Post by Charles Thomas on Jul 19, 2011 17:57:19 GMT -5
I pulled the original 1500 engine; to replace it with a 1970 1600 Single-Port I bought of craigslist (as a semi cheap runner to drive temporarily).
While I was there, I bypassed the ever so pain-in-the-rear vacuum shift for the auto stick and routed a hand clutch to the shifter, (like my motorbike). Works great, but I wonder how much more I can squeeze out of the auto stick before I blow it. I like my hand clutch and think I will attach a freeway flyer at some point (likely after the death of the auto stick) using the same shifting setup. I also re fitted the seats to avoid slamming my head on the gull-wing, (I am 6’1”) and am making progress on refitting the dash in aluminum, bracing the body to avoid any further warping, and adding 3" ceramic re-circulative heating, which will seriously help with the defrost during the winter here. I also am getting new LED dash indicator lighting (thanx to spyderdriver). ;D
The engine turned out to be very temporary, as the #3 and 4 cylinder head blew within 5 miles of installation. I was.... upset. When I went to pull the head, I found it incredibly over-torqued, they PO had just tightened it down after it had blown once so I could hear it run... f#$%er.
While I was there I figured, why not go all out and bolt up a set of a new dual-port heads and dual Webber 34’s of a fastback. The dual-port heads on the single-port cylinders will give higher compression, (assuming it doesn’t instantly blow the rings,) it will work great for a very mild HP increase without ruining overall reliability.
Worked great, except for a few minor issues- apparently the dizzy inners are all messed up, and the advance doesn’t work at all, (bypassed that, ran a crappy wire inside until the new one comes in the mail). My fuel pump wouldn’t handle the load of dual carburetors (bypassed and added electric pump). And the biggest hurdle- I just remembered how much I suck at syncing carburetors.
I haven't touched a dual carb setup since my old Honda CB350, almost 12 years ago, Ha.
So the Bradley gets towed off to the local VW shop today, to have the carburetors synchronized and the timing reset. Hopefully it’ll be done by this weekend. I think I am going to have to go buy an airflow sync for future maintenance. . .
Pics to follow this evening.. because it did happen.
While I was there, I bypassed the ever so pain-in-the-rear vacuum shift for the auto stick and routed a hand clutch to the shifter, (like my motorbike). Works great, but I wonder how much more I can squeeze out of the auto stick before I blow it. I like my hand clutch and think I will attach a freeway flyer at some point (likely after the death of the auto stick) using the same shifting setup. I also re fitted the seats to avoid slamming my head on the gull-wing, (I am 6’1”) and am making progress on refitting the dash in aluminum, bracing the body to avoid any further warping, and adding 3" ceramic re-circulative heating, which will seriously help with the defrost during the winter here. I also am getting new LED dash indicator lighting (thanx to spyderdriver). ;D
The engine turned out to be very temporary, as the #3 and 4 cylinder head blew within 5 miles of installation. I was.... upset. When I went to pull the head, I found it incredibly over-torqued, they PO had just tightened it down after it had blown once so I could hear it run... f#$%er.
While I was there I figured, why not go all out and bolt up a set of a new dual-port heads and dual Webber 34’s of a fastback. The dual-port heads on the single-port cylinders will give higher compression, (assuming it doesn’t instantly blow the rings,) it will work great for a very mild HP increase without ruining overall reliability.
Worked great, except for a few minor issues- apparently the dizzy inners are all messed up, and the advance doesn’t work at all, (bypassed that, ran a crappy wire inside until the new one comes in the mail). My fuel pump wouldn’t handle the load of dual carburetors (bypassed and added electric pump). And the biggest hurdle- I just remembered how much I suck at syncing carburetors.
I haven't touched a dual carb setup since my old Honda CB350, almost 12 years ago, Ha.So the Bradley gets towed off to the local VW shop today, to have the carburetors synchronized and the timing reset. Hopefully it’ll be done by this weekend. I think I am going to have to go buy an airflow sync for future maintenance. . .
Pics to follow this evening.. because it did happen.
