Polished/ported head, worth it?

I'm running a 1.8dx on bike carbs, fast road cam, vernier pulley, uprated belt and 4-2-1 manifold. I had it rolling roaded last year and it made 134bhp/131ftlbs, I'm looking at getting the most out of it and I'm considering a polished head?

Anyone running one atm?
What's the before and after differences? 
Worth it or not?

There is a lot of room for improving the flow in a stock 8V head, along with port matching it to the intake. You would not see massive gains but it should add 5 or 6 ponies to your current output, depending of course if the engineer knows what he's doing. 

Better than a kick in the teeth! Lol..

Anyone had any hands on experience with machine shops that offer head work? (Ooh eer missus! ;-)

Would I be ruining the drive if I was to put a race cam in it?

It all depends what you can live with, i had a 298 in my 2.0 8V Citi Golf daily driver (with single throttle). Reason I didn't go bigger - that was the biggest cam available locally for the hydraulic head. I later swapped the head for a solid lifter head with 300 high lift cam and I enjoyed every minute in that car, rough idle, low speed jerking and all. Having throttles (or bike carbs) eliminates most of the side effects of running a wild cam, smooth idle and no low speed jerking, the light weight of the Mk1 counter the loss of low down torque with a wild cam beautifully, when you hoof it, it just picks up its skirts and go, no bogging down.

Depends if you can put up with a rough idle ask ans4r !!

I had my 16V head polished, ported and spring tension balanced at "The Man in the Shed" :-) top bloke and top work !!

You are trying to get as much air and fuel at the correct mixture into the cylinders before compression and combustion, the more you get in the more power will be developed. A high lift cam is a compromise as it generates valve overlap to try and get more mixture in. Polishing and porting the head if done correctly will do the same.

Having said all this, lower the compression and whack a supercharger or turbo on it :-)

lhasadreams said

Depends if you can put up with a rough idle ask ans4r !!

I had my 16V head polished, ported and spring tension balanced at "The Man in the Shed" :-) top bloke and top work !!

You are trying to get as much air and fuel at the correct mixture into the cylinders before compression and combustion, the more you get in the more power will be developed. A high lift cam is a compromise as it generates valve overlap to try and get more mixture in. Polishing and porting the head if done correctly will do the same.

Having said all this, lower the compression and whack a supercharger or turbo on it :-)

 

 Thanks my man!!

this 'man in the shed' sounds intriguing? 
What was the main difference before and after? 
I have a little 8v turbo project on the bench, but I've been offered a 1/4mile challenge for next year against a 16v abf on twin Delortoes in a caddy.. 

I never ran it before the port and polish so will never know !!

Dave Crissell is the Man in the Shed, he runs All Stage Cylinder Heads, he only ports, polishes and repairs cylinder heads, he is real old school :-) He is responsible for all the Mk2 16v racing series and TSR/ C&R use to send all their heads to him.

lhasadreams said

I never ran it before the port and polish so will never know !!

Dave Crissell is the Man in the Shed, he runs All Stage Cylinder Heads, he only ports, polishes and repairs cylinder heads, he is real old school :-) He is responsible for all the Mk2 16v racing series and TSR/ C&R use to send all their heads to him.

is there any contact details anywhere for him??

lhasadreams said

I never ran it before the port and polish so will never know !!

Dave Crissell is the Man in the Shed, he runs All Stage Cylinder Heads, he only ports, polishes and repairs cylinder heads, he is real old school :-) He is responsible for all the Mk2 16v racing series and TSR/ C&R use to send all their heads to him.

so do you have dave's contact details??