water jacket vw heads

[nunit]

looking for some links info and opinions on welding a water jacket onto the vw head ive got a few junk heads to practice on

thanks for the help

[2stroke]

it works, and its a LOT of work

[nunit]

so no pics? or links? any tips on what aluminum to use as far as jacket material and tig rods?

[Marty]

it works, and its a LOT of work

X10

[4agedub]

I'm also interested in converting a set of heads to watercooled. I understand it's a lot of work, but how good does it work?

[buildabiggerboxer]

Your thinking in reverse, VW already have these developed for you, you don't have to do any work or welding. I just ran 60 laps at 80c oil x 80c water with 10.5 c/r, 65lb oil pressure all the way thro' the meeting, brand new build, no silly break in at all, i just knocked the revs back 500 for the meeting, next step is 11.5 c/r on the same heads i don't actually use water in the system at all i use 100 racing coolant.

[Tony Z]

4age. Give Justin a call. I cant remember the shops name, but he was on #1 Princess Ave, Benoni. He ran watercooled heads on his 2180 back in 1999, with aircooled barrels.
Last time I spoke to him he still had the same shop but was into BMX's at the time.

[-Alex77-]

Here is finnish professional welder, he is also vw guy.

http://www.volkkaripalsta.com/keskustel ... 20&t=30046

[Steve Arndt]

Those look nice!

[frankysfree]

Im no expert but those dont look like to much work. I bet a guy could knock a set out in a few hours if all you have to do is weld a sheet of aluminum around the fins and mill down the center fins. The real trick would be making it work with the rest of the engine as far as heat goes and mounting an effective radiator.

[Steve Arndt]

The Finnish method pictured of having the entrance/exit flow paths close together is a clean way of routing the water. A simple tab diverter in there and good to go. Most other setups I've seen try to split the flow, or do a center exit up top. The pictured positioning allows a clean routing of the fluid lines in the same place most people have breather lines. Full counter flow max delta T heat transfer that way, but it would need plenty of flow rate.

[frankysfree]

Im seriously considering doing this to the set of heads im fixing to buy. I think it would work well in my turbo application especially since im in Texas and it was 105 degrees yesterday...

[Frallan]

Swedish style T4 heads made in 1975. Maybe my friend who made these heads copied the Finnish way back then but it has the same split tab function on top.
I know pretty well because this engine and car is my ownership since 1985 and the heads were post mortem dissected by me and then later re-vived... now that is another long story.

[builtbychevy]

What is the outcome of these water jacketed heads? Any updates?

[Piledriver]

I'll let you know... Making a pass at it soon with any luck, have plenty of scrap heads.

Doing it with the stock T4 ex ports will be a challenge, will probably redesign the ex stub retention setup, at least for the inner/lower stud, making it go ~away would be ideal... (lip with pusher bolt?) Will probably need 10mm plugs with small tubes to allow water flow around them on the topside.

If I don't go water cooled will need to at least fab some water cooled mounts for some GDI injectors and probably at least one pressure sensor. That would probably be much, much easier.