My sentiments exactly. At the end of the day, it’s a mobile shed with your camping kit in. Can’t expect miracles from it… The most important thing is don’t be in a hurry, and if a trip takes you 3 hours on your shiny phone GPS thing…add an extra 2…
A lot of folk are fitting the supercharger kits now There’s a company in the uk called kompressor haus selling them. They do look tempting but it’s the additional heat generated that concerns me. I live the Yorkshire dales and visit the Lake District a fair bit so hills are a concern for me My engine will be built as a 1776 The next logical upgrade would be a set of twin carbs for only a slight increase in power/drivability If the cost of carbs, linkage, fuel pump/regulator etc is added up its a fair chunk of the cost of the supercharger conversion Which would give a bigger increase in power.
I’ve seen these kits and they do look tempting. Do you reckon it would be better to upgrade to 1776 then add one of these kits?
You may find the capacity increase is enough to satisfy your needs. Before you go spending on upgrades the first port of call is to check your current engine is in good health and set up and running properly. your not running an empi monza exhaust by any chance are you?
Thats a very sensible idea. I’ll get the garage we use to have a good look over and can make a decision form there. She has a quiet pack exhaust on her which was out on a few years ago.
You’ll be fine with that exhaust My van was transformed when I removed the empi monza exhaust It must have been really strangling the engine. Not transformed enough to fly up hills though. It’s a good idea to learn to look after at least the basics of these engines yourself. Most garages don’t understand them and there’s no guarantee the work will be done properly. Something as simple as a sticky advance mechanism on the distributor will really hamper the performance of the engine
I used to frequent the Dales in mine. Some of those hills around Settle, Langcliffe and Malham used to make me very nervous especially if I had to stop for a car coming the other way . Hill starting after that is hard work. At least mine has type 4 - currently 1.8 - in the back so they’re all do-able even if it pushes your mechanical sympathy past the limits!
Ideal, I think. 1776 is a nice size for a type 1, bit of a port and polish and 3-angle valve job plus twin carbs. Mine has no trouble with hills at all.
What I mean about the higher RPM is that people try to drive in too high a gear in general. If you generate power at whatever engine speed, it produces more waste heat which either goes out the exhaust or it heats up the engine. The cooling system on a T1 engine is good for about what a 1600 produces - 650 cubic feet a minute of air for 50HP. For the bigger "T4" engines with the better cooling fan , its 800 cubic feet a minute for 70HP , which works out about the same ratio. Up to a point, equivalent to around 60-65mph on a flat road in 4th gear with a 1600 ish engine, the cooling system keeps up in my experience. Above that level temperatures tend to start to rise, so even if the bus will do nearly 70mph it is getting hot fast. If you fit a supercharged 1776 and run out of water or methanol for the cooling, or your intercooler (if you have one, and if its fitted in the engine bay is it actually doing much good ..) output air warms up too much, your engine management has to automatically de-tune the engine to avoid things blowing up. People with basic 1776 engines seem to be happy without anything more than better carburettors and exhausts, although e.g. as @scrooge95 has a 1776 it needed a bigger oil cooler modification to stop it running hot on long journeys - theres a big difference between a 20 or 30 mile drive round the New Forest and launching up the A34 to Oxford and beyond ..
I was always amused when the guys from Yorkshire moaned at me about the hills on the Isle of Purbeck . Many years ago I organised an event for Philips employees in the UK , and they came from all over to walk on Purbeck - while there are proper mountains elsewhere, theres definitely some hard work on the south coast path. The climbs arent continuous but some sections keep going up and down several hundred metres over a few kilometres.
