Remove the oil filler cap and you will soon see what you fitted.
I've had the cam cover off many times on all my MK1s... With the cam in place mine looks the same as hydro's that i've seen. Whats tha big difference looks wise?
Do you have 5 cam bearing caps or 4 or look at the follower and see if you can see the shim in the top.
I'm not sure that I would be able to tell the difference between a shim or a hydraulic lifter, just by looking through the oil filler, but I do know that the hydraulic lifters had a label on the rocker cover.......I suppose that is long gone.
The DX engine that was originally in mine was shims but the replacement engine is hydraulic. Assuming you have the original head/block combo you should be able to tell from the engine code but I have my suspicions that yours aren't very original!
Hmmmmm, I do remember the rule about 4 or 5 bearing caps, never remember which is which, I think it's 5 for solids and 4 for hydro, in my mind i'm sure mine has 5... but would need to open it up again to be sure. You defo can't tell through the oil cap hole and to be fair, forgetting the amount of bearing caps you can't really tell by just looking either, I just looked at pics of later 8v heads and what the cam strikes looks pretty much the same.
IIRC VW made Hydro 8v heads from 1985, the last time my car saw Richard Lloyd was in 1985!!! (by this year they were known as GTI Engineering). So there could be a chance that the head was updated to hydro.. It's a confusing car at times as it was badged up as both Richard Lloyd Racing and GTI Engineering.
All the paperwork for this has gone
(house burglary)
All that remains is the GTI Engineering plaque that shows the engine number, valve clearances, fuel mixture etc. I know that this car has had two engine numbers, the first from the RLR spec when new, the second when the car had more work done in 1985.
As far as VW engine codes go, it is possible to have DX coded engines with either solid lifters or Hydro, solid hydro up to 1985.... I think.