case now made up (see restoration post for noah). Checked my deck height with out any shims I get ~ 0.4 .mm without a shim on the base of the barrel. Shim on the base looks pretty thin (~ 0.2 with feeler gauges ?) and I need ~ 1.5 .. clearance ? anybody got any sources for shims on the net ? look but didnt find anything .... http://www.thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/start-of-my-restoration-now-called-noah.11619/page-6
I thought you put them between the barrel and head and that you also have to measure the head cc but i could be wrong they do them in different thickness http://www.vwheritage.com/vw_spares...ntry_GB.htm?crumbStartPage=4&crumbStartRow=49
I don't really want to put shims in the head to cylinder as I understand the new heads have a step cut in for better sealing and it must be much simpler to keep a good seal cylinder to case where the temperatures / pressures are lower ?
You won't have problems sealing at the top end. You can shim them top & bottom - I think Heritage sell bottom-end shims to bring the deck height into range. Alternatively, you could put more than one paper shim at the bottom - seem to recall Laurie Pettitt suggesting this. Top end shims normally necessary if the cylinder head "step" has been machined off during refurbishment. You want the step, so they used to shim these up by 2mm(?) (Vege did it on mine). Steel shims seal fine. Once you've got the deck height sorted, if you've got new heads, I'd seriously suggest cc-ing them (measuring the volume of the combustion chambers). It's fun, and you won't end up with your compression ratio all to cock. PS The step is for "squish", not sealing purposes.
Yep, do it, orherwise you'll a bunch of unknowns. If you're lucky, might get a small increase in CR (8:1 or a bit more).
Most people don't bother. If you set the deck height to approx 1.5mm, the CR should be about right unless someone's been hacking at the heads...