(9/15/00): Lately I have been tinkering with
some small stuff on the car since I haven't had enough time to do any of the BIG
jobs (i.e. ENGINE)... I figured I would give
you a "sneak preview" of a few of the more 'High-Performance' items
I'm adding to the engine... In this 'preview' it will be the heads, carbs,
and intake manifolds. All these parts were purchased from www.aircooled.net) Ahh,
what a beautiful site! Dual Weber 44 IDF's... THE BEST dual carb
setup available today (I.M.O.) They aren't cheap, BUT they are well worth
the investment :-) In this picture they are shown without the aircleaners
attached (I have them, I just forgot to put them on for the pic... The
velocity stacks look 'cooler' anyway). Looking
right down the throat at the venturies, and butterflies. Keep in mind,
these 44's are going on a "mild" 1600cc, so they needed to be jetted
down a bit (which aint cheap either). These
are what the intake manifolds look like... Big thick aluminum units, that will
stand up to 'anything' Vroom, Vroom! They have been "ported
matched" to the heads, for less turbulence (MORE POWER). Here
is what the head(s) look like (only one pictured, 'cause they are both the
same). These are www.aircooled.net
's Stage 3 High performance heads. They aren't the cheapest, AND
they aren't the most expensive (which is 'just right' in my book). They
are NEW 040 castings produced in Mexico. They feature: dual springs,
stainless valves, ChroMoly retainers, a competition valve job, 40 X 35.5mm
valves, and Round intakes. They have really been opened up, since they
have been fully ported and polished (mucho' more flow, which ='s mucho' more
Horsepower). These suckers FLOW 45% MORE than stock units!!!
(The "gook" looking stuff you can see in and around the crevices is
just dried lube... Haven't gotten a chance to clean 'em up a bit). Mmmm,
pretty! Here
you can just barely make out the dual springs. You can see the larger
outer spring, and the smaller inner spring INSIDE the larger spring (really
holds them valves down TIGHT). Here's
one of the intake ports. These are really opened up, and less restrictive,
since they are fully P &P'd (as you can tell from the pic). Here's
the exhaust port. Again you can see how they have been opened up and
polished nicely! Stay
tuned for Part 17, where I either do some more "preview stuff", or
maybe I
