# What head do i have?



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

The person i bought it from said that my motor has a solid lifter head. Im not believing them after going in and changing out my valve cover gasket. It doesn't look the same as the head out of my 84 gti. The marking on the head on the right side above the made in germany is just an "H" ill post a pic later. If anyone can offer any help that would be great.


----------



## lil_squeeker (Nov 17, 2003)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*

if it is a hydro head it will be missing the #4 bearing cap.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (lil_squeeker)*

If i remember correctly it had 5 sets of bearing caps.


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*

If it's a 1.8L head and it has 5 cam bearing caps, then it is a solid lifter big valve head. I'm sorry about the quality of this picture, but it shows how to recognize a 1.8L head.








The 1.8L solid lifter head came in 3 variant, the 83 head, the 84 head and the 85-87 head. The differences between these heads all revolve around the injector ports. The 83 head uses the short plastic injector seats with no air shrounding just like the 1.6/1.7L heads. The 84 head uses the long one piece injector seats and has an air shrounding port. The 85+ head uses a two piece brass and plastic injector seat and also has an air shrouding port. This should give you enough info to positively identify the head. Here's a pic of the three different CIS injector seat styles.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

Thanks for the info and pics. I know its a 1.8l head it does have 5 bearing caps as well. Plus its sitting on a 2.0l.


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*


_Quote, originally posted by *MKIGTITDI* »_I know its a 1.8l head it does have 5 bearing caps as well. 

Then it's definitely a solid lifter head, they never made any hydraulic lifter 1.8L heads with 5 caps.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

how do i know if it's a big valve head?


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*

ALL 1.8L solid lifter heads, at least those sold into North America, were big valve heads. The only small valve 1.8L heads were the early non-GTi hydraulic lifter heads


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

Good to know thanks alot. here's a picture of it with the motor as a whole. Ill get a picture of just the head with the valve cover off.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*









Heres the head with the valve cover off. 


_Modified by MKIGTITDI at 2:24 PM 11-12-2009_


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*

Definitely a solid lifter big valve 1.8L head, 84 or newer. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

Is there anyway to tell If the cam isn't the stock cam?


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*

Get a pair of calipers and measure the lift, the stock cam has a lift of 0.369", to my knowledge, no aftermarket cams were with that lift. To get the lift, measure the lobe from nose to heel, measure the base circle, the difference between them is the lift.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

If only I had a pair of calipers!!


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*

$17.00 at Harbor Freight, they're not the greatest, but they're plenty good enough.


----------



## TheMajic86GTI (Aug 9, 2009)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*


_Quote, originally posted by *ABA Scirocco* »_$17.00 at Harbor Freight, they're not the greatest, but they're plenty good enough.


Ive got 3 of those....they work great....And they have tem on sale right now at my local store for $12.00. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


----------



## CanadianCabby (Sep 1, 2006)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

you can also look at the markings on the cam.. vw ones usually say like 027 b or something like that on them... TT usually has differnt coloured rings painted on them... ive seen shricks with schirck cast onto them. not sure if that was 8v though


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (TheMajic86GTI)*


_Quote, originally posted by *TheMajic86GTI* »_
Ive got 3 of those....they work great....And they have tem on sale right now at my local store for $12.00. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 

I used very similar ones, they do indeed work great but they won't take much of a beating.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*


A guy told me another way to tell for sure that it's a solid lifter head is the lip on the lifters themselves.


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*

That's correct. On this picture, it's most visible on the #1 exhaust lifter.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

I know i was just posting that as an informational post. I actually brought it up when i was talking to a mechanic and he stated that even some of the hydro heads had five caps in them. But when i brought up the lip that my lifters had he said that's the most definative way to tell that it's a solid lifter head.


----------



## MKIGTITDI (Aug 25, 2007)

*Re: What head do i have? (ABA Scirocco)*

BTW your jh/aba hybrid swap page is awesome!!! http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


----------



## ABA Scirocco (May 30, 2001)

*Re: What head do i have? (MKIGTITDI)*


_Quote, originally posted by *MKIGTITDI* »_ when i was talking to a mechanic and he stated that even some of the hydro heads had five caps in them.

The only hydraulic lifter VW 8 valve head with 5 bearing caps is the cross flow head, it's VERY different in appearance from the heads we've been discussing in this thread, there's no way anybody would get the two confused.

_Quote, originally posted by *MKIGTITDI* »_BTW your jh/aba hybrid swap page is awesome!!! http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif









Thanks.


----------

