somewhere the article from 1976 HVW's on Dean Kirsten's 1679 was posted.

[Jim Ratto]

Sorry, used search and couldn't find it. It was the article of the build up on his 88 x 69 motor, with custom Engle cam, etc.
Dean, any impressions you want to share about that motor in the blue '67, I'd enjoy reading.

thanks
Jim

[deano]

Jim, looking back at that engine build up, the biggest problem I had to over-come was getting those (early) Total Seal rings to come in. If I had the do-over, I would have kept the stock KS rings and that engine would have made a lot more power on F&A's dyno than it did. We had a lot of ring leakdown that never improved. The cam I ran was a special grind that Ron Fleming had Engle do, which was a 120/125 dual-pattern. They only made two of them. The intake had a W120 grind, and the exhaust had a W125 grind, to even out the flow differences (ratio) on the two ports. Worked okay on the 1700cc, but really worked better on the 1900cc (same engine with a 78mm SPG), and finally, on a 2074 (same with 92s). The other 120/125 cam went into a 82x88 biral cylinder engine F&A built for a midget engine. Made great power.

[RFbuilt]

wow!

thats some interesting and unique , step child kinda motor!!

[kingsburgphil]

Jim, looking back at that engine build up, the biggest problem I had to over-come was getting those (early) Total Seal rings to come in. If I had the do-over, I would have kept the stock KS rings and that engine would have made a lot more power on F&A's dyno than it did. We had a lot of ring leakdown that never improved. The cam I ran was a special grind that Ron Fleming had Engle do, which was a 120/125 dual-pattern. They only made two of them. The intake had a W120 grind, and the exhaust had a W125 grind, to even out the flow differences (ratio) on the two ports. Worked okay on the 1700cc, but really worked better on the 1900cc (same engine with a 78mm SPG), and finally, on a 2074 (same with 92s). The other 120/125 cam went into a 82x88 biral cylinder engine F&A built for a midget engine. Made great power.

As a footnote to your post Dean, I used a couple of FAT's custom Engle 100/110 cams in our desert rails.....worked perfect.  No surprise since FAT
motors dominated short and long course off road racing at the time......but that's a saga on to itself.

[Diederick/DVK]

Jim, it's on page 36 of the June 1976 HotVWs. I love that feature

[speedwell]

 

[Rennsurfer]

Awesome.

[Jason Foster]

Awesome.

  Ha Ha as I scrolled down and saw the article then the shot of the engine I said out loud to myself "awesome"
 Cool bring back Jim and thanks Fabian you got something old school brewing in that head of yours Jim?

[Fritter]

I have the magazine with this article in it.  That was a very cool motor.

[deano]

As I recall, Mike Billings built a similar 1700cc IDA engine when he was working at F&A, and his combo made more power than mine...

[DKK Ted]

Say Deano, is that the same Mike Dawson that worked on your heads that also worked at Auto-Craft Machine?

[deano]

Yes, Mike Dawson and I did a lot of cool things together. He was over at Brea Motor Parts back then, before he went to work at Auto Craft in La Habra. His dad, Jim was a super guy as well.

[DKK Ted]

I worked with Mike at Auto-Craft, he worked on heads there,  was a machinist there myself. I believe he went on to work doing his own thing by the river. He had this bad ass yellow Baja bug that was lowered a bit in front. He let me drive it to check out the way his engine ran cause I was deciding on what to build for myself. Have you heard from Mike, how is he doing, if ya did??

Ted

[deano]

Mike Dawson has been at JD Machine Shop in Lake Havasu City, AZ for years... Great guy!

[Jim Ratto]

Dean, thanks for sharing memories of that engine. The 1679 setup has lng been one of my favorites, ran a nice one in my Bus, though not tuned anywhere near yours. Closer was Bryan Wenzel's 14 sec. version in his stock '65 Bug

How was powerband with the 120/125 Engle? Do recall the carb setup, vents and jets?

Interesting, before we built Sheep his 1914/K8/Mary Pauter heads/IDAs/Crown 6lb, we were building him a 1679 with W125, Jeff D 40 x37 "D" ports, 48IDAs, etc. Still want to build it one of these days, maybe a second heart for my car.

[deano]

From what I recall, that combo was a little weak on torque and I really did not like driving it all that much. A 78mm stroke went into that same engine almost immediately. Jetting? I think I ran a 145 main 165 airs, 37mm venturis, 65 idles, 32 degrees timing. I ran the crap out of that 1900cc for years, and finally, replaced the skatey-eights with ninety-screws for a 2074mm. I loved the way that engine ran and I never had one bit of problems, even at 11.0:1 compression. Many, many years later, the guy who bought it finally dropped one of those goofy 9mm/914 exhaust valves and did a lot of damage. Steve Tims fixed the head, and I think he found someone to fix the SPG roller crank. That engine is still kicking around at Glamis somewhere.