Skip to main content

Reply to "Vintage Motorcars of California 2332 cc build sheet"

It's hard for some confirmed gearheads to wrap their heads around building an engine with nice parts, then leaving a bunch of power on the table - but there is a long and successful tradition of it. One need look no further than American cars pre-1973.

Sure, there were LT1s and Super Cobra-Jets, but there were a LOT of cars built with really, really mild cams, hydraulic lifters, and >400 cubic-inch V8s. Sometimes these engines had 2 bbl carbs on them. Not three 2 bbl carbs, one.

It's easy to chalk this up to lazy 'murican engineering, but the reasoning was that a low revving, torquey motor was a nice way to move a car down the road when absolute power is not the primary consideration.

This is not my jam, but it's perfect for guys who just want to get into their cars, twist the keys after sitting for 3 months, and go have an ice-cream cone. The entire thing is built around maximizing the Kadrons, which have a reputation of being anvil-simple and nearly 100% maintenance-free.

Kadrons are not perfect. They get horrible (really laughable) gas mileage, generally. The needle valves are typically bad (which is why they run 1-1/2 psi fuel pressure). They make up for an almost complete lack of a transition circuit by generally being set-up very rich, to fill in the low spots. They're workable, but far from ideal.

The entire thing could be solved with a nice, stand-alone EFI/crank-fire system, but the vast majority of people who do this are the kind of people with lathes and milling machines in their basements.

IMHO, if the air-cooled platform is going to survive as a viable alternative (and I don't think it will), we need an engine like Greg and Pat are building, with a better cam and a ready-made EFI/crank-fire system ready to be bolted. I personally think the ECU should be Mega-Jolt, since it can be mounted inside the engine compartment, but others will differ.

Regardless, I think Greg is doing something that should have been done years ago - cutting down the option sheet to a couple of engines - the type that (as they said on the video) 95% of the buyers will be happy with.

×
×
×
×
×