New car , start fiddling under the hood .

[momojones]

Hi all , just bought myself a black 92 plate 8 valver , I'm going to have around £300 to spunk on the engine , it's already got a half decent exhaust and a KN induction kit . Just wondering what should be the next purchase , something that i can build from in the future . Any ideas would be great .

[...joe]

i'd ditch the induction kit and go back to a standard airbox with a k&n panel filter then spend the rest on a polished/ported head.

[momojones]

Cheers mate , this is  just me being ignorant and generally intersted because my engine knowledge goes as far as which fluids go where and which part the dizzy cap is , but what are the advantages of a polished / ported head ?

[Mr Blue]

that a k plate mk2?

if it is then leave it as standard as possible mate. 

[momojones]

No it's a J reg mate

[Judderi]

A ported and polished head takes away all the rough edges and casting marks in the inlet and outlet ports. This allows the air to woosh in and out quicker giving better performance.

[kittie]

Sorry to thread hijack, but what's the approx cost of doing a port and polish on the head? Is there anything else that's worthwhile doing at the same time, while the heads coming off anyway?

[Judderi]

Its a job for an experienced professional really. They do stuff like angle the valves etc etc. Usually costs around £300

There is a guy selling on ebay called head fx who is very good.

[rubjonny]

get yopurself a 2.0 bottom end from a MK3 Golf or Passat, the easiest one to use is the earlier 2e code, the later ones need the dizzy swapped.

This should go very well with a ported head with a lairy cam

[J.stafford16v]

I had an 8v which was put into restoration over seven years ago, it had a piper rally cam fitted to the head with a piper dtm zorst fitted. It made a great noise and an even better  when you hit 3000 rpm which was when the cam kicked in  . I still have the head inc cam kit, and the bottom part of the engine, would sell for a reasonable price if interested. As I have now brought a 16v I have no use for the engine and it would be ashame to not put this engine to use as its only done 69k. Speedo to prove this figure.