Dave:
I myself ALWAYS ran strictly within the rules. HOWEVER, there were a lot of no-good cheaters I ran against.
Stock-grind cam: Do they mean STOCK cam or stock lift and duration? (The faster you get to max lift, the more power. If they do not do visual checks, chat up a cam grinder!)
7.6:1 compression ratio: If they mean stock combustion chamber CCs, a clever man can play with deck heights to great advantage.
Max. 94.5mm bore (allowed 0.5mm over stock)
Stock size valves: normally means stock valve head size. Some clever guys do machine work to lighten the stems. The rest of the valve train needs to be as light as practical. A good man with a grinder can do quite a bit of good here.
Must run D-jetronic fuel injection: Do they restrict throttle body size?
Must use 914 heat exchangers and a muffler of some kind: Think sttraight through here.
Stock distributor (points replacement and/or CDI is allowed): CDI is the only way to go with (of course) the matching coil sold by the CDI manufacturor.
No porting of the heads, though if that were somehow only done for reliability that might possibly be allowed. In a place long ago and far away certain people found that a clever man could port a head and then acid etch the head to make it look as if no porting had ever been done. (I mention this only so that you can detect cheaters, of course.)
Stock cooling system: If they allow 'power pulleys,' some advantage might be gained here. My own 'power pulleys' always were degree etched to aid tune ups. (No one ever seens to check the diameter of a degree etched pully.)
...And for my own personal convenience, it must also be able to pass current California smog tests. (It won't go exempt until 2004. And I'm not completely confident that the jokers in my legislature won't change that again soon!!): The nice thing about FI is that the metering sizes can be easily chaged to lean the engine down to 'pass' as long as the engine is never driven hard with the lean settings. The valve lash can be set to about TRIPLE the recommended, again as long as the engine is never driven hard.
The heads can be modified to prevent dropped seats; this is a reliability issue.
If I had the bucks, I would try to go dry sum, for reliability of course.
And the final step, for reliability of course, is blueprinting and balancing.
Is this all the tricks? This is not even the whole first chapter. However it is the first few faltering steps for a fellow GermanLook guy.
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