I have recently purchased a 65 Midget and 69 Sprite (both in rough shape) with
the
intention of producing one good driveable car from the two. The 65 Midget had
an
older 948cc engine and smooth case transmission in it (rather than the 1100cc/
ribbed transmission I believe it should have had) so I plan to rebuild the
1275cc
running gear from the 69 Sprite to put in the Midget. I have two questions:
1) From recent postings to this list, it appears that the year 1965 has some
significance for SMOG testing (I am in CA). I had understood that cars were
required to have whatever SMOG equipment they originally came with, in good
functioning order, to pass current SMOG. Since SMOG regulations were
introduced in Jan 1968, what would a 1965 require for SMOG? or did CA
have earlier SMOG requirements?
I had thought that it made more sense to restore the Midget than the Sprite,
largely because it would have no SMOG restrictions...
perhaps that is not the case?
2) I must do a fairly complete rebuild of the 1275cc engine because during
some previous rebuild, one of the piston pins was not fit correctly, and it
slipped and scraped on the cylinder wall. :-( In the process of the
rebuild,
I am interested in boosting the engine power a bit (depending on what I can
do legally with SMOG requirements) but I would like to use the original
1.25" SU carbs. The exhaust manifold, while probably reusable, has some
damage on the output flange--so a I may go to a tubular header. I would
like recommendations on what would be sensible to do in the way of engine
modifications. I am interested in road use, some of it in traffic. I
suspect that
for my use a very large increase in power is not warranted since I plan to
use
the standard width wire wheels and tires which do not require body mods
(though I do plan to add an anti-sway bar and perhaps stiffer shocks) and
fuel
economy is also a concern.
Any advice or experiences you may have had relating to the above would be
appreciated.
Bert.
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