ABF or KR?

Question

It's just occured to me that I've got an old KR sat in my 16V that's slowly rotting in the shed. It'd need megasquirting or similar, but obviously the lump would be free, albeit in need of engine mounts and a downpipe. Has anyone got any idea of the power potential of one of these on proper injection without pissing about porting it etc (140K, was down on power (someone had meddled with the injection system making it do 28mpg quite slowly) but not really using much oil before)? Any ideas on what sort of costs I'd be looking at to do a DIY rebuild on it to get it something like?

OTOH an ABF is more likely to work well out of the box as it were due to not being leggy as hell and abused by 5 owners...

Homer · Accepted Answer

My internally standard KR 16V with a 4 branch manifold, K&N and some cold air ducting gave 160bhp, 120@wheels on a rolling road. You might get to

170bhp with properly mapped fuel and ignition but I wouldn't expect any more. Unlike the other 16V engines at the time which were mostly restricted by their induction system the VW 16V has a poorer cylinder head design that limits the tuning potential with a standard head. Since you're megasquirting it anyway it wouldn't be much more work to bolt a turbo on and lower the compression ratio with a copper spacer.

Doki · Answer

Aye. TBH by the time there's a 4 branch on there at ~ £200, and I've megasquirted it, I'd probably be a hundred or two off an ABF, which would be giving more power and more torque. Seems a waste to bin a half decent engine but I suppose there's not much else to do.

Bah. More to go wrong, much more complication, much harder to map by guesswork. And more £s.

ABF or KR?

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