new project which way to go

[jasonpi]

right im deciding to get another mrk2 at some point (hopefully i wont crash this one)!! now eventually when i do get it i will want to restore it to original standards apart from the engine i want something a little different dont want a massive conversion not my cuppa but was thinking on twin carbs and this is where it gets a bit confusing for me will it go on ok to the 8v better than the 16 valve or vice versa also what will be better performance wise? any help will be appreciated

[Judderi]

Im no expert but i would of thought youd be better putting carbs on a valver.

1 because its a better engine to start with (que the arguments!) 
2 because the intake manifold enters the front of the block rather than the back of the block like and 8v giving better induction.

I met a guy who had highly modded a 1.8 8v with a mechanical race head and twin carbs and we went out for a little race round a very quite quaint scottish road. I was astonished at the power this thing had. Mines a 2 litre 16 valver and he was still a little quicker than me! This engine was full race spec mind you! One thing i did notice which i was a little scared at was the fact that once the twin carbs are on they are so close to the bulk head that you cant even fit filters to them so you have to run without which isnt good!

Id recomend a valver with a 2 litre bottom end and twin carbs if you really wanna go the carb route.

[jasonpi]

so 16v would be better just because the airflow situation? and i was thinking of just reboring a 1.8 out!? want to use the engine that comes with it...btw what is a safe limit for boring out a 1.8 bottom end

[Judderi]

Yeah 16v would be better for airflow. Not sure about boring the block, probably be able to go to 2 litre. You would be better off going for a replacement bottom end though, apparently its a realy easy straight forward swap.

[Organisys]

A common swap is a 2 Litre unit from a Passat (and a Audi 80 / Coupe ?)

[...joe]

yeah i agree with ben, 16 valve has a cross flow head so all the sucky bits will sit in the grill rather than over a hot exhaust! if you want to put decent power through it you might as well bore it out. it'll cost more than finding a 2ltr but when i was looking around so many 2ltr blocks were high mileage or had no history so could have been a risk. i bored mine to 1900 which i think was 83.5mm pistons. i think the biggest you can do is 1940. you could also add a 95.5 mm crank to give you 2ltr but i was advised against this as i'd have lost a bit of bottom end, but mine is an 8 valve so you may well get away with it on a 16 valve.

[...joe]

sorry just remembered, if you did want to use an 8 valve there is a cross flow head used on later vw's most people think its just the new beetles that have this head but its also on others of a similar age. bolts straight on.

[jasonpi]

thanx all, i did see a golf a while back in red concourse standard with a 16v engine with twin webbers which was chrome looked the dogs