This is the 1971 1600 dual port engine that was on the car when I bought
it. It fired up for the last time the day I bought the car two and
a half years ago. Unfortunately, I won't be using anything in this
picture, other than perhaps the case. I don't know how many miles
this engine ran.
4/11/99--In the '78 bug I ran a mail-order 1776cc longblock based engine. The experience, thankfully, only lasted ten months before the thing finally gave up. The original stock, fuel injected engine gave up after about 100,000 miles, I replaced it with a piece of rebuilt scrap that lasted 10,000 miles. Lesson learned. I had hoped to transplant the "new" engine into the '70 bug after the restore, and rebuild the fuel injected engine later when I restore the '78 (the year 200?). This was an ill-conceived plan because I based the engine on a piece of doo doo that didn't last long enough to be transplanted. Oy!
So now I'm going to do the engine right. Since I've spent unmentionable numbers of hours fixing up the rest of the car, why not put something into the engine?
My current plan is to use the case, provided it doesn't need line boring. The picture of the #2 main bearing journal below is an indication that it might:
The picture isn't backwards. The numbers appear in reverse because they are actually an imprint from the hard bearing beating into the soft case metal. If all four of the standard size bearings fit in there nice and snug, I'll send the case to Rimco and have them verify that's it ok. If not, I'll get a new case.
10/6/99-Lot's new in the engine dept. check back later for details. I plan to start work by 10/15. The case above got the ixnay from Rimco, so I got a new one.
01/25/2000-well, the project's gone into the next millenium. The engine
is built, still on the stand. While waiting for my exhaust to arrive I've
been getting the wheels set up. I'll be putting the engine in the car in
a couple weeks. It was a fun experience to build, not without challenges,
but still a lot of fun and learning. Here are the quick specs:
