How good and how strong are then ? I have never been interested in them in Mk2 and have only heard bad things about them. Yesterday I was chatting to a chap who brakes Vw/Audi cars and he showed me 2 blown 1.8t engines, well the top of them at least. The heads looked proper mullered , 1 of the heads had blown the whole cam out and obliterated most of the cam caps , it wasnt pretty. would you have a 1.8T in your car ?
Good maintinance and if you generally look after them there not that unreliable. power to weight of mk2 1.8t
^ exactly any engine will blow up if the owner has let the oil or water run out i see no reason, if looked after, why the 20vt is any less reliable than comparative engines
The main reason is, people push silly power through them on otherwise standard engines. A 200 bhp AGU engine would be reliable and in a Mk2 would still fly.
There have been a lot of sludge problems with them in the past - not sure if that's been fixed or not though. And the heads falling off the valves, as mentioned. If they were horrendously unreliable though, no-one would use them........
Exactly TSC. They fundamentally work fine. If you take the p155, then it might let go on you. Having said that, I've heard that if the MAF sensor dies, a car with an aftermarket remap could be heading for bother.
What about the oil sludge thing? I've only ever read about it on VWVortex, and a lot of replacements being done under warranty - was this a different oil they spec'd for the yank engines? Or just due to the temp differences over there? Or maybe "Jiffylube" or whatever they call them were using Pisstrol 20/50 when the owners were trying to look after their cars better by changing the oil more regularly.......
