1.9 Engine Grumbles

[Ftumpch 0]

Hi all,

 

I'm a bit new to the 205GTI - in fact i'm only just considering buying my first one at the moment.

 

I love the way these cars handle - but to be honest I've been a little underwhelmed by the engine and am just wanting to ask about what owners have done to perk it up a bit.

 

I should say first off that I'm in Australia - and if I'm not mistaken the engines were actually de-tuned locally to comply with emissions laws and only produce about 100bhp. So if there are any Aussie owners here I'd be interested to know whether you've had any success converting it back to UK spec.

 

But more than that, it's not so much the power but the whole delivery. Mainly I've always been into English and Italian cars with quite highly-strung, small capacity engines, usually on carbs. In comparison I've found the standard GTI engine to be a bit wooden, characterless, and just not very sporty.

 

Anyone else get this impression, and managed to sort it so you're happy?

 

or perhaps the cars I've looked at have just been dogs...

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

Hi,

 

Please search the forum for ideas, this subject must come up about 10 times a week!

It's not all about the power, although on an 8v the throttle response is pretty good. It's about how much speed you don't need to scrub off in a bend.

Enjoy!

[88lp 0 1 Cars]

Yeah ours are a little bit different in spec to the UK cars. Early Australian delivered GTIs allowed for our dud 1980s unleaded and have DFZ Jetronic motors with 75kw, later 90s ones have the DKZ Motronic with 90kw and a slight torque increase. The UK models for the most part used higher octane fuel and weren't fitted with cat converters which shows in their higher power and torque compared to Aussie cars. All our 205s had cats fitted standard by law. Ours also make their peak torque figure much lower down in the rev range (no bad thing for street driving imho).

 

Either way, an 8v 205 will never deliver it's power like a twin cam Fiat but you may come to enjoy being able to hammer along in a GTI without stirring the gearbox like a madman. I certainly appreciate it after being a rotary guy but maybe I'm just getting old (had a 131 too!). The 1.9 sounds quite lazy so you're often travelling faster than you think due to the nice low rpm torque and light weight but yeah, in standard spec it's no rocketship in a straight line.

 

There's tonnes of ways to mod them for more power. Traditional tuning with cams, porting etc, forced induction, twin cam 16v swaps, even a V6 swap if you really want to add the weight. LSDs are a must.

 

The handling is why people buy 205s though.

 

[DamirGTI 325]

Put an 1.9 D6B head on 1.9 DFZ block and you'll get something interesting to drive

 

(it'll lift up the engine torque curve like nuts , as well as being quite a lot faster..)

 

Damir

[omri617 18]

D6B on DKZ ?

[DamirGTI 325]

No , 1.9 D6B head onto the 1.9 DFZ block ..

 

Damir

[Ftumpch 0]

Thanks very much for the replies guys. Yes I suppose I should have expected this would be a pretty common topic but i also know it's always nice to have an opportunity to talk about your own hard-won and ingenious solutions to these things!

 

Unfortunately the car I was interested in has been sold from under me so it looks like I'll have to broaden my search a little. But I guess that leaves me with some more time to think about what I'm going to do when I eventually get to lay my filthy hands on one

[boldy205 74]

1.9 Mi16 on carbs, thats a nice engine!

[DamirGTI 325]

... you'll need a fuel tanker to top that up on carbs !

 

D

Edited February 6, 2013 by DamirGTI

[omri617 18]

... you'll need a fuel tanker to top that up on carbs !

 

D

 

Why ? fuel pressure regulator won't do the job?

[DamirGTI 325]

.. no i meant , engines running carbs are heavy on petrol consumption

 

D

[omri617 18]

My bad..