'74 2.0L Rebuild, Looking for advice Options

[mangrum]

Just about to drop the motor and trans on a '74 2.0L to rebuild the motor, and will be posting questions along the way. Thanks in advance for all who reply.

First things first. What advice do you have for cleaning the outside of the motor and trans? Any chemicals I should use or avoid? What prep work do I need to do first (eg, to protect sensitive parts)?

Thanks.

[Dave_Darling]

More compression is good for power. Up to a point... 8.5:1 should be fine, even on the 91-octane crap they give us in CA. If you're out east where you can get 93 or 94, you can probably even go up to 9:1 without any real problems!! You'll have to mess with plug gaps and possibly timing, but hey.

You can go larger on the displacement. Get the stock (1.8 or 2.0 only!) barrels honed out to 96mm, get some 96mm pistons and go. That's the 2056cc referred to above. May take some tinkering with the FI to get it "happy".

If you're switching to carbs or an aftermarket EFI, you can go more aggressive on the cam. If you go big enough there, you can reduce your fuel octane requirements due to high compression, or you can raise the compression even more than above.

Porting and flowing the heads is always nice, provided it's done well.

...And there's a lot more than "can" be done!!

--DD