork & cams?

 

Cheers,

Robbo

[PhatVR6 0]

A good set of cams will net you up to 20BHP.

 

I've been told head porting does very little unless you know where to port. gasket matching the manifolds to the head is far better.

 

I had 207BHP out of my old 2.9 with the cams, chip and VGI.

[Robbo149 0]

Just phoned C & R & asked them about their heads. For £495 (inc VAT) you get a complete exchange rebuilt head, ported & polished, including valves, guides, seals, ready to bolt on (obviously no cams). There is an additional surcharge of £150 until old head is returned.

 

TSR do a similar spec complete head for £675 (standard valves) & they claim a 15% increase in power!

 

I think it's gonna be a lot cheaper to find a s/h head & get it refurbished locally, or is it? Plus I have to get hold of one!.. not having much look so far.

 

Cheers,

Robbo

[PhatVR6 0]

Keep your eyes on ebay, VR6 head come up now and again.

 

buy a valve spring compressor for £30 and strip it yourself. you can even port it yourself, then take it to an engine builders to get new guides fitted.

 

Then rebuild it yourself too. It'll cost you a fraction of the price.

 

[dr_mat 0]

One thing to remember Phat, not many people like doing these sort of jobs on the dining table... ;)

Also, it's a bit annoying to have to spend a load of cash buying tools that you will only use once...

Of course it'll cost a fraction of the price if you do it yourself, but for those of us that weren't born with a spanner in our hands, there's the very real risk that we'll arse it up, and wind up having to buy another head altogether, or putting it all together and having it not work. So please don't disrespect those of us that choose to ask skilled spanner monkeys to do our work for us, accusing us of being lazy or cowards...

[PhatVR6 0]

I've only been into working on cars for 5 years.....I had no tools of my own at all when I moved house 3 year ago. And I've never had any automotive mechanical training whatsoever.

 

But, I have wasted a lot of money, and all my hair after building a car and being constantly f*cked around and ripped off by just about every company in the UK. I won't even pay for a car wash these days.

 

So, I'm just particularly bitter about them making any more money and stressing everyone else out and putting them through the same sh1t I've been through. It's not rocket science, it's nuts ans bolts and I know the pride and satisfaction you can get from knowing it's all your own work. hence why I always like people to just get on with it themselves.

 

That's what these forums are for, to help people do their cars themselves on a budget and enjoy it.

 

There's no fun at all in just spending the money. not for me anyway.

[dr_mat 0]

This forum is a really good source of information on the best places to get things done, no question. There's a lot of places that may or may not be doing good work but will charge over the odds for it regardless.

I know exactly what you mean about wasting money on repairs. I hate having to pay god-knows-how-much to get simple stuff done, but when I just don't have the time or the space or the tools I have no choice. Well I do, but that choice was made some time ago, and I don't wanna move house! :)

But then my original hope was that I'd buy a Corrado, and then it'd spend a day a year in the garage being serviced and MOTd. I could live with that.

How little I knew!! :(

[PhatVR6 0]

Doing it the way I have done is the only way I could afford a decent corrado VR6. and for the same money as what most of you paid for your standard one I have a highly modified one. So the tools have almost paid for themselves.

 

as for Storm owners :roll: money to burn..... :|

[Robbo149 0]

Well put Matt, I'm in the same boat. I have a lot of respect for people like Phat who are willing to have a go themselves, but I don't have the time or inclination to do anything too major myself. Wife/kids/work etc mean I don't particularly want to be out in the garage all weekend. I personally would rather pay someone else, as long as they are doing a good job & not ripping me off! Also, as my C is my only transport, I can't afford for it to be off the road for too long.

 

Cheers,

Robbo