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dubKustom,
Hello! Yeah its pretty cool heh? Well, like I said before (maybe not here), I fail to understand the reliability problems you guys complain and talk so much about, specially in the T1 motors. There are things that you have to correct in these engines which were things that in a high performance application didn't work, such as lack of oil filter, cooler right in front of 3rd cylinder and so on. We do not build fast engines to last 100.000 miles, that is just not something we worry about, specially because there are other things that happen during the life of the engine that ultimately makes you loose a few horses gradually and you would eventually tear down the engine to fix these things before that period anyways (such as that nasty black build up on the top of the piston which I don't know how you call it, or worn valve guides or pistons that shrunk - have you checked how much a forged piston shrinks after some hard driving and so on). So the engine gets old. Worn out, and it simply doesnot deliver the performance it should.
A properly tuned 300hp 1600 will last a long time, a 180hp one will probably last longer, but it doesn't matter how. I had a daily driven Rabbit with 400+hp for like 50.000, tore it down because it leaked oil everywhere. I replaced the rings (the leaks were due to excessive pressure in the sump due to ring leak down - the car did not use an air filter due to lack of space in this specific set up), replaced the gaskets and seals, and headed to another 50.000 miles, a friend still has the car, going strong after maybe 10 years of driving.
My point being, reliability is not a problem if properly tuned. Keep in mind that turbo engines have low static compression and easy-on-the-parts valvetrain, it is essentially a stock engine off-boost, so it will last a long time, much longer than a wild arse normally aspirated engine, when driven under the conditions you described.
On road racing applications the story is different because of heat build up. We have recently put together a road race Fox (remember the old ones made in Brazil, sold in the US, the ones you hated), the car has a conservative 300hp on 15psi and we are getting spanked by heat. Everything under the hood is melting, started, hoses, wastegates.....but we are learning, so I guess even in this case, once you learned how to cool the whole thing down, it will be ok. We went the whole last season on a STOCK engine (stock pistons and rods) running 270hp with the same boost and more fuel, just to understand how far a set of factory pistons and rods will go.
TO sum it up....careful when people say that this and that CAN"T take this or that....they usually can take a lot more than what people thing, but the problem is that usually there is something wrong elsewhere that prevents the whole thing from working properly. Additionally, people insist on building mega horsepower engines (180 on a bug is mega - factory is what 50?) using factory tolerances, oil pressures and volumes...things like that, those things play a maker role in reliability also....factory tolerances on a 8000rpm engine won't work.
So to answer you question....don't worry about reliability on your application, if tuned properly and a few things observed, it should outlast your paint job, wire harness, and definetely your tires.....
Best regards,
Marcelo
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