# 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket?



## brian k lanning (Aug 4, 2002)

I am about to use a 1.8 ported JH head on a 2.0 ABA block(1998 8V).What head gasket is best?The 2.0 16V?Also ,the head is going to be milled .040 in order to raise the comp. ratio.How does this affect,if at all,the timing setting.What I mean is with a shorter head the timing belt is longer,even though.040 is a small amount.I am thinking that the slack is taken up by the adjuster pulley and there is no need to worry.Am I correct?I just want to make sure before proceeding.Also, what is the "short side radius" and the" blow area" of the head.I know this is a lot of stuff to ask but if anyone knows I would appreciate the info.Thanks.


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## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (brian k lanning)*

The 2.0-16v head gasket is the prefered gasket. A .040" milled will retard your valve timing by about 1 degree. The "short side radius" is the tight bend in the floor of the port just above the valve seat. "Blow area" I have no idea, if you give us a context, maybe we can figure it out. Perhaps you means "bowl area"?


[Modified by ABA Scirocco, 10:26 AM 4-8-2003]


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## brian k lanning (Aug 4, 2002)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (ABA Scirocco)*

Thank you very much,I was hoping you would respond,I have all of your info from your website.This info will help a lot.I am somewhat confused and have a lot of questions if you don't mind.First,on the install car the injection system is an 84 jetta,it did not have the throttle position sensors.I also have an 83 scirroco with the injection system intact that does have the sensors.Both have the warm up regulator on the front of the block.What two systems are these?CIS?Same or different?Do I use one of them and modify like in your site?Would it be best to get the fuel distributor,knock sensor,from a later model such as 85-88?I would like to use the larger throttle body from a 16V car,would it be best at this point to seek another donor for all this equipment in order to operate correctly?I am more familiar with the CIS-E.Is the knock sensor ign. a direct fit,"stand alone management"as people say?Or do I have to modify the fuse box/wiring harness?What I am hoping for is that I can just plug it in and like "magic"it works perfectly,but that is a rare occurance.I know this is imposing,but you know more about this than I ever will.Thanks again,Brian


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## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (brian k lanning)*

Yes, both systems are CIS. There are a few different variants of the CIS system, there's CIS basic (no O2 sensor) and CIS-Lamdba (with O2). In Canada, an 84 non-GLI Jetta would have had CIS basic but it's my understanding that U.S. spec was CIS-Lambda so, I'll assume that your Jetta has CIS Lambda. There are a few variants of CIS-Lambda that I am aware of, some had 80mm air sensor plates and others had smaller (60mm?) plates, some had a wide open throttle (WOT) switch like the Scirocco and some didn't. Pull the rubber boot off of your Jetta's fuel distributor and measure the air sensor plate if it's the smaller, don't use that unit, it's too restrictive for a 2.0L engine.
That isn't really a throttle position sensor on the Scirocco's throttle body, it's a wide open throttle (WOT) switch. As the name implies it's actived only at wide open throttle, it's used for full throttle fuel enrichment. When activated it basically forces the fuel ECU to ignore the oxygen sensor and sets the mixture at a pre-programmed level. This enrichment scheme is a very crude system, to ensure it's working the way it's supposed to it's very important to make sure your fuel system is functioning properly and properly adjusted, if it's not the WOT switch can actually lean out the system at full throttle. Mechanical, there's no difference between the systems with a WOT switch and those without, the differences are restricted to the ECU and the wiring. 
I haven't made any modication to my fuel system, I have however installed a larger throttle body out of an A2 and a knock sensor ignition system out of a 86 Jetta Carat (a CIS-E equipped car). The knock sensor system is not quite stand-alone but it's close, only very minor modifications need to be done it your existing wiring harness. I stripped the appropriate section of the wiring harness from the donor car and spliced it into my car with a little bit of careful planning, the installation shouldn't take you much longer than an hour or two. www.driversfound.com/scirocco has a good write-up on the knock sensor system installation in his tech pages. 
As for the throttle body, I think the 16V one should work for you, I'm not very familiar with that throttle body, the only problem you might have is fitting the throttle cable to the throttle body. I used an A2 throttle body I removed the linkage and put on the one from an A1. You may need to do something similar to ours. An Audi 5000 throttle body will also work, it's the same size as the A2 and 16V throttle bodies. If you install the 16v throttle body or any other larger throttle body you'll need to enlarge the matching port on the intake manifold accordingly, a die grinder, dremel or even a course half round hand file will make quick work of this. For more details on this and related topics see http://longcoeur.com/scirocco/Index2.html under Tech Notes "Installing Audi 5000 throttle body" 



[Modified by ABA Scirocco, 1:52 PM 4-8-2003]


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## brian k lanning (Aug 4, 2002)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (ABA Scirocco)*

Thank you very much for the prompt reply,I will use the info.Brian


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## vwtom2002 (Mar 25, 2003)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (brian k lanning)*

the may and june issues of european car mag has the complete swap info. it tells what is best to use. if you could , email me any problems you ran into . i'm doing the 2.0 a3 swap later this summer. thanks [email protected] yahoo.com


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## Slow1.8 (Oct 9, 2003)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (vwtom2002)*

Well, what did the mag say is the "best" to use?


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## Peter Tong (Jun 17, 1999)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (brian k lanning)*

yes, Audi 80 gasket/2.0 16v (9A motor) gasket...
If you want peace of mind then purchase the adjustable cam pulley...
Compression ratio with the old style 1.8 heads and the ABA block is rather high, so I wouldn't recommend raising it further. Back in '93 I ran my Audi 80 block with a severely shaved 1.8 head. It ran well, but was prone to ping on hot days. Just keep compression stock. 
If I had known better at the time I would have lowered the compression in prep for boost...
regards,
Peter Tong


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## Nutz4VW (Jan 28, 2002)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (Peter Tong)*

call techtonics tuning. they have a head gasket for this specific aplication, well 2 actually, one is metal. I got one for my ABA/JH and it looked real nice. the price wasn't bad either. the metal headgasket wasn't listed on the website, though.


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## Eldorado56 (May 22, 2002)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (ABA Scirocco)*


_Quote, originally posted by *ABA Scirocco* »_
As for the throttle body, I think the 16V one should work for you, I'm not very familiar with that throttle body, the only problem you might have is fitting the throttle cable to the throttle body. I used an A2 throttle body I removed the linkage and put on the one from an A1. You may need to do something similar to ours. An Audi 5000 throttle body will also work, it's the same size as the A2 and 16V throttle bodies. If you install the 16v throttle body or any other larger throttle body you'll need to enlarge the matching port on the intake manifold accordingly, a die grinder, dremel or even a course half round hand file will make quick work of this. For more details on this and related topics see http://longcoeur.com/scirocco/Index2.html under Tech Notes "Installing Audi 5000 throttle body" 
]

I installed a 16v throttle body and throttle cable from a scirocco 2. i found i couldnt use the a1 linkage because of the fact that the center shaft of the smaller hole on the 16v TB was considerably larger. My scirocco TB came with the proper throttle cable braket bolted on from the factory. 


_Modified by Eldorado56 at 8:21 PM 11-21-2003_


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## 4thScirocco (Feb 27, 2001)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (Eldorado56)*

Don't shave the head! I had huge ping problems because my head was shaved 1mm bringing me up to 11:1 compression. My stock vacuum advace/retard ignition just couldn't handle it. I was quite disappointed at the power output especially considering the work that went into the motor e.g.
1) Big p+p
2) Audi 5K Turbo matched intake, Neuspeed TB
3) Dual outlet ex manifold ported and matched
4) TT downpipe
5) Autotech 270 cam
6) Rebuilt 2.0 ABA 
When I first got the car back, I was unimpressed with the swap. I had all timing marks checked and double checked but it was all good. I tried experimenting with ignition advance but with limited results, too much = lots of ping; too little = less ping. Next, I got an adjustable cam gear. Because of the head shave, my cam timing was retarded. How much is a matter of debate but I initially set it to 2deg advance and got a nice bump in torque down low. Encouraged, I tried 4deg advance but found that the motor didn't like it that much. It ran hotter and pinged pretty bad. The motor also felt like it was "pumping up" on itself. So I put it back to 2deg advance and left it there.
By now, I was running out of ideas. I had to cure the ping problem but was resisting getting a knock sensor setup. Didn't want to add any potential headaches to my reliable and good running car (if you ignore the pinging). But an opportunity to pick up an complete retrofit kit cheap came up and I grabbed it. I had a buddy who knew what he was doing install it for me and BAM! no more pinging. The car picked up more balls right away. I brought the ignition timing up gradually to where my butt dyno says is the limit and now I have a car with some decent power. Not the kind of power I think I should have, but enough for now. Next to come will be fueling. I think there might be some gains there. 
Some pertinent info for you. I used the 16V headgasket and my KS setup is run without throttle switches.


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## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (4thScirocco)*


_Quote, originally posted by *4thScirocco* »_Some pertinent info for you. I used the 16V headgasket and my KS setup is run without throttle switches.


This is completely off topic but does anyone known what the purpose of the throttle switches are on a knock sensor system. I have a CIS-Lambda system retro-fit with the KS system from a CIS-E system and there systems seems to perform exactly the same whether the switches are connected or not.


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## 4thScirocco (Feb 27, 2001)

*Re: 2.0 ABA block,1.8 JH head,Headgasket? (ABA Scirocco)*

Don't quote me, but I think the idle switch tells the KS control unit to give the motor a set amount of ignition advance at idle rather that it having to guesss it's at idle from vacuum readings. Makes for a smoother idle? The WOT switch signals the KS control unit to bypass some lambda controls for full enrichment at WOT. Since my car is CIS basic with no O2 sensor, it's basically useless. This is stuff I picked up doing research here so......
My car without the throttle switches runs fine. My idle speed was pretty steady to start with and with the KS, it tends to hunt around 950 - 1050 rpm sometimes but it's not too much of an annoyance. Hope this helps.


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