Scirocco Lacking Power

[NiceOne]

Hi i have recently got my 1986 scirocco gts on the road and while it is fairly fast it doesnt seem as fast as i thought it would be, i dont know if im expecting too much from the car or whether it is slow, but basically i got overtaken by a nissan micra 1.5d in all fairness he had already built up speed and i couldnt keep up with a bmw 318i, is this right????

my gts is a 1.8 running on a weber carb which was already on the car i would presume its set up correctly because it passed the emissions at the mot.

What can i do cheaply to make it faster than it is, i eventually want to drop a 2l 16v into it but thats a future project so i want something i can do easily, i have heard you can use a gti cam, but a cam from what gti mk1 mk2 mk3 i dont know. Also what sort of other things can i do with what sort of power gains.

I know these are probably common questions but if anyone could point me in the right direction i would really appreciate it, cheers.

[walkinginperu]

Having the carb and injection timing set up properly will make it feel (and possibly drive) faster, because it will maximise the performance of your engine. The gti cam from is basically just a cam from a scirocco injection model. I think any of those will fit, although you need to make sure you swap a hydraulic lifter cam for a hydraulic lifter cam and not solid lifters.
Some people fit a panel filter from someone like K&N. They may give you a bit of power, but probably not. I personally wouldn't bother with a pancake style filter, i fitted one and all it did was increase induction noise and make the car a bit less responsive.
To be honest, there's no quick route to more power without swapping out the engine I'm afraid.

[NiceOne]

Ok i think thats pretty much what i expected to be told, if i put a gti cam in is it ok to put a second hand one in there also what sort of power gains could i expect cos the ex engine is only 90bhp standard

[walkinginperu]

I have a 1.6GT (75bhp standard!), and fitted a second hand cam to mine. Used the existing tappets because the cam was old - no point ruining new tappets on a worn cam. The difference is noticeable, especially at the top end, and the engine revs more freely. I would guess around 5hp gain, so not much, but when you've only got 90bhp to play with that's more than a 5% increase, which ain't half bad!
I haven't changed the jetting either, got it set up on the CO meter at last MOT and it's spot on.

[NiceOne]

Ok i fiddled with the carb and got the engine idling properly and running nicely it has massively improved performance, but i do have a small problem which i had before i even tuned the carb, every so often the car almost stalls and sometimes even does but if i take my foot off the accellerator before it stalls it will keep running and i can rev it but if i let the clutch out it will try and stall again, if i give it a couple of seconds it will be fine again, i have had this a few times now but i dont have a clue what it could be.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Cheers

[GT Matt]

Sound like the needle valve in the carburettor - seen this a few times on Webers now. How old is your weber?

New needle vale costs about £10 or a complete carb overhaul kit about £21 with complete set of new gaskets etc

Got mine from this chap - worth every penny!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WEBER-32-34-DMTL- ... 2eaceac439

[NiceOne]

cheers i was thinking about giving the carb an overhaul anyway but i you think thats the problem i might as well do it now, i dont know how old the carb is but it doesnt look new thats for sure, all the gaskets look old and are curling in places and the car has been off the road for about 5 years without even being run.