My RSK Spyder replica has an 1880 engine in it. Or atleast that's what the engineers report say. What the heck is an 1880? Never heard of it before. I know 1640, 1776, 1835, 1916, etc but what's an 1880? What size barrels would it have? Standard crank?
Raf

Raf,

73mm crank and 90.5mm pistons would get you 1880ccs - probably the most likely combo you are running.

Adam.

Pretty sure Jak Rizzo use to run one
I "think" it is when you offset grind a VW crank and run a longer Chev rod
"Someone" was a builder of these a decade or 2 ago
Sweet motors

Yeah, the timing would be right then. The car was built in 1985
Here is a pic of the resto

sweet ride man

I always fall for something with 550 spyder inspiration in it... got a real soft spot.

now that is pure smut filth

So got my starter problem sorted, now would like to get the engine running better than what it is. First, its an 1880 with a single Solex 34PICT, standard vacuum advance dizzy, electronic ignition and elec fuel pump.
Not much power at low revs. There is a lag of 4 or 5 secs between openning the throttle and the revs picking up. Also it back fires under load (going up hill, etc). I have to bring the revs up pretty high to get it off the mark without stalling. Really for a 1900 engine in a light car, I expected it to perform much better
I am looking into replacing the single solex with dual 34ICTs. THere isn't much room under the back flip panel so my options are very limited
But mean while, what am I suppose to look at to get it performing better? Its a pain to drive now
I already timed it, replaced the plugs (less than 200 klms old), fitted the new electronic ignition and checked the valve clearances
What else?

Hmm... the backfiring aspect makes me think lean... blocked jet somewhere maybe ???

The lag of 4 to 5 seconds... does it do it if you just blip the throttle from idle with no load ??? Could be accelerator pump blocked/stuffed/out of adjustment....

I've dismantled the carby and cleaned as much as I can couple of weeks ago.
If I blip the throttle, nothing happens. It does not respond that quick. The lag happens when I open the throttle and hold it quite open for few secs

Hmm, OK... are you sure you got it all back together right then ???

Not trying to have a go at all - just a suggestion - there's a pretty good write up on cleaning and setting up a 34PICT at http://www.vw-resource.com/carb_41.html  that you can check yourself against.

On the accel pump... remove the carby then with the float bowl full of fuel try opening the throttle... there should be a nice strong squirt of fuel come out the bottom. That squirt is important to get the engine to pick up from idle.

I have two spare 34PICTs. Will read the article and cmake one good one out of the two and see what happens
So you reckon most likely its a carby issue?

34pict- A whole world of pain!
Methinks, the right distributor for the carby, The wrong carby for the engine!
While the 34pict can be set up to run the 1600tp with grief, it struggles to cope.
Your 1880 needs-and deserves-more! Twin anything would be a major improvement as it gets the throttle butterflies so much closer to the valves.
36 mm Dellorto's, Weber's or the like should do the trick.