small hp boosts?

[coupegt83]

on the 4 cyl. motors 1.8l what were some easy boosts besides the disributor advace which i did i forgotten already

[Rogviler]

It depends on which engine you have... If you follow the #3 spark plug straight down to where the head meets the block you'll find a two-letter code:



It's probably hidden under rust, dirt, and grease, but you can scrape that away with a screwdriver. That'll tell you what engine you have and it'll be easy to give your specs.

If it's one of the low compression versions you can actually gain a lot of HP by switching to high compression pistons. Not an easy mod, but it's probably the biggest gain you could get, aside from scabbing together a turbo setup.

Something easy for a small gain would be to swap out the throttle body if you have the smaller version.



On the left is the small TB that came on most of the VAG 4-cylinders. It's oval in shape. On the right is the TB that came on later cars like the VW Fox, and all of the non-turbo 5-cylinders. It's tear drop shaped. They're completely interchangeable, though you'll probably have to soften your air boot with a heat gun to get it to stretch over it. Not a big deal though.

Another thing with the throttle body is if you have the smaller intake manifold as well you'll need to remove it and file the throttle opening larger so the throttle valve can clear when it opens. Or you can switch to a later large manifold. If you file it, do remove it first though, so you don't get metal shavings in the engine.

Another not super easy but decent gain mod is to swap in a Volvo 240 fuel distributor. There's a turbo and non-turbo version, but I don't think it matters much unless you plan on boosting later, in which case get the turbo one.

Those are some of the main things. You can also do little stuff, like remove the EGR system, open up the front of the airbox, and just generally tune the engine. Here's a good thread about squeezing all you can out of CIS:

http://www.motorgeek.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=28250

-Rog