Hey guys,
i have a 1200 ute 76 model came with auto and a a14 (thats what's stamped on the side of it) i was wondering a few things;
Will a a15 head bolt on?
a15 cam fit?
im giving it a a tidy up and rebuild so is ther some stuff i should know about the a14? like "hidden surprises" - tips or tricks lol. i would like to get a fair amount of power out of it without spending alot of money.

let me know, input appreciated.

thanks alot, ben.

The A14 is a top engine and very popular,Yea all the A15 stuff will fit.

What are you thinking ???
Twin webbers!, Turbo!, maybe EFI! this is what you should be looking at.

Im sure whoever builds your motor will be able to also make a few suggestions too.

It all helps

thanks mate.
no. no turbo's, no efi. im on my p's and going to put a ca18det later on. so i want want to build a good n/a engine.

head is same anyway and probably cam as well

so better off looking at carbies, and porting?

yeah 32/36 weber carby, extractors and a thermo fan make a good difference

Yeah i can testify webbers, thermo fan and exhaust make a huge difference... makes it feel and sound a lot better

Quote:

For all practical intents & purposes, the A15 is nothing more than an A14 with 5mm more stroke, so a head & cam change will not produce any real benefits by themselves.
If you have a water heated inlet manifold, then you can switch to exhaust extractors without any negative effects.

Webers [plural] on your engine would be the biggest step backward you could take, however a low cost adapter & a single twin barrel downdraught Weber from any one of a number of cars will add a nice measure of pickup & pep to an otherwise stock engine.

The thermo fan is another myth too in my view. It requires electrical power to run it & this drain imposes additional load on the alternator which in turn sucks the additional power from the engine. A stock fan has some of the load lifted from it when you're driving by virtue of the windmill effect when the air is pushed onto it through the radiator as a result of the forward movement of the vehicle.
If you have overheating problems, then fix the 'cause' of the problem first before adding additional fan capacity.

Again, in a near stock application, the stock fan will be fine. Your money would be better spent on a Pertronix electronic conversion ffor the ignition. These are basicsally a points replacement system but provide a more reliable spark.
I run platinum plugs in mine & these require a lower voltage to fire across a given gap at a given compression pressure. Combined with the GT40R coil, & silicon plug leads, I get every cylinder firing every time, no matter what the load or engine speed.

You will probably need st spend a quid to ensure that the carb is correctly tuned to your engine.

Make sure that all the factory tune up specs are right on the money & that little car of yours will scoot right along, but it will be right thrifty about it at the same time, particularly with fuel at more than $1.50/Litre.

The longer stroke of the A14 will give you a nice boost in torque & the single Weber, when correctly tuned, will help maintain a good vacuum signal, which is what your auto trans wants to see as it relies on the vacuum signal to help with the shift points. Bad vacuum & the shift points will be higher. This becomes a drag pretty quickly in a streeter & is why twin sidedraughts [which will have almost no vacuum] are so bad.

Stick some tidy but low cost 13" wheels on it & run 185x60x13 on the front & 205x60x13 on the rear & you get a nice bit of rubber 'rake' with an agressive stance at an affordable price.

Quote:

I want to differ with you on that. At any speed above 50-60km/h the thermo should never turn on, and you'll be reaping the benefits of not having a stock fan all the time. Wind speed under the bonnet won't be great enough to cancel out the negative effect the stock fan has through you're so called windmill effect, not nearly enough to make it as energy effecient as the thermo anyway.

Even though the thermo does sap power from the engine indirectly via the alternator when it does kick in, it'll mostly do so only when you're driving at slower speeds than what was mentioned, and never when the air moves through the radiator quickly enough to give enough cooling effect. It'll turn on very infrequently, and when it does it'll take much less time to cool the radiator to where it can switch of again. It'll do this because you can mount it flush with the radiator, and it'll be much more efficient moveing air through the radiator than what a stock fan could.

So probably 80-90 percent of the time you're turning a fan(which has enertia to overcome), trying to move air with it (which saps even more power because the blades act like paddles) and you're listening to that ugly whine of the stock fan. All of this when you don't need to.

Why then would most manufacturers eventually move over to either electrical or viscous(I hate these even more) fans? Because they save engine power which translates into better fuel consumption and better performance, because they don't use engine power when they don't have to.

Don't try to convince me that an A series engine with a stock fan will rev up just as quick as one without. 80-90 perent of the time it simply won't, and is probably the reason why guys shave of 2 of the stock blades sometimes...

I'm sure that even 80-90 percent is an understatement.

You make valid points, & I expected a reply along those lines. I do not have access to actual facts & figures which is why I used the words "in my view" as the whole thing is just my opinion.
I also wrote that the stock fan has "some of the load lifted from it etc. etc." as you are correct, there is not enough airflow to cancell out the load altogether.

I was interested in your comment about the viscous coupled fans as I rather like them. They pump the maximum amount of air at low speeds, when you need it most due to lack of road speed, but are speed limited, usually cutting out completely at somewhere near 3,000rpm, so they drain no power from the engine when you floor it.
They are also thermo controlled, cutting in when the temp rises above a predetermined figure, but simply freewheeling when below it.
If you have a dislike of them then I presume it's for a reason, probably something I haven't thought of, & am interested to know why.