Hydro or Solid Cam?

[zepracer]

Can someone tell me how to tell weather 1.8 Rabbit has a Hydraulic lifter or Solid lifter cam in it?
Is a Hydraulic cam head the same as a Solid head?
Are both legal in an ITB Rabbit GTI?
If so, which one would be the setup of preference?
Any input is appreciated.

[Bill Miller]

If it's stock, the Rabbit has a solid lifter cam.

No, the heads are not the same. The hydraulic one has the #4 cam cap removed, and there is an oil squirter in its place.

Only the stock solid lifter cam is legal in the Rabbit GTI in ITB. That means no G-grind, no 1600 Rabbit cam, no Schrick 272, nothing but the stock cam.



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MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI
SCCA 279608

[racer_tim]

I posted this same question to the CB regarding hydro and mech heads. This was for lp GP not IT. It got shot down. The only real difference is: Hydro has a larger bucket and a shorter valve. Bill is correct, just pop off the valve cover and look for a missing cam holder. If there is one missing, then it's a hydro.



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Tim Linerud
San Francisco Region SCCA
#95 ITB GTI, GP for 2002

[zepracer]

Thanks to Bill & Tim for the info. I’ll probably be hitting you guys up with more stupid questions later as I move along in this project.
Tim, thanks again for the pistons.

[Bill Miller]

They're not stupid questions. This site is a great resource for VW racers and IT racers in general. There are some very sharp people on here, and there is a lot of good information that is exchanged. Welcome!!!

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MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI
SCCA 279608

[mogren]

There is also a external difference, The hydro has two alternator bracket bosses, the solid has only one(USUALLY). FYI the Rocco only had a Solid head. The best ones are late 86-87 heads. The hydro makes more stock power. More lift, less power loss,etc.
If someone finds a HT Scirocco with an onwers manual that matches, I would like to know.... MM
PS most solid cam heads didnt come with a cam oil cover. The plastic thingy..You can look right in the oil cap hole and see the edge of the valve bucket. After about 85 I think they all did. Al Hydro headas that Ive seen have the cover.

[Eric Parham]

All good info, but I beg to differ on two minor points:

1) The best solid JH head is probably the '83 (without the longer air-shrouded injector inserts). I'm uncertain whether it's strictly legal to remove the inserts from the later heads ('84-up), although one argument is that it's emissions related and another is that the air-shrouding itself violates one of the "thou shalt not bypass the intake manifold" rules.

2) '88 Sciroccos had hydro heads, whether or not they were HTs (that is, '88 Sciroccos with the JH engine also came with the hydro head and 026G hydro cam -- Bentley and VW ufiche both agree in this case).