16v vs 8v

[Petska84]

Ok now be honest and sensible please guys. I know that 16v has better performance, but really is it a huge difference to the humble 8v. Can someone give me a personal review on there experience in making the change to 16v.

Cheers
Pete

[Vinda76]

Well this will run and run. It comes down to personal preference in the end, 8v grunt or an engine that needs to spun to make power. Funds, availability of base engine and intended use all play a factor too.

[velly_16v_cab]

daily drive = 8v
track/race car = 16v

As 16v's are not massively available here in Oz I would go to the 2.0 8v path.

If I was back in the UK, I would be running a 2.0 16v all day long

[Dub Toffee]

HI Mate I run a 16v 9A in my mk1 its a Massive difference over the 8v.
Its a big swap if you dont have everything you need as you will have to find all the extra bits and bobs.
Its very Rewarding and worth all the effort if not for the missive difference in hp and Trq then purely for the fun in the sound
of one revving under acceleration.

I will have my complete set up for sale soon pm me if your interested.

[Petska84]

HI Mate I run a 16v 9A in my mk1 its a Massive difference over the 8v.
Its a big swap if you dont have everything you need as you will have to find all the extra bits and bobs.
Its very Rewarding and worth all the effort if not for the missive difference in hp and Trq then purely for the fun in the sound
of one revving under acceleration.

I will have my complete set up for sale soon pm me if your interested.

Sounds convincing. It's just that in in the process of building a pretty egressive 2L 8v ATM. But can also get my hands on a 16v fairly cheap and might put it aside for future development.
The only thing is I don't like the fact you can't find parts around the corner for them.

[Stanton]

8vs are getting old now and soon it will be just as hard to buy parts locally.
16v all the way.
One has to spend quite a bit of money to get hp from an 8v,with a 16v its free.

[sports racer]

Which 16v are you looking at getting? KR, 9a or ABF?

[h100vw]

Which 16v are you looking at getting? KR, 9a or ABF?

I have built both 8v and 16v road cars back in the UK.

I had a MK1 1800 GTI with a TSR pack C head on it and TSRs 103 cam, a great car a little let down by the Kjet until I fitted a 5th injector driver and did away with the cold start injector.

Previously it would barely pull and indicated 120mph. On the way back from having the 5th injector tuned, it ran off the clock. I also modified the dissy, to make maximum power you had to set the dissy to the point you couldn't get it to idle nicely. So I filed the stops for the bob weights to get more advance at speed but retain the idle timing.

This was a fantastic package.

After a while the whole 2 litre thing caught on. So I got a 2 litre engine and dropped that in with the Pack C head etc. Ran pretty good but was very thirsty. Torquey but I lost the top end of the 1800 when I had to take the headers off, as they knocked on the body due to the engine being taller. I fitted a cast manifold and lengthened a set of std downpipes.

This took it from a 4-1 to a 4-2-1.

Still a great car but didn't rev like the 1800.

On a really cold day as an 1800 it clocked 177hp at the crank at 7700, using the coast down calculation. Having had a 2 litre ST162 Celica in the past I was dubious about that number but it did go hard.

Never dyno'd the 2 litre engine.

Costs involved in doing the 8v engine to get those number were substantial. Where putting in a 16v would have cost you the price of a scrapped 16v Golf or Jetta. You would have had a std engine and with headers and a decent exhaust, run rings around the 8V except in a rolling 5th gear pull. Would have made close on 160 at the crank. No need to buy cams or anything.

So personally, I'd go with the 16v conversion all day in a MK1. Assuming all the parts are there from under the bonnet.

My 2 cents

Gavin aged 46 1/2, so I have seen the scene.

[Water Boy]

I nice 1.6ltr 8v is fun to drive and sounds good. Cheap and 100's of em in Aus.

A 16v has some great power but where do you get one?
If you can find one cheap, run it on some nice side draught or motorcycle carbs it would be amazing.

[Petska84]

I think I'll stick with the 8v for a while and then if I decide to add a few more valves I'll skip the 16 and go 20v due to the availability in parts and also reliability.