Recon the 1600 or go the 1776?

The_Bronze. · 2006-03-31T10:00:51+00:00

Well my 71' Baja has sat down the back yard long enough. It's cooling down enough to work towards rego. Known to many as the Dog-O-War I fired him up this afternoon and brought him round the front to refurbish, roll on some paint and replace the faded seatbelts. I let him idle a while this afternoon and wasn't surprised to see oil bleeding from the perished seal behind the pulley wheel. Q. If I'm seeking reliability and a little more bottom end should I... Option A: Retain the 1600tp and go a bottom end up recondition or Option B: Pay the extra and go out to a 1776. What prices would be considered as reasonable and what sort of questions should I be asking the mechanics here to ensure they know what they are doing? Thanks in advance. The Bronze. (Dubbo) PS - I'm running a PICT34 with dual cannons.

VWCOOL 23 Windows of Awesome

5,158 posts · joined Jun 2003 · 6 Apr 2006, 12:11 pm

#472391

Pajeros are everywhere for $5-$8K

Trannys break when they are shock loaded by people flogging their cars hard due to a lack of grunt. Run a 1916 (as several have said, costs aren't much more than a smaller engine; bore/case machining costs are the same whether 1776 or 1916) with a single carb (standard Kadrons don't like steep inclines) and torquey cam and you will have lots of torque, won't need to drive like a dickhead (plenty of those at Stockton, huh!) and not break your trans and you'll retain aircooled simplicity

[ Edited on 6-4-2006 by VWCOOL ]

Pay your debts, CxxT

mattie182 Wolfsburg Wizard

466 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 6 Apr 2006, 1:59 pm

#472432

I have been running an EA81 since I built the buggy about 4 years ago. I have had to change one engone since then, but that was my fault.....

I flog the crap out of my buggy, and have not broken a gearbox yet (touch wood) and am just running an IRS box from an L bug!

When it came to deciding an engine, I chose the suby because they are everywhere (you can buy them for $500), compared to the VW, also the bit of extra power to turn the bigger wheels

With this pic you can see the water pipes running down each side of the bidy, just under the guards

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Once you go flat, you never go back!!!!!!

mattie182 Wolfsburg Wizard

466 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 6 Apr 2006, 2:05 pm

#472433

Obviously though you cannot do that with your water pipes, being a BAJA but Andy (vwrallycar) has his radiator mounted where the spare tyres used to be with the water pipes running though the car on top of the floor.
I have raced with him in the car, and they dont get in our way, and the car runs cool with this setup

http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=43725&page=1

Just because you dont want to go fast,doesnt mean you dont need extra power:P

Once you go flat, you never go back!!!!!!

The_Bronze. Minister of Volkswagenism

1,922 posts · joined Sep 2002 · 6 Apr 2006, 2:09 pm

#472434

Uh - The arguements either way are so good...

I am a fairly reserved driver. Never been a speed freak and rarely hammer my car. I generally like putting around watching (photographing) everyone else launching their cars and getting out of the bog. There was that one time I remember when, actually I'd rather forget that.

I guess I have to come to a decision. I need to get something done, probably before rego. I doubt an engineer will pass it with the oil dripping out of it. Weeping around valves and such is generally fine but actual dripping won't get passed I reckon.

Better to do the mechanics, and tranny is need be when not registered I guess. I would really like to test driving over winter before the heat hits again. I want to venture further afield closer tot the end of the year. I want to make both Qld and Vic events as well as the NSW opportunities.

Thanks everyone for the input thus far. Definately enough here to think about. I will post again with how I'm going and what I've decided and am working towards. The wife is sort-of-supportive on the pretext that the Forester sells for what were asking. The extra we have paid off of that can go towards the Baja. No rego (and motor) till that sells. Hopefully soon 😵‍💫

Bronze.

Rathmines, Lake Macquarie, NSW.

11CAB If ya got it....Baja it

4,674 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 7 Apr 2006, 7:15 pm

#472934

Baja Wes wrote:The auto would be a lot of work and doesn't seem to like the big tyres. A guy in the club has a manx with an auto and a 1600, and it can't reverse on most surfaces cos the gearing is too tall.

Col found out what the problem was with not being able to reverse with the auto, and it was the engine.......it was incorrectly built and only had a compression ratio of 5:1, dont sure how they cocked it up , but whoever built it didnt do a very good job. So when you've got an engine that couldnt pull the skin off a rice pudding, its little wonder it wouldnt reverse with big tyres. Now the engine has some grunt, its fine backing up.

65 Meyers Manx
68 Country Buggy (KO 367)
68 Country Buggy (KO 669)
68 Country Buggy (KO 789)
68 Country Buggy (KO 815)
68 Baja Bug
76 Baja Kombi Twincab

Baja Wes V6 Baja Pioneer

3,119 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 8 Apr 2006, 12:15 am

#473110

thanks for the update Graham. It must go a bit better now with a normal compression ratio.

As people have probably seen in other posts, I'd like to run an auto. A bit of work involved that I am not prepared to do at the moment.

Wes - www.offroadvw.net - 200HP Quad Cam V6 in a VW Baja - with climate control... 🙂
www.taylorcycles.com.au - My DH MTB racing brothers shop.