LUVTruck.com

Thank you for all the help on deciding what to do with my 1.8, but now I am curious about how fast it will really go. I am not looking for a drag racer, but I want something fast and fun. With an Offenhauser manifold, Weber Carb, Cam, and a header, how fast can I really expect my LUV to go. I believe 0-60 on a stock truck was around 17 seconds. What would it be with some work on the motor? Is it worth it?

You may be able to squeeze some extra power out of it by going that way, but the real problem is that your engine was simply not built for it. I love my little 1.8, but even as small motors go, it's not the most robust design, and it's painfully susceptible to overheating. I don't know what series motor you've got, but the Series 4 in my '75 stands as a great example of how not to do certain things(or at very least, how to design an engine that is susceptible to silly issues under reasonably normal driving conditions), and in my opinion, the design changes in later LUV engines reflect many of the earlier engines' greatest inadequacies. Many of it's fundamental qualities were left behind back in the 70's. You can upgrade components, but you inherit a lot of inconvenient baggage by subjecting yourself to the constraints of this engine. It may be better to save the headache of repeatedly-blown-gaskets and think about swapping out for something a bit larger while you've still got the umph. (DO IT!)

tl:dr- Take that little 1.8 too far out of it's intended operational envelope and you'll probably expose annoying little problems one after another, and before you know it, you'll have dumped a new engine's worth of money into it and have a blown motor to show for it. ...Then again, if you're a gearhead and have the time to spend, go nuts! Prove me wrong!

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75 Mikado G180/4sp Desert Tortoise

You're looking at ~100hp in a ~2500lb vehicle. It's not fast, but the modifications certainly make it more fun to drive around town.

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1978 Mikado *Weber 32/36*Offenhauser intake manifold*Pacesetter header*Custom exhaust*Pertronix Ignitor & Flamethrower 40,000v coil*

Thank you for the information! What do you recommend doing if my motor won't take it? I am not sure that I am mechanically savvy enough to put in a new motor, but if I chose to go that route what do you recommend putting in and would I have to change the transmission and rear end and suspension, etc?

Thanks so much for your advice!

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1978 Mikado *Weber 32/36*Offenhauser intake manifold*Pacesetter header*Custom exhaust*Pertronix Ignitor & Flamethrower 40,000v coil*

Keep this in mind:
Imagine an old school balance scale, you know the kind where you put a item on one side one the little disk hanging by chains, on the other side you put weights until it's balanced.
Now imagine the same scale, on one side is performance/horsepower.
On the other side is reliability. As you add more to the HP side you lose on the reliability side.
If you want more on the reliability side you need to subtract from the HP side.
Most vehicles arrive heavy on the reliability side and can be pushed to a nice balance of HP and reliability. But, the more you push onto the HP side the more reliability you have to give up.
In stock form these little motors will survive pretty well, with a carb and header they still won't hurt themselves, but after that,,,,, it's anybody's guess how much they will survive. My strong advice is don't try to make a hotrod Luv motor because it will never be fast and most certainly won't survive long.

SRAD

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My Wife is faster than you think you are

i agree with SRAD
i have a weber and electronic ignition on my luv, decked head and a full rebuild with stock cam, its faster than it was but its still no hotrod.. it does pretty good from 0-60 but it still has no balls trying to accelerate at highway speed up a slight hill or speed up from 60+ on the freeway to pass (i blame the gearing). i have had it up just beyond what the speedo could read, somewhere around 90mph on a very slight downhill and called that my limit
i havent had any problems with overheating since i rebuilt the head and replaced the stat and my luv regularly see's over 5k rpm while accelerating and will cruise @3600 (approx 60mph) all day.. for around town a mildly built 1.8 will do you just fine but for something with a higher top speed your going to need a 5 speed or a bigger engine w/5speed or O/D auto.
i have the engine with the cross-flow heads, not the one with intake and exhaust on the same side so i can't speak for those but the crossflow does pretty well for its size.. put a few civics to shame

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

What ever you do, If you do get a different engine for your LUV, Don't get rid of the stocker 1.8l until you let the group know about it. There are plenty of 'Stock Guys' that would like an extra engine. We're happy just drivin' 'em.

love4theluv and SRAD, whom, for lack of a better term, I'll refer to as our 'locals', know what they're talking about. They've got the practical experience; I do not. I am glad to say I've learned a few of the hard lessons secondhand through this wonderful site. I'm gonna have to steal that scale analogy. I wanted to add my two cents regarding the swap idea you initially mentioned. Others may feel differently, but this is a beginner's understanding of the field of realistic options.

I was initially very intimidated by the thought of ANY major drivetrain deviation from the stock truck. Now, I'm reasonably sure I'm gonna go that way - eventually. Haruspex's link is probably the best information available pertaining specifically to the Chevy small block swap into the LUV. It does indeed replace the rear end and trans. Even with a straight 6, or the 3.8L v6 swap, Your 4 speed tranny and high-ratio rear end(My '75 is 4.56:1) just wouldn't handle it, and if you were to take it seriously, you should probably start by assuming the same needs to be done in your case. Still not a big deal! Remember - It's a very simple truck; It was designed to be. I love it for it's simplicity.

Swapping for a newer or larger engine wasn't even a consideration when I bought the truck, but there are some things about the 1.8 I could stand to leave behind. I really want to learn how to see a full swap all the way through, and there truly isn't a better way to do so than to just say 'fuck it', find a good precedent to follow(or a friend who knows their shit), and head to the junkyard. From there, the parts hunt becomes kind of a mix between a detective novel and a game of cat-and-mouse. Now, before I let the engine swap pep rally get too far out of hand, let me pull a little nugget from the aforementioned engine swap guide itself:

"...this job is a tenhammer job on a scale of one to five to put it in perspective".

I am reasonably mechanically inclined and am capable of certain types of engine work, down to the head gaskets or so, and with that being said, I'd probably hire a local mechanic to do an entire engine swap. Guys that do it every day will miss all of the pot holes and hangups that you and I would spend hours solving or working around. Of course, that's also part of the fun - if I've got the time to burn.

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75 Mikado G180/4sp Desert Tortoise