1994 306 xsi engine, any good?

[Canadian dave 4]

I live in Canada with my 205 mi16 hill climb and track car, and accordingly there are not to many parts options available to me. My mi16 is getting pretty tired and I have now been offered the 8 valve engine from a 1994 306 XSI. It's in need of a rebuild, but I'm probably going to grab it for a spare. My questions are if someone can help me.

- is the block and internals the same as a gti6, ie will a gti6 head or my alloy mi16 head bolt right to it?

- is this block and head any good for building a turbo 8valve engine?

Any tips would be great fully recieved. I like the idea of just having a spare engine as parts are so hard to come by over here. But also if I can end up with an iron block which is better suited to boost that my old mi16 that would be great to.

Thanks for your help. Dave.

[Richie-Van-GTi 73 2 Cars]

The gti6 head will bolt to it but the pistons are totally wrong and will contact the valves.

It is also good for a turbo build if you drop the compression a bit and get a turbo camshaft for it. It is pretty much the same as a the 8 valve turbo engine as far as the basic block and head go.

[welshpug 1,662]

Only the block and crank are similar to gti6, pistons and rods are different, I dont think there are any piston oil spray bar/jets.

 

Any xu head will go on.

[SRDT 183]

This block lacks oil squirters so it's not as good as a turbo or GTI6 one. As far as spare parts are concerned rods are the same than the 8v turbo and the crank is shared by all.

Check on the back of the head if they are 10 threaded holes for manifold studs, if yes then it's similar to the early turbo head minus the sodium filled exhaust valves.

Pistons are not good for a turbo but even the real ones don't like to be pushed too far beyond standard power, it's only a 145-150hp low boost engine after all.

The oil pump is also low spec compared to the turbo engines or the GTI6.

[petert 591]

You could make a very strong engine using the XU10 block, Mi16 88mm crank and your head. You'd just need to source some 152mm rods from an XU10J4 and buy new 86.5mm XU10J4 pistons. The oil squirters aren't the be all and end all. Nice, but not essential.

[Canadian dave 4]

Thanks for all the useful replies guys. I am making the 1200km round trip tomorrow to go and grab it. It will be exciting to build another peuegot engine. Although my shop will now have two cars but 4 engines in it! Two peuegot and two small block chevys!