16v Head

[MikeVR6 0]

I was thinking of having some head work done to my 1.8 16v.

This would have meant taking the car off the road for a while.

However, a friend has an earlier 16v head for sale for £100.

Apparently, these earlier engnes have a "sweeter" cam. Is this true?

 

I might buy this head and have it ported/polished then just swap my old one out. May fit a Mk2 50mm manifold too.

I know very little about this sort of thing. Does it sound feasible?

Are there any other mods I could make to this "spare" head before fitting?

 

Cheers!

[Joe M 0]

As far as I know the cam is better than the one on the 2.0 16v but as yours is a 1.8 then you already have the better cams

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The KR (1800) head has a wilder inlet cam than the 2.0 engine, but the exhaust cams are the same. Personally I would use 2 exhaust cams on a 2.0 engine, good for 165-170bhp before anything else! To use the an exhaust cam in place of the inlet cam (0.5mm more lift than a KR inlet cam) you need to send it off to stealth Racing to have the woodruff key remachined into a different position.

 

The 50mm manifold will give the engine more top end, at the slight expense of bottom end. It is rumoured the fastest valvers were the early C and D reg ones with the 42mm inlet manifold (same as Corrado). Autocar recorded a 0-60 of 7.3 seconds on a D reg Monza blue MK2. Which ever manifold you use, make sure you replace the brass injector seats and seals, all 8 injector seals and the 4 plastic injector guides.

 

Just some food for thought....

 

Kev

94 VR6

[chuck 0]

Hey mike, wots the craic?

I've spent so much on mine recently, that I've looked into modding the engine too. Looking through this section i think the first one I'll do is to marry a 2.0l block to my 1.8 head. Apparently the 1.8 head has bigger valves, as well as a wilder inlet cam. That should give it a bit more low end which is personally where I feel the 1.8 is lacking.

The twin exhaust cam idea is £75 plus VAT from stealth (from another thread) if you send them an exhaust cam to modify.

As kev here has said, that could produce about 165bhp, with a bit more low end than the 1.8, which should be a very drivable car!! :)

THese two seem to produce the most bang for least bucks, as most other changes seem to be very expensive for litte change.

 

There's another one that was on somewhere if you buy that head - skimming the head. Haven't priced this yet, but it could be expensive, and I can't remember the gains, except that the guy who did it seemed very enthusiastic.

 

Personally I wouldn't bother with the polishing and porting on the 16V head. The 16V head is (again from what I've read) very good in this respect anyway.

 

Cheers

 

P.S. got your parts back from Gary yet?