Golf 2 Shipments to Australia

**Golf Loon** · 02-05-2007, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by syncro

Grammatical error there Matt.

"All of the K-Jet motors go harder than the Australian cars."

I was trying to be tactful Phil

syncro · 02-05-2007, 08:55 AM

In Germany, the Digifant Golfs have a much better resale value than the K-Jets, as rego is lots cheaper. They are hard to find there as they were not big sellers due to the performance, and they were more expensive.

**evorobin** · 02-05-2007, 10:55 AM

Rumour has it Zac is selling my 8v digi motor (only 60K on it) and throwing in a free mk1

**golfmeup** · 04-05-2007, 05:51 PM

This is great reading.

I always believed there were only 250 German GTi's imported , so I was close!!

I dont have the full Vin number of mine but i know its a WVW beginning,

So thats german build...

So sounds like a trip to the mechanics to install a few bolt on parts to free up some extra HP msy be in order..

**moto** · 05-05-2007, 01:07 AM

if Bentley can be trusted - and I'm sure they're quoting official figures - the RV motor came with 40mm exhaust valves and 33 mm inlets. (engine section Pg27). That is this was the big valve motor.

Bentley also quotes compression figures for RV engines as 10:1 (i.e. the high compression engine)

Bently quotes SAE horsepower for the RV at 100hp at 5400rpm. So 5hp shy of the PF engine at the same engine speed. (most powerful of the normally aspirated Mk11 8 valves).

The RV was running catalytic converter etc. The PF wasn't. That's where the essential issue lies.

I think its a safe bet that the RV engine differs from the most powerful of the Mk11 8vs by 5hp only because of the emission management it had to carry. Not because of anything intrinsically different in the design and build. And anyway a 5% power loss to meet the regulations was actually a pretty decent achievement.

An extra problem VW faced here in Australia though was there was no high octane fuel in this country for a 10.1 big valve engine to run on. Some tinkering had to be done to detune the engine enough to cope with the lousy fuel situation. I'm only guessing, but this seems to have been achieved by retarding the default engine timing. Advancing it a little seems to work.

Finally (I was told at the time) ADRs required the cat to reach operating temperature faster than could be achieved with the the standard RV exhaust. Therefore the exhaust was deliberately restricted. So chucking the exhaust also works - providing you chuck it for something better.

For those who have done these things and are still disappointed, the answer is to take a really fast drive across the continent to Darwin and back and teach the management system how you want it to work. It learns. (but it forgets if you get lazy later).

Its a long stretch, in my view, to think VW would do a special run of customised RV engines just to supply a market as small as this was. 200 or so cars is barely more than an hour's production. It would not be worth the setup and messing around. Its even more speculative to guess they would produce a custom engine and then not give it a unique code. That would be crazy. I think the best guess is that the RV we got is the same as all the other RVs except for the local fiddles to the exhaust and perhaps timing and default management settings.

When the GTI was launched here the importers tried to make a story of it but the sad truth was the model was at the end of its days, the Japs had the ground covered for a fraction of the money with much newer models and the detuning was a hopelessly botched job. (Thank heavens we dont have ADRs to control the aircraft that can land here. Imagine).

But VW were not alone botching the job of getting a hot hatch on the ground here against the oriental competition. The first Peugeot 205 GTIs that came here did not have a GTI engine and they had drum brakes! At least our GTI was capable of being retro modified to turn it back into the real thing.

And the real thing is pretty marvelous. The 8v Mk11 (in its real costume) was quite a bit quicker than twin cam Alfas of the day and lots of other things. Even today I'm often surprised at its speed especially top end speed. On highway driving it gives nothing away to 200 hp locals. But thats not the point for me. The point is its an historic icon and I just love to drive it. I really don't care if once upon a time it wouldn't pull the skin off custard. It will now and its still delightfully young and agile in an age of increasingly silly automotive fantasies. amen

**evorobin** · 05-05-2007, 01:15 AM

Originally Posted by moto

So 5hp shy of the PF engine at the same engine speed. (most powerful of the normally aspirated Mk11 8 valves).

That would be the 112hp PB. Whats the PF?

brackie · 05-05-2007, 07:31 AM

That account is a delight to see, Moto. Well written and answers a lot of questions. That's the sort of thing I like to see

**static1800** · 05-05-2007, 08:35 AM

Originally Posted by evorobin

That would be the 112hp PB. Whats the PF?

the pf is just like the RV runs digi2 but think it lacks all the emission junk we got over here.

**moto** · 05-05-2007, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by evorobin

That would be the 112hp PB. Whats the PF?

I just checked for this but Bentley gives no listing for a PB engine or for any 112hp engine.
The Bentley reference table I'm looking at is on Pg6 of the Engine section.

The only 112 hp engines I know of were in Mk1s. The last of them (the 1800) was a DX engine. The very early Mk2s produced in 1985 did come with mechanical valve gear like the Mk1. Is it possible PB engines were a small batch of surplus Mk1 engines supplied to a specific market just to clear them? Its strange Bentley doesn't list it.