|
Well...as far as that goes, if you stick with a stock engine, a fancy exhaust ain't gonna help a whole lot. Perhaps a little though... go with a dual downpipe manifold from a 140, and take it to a muffler shop and have them put on a 2" system, and a free flow muffler of some sort. THat won't cost a whole lot more (if any) than a stock exhaust.
The carbs...yea, keep the SUs. Don't fix that which ain't broke, and a weber aint' gonna be much improvement if any.
Maybe consider a high compression head gasket if available...as long as you already have the head off. That's an easy one, but again, it won't make much difference, and it might force you to use higher octane fuel.
Biggest thing you can do to liven things up is suspension, and to be honest, any serious suspension upgrade puts a lot more stresses on other parts. Since you want to keep and drive this thing forever, I would just go with some good shocks (I like KYBs.. bang for the buck), and gitcha some wider wheels and good tires. Again, don't go overkill...
Minilites are hard to find anymore, and expensive. But the bolt pattern is common. For moderate upgrade, I really like the pressed steel wheels off a Ford Ranger. The 4wd versions had 15" wheels in either 5.5, 6, or 7" wide. (the 2wd Rangers have 14" rims that might not fit) I'd go with the 5.5 inchers, and get a good set of 185/65-15 tires, or perhaps 195/65. Them, and good shocks will make a significant handling improvement.. Tires too wide can cause other driveability issues. The poly bushings help too I expect, but they will cause some of them suspension bracket breaking stresses. I'd go with stock bushings... but do replace them all.
I would also not recommend the swaybars and springs until you have your tire situation sorted out. I drove a 1800 once with all the ipd stuff, but stock tires, and the thing was just downright scary. Not to mention a harsher ride.
Pretty much all the stuff I've mentioned above is exactly what I did to my 1800s soon after I bought it. (I didn't do springs or sways) That was a quarter million miles ago. Nothing so outlandish as to create reliability problems, and its still just as comfortable to drive as ever, and it definitely livened the car up a bit.
I think you are taking the right approach with keeping it mostly stock... with performance mods, they will only perform as well as the weakest link will let them, so if you plan to do a single thing to the max, you best plan on taking it all the way... and I get the feeling you really aren't after a race car.
Good luck with it, and drive safely!
-Matt
|
