1964-1974 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
If you want to do between 10.2 to 10.4 and you want cast OEM pistons, its no problem at all. Forged pistons are easy too if you think you'll really be hammering on the motor. But with that compression you'll want a fun cam, and larger valves, the normal size being 42mm intakes and 36mm exhausts.
The ports are disgustingly small and can do with about doubling the area.
A decent exhaust is a must, and the MSS front portion is excellent, the rest could stand to be a bit larger and routed better.
I have been converting every V4 engine I rebuild to electric fans since about 1987, saves a lot of money and bother not replacing the miserable fan bearing, and having the plastic fan puke and poke holes in the radiator.
The clutch is wimpy but again, I have been upgrading them to a 200mm diaphram and heavy duty disc since 1988.
If the transmission is rebuilt to proper specs, it is plenty strong.
My personal car is about 1965cc and has big crossflow manifolds and 45 Webers (plural) and I have used the same gearset in numerous gravel rallies since 1985 with no problems, and only 4-5 ring gear breakages, and that happens to everybody when using a LSD that is set tight and you smack into rocks at speed.
The VW trannie idea would be a huge pain in the drain, they are significantly longer, and despite having an adaptor myself, the cost, their ratios, and no LSD for the VW trans was enough to think "why bother".
A Porsche type 901 5 speed could be a more interesting canidate, with excellent ratios and available LSD but cost and shift linkage would still kill the idea.
The stock tranies are slightly more reliable than the average manual trans available in European cars in the 70s according to the Svenska Bilprovningens inspection data IF people bother to keep the right amount of the right oil in them. In the hundreds of V4 trannies that I have rebuilt, the common thread was lack of oil and the nuts on the shafts coming loose, both easy to cure.
Send a note if you want more information on engine parts, gearbox build etc.
By the way, the "standard 1700 rebuilt package" I did for years in Seattle was building 1700cc motors to the Saab Sport and Rally departments 1969 RAC Rally spec which gives about 128 bhp if done to 1740cc, larger motors are a snap, 1815cc is a nice size. You dont need any NOS nonsense if you do it correct in the first place.
Note that even with 10.3 the head is very detonation resistant if you select pistons which are flush with the top of the block or just .004 out.
Usually 89 octane is all thats needed.
posted by 216.163.6...
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