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SLOW POLO

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:20 am
by rustypolo
HELLO PPL IM NEW TO THIS FORUM SO BE GENTLE WIT ME JUS NEED SOME INFO, I HAVE 1989 1043cc POLO WHICH IS AS SLOW AS MY GRANDMOTHERS INVALID SCOOTER JUS WONDERING IF 1300 CARB WOULD FIT WITH BASE PLATE OR WILL IT FLOOD ENGINE, ALREADY CHANGED CAM FROM 1300, K & N WITH STRAIGHT THROU ZORST

CHEERS :evil:

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:43 am
by GroovyCarrot
Don't quote me on this, but yes I think it will fit. You'll have to re-jet it to use with a 1100cc engine though. Oh, and get yourself a weber, the pierburgs are crap.. I think they use the same pierburg carb on the 1100 and the 1300 engines anyway.
Also, the standard 1300 cam won't really help anything, it's not very agressive at all. You want to get a cam from a 1300 GT, that'll make a serious difference, although you'll have to rig up electric fuel pumps if you do that as it doesn't have a cam to drive the mechanical pump.
The 1100 is never going to be a fast car though.. like all the old polos, you've just got to learn to have fun with the handling and the 'nippy' feel of the car, but you're never going to be very fast in a straight line. My 1043cc was slow enough to confuse the timing system on a 1/4 mile drag at inters.. but it's fun to drive still which is what matters really.

Edit: sorry, I thought you said 1100, not 1043.. uh, you'll need the inlet manifold and carb mounting block from a 1300cc engine, and good luck finding jet sizes for it :? Still, it should be possible. Definately get a weber rather than a pierburg though..

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:29 pm
by Tahrey1043
You'd be as well to change the engine or just the car if you're really unhappy with the performance, due to the following points:

1. You're unlikely to see any substantial speed or acceleration gains from even several hundred pounds worth of work. If you do bring it up to any horsepower of note (probably a couple grand's worth of work, or fitting a G-lader), it still would have been far cheaper just to sell on, buy a larger engined one, and stump up for the extra insurance (a couple groups higher) and slightly increased fuel consumption (couple mpg).

2. Trying to make a half-pint engined car acheive similar speeds to one blessed with the full glass will result in both frustration when you fail, and the thing self destructing after an uncertain amount of time from the attempt and from when you succeed. I got lucky in that mine stood up to quite a lot of such abuse until recently ... but now i'm having to fix it. As a daily driver i have a 1600cc instead, and though its costlier to insure, its not drastically more thirsty (bigger engine allows a taller top gear for better economy), and i am a good deal more comfortable with the power output... meaning it gets thrashed a WHOLE lot less. (Do still thrap it from time to time, but only in emergency cases - whereupon it has acheivement far beyond what the 1043 could dream of)

I know it'd be a wrench, which is why i stuck with the little challenger for ages, pretty much until someone else forced me to switch.

The lightweight, precise handling and fingertip/seat-of-the-troos road communication is addictive though, and there's still a few country lanes which the heavier 1.6 cant boast more than a second's improvement on despite much fatter tyres --- that's coming from someone owning the 100-kilos-heavier mk3, to boot, on budget 145s! (the new car just doesnt give as much of a sense of the road or where the limits are, and can wallow a bit making you instinctively lift off far too early, where the little one just bounced and kept trucking, on full throttle and full grins all round the corner)

PS don't discount that weight advantage - did you see top gear last night? You're in possession of a 45 horsepower car that can match or possibly out-perform the 75 BHP pug 1007 (even in a straight line, and i'd bet easily on the bends).... :D those transit-van doors plus all the crash-padding are HEAVY! 30-horsepower-disadvantage heavy!