Series 3 2 1/4 petrol... ideas?

afternoon all, just wondering if anyone had any ideas about generally improving the 2 1/4 petrol engine from a series 3 88"... before you all say it, nope i'm not swapping it for a diesel!

I've had a quick chat with a couple of peeps, and i'm getting varied feedback, one says leave it as is, but keep to regular oil and filter changes, another has said pull it out, strip it, re-build it and whack on a whole manner of fancy parts and adjustments to improve economy etc etc... (the latter sounds better, as i want to take the engine out anyway to re-fettle the engine bay and re wire the lot, but i just dont have the spare £1000+ to do it!)

are there any general easy to do bits and bobs to improve the engine? or is it just like flogging a dead horse, and i should just give it a good clean and tidy then leave it be?

Cheers in advance!

They sort of run forever until they die - rebuild it by all means but start off with an overhaul of the carb and ignition system and see how well it runs. Unless it's smoking badly, using lots of oil and water, is exceptionally noisy or drinks petrol like a fish then I'd leave well alone.

if you want economy fit 200tdi if you want quiet running and performance fit 2.5 petrol

normal service stuff, make sure it's timed properly, mixture is set OK and plugs and ignition system is good. I bought one of those 16 quid chinese lucas copy distributors and it is great, been going for about 3000 miles now and still OK.

Fitted an SU on mine that I had lying about, it now does 25mpg on a long motorway run.

make sure the crankcase breathing gubbins is working nicely as well, I had ot rebuild one from scratch cos mine didn't have one, made it run better and reduced some of the leakyness.

It all depends what you want to achieve with it, how it will be used and how much money.

Two realities though:

-it'll never be good on fuel and will never make much HP
-no point rebuilding it if it's running ok anyhow unless you either have the spare cash or want to do it for fun

As for upgrades. Well it's no different to any other engine. Induction and exhaust breathing mods will help. So better air filter, better carb and manifold and better exhaust will all help. A proper tune up will be needed though. Modernising the ignition is probably another good area to look at. After that your on to porting the head and different cams.

I'd sit and weigh up the cost of all of this though. As a V8 conversion will yield far better result yet still offer similar mpg.

I fitted electronic ignition, better coil (fitted some of our home-made leads as well while I was at it) and it has made a huge difference. I realy could do with a new carb though...the old Weber 34 on there is starting to flag a bit.