>Clip........Anyhoo, the 1500 makes the 1275 a total road rocket in
>comparison. In an attempt to make the 1500 more responsive, last week I
>removed the air pump belt and reset the timing from 2ATDC to 12 BTDC. This
did >not make any difference to the acceleration. What's puzzling is that
the >sluggard has an approx 20% increase in engine displacement over Binky.
The mpg >is also abysmal - 20 compared to about 28 for Binky. The plugs
seem to look
>OK - no carbon at all. The drive seems a little more smoother than Binky
>but that is a combination of many things, I suppose. I'm wondering if I'm
>missing anything. Of course, Binky has twin SU's and Doe-Doe has a single
>Z-S - is that the problem?
>
>Regards, Adrian
Hi Adrian,
I'm no expert on 1500s, but I imagine the Brits did things similar to what
was done on American cars to meet emissions standards. The technology of
the 70's reduced emissions by lowering compression ratio, adding a catalytic
converter/smog pump/EGR Valve, retarding camshaft timing, retarding ignition
timing/altering advance curves, and leaning the fuel mixture - most of which
resulted in a degradation of performance and mileage, but with cleaner
emissions at a minimal cost to the manufacturer. Eventually this type of
strategy proved to be inadequate and forced the introduction of computers,
then mass production fuel injection, and finally total re-design of the
powerplant at considerable cost to both the manufacturers and consumers.
Cars are expensive these days, but you have to admit the performance is is
better than ever.
Back in the mid-70s, I know Ford retarded camshaft timing by building the
retard into the camshaft gear. All we had to do is use an older timing gear
set, an older distributor/intake/carb, and headers - the engines would wake
right up to these mods. If you wanted a screamer, you put old heads on,
replaced the dished pistons with flat tops, and went with a performance cam.
I imagine the 1500 would respond dramatically to the right combination of
modifications that deal with all of these areas, but someone else will have
to tell you what they should be. The 1275 happend to be before the advent
of most of the emissions controls. I'm just trying to help explain your
observations.
Good luck
Les Myer
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