what can i do, [while my motor is out] to improve my 1600. nothing too radical, dont want to spend too much.but if ihave to do the work,and its not too much more money or the same time and labour anyway......what do you guys suggest?
My first suggestion would be to add a full flow oil filter. You can drill and tap the case yourself, and a full flow kit isn't that expensive. Depending on how much you can afford to spend, the next thing would be a counterweighted crank (Rod Penrose has some available ATM). According to all the books I have read, changing the cam is the last thing to do. It won't run very well until you have the carbs, heads, exhaust upgraded to match. Without a counterweighted crank, the engine won't last very long once you start upping the HP.
So far I have costed the rebuild at around $260, that doesn't include any labour for machining, just new bearings, valves, rings and gaskets. Add a new clutch and pressure plate and you're at $400. Adds up pretty quick.
dont go cw crank unless you are getting into serious work.
If you want to do that ask away, the answer will be 1916 club and subaru club :vader
Get it into a very good state of tune and spend your $$ on a sway bar and some tyres
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what about the 2165 club? or the 2386 club?
Or if wants to be a real rebel the 1835 club? :P
If you havent bought a P/C kit yet seriously think about spending the extra money and machining to go 1776 or 1916, and if your going to spend money on a CW crank a stroker isnt that much more, but then standard heads will be restricting it, so it all gets out of control very quickly!
Depends what your notion of not spending too much is.
Cheap and Cheerful combo would be a 1600, standard crank rods, engle 100 cam, kadron carbs, about 8.5 to 1 comp, and take your time cleaning the heads up. As far as the oil system goes get a deep sump, and CB performance make a nice full flow pump that exits and returns in the pump cover if you dont want to drill and tap the case.
mr k wrote:no more than $500 just while im at it might as well do tweak a little.
For $500 (I assume including the cost of new rings, piston, rebuild...?), Gorget internal tweaks. Buy a second-hand set of Kadron twin carburettors, a 009 distributor and an extractor exhaust. That'll wake it up a bit
Pay your debts, CxxT
Craig Torrens6 times Australian, 7 times State Hillclimb Class Champion
Cam and balancing is about the only internal tweak you would need to do for a 1600cc. HD oil pump, increase the compression to match the cam, keep the rest of the heads standard. Kadrons, 009, and extractors 👍 I had a 1600 about 17yrs ago that was a screamer by doing these simple mods (built by Stan :P). Standard crank is good for 6200rpm all day every day, as its one of the best forged cranks in the world.
love the feedback - how to tune up a 1600? make it into a 1916 or 2L+!! I did price this and it was $2000 not including heads or a case....outside of my uni budget I'm afraid.
I have a good 1600 so not splitting the crankcase. Internals will be standard - they were balanced when i first had it put together. Then very similar to what is decribed on air-cooled.net:
- progressive weber
- 1.4:1 rockers
- extractors 1 3/8 diameter
- electronic ignition
- As the heads are coming off, the intakes will be opened by 3mm.
- slight increase in compression.
- match porting etc of intake and exhaust.
It wil be a daily driver so economy (I 'm on a student's budget) and reliability are a consideration.
68AutoBugBeetle Restorer - Experience over 138\% - YIKES --
