by Tom Chambers
This article appeared in
Dune Buggies and Hot VWs
June 1980
(Edited)
Besides adding Amsoil engine oil to our motor, we also filled the transaxle and repacked the CV joints and wheel bearings with Amsoil products.
When we last left you our quest for 40 miles per gallon in our ’71 Bug had fallen pretty short of the mark at 33.8mpg, and while we were a bit disappointed with the results, we still felt that we had a long way to go towards reaching the magical 40 mark. As you’ll remember, we’d just rejetted our dual Solex Kadron carbs and still had some fine adjustments to make. After these small linkage and idle adjustments were made, plus the addition of a pair of Treuhaft cast aluminum manifolds, the mileage went up to 34.4mpg. At this point we felt that we’d just about reached the limit with the Kadrons so we had Stuart Thomas of Headflow Performance, 1760 Monrovia C-7, Costa Mesa, CA 92627, builder of the engine, remove the Weber 401DF carbs from our old low compression project 1835 engine and give them a complete rebuild. We left the jetting the same as it was on the 1835-130 main jets, 200 air corrections, F11 emulsion tubes and 55 idle jets. As soon as we started the engine we knew it was much to rich for our 1600 so we immediately replaced the 130 mains with a set of 110 main jets. We also added the full line of Amsoil products including their engine oil, wheel bearing grease and transmission oil.
What a difference! Our mileage went right up to 36.1mpg at a steady 60 mph. The jetting is a bit lean, but we feel that as long as we keep the speed near the 60mph mark, we’ll have no problems – it doesn’t ping, pop-back, run-on, or show signs of excessive heat on premium gasoline….
(Edited)
