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I am (very) slowly replacing the head gasket in my 1.9 after it corroded due to lack of use. I removed all the valves and valve stem oil seals tonight and then noticed some pitting around the cylinders. The worst area is near the 4th cylinder, it is around 1.5mm from the edge of the combustion chamber and around 5mm in diameter and around 2 to 3mm deep. I am planning to have the head skimmed to clean it up, is this something that can be welded up first by a machine shop? Thanks Rob

A little bored given the crappy weather, and mindful of the mileage my 205's original engine is racking up, I was thinking of building up a higher compression 8 valve lump for my 205, 1.9 with 1.6 pistons, and am wondering what the limitations of the standard top end is, and would standard bottom end parts work as a budget build without grenading given the 8 valve tends to produce its power at lower rpm? the questions I have are as follows: at what point does the head need work, would I benefit significantly from doing so at a fairly low level of tune? IIRC I do have a lightly tickled 8 valve head in the shed already, the exhaust ports have been smoothed up a bit I am thinking as with most pug engines and going from what I have seen of Sandy's engine builds is that the valves are plenty big enough (though I'm off to read this topic again shortly... http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=31290&st=0 ) a quick working from memory of dish and chamber volumes indicate that I'll be around 10.8-1 with an unskimmed head, no doubt the head I have has been skimmed in the past. what is the max lift for std valve gear? I take it that RPM is more a bottom end concern given the tappets are solid as standard. for the bottom end, I am thinking as mentioned of some XU5JA pistons as they have a smaller dish and bump the compression, some standard 1.9 rods checked for weight discrepancies. I do have an XUD9TE crank to hand which is reputed to be forged steel. I have an XU7 block to hand, and an XU7 oil pump, as well as XU9j4 10J4RS and XU10J4 oil pumps. Camshafts, not sure what I could use, may depend on limitations of standard valve train, IIRC I do still have a PTS max Torque cam if it has not rusted away in the garage