Bigger they are, the harder they fall?

Generally not so true -

It has a lot to do with who built the engine (there are pros and BOZO's in all industries) and it has even more to do with the quality of the parts used in the build.

If a good builder uses good parts then they are no more or less finicky than a bone-stock, far less powerful 2,110 or larger engine.

What makes the bigger engines seem that way is the choice of induction/carburetors used.  Good carbs (I love my Dells) make for a wonderful engine.  Varying levels of poorer induction systems will give varying levels of finickiness.........

I just happened to think of this epilogue:  A well-built 2,110 with high quality parts can be hammered on a WHOLE LOT MORE than a bone-stock 1,600, provide a lot more fun and should last 100,000 miles.

I have a 2332 c.c. CBPerformance engine in my Speedster, and it's as reliable as you could ask for, from any engine.  Doesn't use a drop of oil, starts cleanly every time, runs smoothly, and pulls like a locomotive.  With Weber 48's, I haven't had to adjust the carbs since I bought the car.

As Gordon said, it all depends on who builds the engine.

What Gordon said; it also matters what state of tune it's in (and by that I mean how high it was designed to be revved). A 140hp 1776 with a redline of 7,000 or 7500rpm will be a whole lot fussier and less tolerant of things like over-revving and lack of maintenance (you'll be messing with it more, and can probably guess how I know this) than a 22 or 2300 (or even 2400) cc engine making the same (or a little more!) power with a 1,000 or 1500rpm lower powerband. What you will get with the bigger engine is all the power under the curve; all the extra torque from idle up will make it an easier car to drive. You are right- the larger displacement engine won't have to work as hard just to get and keep the car moving.

The bigger engine won't necessarily operate at lower rpm's on the street or highway; that's decided by what gearing is in the car. You can though, gear a car with a bigger engine slightly different, so it runs at a little lower rpm's when cruising at legal highway speeds (guys will do this to run at higher than posted speeds), but that takes experience to do well, and get it wrong and you've destroyed your 5- 6 or $8,000 powerplant. You have to know VW aircooled engines well, and realize that "cruising" is at light throttle so the engine isn't making a lot of heat and lugging it up a hill at the same engine speed will create a lot of heat fast, and be prepared to shift down a gear to get the fan speed up so it will cool itself properly as it's working harder. It also means proper engine monitoring (oil temp and temperature compensated cylinder head temp gauges and the experience to interpret what they are telling you), an extra cooler/fan and adequate air intake into the engine compartment so the carbs aren't robbing air from the fan. Hope this helps. Al

PS- Do you have a first name (and no, I'm not calling you "Sir"...)?

Bob- What linkage are you running?  

And yet you want more.

It's weird that if you type above the quote the print ends up being very small,  but if you type below the quote the print is 'normal' sized.

Yeah, this Reply box control handles HTML pretty poorly. Anything posted before the "originally posted by" gets wrapped in the same font style as that line. Toggling WYSIWYG or backspace or delete around the end of a quote prevents you from typing below the quote. If you're like me and sometimes cut down the quotes to respond to a specific section, the post can get really messed up requiring editing in the raw HTML form.

Personally, I'm not a fan of replying above the quote, on any board, not just here. It hides the context of the reply until I've read all the way through it, generally necessitating a reread.

Justin- I edit the quote after writing (but before posting) the reply.

Doesn't help. If you accidentally backspace the beginning of the first reply line into the quote or delete at the very end of the quote, all text below becomes part of the quote.

Of course.  'More' is what drives most of us, yes?

And then you have to start over again; I know. 

Actually, those are rain hats, and they do a great job of keeping rain out of the filters.  I've never experienced any difficulties with them.

Scooting around the several topics being discussed in this thread;

The easiest way to get around unexpected type font changes between quoted text and normal text is........DON't use that silly "quote" button!!!!!!

It does screwy stuff to your post!  It may be a fine function, but I have yet to find out what, exactly, it does and how it does it, so I simply do not use it!

If you want to include someone else's typed text, copy it by highlighting just that portion you want and put it in quotes in your post!

Better yet, is it really necessary to put someone else's entire post in quotes when you are commenting on a single sentence??  

Think about it!

After clicking the 'Quote' icon, simply click your cursor below the inserted quote in your 'Reply' so that your text begins below the quote and VOILA, normal size text!  

Go on, you KNOW you want to try it….

Who?  Me?

Like others have said, bigger is not necessarily going to fail. I have a Raby 2165 type1 that I beat the snot out of on a regular basis. 6500 rpm shifts for 35,000 miles. It doesn't leak(sweating is NOT leaking), burn oil, or do anything other than run well.

Good parts, good overall package(parts that work well together),and good maintenance. Drive it and take care of it, only beat on it after it is warmed up, and listen to it. Adjust and clean the carbs when the engine is slightly off song. Bring it back on song and enjoy it!  

Wiser word have not been spoken, Danny!