Shimmed or hydraulic head?

Just wondered if a hydraulic head is better than the old dx shimmed head, anyone?

It depends what it is going to be used for.  A shimmed head is better for higher revs as the hyd tappets probably wont cope as well, or last as long.  I have not seen any evidence to support it but it's my own opinion.

But for everyday use a hyd head would be better and will have a wider choice of cams if you need it.

Shimmed head gets my vote.

hydraulic tappets are poor at high revs because they pump up, my friend is very into his performance rover v8s and reckons you can get ones that pump down at low revs so they cope with hight revs much better…i dont know if you can get something similar for vw engines.

shimmed heads are better (and a sh*tload cheaper) if your happy to readjust them every so often.

If your gonna Turbo it, then shimmed heads are better as hydraulic one do pump up wiht the turbo with high boost. Some time ago, when I was re-building mine I spent some time chatting to a guy called Steve Dsylivia who used to run a place in London called Roadsport Developments and he advised not to go with a hydraulic head for pump up reasons. Use to do a lot of Slick50 stuff so new his stuff  :wink: