2.0l 16v - need help with 1.8 head on 2.0 bottom end

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

Hi everyone,

The swap has been going good. Finished up all my head and engine bay work
and got the new shortblock and the tranny bolted together today and slid
it under the car so I could put the head on (it wouldn't fit under the
front if I put the head on outside the engine bay).

I set the head gasket in place (it's a Goetze 2.0l 16v) and then went to
set the head on top and bolt it down but I noticed that the dowels do not
line up. They line up fine with the gasket but not the head. On the 1.8
16v head, the dowels are directly in the middle of the #1 and #4
cylinders. On the 2.0 block, the dowels are in the middle of the #1
cylinder and about 1/4 of the way across the #4 cylinder. I tried setting
the head on and it left a scrape mark (on the outside, unimportant part of
the head) where the dowel was, plus I could tell the head was not seated.

So it won't just bolt up.

Now I suppose my options here are to either grind down the dowel (prefer
not to) or to grind a small groove in the outside of the 1.8 head where
the dowel was hitting in order to make it work.

I thought this was a bolt-on no-mods swap.. ?!? I guess not..

I can't find anything about this on google or vwvortex so please respond
if you have any info as this is holding my project up.

Thanks in advance!!

-Toby