Re: To bore, stroke, and breathe

[Hulda Jowett <hjowett@nasc.mass.edu>]

> Well, really, I dont see where porting the 1.8L head would gain much. The 
> 1.8L head already flows quite well. I think that if anybody wanted to go into 
> the ports and port match AND clean up the passageways a bit with a mild 
> polish job, that would be a little beneficial. Unless you have a flow bench 
> to trully know if you are actually making the head flow better or worse, your 
> wasting yout time anyways. (Unless of course you meant to send the head out 
> for a P&P job. Well, thats different, isnt it!) 

There is a bit to be gained w/o any loss of lowend velocity (not that 
there is whole lot anyway). The roof of the port can be smoothed a bit, 
and the important thing is to knife edge the bridge between the two 
valves in the port. There are "safe bets" when it comes to porting at 
home, the most important things to remember are... don't even think 
about touching the port floor, it's a stagnant area of flow, leave it 
alone. Do't go crazy hogging things out! Your advice on smoothing and 
such is perfect. You want to remove as little material from the port as 
posible. Most of the flow to be gained is in the last 30% of the port. 
You want to be sure the transition from the port to the valve seat is 
smooth with no edges. VW actually bores this at the factory on the VR6 head!

> >I'd say for a realistic, affordable street engine, stay with the stock 
> >2.0l bottom end (perhaps have it balanced). A minor porting job to the 
> >1.8l head, your choice of cam, and the stock intake. Ofcourse you should 
> >match port everything too. The 50mm intake is a high end hp piece, maybe not 
> >what you are after, but you can always easily upgrade to it later.
> 
> 
> I agree. for the easiest way to bolt on displacement, finding a 2.0L short 
> block and rebuilding it may be the cheapest route. Velocity also sells the 
> short block with the kit basically in it for the same as what Autotech 
> was asking for the kit alone. So your only cost after that would be a gasket 
> set and a new belt, the usual new parts you would want with a new motor. 
> Interesting, huh? Dam, too bad the credit cards are full, or id get me a 
> Velocity 8V 2.0L kit with 12.1 comp pistons!!! Hey Mike, we gotta install 
> that knock sensor!!
> 

I come accross a 2.0lshort block once in a while, for around $300 - $400, 
usually well under 100k miles. 

A good idea is too draw out a plan, then start to gather the pices as you 
can afford them. Before you know it, you'll have everything ready to go. 
The important thing behind all this is too have fun anyway, so do it 
right the first time! ;)

Later,

Brian
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to scirocco-L-request@privateI.com,
with your request (subscribe, unsubscribe) in the BODY of the message.