Where to get a 96mm oversized piston? Options

[bongo monkey]

The valve seat on my 1.7 bent and impacted the #2 piston. When I opened the engine, I found the P.O. had installed a big bore kit on the 1.7 and increased it to 1911cc. Now I have to get a new 96mm flathead piston. Does anyone know where I can get just one? There are many kits, but they all come in 4, and the other 3 pistons are fine. Thanks.

[fiid]

You could try posting to the wanted section in the classifieds???

Fiid.

[Mueller]

AA Automotive Products.
2nd Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 752-2075, 450


They sold me one 94mm Euro cylinder when I messed one up.

Good luck...........

[seanery]

how will you know if the piston really matches the other 3?

[Brad Roberts]

You wont know... but its a 1.7 with a big bore kit.. .

I personally would at least try to buy a piston and cylinder from them.

Do you know if the PO used the thin wall 96's or the thick wall 96's ??

NPR stopped years and years ago making the thin wall for the 1.7 engines.


B

[bongo monkey]

The P.O. left no documentation on the engine mods. The first I found out about the oversized pistons was when I opened up the engine. A 96mm flathead piston is a 96mm flathead piston isnt it? I would really prefer to get away with replacing just the piston, as the engine appears to have been recently rebuilt, so I would assume it is the thickwall 96's. The cylinders are in good shape. If I end up having to buy 4 pistons, or worse, 4 pistons and 4 cylinders in addition to a new head and valves, my $3000 car has just skyrocketed to $5000. Does AA Automotive sell oversized pistons? A 94mm is stock on a 2 liter, isn't it?

[Brad Roberts]

94mm is stock 2.0

The 1.7+1.8 96's are the same...but the 2.0 96 has a different wrist pin location.

Each cylinder is bored for the piston that sits in it... they dont just throw pistons into "any" cylinder.


B

[cgnj]

Hi,

Does this mean I grabbed the pebble from your hand?

1.8 and 1.7 96mm pistons are the same. The 1.8 cylinfers have the same register as 2.0 cylinders. He needs to measure the cylinder register in the head to know hwhat he has. I'm betting thinwalled, made for 1.7 cylinder register. I can't tell you what the register is for a 1.7, I can measure both a 1.8 and 2.0

Carlos

Ask me how I know. I screwed it up at least once.

[Brad Roberts]

They dont sell the thin walled any more... you have to machine the 1.7 heads to make the big bore kits work in a 1.7 (same register across the board) They got tired of the small runs of 1.7 specific cylinders that had a tendencie to crack at the "thin wall".


B

[bongo monkey]

I am fairly sure that I have the thickwall variety. I am making plans to send in a stock 1.7 head to be machined and rebuilt. I still don't know where to get the piston, however. Which companies made a big bore kit for the type-4?

[bongo monkey]

I found a site that has precisely what I was looking for. http://www.aircooled.net/new-bin/viewprodu...EPS0013&cartid=

Now all I have to do is get a head machined and rebuilt, and I could be back on the roads within weeks! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bongo monkey]

The shop that I had in mind to rebuild my head (J&B's near Mercerville for those in NJ) said that they cannot machine a new stock 1.7 head to the oversize cylinders. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) Could anyone tell me exactly what machining is required to fit a 1.7 head to 96mm cylinders? As far as I know, the only thing required is boring out the dishes from 90mm to 96mm. RIMCO quotes this job at $25.00. If that's all there is to it, I would do it myself if I had a computer integrated mill, but I only have a plain boring manual mill. Can I just send the heads to any old machine shop, or is there any special things that must be done that would need a specialist? J&B will still rebuild the head, but they say I need to get them a machined head.

Any help? Everyone here has been very helpful so far, and I can see the end of all this in sight.

[Tom Perso]

Your shop doesn't know what they are doing. If those are indeed the thin walled 96's, I would suggest putting new cylinders/pistons in that thing. Yikes - it's a disaster waiting to happen.

To machine the heads means just opening the register to accecpt the larger OD of the 1.8/2.0 cylinders. I can't recall the dimensions right now.

It's just like opening a set of T1 cylinder heads up for 90.5/92/94's. Simple stuff.


Send the heads to Rimco and they'll take care of it.

[bongo monkey]

If machining the 1.7 head just opens the register to the 1.8/2.0, what would happen if I just put a stock 2.0 head on the engine? Would it also need machining?

As for Rimco, I don't want to ship a fairly heavy engine part across the country round-trip for something as simple as this seems to be. Does anyone have suggestions for VW head shops on the eastern seaboard, or at least in the Midwest or South (I live in NJ)?

[tryan]

intakes are different (2.0's will only have three intake studs)

a vw machine shop should be able to handle your job, but you need to be specific. check on thesamba.com and see if their are any vw nuts in your area that have had machine work done.

shipping is cheaper than letting someone screw up you head.

[Tom Perso]

Find a set of 1.8L carb'd bus heads. Along the line of T4 heads, they fall second in line to the 2.0L 914 heads.

Swap your rockers over and if you're crazy enough, do 911 adjusters while you're in there.

Later,
Tom

[bongo monkey]

What do I need to do to make 1.8 heads work with 96mm cylinders?

[Brad Roberts]

Bongo.. did you get this figured out ?? The 96mm they sell these days slips into 1.8 heads and 2.0 heads.


B

[bongo monkey]

The head for the 3 and 4 cylinders is a 1.7 head machined out, so I decided to just get a 1.7 and machine it at an automotive machine shop nearby. The head is on its way, and the piston is already here and in the engine. Hopefully, I can get the 914 running in a week. If it doesnt work, I recently picked up a 1.7 disassembled engine block with pistons/cylinders for 15 dollars from a no-reserve, low starting bid, unnoticed eBay auction, and I could put the stock cylinders and pistons back in. I will have to see what condition they are in.