Hydraulic tappets or mechanical lifters?! MK1 Golf gti cabriolet 8v 1

I'm changing the valve stem seals on my head and I'm wondering if I have hydraulic tappets or mechanical lifters? 
Any tips or guides on this job would be appreciated! 
I'll attempt lapping them with a very fine paste too advice on that would help massively. Pictures of my car and head

Hydraulic 4 journals like yours. 1-2-3 skip-4
Mechanical has 5 journals. 1-2-3-4-5

On the vw vortex, there is a thread on cleaning your Hydraulic Tappets…..which wouldn't hurt as you are doing the seals.

 

Start with the coarser paste first, clean then the finer paste, then clean again.

Apply a drop of oil to the valve stem (clean this thoroughly and ensure the valve guide is in good condition before lapping the valves) when lapping to prevent any spalling.

A good test to ensure a gas tight seal to your lapped valves:
Apply a small amount of petrol to the top of the valve when your finished and allow to pool around the valve. The petrol should not weep past the valve and drip down the stem (you can observed this by looking in the relevant inlet/exhaust port.

Yep that a head with hydrolic tappers.

I cleaned up my valves by putting them in a cordless drill and got some wet and dry sand paper, spun the valve in the drill and cleaned up the face and bottom edge but I advoided the seat and the staft where the valve stem seal would fit.

Some cleaned up.




I then used a grinding stick and paste to seat the valves, you should get a nice grey colour when they are done, make sure all the paste is cleaned off the valve when you finish as you don't what that stuff left grinding the valve and insert.

Inlet valve, 1 done and 1 not done.


Exhaust valve.


You should also get a nice grey finish on the valve seat.

Not done.


Finished.


I also cleaned out the old oil out of the tappets, there is few guides on YouTube about getting them apart, I could not dismantle the inner part of the tappets as there is lip holding it together but I found if you press in the ball bearing with a thin nail or similar tool and then press on the edge the oil out come out, mine was very black oil. Once it's all cleaned compress the tappet by again pressing in the ball bearing and pressing on the edge, pour a little oil just above the ball bearing and release the pressure the oil should get sucked in, do this a couple of times to get rid of all the air out of the tappets. Put them back together and leave them soaking in a little oil over night.

Tappet apart.


Ball bearing in the inner part of the tappet. (Not sure picture is working, I'll try again if not?)


Valve stem seals, I used some long nose pipers to get the old ones off, 6 came off no problem and 2 I had a right hassle to pull off as the just fell apart but more pulling and wiggling them did come off.
I used a bit of copper pipe the same size as the metal edge of the seal to tap it on, I did have to file a little off the inner edge on the copper pipe to get to the right size.



When taking your cam shaft off make sure you undo the nuts in the right order, there is a guide in the Haynes manual. Make sure all the valves, tappet so etc go back in the same place as they came from.
My boxes of bits.


Sorry for the long thread but while your head is apart it may be worth doing the other jobs as well.

FYI head with shims from my 1978 Scirocco, see all cam shaft caps in place.

Hydraulic



Mechanical



See the difference…..   Thanks for the pics folks.   

You can also see the difference between a 1.6 head and a 1.8.
1.6 = water outlet between cylinders 1 and 2
1.8 = water outlet between cylinders 3 and 4