in the distant future i want to put in a motor in my 1000 ute thats cheap to run, has power and reliable and not to mention cheap for parts.
the a series motors are great for price on parts, strong, has some sort of decent power for age but how can i make the a series motor more economic and keep/add power. what in a engines design that makes it powerfull and economic like newer motors.
any ideas?

Someone on this forum has a signature that says it all - from memory it goes something like.

Cheap, Reliable, Fast - Pick 2

Stick a toyota blower on it. Turn the grunt on or off at the flick off a switch.

Engine efficiency is the key, & thinking & planing will be the way to get it. Try to avoid simplistic add ons & think more towards a designed-for-the-purpose engine that is tailored for your specific needs.

If you want to use an A series, & I recomend it, then give some thought to just what it is that you really want. Fortunately the A series comes in seven different capacities, with three bore sizes, & four strokes. It also used about four or five different heads, so there are ways to tailor an A series to suit your individual needs.

All you need do now is to figure out just what you want to do with this lovely little ute of yours.

injection... would be a good start, things like thermo fan that reduce load on the motor, but dattoman hit it on the head

efficieny

does things like balancing, port designs, valve sizes help? im only used to adding on to motors which in all cases has made things worse but more power. would using a gx head be better than stock a12/A14/A15 head? i gather 1200cc would be a good start but what other things could help? efi is good but i have found it less reliable compared to a simple carby and fuel pump (if u know what i mean) but does it make much difference in petrol usage? i suppose there are so many options with a series it does make it hard to choose what u want? i want to make my 1000 ute into a car i can take long distances (eg camping) but with good fuel consumption and great reliablilty.

Is MattoRX7 & Matto1kUte the same person?

OK, lets start with the basics.
Is this ute intended to carry a full load of wood for the fire 3 times a week & a couple of loads of bricks on odd numbered days? If so, then the long stroke A15 will haul the load much more efficiently than the A10 ever will.
Perhaps it's just you & your honey out for long, slow Sunday afternoon cruises along the beachfront & fuel costs an arm & a leg. Then a nicely tuned round port 1200 will be a good choice.

Do you want to just sit & smoke up the tyres all afternoon, then a blown A14 could be the answer.

But it looks like you want spirited performance, but with economy to boot. On the upside, the B20 ute is the lightest of them all, so a 1200 engine will very likely be the best compromise. I say a 1200 because it will fit your chassis without mods, while the 1974 & later A12, will not.

If you want economy & performance, then which one is more important to you? For now, I will go with economy in a high density urban environment. In this case, a round port 1000 head will serve nicely as this puts the heater fitting in the right place. See if you can get some 1000 pistons as these have flat tops & raise the compression. A little more compression will improve the efficiency of each drop of fuel burned.

Induction.
There are many to chose from, but for the moment I will rule out the most efficient one, EFI, on cost grounds. You now have two basic choices. The original manifold with a larger Weber carb, or an aftermarket manifold with two SU carbs.
I will ignore the dual Weber side draught setup as the last thing you are likely to get with this is economy.
A single sidedraught Weber is a better choice from both a cost, as well as an overall performance perspective in my view, but neither of these two inductions offer ported vacuum for the distributor, & this will negatively affect economy.

The single downdraught Weber is the simplest, but correctly tuning it can be a fussy affair. None the less, it will surprise you just how well it can run, ... & how economical, it can be.

I rather like the twin SU setup, but the manifold & parts can be a little difficult to source. As long as the carbs are in 'as new' mechanical condition, & tuned correctly, they will be a source of absolute joy.

Ignition.
Electronic. There is not really any other choice & a high energy system, like the Datrats one will light the fire in your cylinders with a high degree of certainty & reliability. If every droplet of fuel is burned up efficiently on every combustion stroke, then high efficiency is assured, & the big fat spark from an electronic ignition is the best way to do it.

Cam.
This is a little more difficult as most people tend to over-cam their engines. Something with a 'light sports' profile, that idles smoothly at about 700 to 800 prm will be fine. It doesn't go rump rump at idle, but will pull well & run strongly out to about 6,000.

Exhaust.
With a stock inlet manifold, my personal choice is a 1000 coupe exhaust manifold. This still supplies heat to the inlet manifold, & has a dual outlet. Extractors do not supply heat to the inlet manifold & this allows a condition where not all of the fuel flowing in is converted to a gas, & remember, it's gas that burns, not the liquid fuel that finds its way into the cylinders, washing the oil from the walls, then geting into the crankcase, diluting the oil.
Cold air induction is fine for engines operating at, or near, full throttle, but at economic cruise, you need heat.

With twins, an extractor will be the go, but keep the pipe sizes within reasonable limits. In either case, an exhaust pipe of about 2-1/4 should prove adequate.

That should be enough to get you thinking. Anything that makes more power, does so at the cost of more fuel consumption as you need to burn fuel to make power.
An engine like this should prove a good starting point for reasoned debate.

Now we could go on with wheel size, tyre size, gear ratios etc, but the most important fuel saving thing in the car is the driver. If you know how to drive, you can save a bundle.

I agree with Dodgeman, driving style is a major contributor to economy, but so too is avoiding twin 45's.
My a15 (1608cc) runs twin 45's and is FAR from economical. Good power though.

Fuel Injection

Efficiency improvements help...

Straight out lies generally work.

You can't have both. A carefully driven, off-boost turbo engine is good on the fuel. But when under boost, fuel usage can triple or more.