Help, what engine do i have?

i have bought a mk1 golf gti, that i have pictures of if it helps.
i have no idea what engine is in my car, i hear its not standard, and is probably a 2.0 8v possibly from an Audi, maybe 80. thats as much as i got told once. cannot contact the owner i bought it from and i am looking at getting cam shafts for the engine.
is there any way of telling what engine i have PLEASE?
there was/ is no paper work with the book i got with the car.

hoping someone can help me, cant do a thing to the engine till i know  :dontknow:

try looking for the engine code on the block and the head if its still visible, then sum1 off here may be able to get back to u!

dont think i can find it, found some numbers looks like 026.103.373 AA, does that sound right? if not ill have to try again.

if that helps?

That's just a part number for the head itself. Looking at the photo above, you should look in the area below and to the right of where that part number is located - at the top of the block, just below the head/block join, and there should be a slightly raised, flat area about 15mm high by about 50mm across with the code stamped into it in the format ***  A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6  ***.

I have an Audi 80 myself, and the engine codes that I can remember for 2.0 ones include AAD, ABK, 6A, and ACE. There are others, so let us know what you find, and we'll confirm what the capacity should be.

I had to clean and scratch but i found it.
Dont know if im supposed to write the whole thing but it says *3A 096 600*
hope that helps?
i hope the bloke wasnt lying and its something like a 1.2 lol.

de3660 said

I had to clean and scratch but i found it.
Dont know if im supposed to write the whole thing but it says *3A 096 600*
hope that helps?
i hope the bloke wasnt lying and its something like a 1.2 lol.

He wasn't lying - the 3A is an Audi 2.0 8v engine which would have come in the type 89 Audi 80 ('88-'91).

It's fairly similar to a Mk1 Golf engine, except that it has hydraulic lifters for the cam (different head, internally). There are a few other differences (eg, breather location), but nothing too radical. The Audi 80 Haynes manual covers this engine, if you need some detail…

Just out of interest, what power/torque does the audi block push out - around 130bhp?

Not sure about the 3A, but the AAD (2.0 8v from '92-'95 Audi 80) only has 115bhp.

It is also a 1983cc engine, so the 3A should be similar.

The Mk1 GTI engine (DX, 1781cc) has 112bhp but, even with only 3BHP more, the 3A will be a lot better, as you get more torque with more cc's.
More BHP will get you a higher top speed, but that's only good for the german Autobahns  :wink:
Torque is where it's at - more torque (especially in your lighter Mk1 body) will give you better acceleration.

one day ill get it rolling roaded then post the results

de3660 said

anything special i should know about buying a cam for it?

Nothing special, just remember to say that it's for the Audi 80 3A engine with hydraulic lifters, because if you get a cam for the original VW GTI engine, it  won't fit - solid and hydraulic lifters need different cam types.

There should be a good choice of cams for this engine, as this model of Audi 80 was a fairly good seller in its day.

If you want more power, you need to ask about the lift and duration of the cams you're looking at - more of both is better, but only up to a point - if you get too greedy and choose a racing cam, the car become less driveable, idles very lumpily, and only has power at high revs etc, so choose a good road cam.

Original Message: "one day ill get it rolling roaded"

Today was that day…

Not very happy at all,

I havent done many mods, but what i have done is New downpipe, Power rohr, K&N, Full Exhaust and i managed to get this….

Figures seem to be 113.6hp and 132.5FtLb


on a site it says all the numbers and what they were i found under the VAG section mine is a /vw golf 1,8i/ EV-DX-JH-GZ/ 026 103 373 AA/
So confusing.
To anyone else does this seems incredibly low? or am i just wishful thinking?

If the BHP figure is "at the wheels", ie: it doesn't take account of the losses incurred through the gearbox, then 113BHP sounds fine.

If it is "at the flywheel", ie: the rolling road software has added an estimated percentage to the BHP figure to compensate for those losses, then it seems a bit low.

You need to check with the rolling road operator if you aren't sure…

PS: Tell us more about the downpipe and exhaust - are they for the Golf GTI (suitable for 1.8 litre capacity) or are they specially made to fit the Mk1 floorpan, but with a bigger bore for the 2 litres that the engine has?

Also too open an exhaust system can actually lower torque, as there is a balance between too restrictive (low BHP) and too free (lower torque)

yeah ill ring up or something.
good thing is im only supposed to have 100ftlb i hear, but have 130.
when i can finally do some more work to it ill let u know again, should unlock alot more.

Check my last post above, I added some more...

the downpipe was actually bought for an audi 80, as i asked in the garage, never actually asked if they just the normal golf one, exhaust custom made (not a ?400 expensive one), but once again stated for an audi 80, but made to fit golf floorpan.

found out the figure is at the wheels so thats ok ish for the moment.

ive also found out why, i have a 2l bottom end and 1.8gti head. or so it seems, so ill port/polish that or buy a another 2l head to match and port polish that, thats prob best option, just getting funds together at the moment. yeah as i said i checked that german site and read the head it matched the 1.8 but come to think of it how do i know its actually 2L then. i think cus the torque figures showed so.

All sounds good:

Pipe fits your car, but is the correct bore for the Audi engine.
Head is GTI one, with GTI cam (good acceleration, sportier cam than the Audi would have had)
2.0 block with (sporty) 1.8 head is actually quite a good combination - relatively big air volumes sucked through the relatively small ports of the head mean that the air has to go faster (venturi effect), which gives more torque.

If I had to choose between higher torque and higher BHP, I'd go for the torque, as it's more useful for accelerating, overtaking, etc, whereas BHP is most useful for top speed (which you rarely use, if ever).

PS: It's defintely a 2.0 block because it's a 3A engine number.

hey well thankyou again so when porting the head and polishing, i should go too crazy to over-do it to lose what i have already? looking through that volume of that orange golf magazine in whsmiths, i see that i chap did alot of work to his golf and had more HP than me but less torque figure which made me smile.
thanks again.

de3660 said

so when porting the head and polishing, i should go too crazy to over-do it to lose what i have already?

No, over-doing the porting without enlarging the valve sizes can lead to swirling and eddies in the incoming air and outgoing exhaust gases, which can lead to power & torque losses, so you can actually make things worse, not better.

If you aren't sure about doing porting, stick to polishing only…

sorry i wrote that in a rush, did actually mean to write shouldnt over do it, not should.
ive only been reading about P&P for 2days now it will be weeks before i begin, and im getting help from a chap who just did it to the exact same head as mine. ill post back sometime and let u know how it went in the future.