An interesting Mk1 engine

[HaydEn]

8v head on a 1.8t turbo block gives you around 13:1 compression if you want to stay NA. All with stock internals.

Anything other than a NA 8v doesn't look or feel right under the bonnet of a mk1. Just my 2 cents anyway

What's involved with this?

Machine water galleries or direct swap?

[Browneye]

What's involved with this?

Machine water galleries or direct swap?

Easier to swap pistons into 8v block then it's a direct swap. Crank and rods are the same so are optional

[HaydEn]

How does it end up 13:1? Quench area in head?

[Browneye]

1.8t pistons have no dish/dome. If you seriously want to go this route it would be effectively unstreetable

[GTI4ME]

I'm debating putting a 4A-GZE into my MK1 for something different, might be a fair bit of fab work involved and might get shat on by people for it, but its an idea.

[sports racer]

Why all the hassle in adapting a 8v head? Just get a non turbo 1.8 20v motor, good for 125hp without any mods.

[nightphotographer]

I have an AWT 1.8T that I would let for for $400 - just throwing it in there.

[Edinism]

What about the JH/ABA hybrid that I've seen around on VWVortex, thoughts on it from the more experienced folks on here?

It seems simple enough, and I'm sort of accepting that I won't see those numbers I was initially after and I'm okay with that.

If it comes down to it I'll just rebuild the JH, I mean, it's pretty fun to drive. I just don't get the 8.5:1 compression ratio :/

[Edinism]

But then again putting the entire 2.0 8V will give me crossflow head I was after and allow the carb/s to breath from the front of the engine bay and not soak in the heat of the headers

[Browneye]

Only mk4 2.0 engines are crossflow unless you get a US ABA motor. Mk4 crossflow head on an external water pump block is doable but requires some head modifications to the oil returns.

Mk3 2.0 with mk2 gti head is the best bang for your buck in terms of NA, but honestly the difference is barely noticeable compared to a mk2 gti complete engine. Both have been done to death and there is lots of info about.