Date:         Wed, 21 May 2003 10:53:14 -0700
Reply-To:     wilden1@JUNO.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Are non German pistons really shorter than German pistons?
Comments: To: Wolfvan88@AOL.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Nothing surprises me anymore about VW parts.
I've been in some raging arguments about deck height and just out of
curiosity I checked the length on some VW Type IV cylinder barrels.
I found that between them OEM, Cofap and Mahle there can be as much as
.030 difference in length.
This might be to accommodate the VW tech note of no base seal or to work
better with the no head gasket situation with AMC heads.
The Cofap and Mahle cylinders were new, the VW OEMs were ten years old
.............. I didn't record my findings on which were the longest or
shortest.
I like to run .028 deck height (my definition of deck height is the
distance between the closest piston to the closest head surface).
I just don't see that the down in the hole reading actually represents a
proper calculation of compression or possible collision of the piston
with the head, especially on heads that have recessed the cylinder to
head mating surface as many OEM VW heads will do.
This frenzy of measuring was brought on because I couldn't get less than
.070 deck height on a new engine I was building.
I first suspected the crankshaft had been reground improperly, that
wasn't the case. It was the cylinder length.
Swapping out the cylinders brought me into the specs I had intended.
There also could have been a difference in the wrist pin center to piston
top but I didn't peruse those measurements.

Stan Wilder


On Wed, 21 May 2003 10:51:08 EDT Robert Lilley <Wolfvan88@AOL.COM>
writes:
> Is it true that replacement 94 mm WBX non-German pistons are 1 mm
> shorter
> than the German pistons?
>
> I was told this by a company that is now selling performance WBX
> engines.
>
>
> Robert
>
>

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