# 2.0l 8v head on a 1.8l block



## Fyber-Hawk (Sep 2, 2016)

hey guys, I'm starting to build a 1.8l 8v engine for my 92 Golf, I am thinking about putting a 2.0l 8v head on to the 1.8v block. any suggestions and ideas on what I might need will be helpful


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## Butcher (Jan 31, 2001)

I believe you can without any difficulties. Of course, there is no performance gains that I know of.


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## Fyber-Hawk (Sep 2, 2016)

another question, probably a stupid one at that, the stock valve cover has a gauze filter element built into it to assist with breathing of the head. because it gets clogged and is hard to clean out, is it possible to cut/grind out the gauze element filter and replace it with a generic, push on breather cap from the parts store?
if so will doing this make any drastic changes to how the motor will perform


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## Butcher (Jan 31, 2001)

I am one of the few that do believe there are stupid questions. This one is not.

The 2.0 liter blocks have an additional breather on the block. I suspect since the 1.8L and smaller breathers were really not that good so with the added displacement, it needed the extra breathing capacity. 

I would not bother cutting it out. I would soak it in cleaner a few days and wash it out with water based oil cleaner [simple green] and a lot of hot water.


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## Jettaboy1884 (Jan 20, 2004)

Butcher said:


> I believe you can without any difficulties. Of course, there is no performance gains that I know of.


^ This ^

However, I would add that you will also need to be modifying and customizing some items for the coolant system (side exit on the crossflow head) as well as the fuel system, throttle body and air intake, and some of the sensors.

There are very sensible and valid reasons to put a counterflow 1.8L head on a 2.0L block, but really almost no good reason to do the opposite.

IMO: If you want crossflow, just do the whole 2.0L swap together and convert to Motronic. *With your car being a '92 you should have Central Electronics II which makes it a fairly easy and well-documented conversion.

Now, if you don't want to dive in that deep but want a power bump from a 2.0L swap, then do the (also very common and well-documented) 2.0L bottom end with the counterflow head. You'll be able to keep the original fuel injection, intake manifold, throttle body and air intake, and coolant hoses, etc.

I hope that helps. :thumbup:


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## Fyber-Hawk (Sep 2, 2016)

so, I know I keep asking a lot of questions, I do apologize. I'm a noob when it comes to building vw engines, as this is my first build ever. the engine block I'm building is out of an 87 cabriolet, it has the CIS injection on it but the head is trashed, the gar its going in is a 92 golf gl with the digifant 2 injection system. even though the heads are different, can they be interchanged with the other,


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## Butcher (Jan 31, 2001)

So what you are asking is that can a 1.8 block be installed into a 2.0 block, right? I do know the engine breather is different. 

I'm not an expert at anything, but does the 92 Golf GL have a 2.0 or 1.8?


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## Fyber-Hawk (Sep 2, 2016)

The golf has the 1.8l block. I wasn't sure if the engine blocks were made differently depending on what type of induction system was installed on it but I did my research and came to the conclusion that the CIS the digifant both use the same engine block but use different heads and intake systems


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## Jettaboy1884 (Jan 20, 2004)

^ I believe you are correct in all of the above.

Just to be safe, I would recommend you replace the oil pump in that block with one intended for a motor with hydraulic lifters (like your '92 Digifant head has).

It is my understanding that the Cabriolet came with solid lifters up through '87 so there's a good chance that block had a solid lifter head on it. And if-so, the pump in that block pushes out a lower volume of oil (as solid lifters don't need to be pumped up).

Here's a link to German Auto Parts that mentions it: http://www.germanautoparts.com/Volkswagen/Cabriolet/Engine/151/1


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## Fyber-Hawk (Sep 2, 2016)

I never knew that, thanks for the link, I was looking at the head on it, and it has the number 4 cam bearing keeper machined off and the oil gallery is plugged and I do believe it has hydraulic lifters. But I will post pics to verify.


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## Butcher (Jan 31, 2001)

Yes, that's a hyd head if it only has a place for 4 cam caps.


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## rcdg60 (Aug 9, 2001)

swap the block (obd1 aba), leave the head and just throw a decent cam in there.


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## FastCougar (Dec 8, 2001)

I would think you would want that the other way around because it will alter the quench area of the combustion chamber and cause head gasket issues. However, a 1.8L head on a 2.0L block would bump static compression everything else being equal. All my opinions however are based on everything being nearly equal except the cylinder diameter. If the 2.0L 8v variant is based on the 1.8L 8v engine, they (being the manufacturer) will normally simply engineer a bigger bore. This is a very common "Hybrid" solution with the 99+ Cougar/Contour guys fitting 2.5L V6 heads to the larger 3.0L V6 block, which bumps compression a bit and returns some nice gains if the tune is right.

Again, I'm assuming VW simply bored the block larger and didn't achieve the 2.0L increase in volume from a longer stroke. A lot of things could go wrong if you don't investigate this thoroughly. Good luck!


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## Butcher (Jan 31, 2001)

From my understanding, the combustion chambers are the same size [or extremely close]. Your theory is flawed because you forget the design of the piston could be changed to dictate what compression you want.

The 2.0 liter is larger in bore and stroke compared to the 1.8. Due to the bore spacing, you cannot enlarge the bore that much.


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