nah home ported out PB manifold and downpipe, just gasket matched it and smoothed what i could out. cool, i'll have a look and see whats out there, cheers for the advice again
small update - cracking ported cast PB manifold got worse, welded it up temporarily, still got worse. so i picked up a 4-2-1 stainless exhaust manifold off ebay at bargain price (looks like chinese supersprint copy), got a link pipe made up and fitted it last monday, felt good. got on rollers today and other than the torque peaking lower down it looks basically the same readout - 154.1bhp & 138.5lb/ft this time. so interestingly shows my home porting wasn't that bad perhaps! but that the cracked manifold had been taking its toll hence it feeling better. heres the printout: also fitted a bargain front OMP strut brace little while back tightened the steering up nicely too. fitted it back to front think its a LHD 16v one. so the mk2 is ready for its next trip out to the 'ring next week As for the winter job list got a lot of ideas to think about, bottom end rebuild and lighten/balance is a definite as are a diet for the body (lighter bonnet, bootlid at least).
Good to hear the car is all fettled for the ring trip next week George. And I second what Georges said. Come on Alan, it must be run in by now. Lets see what another final set up will do for your motor.
Hi Great going guys. Here in S.A we also use the crossflow heads quite extensively. The 1600 AKL/AEH and 2.0 APK/AQY were used in our mk4's so readily available, only real mod to use it on the older type blocks is to reduce the oval oil channel to a smaller round one after which the 2E style head gasket works fine. The 1.6 has a plastic variable length intake and 2.0 the ally one the ABA one is slightly better though however it was not available locally though, some used engines like ur ABF do find their way here. As far as performance of the crossflow vs the counterflow heads in std form go local flow results were surprising! On the intake ports we found approx 8% better flow and exhaust ports approx 25% better. In modded form though counterflow heads were close to crossflow. This has led to a popular and growing 8vt conversion. Very reliable and easy with adequate space for the turbobehind the head. A mate of mine ran his car like that for over 5yrs with no hassles, he makes 230whp and300 odd Nm torque. Average 1/4 mile is 13.6 that 1600m above sea level, not bad at all. I have got most of the parts to do one myself and will start the project up soon! Ciao for now!
I don't suppose they're the same spacing as the Mk3 counterflow heads, are they. You could try that AGG manifold of mine to see if it fits
Will do bud! I will have to come over some time, on my return trip I need a big bag to take some ABF's home! You guys are so lucky that ABF's are plentyfull in the UK.
Plenty ABFs in my shed Spitze. I break them up and make 8valvers out of them! The crossflow heads you get out in SA, are they the type with the lump in the valve bowl to induce swirl or are they more like the pre crossflow type inlet valve bowl?
Hey George - how did the 2nd 'Ring trip go? Hope the car held up well. Head porting and a 'proper' engine management setup would really get that thing screaming I reckon Another 20+ horses and torques, I'd guess.
just got back and it was another top trip, fun was definitely had all round. The underdog 8v went well and i learnt a lot more of the track. We were lucky with the weather until it came to packing the tents up this morning in the rain, not so much fun! Thats me done for this year, time to get the quattro sorted next for some comfy winter barge-ing.
Can some one just clear up what cams will fit in the AKL cylinder head? As im thinking of going crossflow too after talks with mr H and Danster. I Read in another thread that the AKL have now gone back to 5 bearing caps so surely a hydraulic cam like posted on page one, will be no good as they are designed to be used with 4 cam caps? I m just trying to see what parts i will need to source and if i can use the 285 cam i have in my solid lifter head on my engine. Also will an AKL head fit on a 1.8 block and what is needed?
You can use the cams designed for hydro tappets from a mk2 golf 8v. The extra cam bearing on the AKL head is not a problem as the cams from EV or PB are machined for the extra bearing, they just do not use them in std form. So for example a Kent GS2H or Piper 285H will work. Basically any 8v hydro tappet cam. To fit on an early 1.6, 1.8 or 2.0 block, the front oil drain needs some work and the outer two heads stud holes need opening up slightly.
These heads are hydro tappets as std, is there any means of using solid tappet running gear to allow for higher revs, as this is why i run solid at the minute in my counter flow? I did see in another post danster, that you have used a solid tappet cam and had to relieve the head to allow the lobes to pass etc, was this so you didnt have to buy a new cam? Also would i be able to use the same vernier pulley from my current solid tappet head if i bought a mk2 8v cam?
I wanted to go solid tappets for the high revs the engine would be running. Hence fitting a solid lifter cam with larger base circle. You can get solid lifter conversion from various companies. These are for converting the hydro's base circle cam though. Hydro cams are designed differently in their profiles to solid lifter cams. You could order any profile solid lifter cam, but machined on the smaller hydro base circle. There are limits to this though due to the smaller base circle. And yes, early 8v PB or EV vernier pulleys will work.
Can you show me what oil ways need fiddling with in order to fit to a 1.8 block please, i take it this is an AKL head off of a uk based crossflow? So with the cam, is it possible for me to find out what size the smaller base circles are and get my solid lifter cam machined to suit? or would it be easeir and cheaper to just order a mk2 hydro cam with the desired lift? or am i just totally Im just trying to work out the cheapest way of converting to crossflow by keeping as many of the parts i already have.
I too would like to see how the cross flow heads needs to be modified to fit on a 2E or 1.8ltr bottom end.
