Hopping up 18HP Vanguard

[cclingma]

So seeing videos of some of you guys spinning wild doughnuts and slinging mud all over the place has me feeling less faithful to my old opposed 18HP Briggs. I see some of these 18 Vanguards selling on Ebay in the neighborhood of $600 shipped and it's bothering me.

First question is that the vanguards I see selling are the type with air filter housing and gas tank built together. Can you just pull all that off and replace it with the regular square filter housing? Any idea what you'd call that housing as I can't find one on Ebay to price check?

Second is performance expectations. Seems that for about $300 you can get an Eagle V280 cam, rev kit, and timing advance that is supposed to make these motors have a much wider power band and pull strong to 6000RPM. So figure $1000 by the time you come up with something for an exhaust and you have what seems like it would be quite the little monster. Not quite a Bandolero I'm sure but maybe getting closer. Think this setup would allow you to spin those awesome doughuts and throw mud high enough to get some on you with stock clutching,gearing,T20,25" tires?

[thebuggyman1]

Bandolero's are only $1600 + shipping, probably another $100. Why put $1600 into building it yourself when you can have the professionals do it.
If you PM me your email address I'll forward instructions on DIY to you. Another member was kind enough to send them to me

Bandolero: 600 Racing Online Catalog
Performance parts: Air Filter Adaptors
High Performance Golf Carts Air Filters

[lewis]

End result: 52 hp, Top rpm 8300. Peak performance rpm 7700. Torque 45.7 at the wheel. There is still more room for a future build.

This is a Bando that we hopped up. 20 Hp block. Started at 28 HP.

Orange Crush engine. We will not get into the cost area.
It should be installed shortly and we will see how it does.

Recommendations: Find a good 23hp twin and start there. Just my opinion. Also the fellow that builds the bandos and Legends cars was the builder of this engine.

That should do a donut for you and throw some mud.

[cclingma]

I guess I was thinking $1000 total for the above mentioned 18hp build. $600 motor with $400 in performance parts. I'm very interested in a Bandolero recipe.

Wow, those are some nice numbers Lewis. I hear you on starting with the 23hp. I probably need to think more long term than just trying to budget build with what's readily available right now.

[truckinwagen]

I am wondering the same thing, mostly because my machine already has an 18 horse vanguard in it(purchased it that way)

I really wonder what would be the best bang for my buck performance wise.
would installing HD valve springs and keepers and removing the governor make a noticeable difference?
I am pretty happy with how much power the machine has, but would like to see some more top speed from it.

thanks,
-Owen

[cclingma]

I really believe best bang for buck is valve springs, cam, timing advance. I just believe these motors were originally intended to run at around 3600 rpm all day long and therefore designed for max output right in that range. I think the cam widens out that usable power range and increases the rpm at which the max output occurs, the valve springs keep valves from floating at that newly obtained higher rpm level, timing advance is just a cheap way to get a little more responsiveness????

More top speed. The way I see it the only ways for more speed are...

1. More rpm, of course you have to have the torque/hp to reach and obtain those rpm....enter cam and valve springs.

2. Sprocket change for gearing.

3. Bigger tires, gotta have room and power to turn them.

4. Clutching. My only experience with this involved machining and the gains weren't that great. Again takes more motor to be effective.

How painfully obvious is it that I don't really know what I'm talking about but that I love to talk about it?

[lewis]

I guess I was thinking $1000 total for the above mentioned 18hp build. $600 motor with $400 in performance parts. I'm very interested in a Bandolero recipe.

Wow, those are some nice numbers Lewis. I hear you on starting with the 23hp. I probably need to think more long term than just trying to budget build with what's readily available right now.

More power can be made with fewer mods with the 23. I had the motor(Bando) built for the things that i wanted it to do. Torque was one major item i was looking for so we designed the cam to do just that. There are hundreds of cams on the market for this application and getting the right one sometimes is difficult...that is why i got someone that knew the background of the engines to work with me through the cams. The aluminum fly wheel with earth magnets(no longer has a charging system) reduced the weight tremendouly and increased the rev ability and provided a hotter spark for a more complete burn and the intakes were designed to make the best of the air/fuel mixturer as it entered the piston chamber. I have twin 35mm Mikunis carbs which flow out the same as 32mm. Did a little jet work to make the mixture correct. There were other mods as well to make it what it is. I did not overbore it and i did not change the crank. These items are still stock and add more power later but, the engine had only about 3 hours on it so we did nothing to these items.
Note: A conventional stock starter will not even think about turning the engine over so you will need a high torque starter as soon as you start increasing the compression. Just something to think about in advance.

The header that i built for the Bando engine was copied by a fellow that builds exhaust pipes and if you want one for the 23 type engines he has the design and one can be ordered from him. Just one less thing to worry about. He does nice work.

Hope this helps

[whipper-ag]

[lewis]

Working on it today. Tires will probably propel it a little.....

[whipper-ag]

[wfo]

lets see.......
8300 rpm
52 h.p
trick pipe for sure
6800.00 $
close ?

[lewis]

lets see.......
8300 rpm
52 h.p
trick pipe for sure
6800.00 $
close ?

No, not even close. Your way high!

[CBass]

Lewis, How far along are you on getting it race ready? I just got back from a trip to IA for the holidays and picked up the wife a Max II in IL that I am about to do a lil work to.