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531 head and skim

Avtovaz

New member
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
ive found a problem with teh 530 head, so im going to go with the 531 i have. So, ill use standard valves, its on a b230a so its got dished pistons, cam lift will be like 13mm, and im using a cometic 0.5mm gasket.

Im not sure what to skim off the head, or even what to aim for really. we have 98 fuel here, and itll be on lh2.4 but i want as much power as i can get.

is 12:1 about right static? thanks
 
I know from personal experience you can skim at least 3mm off of the head and be fine. With a thinner head gasket and B230F pistons (also dished but may be different) it measured out to about 10.8 to 1 on 93 AKI (about 98 RON) and runs great on tuned LH 2.4 and EZK. What cam are you running? Dynamic compression is a lot more important than static especially with regard to avoiding detonation.
 
thanks for the reply, im looking at a kl racing stage 5 cam, but not sure yet, that has 12.9mm lift, and 300 deg, that on the 531 with standard valves, twin vale springs, probably solid lifters, but may have to use the stnadard bucket shims on it yet.


not sure what to skim off it and what the dynamic is as i dont know how to work it out properly.
 
The basic limit for valve lift without going to larger diameter buckets is 12.5mm. Lift above that enem suggests a 37mm bucket if I recall correctly. When Hank Scorpio and I bought enem cams together. He bought a K15 turbo grind because that was the max lift you could go without changing the buckets.
 
right ok so i defo need to get the shims sorted, but no where does the 8mm shim in 6mm is the size i need.


Im in the uk too btw, so getting stuff from sweden is quite expencive.
 
i think they are the same as some ford ones or something, ive asked on some british forums, see what they say. My sister lives in texas and when my brother and mother went over recently they brought me back a cometic head gasket as hand luggage lol ;)))
 
I included Hanks K15 turbo cam in my purchase from enem. Then shipped it over to him in CA. When enem shipped me my package they sent the wrong three cams. So he sold me those at a great deal because he didn't want them back. Then they shipped me my actual order. The hottest cam I have yet to try is a V16 turbo grind. I have ran both turbo and non turbo versions of the V15 and while it's a great cam for a street performance engine. The V16 or above is what to use for performance engines in my little bit of experience. That seems like a great cam. I just wanted to mention the lifter stuff because I think you also have to bore the hole in the head for the bucket to work. enem used to sell those parts so it would all work together.
 
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With the KL t5 cam, you should be able to use stock buckets as it's a reduced base circle cam. I think the issues with engines loosing shims was the lobe contacting the edge of the shim, valve float issues, and poorly fitting lash caps.

Since the KL t5 is such a reduced base circle, high quality air-cooled VW valves are just about a perfect fit. Single groove keeper, and plenty of spring and retainer choices that will keep it all under control at high revs.

These valves are basically "drop-in" if you're going to use OS valves with the reduced base circle cams: https://www.cbperformance.com/product-p/supergripvalve.htm
 
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Check your piston deck height the motor I just built stuck the pistons out of the deck .015".
I used a Mahle gasket for clearance.
 
I recall when talking with enem they told me about the lobe hitting and thus the need for the larger bucket. Those are stock base circle cams. I used to buy air cooled type 1 goodies from CB performance many years ago. Them and Gene Berg were a couple of my favorites. Thanks!

As an aside. I recently sold my 1963 Hot Rod magazine VW performance special and my 1975 Motion Minicar VW performance catalog on ebay.
 
ive found a problem with teh 530 head, so im going to go with the 531 i have. So, ill use standard valves, its on a b230a so its got dished pistons, cam lift will be like 13mm, and im using a cometic 0.5mm gasket.

Im not sure what to skim off the head, or even what to aim for really. we have 98 fuel here, and itll be on lh2.4 but i want as much power as i can get.

is 12:1 about right static? thanks
Definitely measure your piston to deck height before putting things together with a .5mm headgasket. That isn't one they normally stock, even, unless you meant to say .050"?

Regarding static compression, that varies based on the cam, but you should be ok at 12:1 if you have a camshaft such as what you're describing.

I know from personal experience you can skim at least 3mm off of the head and be fine. With a thinner head gasket and B230F pistons (also dished but may be different) it measured out to about 10.8 to 1 on 93 AKI (about 98 RON) and runs great on tuned LH 2.4 and EZK. What cam are you running? Dynamic compression is a lot more important than static especially with regard to avoiding detonation.
Did you guys really take 3mm off your head and didn't do any chamber modifications to open it back up? That's also on a 530 head that has smaller combustion chambers to begin with than the 531 the OP is talking about running.

The basic limit for valve lift without going to larger diameter buckets is 12.5mm. Lift above that enem suggests a 37mm bucket if I recall correctly. When Hank Scorpio and I bought enem cams together. He bought a K15 turbo grind because that was the max lift you could go without changing the buckets.
You can actually run higher depending on the rest of the setup, but above 12.5-13mm is close to when you may need to start using lash caps to set the right clearance with the smaller base circles. The ENEM C2 camshaft can be run on stock diameter lifters with 13.9mm of lift. AGAP's website shows a huge range of cams that can use the stock lifters as well, too, but the higher lifts all require lash caps to take up the extra gap from the smaller base circle. It must have something to do with the design of the lobes as well, because this says you can even run 16mm of lift on the 33mm buckets... :omg: http://www.agap.se/AGAP_Volvo_B230_Eng_7.pdf


right ok so i defo need to get the shims sorted, but no where does the 8mm shim in 6mm is the size i need.
Are you referring to the lash caps that go under the factory buckets? Factory valves are 8mm diameter, did you have smaller stem valves put in?
 
We have .123/3mm-ish off of our 405 head, but I opened up the combustion chambers a lot and added a groove to bring the static compression ratio back down. With the stock headgasket and modified b230F pistons(pockets for 4v) we are around 10.5-11.0:1 and have zero issues running more than enough ignition advance(29?) than needed for peak torque with pump gas(92 here). With a stock combustion chamber it would be well into the mid-11s or potentially higher, I'm not really sure what the chamber size was before I opened it up to the 44-45cc/mL it is now.
 
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