QUOTE(ConeDodger @ Jun 25 2013, 11:10 PM)
I was struck by how driveable it was. This isn't a beast that you couldn't talk your wife into riding in. It retains the character of the 1.7 but has an "I want to go play" attitude.
I can just imagine how nice this would be with a freshly built balanced engine and a good quiet well flowing muffler.
With the right heads...
I've been pondering the engine build. Definitely have to stay 1.7 because everything is matched to that. The bottom end would stay pretty much the same, but some head work could open things up. The 1.7 heads are pretty restricting. Maybe just using 1.8 heads would work better. I could do 2.0 heads but would need some tweaking because the intake system is based on 1.7 four bolt runners. Or 2.0 heads with four studs (did someone say LE200?
). According to Corky Bell's book, stock cams are actually really good for turboing. Not sure if I would want to risk the unknown effects by swapping to another cam. Part of the drivability is the copious idle vacuum, which goes away if I run a cam with overlap. Sure, I gain top end, but I'm not looking for that. But if I build this new engine, it'll be balanced in every respect. I've been wanting to build a crazy blueprinted engine for awhile now, and I think this is the build to do it on.
The muffler is a 3" inlet/outlet Hooker Header muffler. It's huge. If anything is restricting the exhaust flow it's the turbo. I'm tempted to try the K04, but I'm also liking just driving my car.
And then there's always that slippery slope of adding more boost. ottox914 is running 12+psi.
I think I'm afraid of this though, to be honest. There are so many turbo horror stories out there.