Sounds like a timing issue to me - retarded ignition timing tends to make the car a bit flat at lower revs. If the base setting is correct, it could be the vac advance is iffy. Have you checked that the dizzy vac pipe is not leaking or blocked, and that the dizzy advances the timing as you start to ...

Clarifying that, 8v bolts aren't stretch, as far as I can tell. The ones I just took off the car are 10.8s, which is not a stretchy material.

16v head bolts ARE stretch bolts though, just to avoid anyone assuming 16v ones are the same.

I've just changed the headgasket, and it turned out I was right to (after 184k miles) For comparison purposes, the car was losing about 1L of water in 80 miles if driven hard, or 1L in 400 miles if cruising on the motorway at 75 (just been to Scotland and back for the weekend). If it's not the head ...

As already said - condensation can cause the mayo under the filler cap if you do a lot of short journeys.

Are you losing any water? For a gasket leak to be causing the mayo it would have to be losing water from the expansion tank.

13mm allen key I think. You might have more luck finding a half inch one, which will just about do, or weld a 13mm nut onto a long bolt.

The manifolds I've fitted were fiddly, but you can get them on without removing the head (an Ashley and a Supersprint so far)

I had to take the lower strut brace off, and undo the long driveshaft to move it out of the way. You might not have to do that, but don't be surprised if you do.

I know people who reuse head bolts on some pretty high performance engines (one of them a 300+ bhp 16v turbo). Officially they're single use, but you can get away with it.

Don't buy head bolts from GSF - they're made from soft cheese.

vwspares.co.uk sell decent ones, or there's always VAG.

It's the O/S that's adjustable on both of my cars.

Has it got a locking nut on the end of it? You'll probably find that it's seized solid, and needs heat to shift it.

It's up to you - it's your project. I didn't want to turn this into a hawking session, because the views I have are genuine about which way I'd go in your situation, but in case you're interested, I've got the following bits, which have just become spare. I collected them to convert a mate's golf 8v...

This cropped up on ClubGTI - might be a whole car being broken. hi here for sale is my 2.0 16v abf engine, gearbox, wiring, ecu, cable linkage, can be heard running, i am selling it has fll conversion, engine is real quick and good runner, its came out of a seat ibiza, breaking fll car, looking for ...

I know of Ivor Searle - Bill Blydenstein used to use them for some of his machining. I think they're a pretty big outfit. No idea what they're like on prices or quality.

For a daily, there's a fair argument for the diseasel. It won't handle as well, but you can get them up to 190 horses and 300+ lb ft, and still get over 40 mpg

I'm not planning on doing much (or really any) modification to the engine to start with. Ideally I just want to take the stuff out of the donor car and install it straight into the GTL's engine bay. Cheapness and simplicity are the order of the day at present. When I've reached the limits of a fair...

If it's a racing car, and won't get much road mileage, then I'd suggest you should run it on carbs, rather than standard injection, especially if you're planning to go for lumpy cams, as the standard management won't cope with it well.

Or is the plan to freshen up an ABF and just throw it in?

I've seen a couple of different lengths of standard VW bolt - only about 5-8 mm in it, but alloys are likely to be slightly thicker. To be on the safe side before you fit the wheel, just push a bolt through from the front of the wheel, and look at how far it sticks out of the back, compared to the s...