hydraulic or mechanical, what the heck?

[subsonic]

So I just looked at the date on my 85 golf NA head. it is stamped 96.  This is a dealer replacement head.  The block is mech. Did vw still make mech heads in 1996?  On The other hand, I just looked at one of my 1.6td's heads that is hydraulic and it is stamped 84.  This is a canadian engine.  Did they go hydraulic in canada in 84?

[935racer]

Those aren't the years you are looking at there, I can't remember off the top of my head what they mean, I'll try and dig that up. Pull off you valve cover and look at the cam followers, if you can see shims in the buckets you have a solid lifter head, if it is a one piece unit you have a hydraulic head. You can also check by looking between the #2+3 injector hole son the outside of the head, one drain tube means solid lifter two drain tubes means hydraulic. Its a little tricky to explain without pictures but if you have both style heads it will become pretty obvious.

[jtanguay]

86.5 they switched to hydraulic... i had an '86 jetta with mech lifters.

i dont think vw made hydraulic before then, or mech after then... are you sure that those numbers are date stamps?

[935racer]

Yeah 86.5 is first year of hyd heads for the diesels, I can't remember which models I think some cabriolets had solid lifter heads to 89 or something weird like that. VW likes to throw parts around whenever they feel like it, it seems :lol:

[RabbitJockey]

the extra drain hole hump thing is a dead give away as well.  but some after market mechanical heads have the extra hump... like my rabbit

[jtanguay]

personally i liked my mech lifter jetta way better... it just seemed to have more torque.

[subsonic]

You know, I just got a digital camera like a month ago.  I just got all familier with it, and the damn lens jammed half way open.  Now its off for warranty repair so no pics.   Jeez, I always thought that circle on the head with the numbers on it was manufacture information.  I guess I have been wrong for a long time :oops: .  So if the engine is already out of the car, and you dont know exactly what year it came out of, can you pull that info off the engine somewhere?  
Just went out and looked at the head in the car.  One hump between 2 and 3, thats it.  Indent between 1 and 2.  Looks to be mech.
Pulled the VC off the TD sitting in the garage, same deal
Looked at the 1.6TD head that is off the dissasembled engine, two drain holes, no shims, hydraulic.
Funny thing is, the hydraulic head is marked 86, the 2nd mech is marked 84, and the one in the car is marked 96.  The head swap was done in 2000 by a crudy dealership, they told the guy I bought it off that it was a new head, not rebuilt.  So the numbers kind of point in the right direction.
Anyway, I'm kind of pissed now,  When I bought these I was told they were both hydraulic.  I thought I could go a bit wild on the build up and run it hard because I had a complete back-up in case something went KA-BOOM!  Now I have a mixed pair.  grrrr.
I'll stop whining now, I got a good deal on both of them and I have a spare 1.6NA in case they both go up in flames, but still....grrrrr.

[myke_w]

Are we sure this number you are looking at is a date? could you post a pic here?

Sounds very peculiar to me.. 96 is way late for mechanical, it would almost certainly be a factory rebuilt if that was the case, does the part number have an "x" suffix on the 96 head?

not sure about the 84 hydraulic, IIRC the hydraulics first made their appearance in mid 85 in NA

[subsonic]

Well, the camera is tango uniform-tits up-so i need to wait to get it back from the factory.  Where I am talking about is on the right hand side of the head on the upper corner.  there is a circle in a circle casting mark.  The numbers are in the outer circle. if it was a clock,  from 11 to 7 they have  0 1 2 3   on the right side around 3 oclock it is marked 96.  Who knows. they are just probably casting codes.  
Just thought it was kind of interesting that they kind of pointed in the right direction of time.