After reading a few threads on the aftermarket 16v heads I thought it would be a good idea to put all the info into one thread sofar we have Oettinger,Drake,Graf and a austrian head with no name ? so post away with pics and specs a bit of info taken from here http://www.icelord.net/vw/upgrades/collins_3.html Aftermarket 16v heads: There are three aftermarket heads that I know of. Of which, only two can I review - as the third I don't even know the manufacturers name. Oettinger: Oettinger has long been considered the venerable 16v head manufacturer for water cooled VW motors. They have been making the head about 8 years. For the most part, it is a good design. But like the VW head, it wasn't designed for racing, just a little high performance. The head is a two piece head, with the cam housing as one piece, and the combustion chamber/valve housing as another piece. The intake and exhaust valves meet the combustion chamber at approximately 30 degrees. The ports for the valves meet approximately 75 degrees with the combustion chamber. This isn't so good for racing, but is adequate for street use, and immeasurably better than VW's own head. The exhaust cam is driven via gear from the intake cam, and it is a cross flow head. Oettinger went through some pain and expense to make the head California street legal. The kit they offered was based on a 1588cc motor. It had 10:1 compression ratio, and all the parts necessary to put the motor together. It cost $5500.00 and developed 136hp. (Remember $5500 is NOT a complete motor, just the cost of the kit.) Drake: It isn't well known that Drake Engineering also makes a 16v head for the VW. Drake never marketed the head for street use, and instead chose to develop it for racing only. Since Drake is a racing company with a long history of development, they weren't afraid to engineer a head that had no performance compromises. The head is also a two piece head. But unlike the Oettinger, the Drake head afforded all the creature comforts that make working on a motor real nice. For example, head bolts: The openings in the cam housing were designed to be big enough for the head bolt tool (10mm 12point socket) to fit in, but smaller than the heads of the head bolts. What this means is that (picture the head attached to the block) when the head bolts are loosened, the head lifts itself away from the block. No prying or hitting with a rubber mallet. Another byproduct, is that the head bolts made a convenient stand for the head; thus the valves could NEVER get bent by setting the head down. Intake and exhaust valve ports are 21 degrees with respect to the combustion chamber, and the valves themselves are approximately half that. This is the ultimate performance design for ports. Practically a straight shot into the combustion chamber. Because of the port design, the head is slightly wider than Oettinger or VW, but is thin enough to work on a street motor. Austrian 16v: There is a company in Austria that makes a VW 16v head also...but I know nothing about it. 16v performance review: The VW head is junk for racing or high performance. I have little regard for this head at all. For 8v owners, you are best to build the motor you have now, as you can get MORE performance out of it, than VW's 16v. For comparison, I will give specs for both 8 and 16v performance heads: Motor Cam HP Induction 8v 1781cc .426 130 @ 6500 Fuel injection 8v 1805cc .496 178 @ 8000 1 Weber 45 DCOE 8v 1977cc .475 185 @ 7500 2 Mikuni 44pph 8v 1588cc .500 210 @ 9000 Hilborne F/i (supervee motor) 8v 1588cc .410 145 @ ? 8# boost Callaway turbo 8v 1588cc .410 165 @ ? 11# boost Callaway turbo 8v 1781cc .423 175 @ ? 11# boost Callaway turbo 16v 1588cc ? 136 @ 6500 2 Mikuni 44pph (Oettinger 16v) 16v 1588cc ? 178 @ 7000 2 Mikuni 44pph (Drake 16v) 16v 1781cc ? 123 @ ? KE Jetronic (VW 16v stock) 16v 1781cc ? 140 @ ? KE Jetronic (High performance version) Racing 16v's: 2021cc 210 DIN VW 16v 2021cc 225 DIN Oettinger 16v 1935cc 295 SAE Drake 16v Who's head performs best? The results are obvious. I will admit that my specs for racing 16v's for Oettinger and VW were taken from printed literature. That's not to say that more power isn't possible (but I doubt it!).
I think the Austrian heads are indeed the Graf heads, just with plain cam covers... Just a thing to remember, the article above was written by an ex drake employee, I think his name was Robert Collins from memory. There are some articles by him on VW vortex. I have put some links below to all the aftermarket stuff I found a couple of years ago... http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1181175 http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3943975 http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3448807&page=1 http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=196164 http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1640527
Presumably there are at least two types of Oettinger 16v head out there. I understand they were initially based on fitting the early 1588cc block which has a different style of head gasket to incorporate the smaller bore and oilways that are in a different position from the later 1781cc engines. I have also heard that the later heads fit the later style blocks. Confirmation required. A pic of the headgasket face would suffice if anyone has got one.
I'm wondering about this too! I remember the mk1 16s heads & their manifolds but on the Gti engineering brochures thread,there is a pic of a mk2 2.0 Oettinger conversion with a completly different inlet manifold (1 i don't recall seeing before) i have seen 2.0 16v Oettinger engines before with the French manifolds fitted (maybe they are interchangeble) or is it possible to bore out the 1588 engine to 2.0? As i'm sure you are aware,the 1588 had the water outlet in a different position to the 1781 engine's produced after that Would love a answer to this one
Hmm, agree, some digging required. The only diff I knew about was the waterways in the very different Mk2 inlet mani.
Hmm... only just seen this! If Dave really is in el salvador the postage maybe expensive! Would need them for a few days to maybe make up or adapt my 16v valve opening tool, but it's do-able.
hi guys I also do own an oettinger head the 2 liter head mk2 golf And 1.6 liter head mk1 are the same appart from the second oil drain I have been told that oettinger was blocking the second big hole on engine blocks to make the head fit regarding the manifold they are the same fit but only the geometrie is different the 1.6 being a short stroke needed big and short port for high end and the 2.0 being very long stroke 94.5 revs limited at 6500 they decieded to give it all the strengh at the bottom smaller and longer ports the other little thing is the mk2 manifold being longer dont fit in a mk1 or you got to make it fit regarding the water way both inlet manifold is designed with coolant manifold so the 2.0 and 1.6 oettinger head are the same but there as been 2 different oettinger head one really rare one ordered by an american guy with initial CL for racing purpose only the head was different then the next one as it was a twin timing belt setting one timing belt between crank pulley and inlet cam and one timing belt between inlet and exhaust cams the legend also say the internal is different : bigger valves, better valve angle the more known oettinger head is a mix of belt and gears one belt between the crank and inlet and two gear between the inlet and exhaust cams both cams turn opposite way (similar setting was made on the UR quattro who copied who??) now i also been told by an ex oettinger ingeneer that the oettinger head as been used by VW motorsport because the head was much better and i think I have seen Su Kemper twin engine with pics off oettinger head I will post some pics of my head if some of you are interested and I m waiting on two more takers for the Big valves group buy and i will be able to give the flow of it with bigger valves robert collins was indeed ex employe of drake those Drake head look awesome but really rare he really didnt like the VW OEM head that s for sure
Thanks for that information Romain. If you could get some pictures taken of the head that will be really good. Interesting to hear that they just blocked the off the oil way to make the earlier designed head fit the later block too.
Here are a few pics view of combustion chambers exhaust and inlet track ported with new guides fitted but the guides will be replace to fit smaller stem valves the oettinger head is a three parts head *head cover * camshaft carrier * and head little view of the exhaust side now the inlet side hope you liked it
Wow, some really rare information being pointed out in this thread. Nice the way some threads just start, do a little, and then flourish again later on
Small update This first version of head was ready to run from 1977 They were said to develop 200 hp for 1600 cc Intended for group 1 and 2 then group 4 I guess. You spotted the mechanic injection and the head seems wider Now it s crazy they kept the cast exhaust manifold
Robert Collins needs to stand up so what he says is'nt so muffled!... the VW may not be as good as some OE 16v heads (Vauxhall XE for example), but ist's not "that" bad. That Oettinger looks good, but the exhaust ports dont look much different to the regular VW 16v port. A well ported VW 16v head will feed a 240-250hp engine easy enough, more with development.
The Oettinger was designed to have 'independent' water flow up from block and over c.chamber roofs, hence the 5 outlets in the intake face. This leads to better heat transfer to coolant. And, its also slightly easier to design the coolant jackets within the head, you can be pretty sure that you wont have hotspots as there is ample water flow over each roof. Compared to a factory head with one outlet between the intakes. Making sure number one, or four runs at the same temperature as two and three is harder with just one outlet. Some engines backflow the water(I dont know why all HP engines dont) to promote cooling further, that is, run the water back from rad into head, and flowing down into block. That way cooling/reaching the hottest part first, and the part that needs it most first. The water is better able to cool since doing it this way means that it has not picked up heat from the block on its way to head. All done of course in the quest for less detonation at higher cr. More less common pictures of the Oett head, these were sent to me by the seller some time ago when a head came up for sale. I never did buy it because i thought it would be better put the money into r+d for my own. Something that a few may not know, or be obvious at the start, is the cam box, it was required because of the narrow valve angle. This angle places the cam shafts directly over the head bolts, preventing access to them. Therefore, the cam box was needed. Head was bolted down, then the cams and box were fitted. Ill add more as I think of it, Ive looked/studied this head closely, there are other design things worth a mention.
