I'm looking at doing some vintage speed mods to the stale-air 40HP motor (engine # 7159934) in my Karmann Ghia. Car is still just being stripped down now, so a year or two away from completion probably. However it can take a while to accumulate some of these bits.
Absolutely stock late '62 car ('63 model year) with 52000 original miles. I don't want to do anything that will risk breaking the case, as it is the original engine. I'm not particularly after a lot more power, it's more the look. I won't be driving it hard, gotta treat the old girl with a bit of respect!
After reading a few sites around the place, these are some of the changes I'd be looking at, would appreciate any comments. I want a reliable engine with a little more pep, but mainly just that old-school look. Only other change from stock I'd be looking at on the entire car is a set of BRMs or similar, and maybe an Empi VDM steering wheel. No lowering or any of that c**p.
- case assembly, blueprinted, balanced components. This early case probably does not have cam bearings, should they be fitted (can they be)? case savers? Should I be using one of the later 40HP cases instead?
- big-bore kit, 1385cc (83mm I think). I'm a bit reluctant to go there, my memory of these is that the cylinder wall is pretty thin and/or they tended to overheat. I'm in Brisbane so cooling needs to be good. Also I'd like to be able to convert it back to standard so major internal mods are probably not on.
- for converting back to standard, probably stick with standard cam
- dual carbs. Either an old kit if I can find one, make one up myself or Riechert in Germany make a very nice set-up. I understand the 28PCIs are better to use than the 28PICTs. I'm not sure if the decklid springs on a ghia get in the way of dual-carb air-cleaners, although plenty seem to have them
- I think just the standard single-port heads, possibly with larger valves. I believe the '65 40HP heads had larger valves, not sure if that is the case on Australian engines, we seemed to do everything different.
- repro abarth exhaust or similar
- possibly a Fram oil filter set-up as well
- distributor maybe change to an 010 or 019 - 019 is probably better for the very mild engine I'm thinking of. Not even sure a distributor change is required from standard.
Any comments on the wisdom or otherwise of any of the above welcomed, or any other suggestions.
Cheers
karmann54 Officially Full-On Dubber
337 posts · joined Nov 2002 ·
