From memory I think Troy has spent over 30k on his engine since he started but that is a rough guess as keeping tabs on money spent on big projects either gets you into deep you know what with the Mrs( doesn't apply to you Dangerous you lucky bugger) or simply scares you into thinking how you could of just about afforded the investment property you looked at long ago......
ACCEPT THAT SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE PIDGEON AND SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE STATUE
Alder Outlaws VW Racing - check it out on fb!!
Money is cheap and time is free. We do this for fun - and yes it is expensive and better to forget sometimes, otherwise it is not so much fun
...................( O \ l / O ).....................
Brendan is pretty close with the guestimate on the engine. The bodywork if I were to count the first time it was painted (arctice silver) and stuffed up with dust contaiminating the clear coat has come to about $25K now too. The interesting thing is that the big ticket items only make up about 60% of what you spend. The small items is where you really get stung. Like $2500 in fittings and hose for the dry sump system. The intercooler and intake piping is another one that got well out of control money wise, especially because I kept on re-engineering it. Shannons have the car insured for an agreed value of $75,000.
I agree with Goldie 100% too. Money matters not so long as you have food and a place to sleep. Real enthusiests stop buying good steak and instead get sausages to afford the parts they really want.
Ive made more progress with the car. It seems the baffeling inside the tank is where my fuel surge issues are coming from. The fuel is being airated from the force of the fuel returning back to the tank. This didn't happen with the smaller pump I ran with the previous setup, but the larger pump is making bubbles when the tank isnt full. An external surge tank and lift pump is going to be needed to fix this little issue. In the meantime, keeping the tank full solves the problem. So ironically when I do make it to the service station this saturday it will only be to buy a coke because the tank will already be full.
Im beginning to make progress with the mapping of a fuel curve at last. The fuel requirements are like nothing ive ever encountered because of the low vacuum situation. The engine does pull a reasonable vacuum at 4000 rpm though, causing the fuel map to get fatter as RPM increases. Engines with normal street cams generally have very simular fuel requirements across the rev range for any given manifold pressure/vacuum and only provide additional fuel around where the cam comes on song.
The muffler situation is proving to be impossible to resolve. I can put a fat muffler in behind the engine in the stock muffler location but I really wanted to keep all possible heat radiating stuff out of the engine bay. So 3" slip in sliencers are my next hope. Time will tell how that goes.
That is all for now.
What about some supertrapps?? If Troy ever gets pinged that is what we had talked about doing. I agree with you on all the small stuff adding up. I remember Troy giving me a list of speedflo fittings he wanted to finish off some more oil lines etc and walking out of the shop with a handfull of alloy fittings and bends after handing over something like $500 has a hollow feeling even when it wasn't my money!! Troy did say he thought he had spent about $2k on fittings and braided line alone too.....
ACCEPT THAT SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE PIDGEON AND SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE STATUE
Alder Outlaws VW Racing - check it out on fb!!
I looked at supertrapps too, though I couldnt find any with a 3" primary. Based on the design of a supertrapp though, they'd be close on 4.5-5" at the tip. That would introduce another issue, as it would not fit under the guards or valence without giving me barely 50mm ground clearance... The challanges of modifying!
Just a thought, I assume you have your return dumping back into the tank, would a Y peice type return on the inlet to the pump solve this aeration problem? Basically the fuel pump is fed from a Y peice that is connected to the tank on one side and the return on the other. Just a thought.
SuperOwen wrote:Just a thought, I assume you have your return dumping back into the tank, would a Y peice type return on the inlet to the pump solve this aeration problem? Basically the fuel pump is fed from a Y peice that is connected to the tank on one side and the return on the other. Just a thought.
Interesting idea but I still think the flow would be an issue. The return lines are 3/8th ID, but the fitting on the tank expands that out to a 3/4" fitting. That slowed the flow of fuel enough for it to work with a smaller pump, but not the Bosch 910.
Ive got a good surge tank solution in mind... I just need to throw more money at it. That will fix it!
More money or a bigger hammer and you can fix anything! Looking forward to seeing some on road footage.
SuperOwen wrote:More money or a bigger hammer and you can fix anything! Looking forward to seeing some on road footage.
My speedway mates would add a crow bar and a gas axe to that, then agree with you.
2443TT wrote:I just need to throw more money at it. That will fix it!
Sausages this week?
Keeping it real !
silver wrote:2443TT wrote:I just need to throw more money at it. That will fix it!
Sausages this week?
HA HA... Sandwitches actually... Im trying to finish my stroker skyline engine project off at the same time too.
Baked beans perhaps, seeing as you've got 2 builds going on at the same time.
Forget the skyline, get the dub finished😀I'm sure everyone here would agree!!!👍👍
Cheers
D
impressive well done ur on ur way😎
ian, i have had the tip on my exhaust flared so you could put a supertrap in there if needed..just a thought
BEING ASPIRATED FEELS GREAT BUT BEING BLOWN TAKES THING TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL....
The latest installment...
Thanks to the show day public holiday today, I have re-worked the fuel system. This time incorporating a surge tank and holley red lift pump. The lift pump has -10 supply fittings from the tank with an in-line -10 strainer/pre-filter, then -6 to the surge tank.
The main pressure pump uses -10 supply and -6 output via a -6 inline magnaflow efi filter. Fuel then goes via the 3/8th fuel lines to the back of the car, through the fuel rail and reg, then back to the front of the car again via the 3/8th fuel line. Fuel then goes through the fuel cooler and back into the 2nd fitting from the top on the surge tank. The top fitting on the tank is the over-flow that returns back to the main tank.
The surge tank has the capability of supporting another pump which may be needed when I really start cranking boost into the engine. As it is, this setup is good for around 400hp.
Along the way I also discovered that my tank had collected a fair amount of rust and debris, most likely because it had been sitting with stale fuel for nearly 3 years. Ive given it a good rinse out and cleaned the filters. The car is now back together again and is ready for road tuning again.
This evening when cleaning up the workshop when looking at the car I for the first time started to feel like im beginning to be happy with the car, and that I am finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
Road tuning will be sunday most likely as I'll be working tomorrow.
Ive decided to let the car be noisy for the moment, though have found that summit racing do 5" supertraps which will be the best bet from the looks of them. We'll see how I go and if I attract any attention from the boys in blue on sunday.
far out Ian, your fuel system is more confusing than mine, congrats on he progress and good luck for sunday
BEING ASPIRATED FEELS GREAT BUT BEING BLOWN TAKES THING TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL....
all ready for Valla next weekend then.......fair first road trip 😵
Cant wait to see it on the track, when will it hit the Drag track and Circuit racing.???
😂🤪😂🤪😂
car forums. where a lot of peoples good intentions end up taking a good old car off the road forever never ever to see the road again. 🥲
Well it rained all dam weekend again, and its supposed to be a dry season and winter! I did get to do another blockie briefly between showers though and the surging issue I was having is definatly sorted out now.
No Valla road trip quite yet... i'd have to trailer the car down anyway as from what ive already experienced, driving the car for more than an hour would be very exhausting. The noise... etc.
There is now a reasonable chance that the car will make the september or october sprint events where I have been up until now racing my GTR. Check out
http://www.nqmp.com.au/.
The circuit is very tight (go-cart track) and when driving the GTR there the hairpins and chicane on the main straight are first gear corners. The porky 1600kg gtr really struggles to get around the corners and has big under-steer issues there. Overcoming intertia in accelerating and breaking area's is its other issue. The smaller cars like AE86 corolla's do really well there as they are the lightest cars on the track.
It is my hope that the VW will be a much more suitable car to drive there as I will be able to adjust the suspension to get full tyre-ground contact in the corners (No understeer!), but the main thing is that the car will weigh in around the 800-850kg mark (i hope). So I'll be in the same class as the nissan S13/S14 (SR20) croud, but will have a good 300 kg less weight to travel around with, and far more grip.
One of the organisers did suggest they might put me in the 3lt/open class though based on what is done to the car (2.4lt etc), which really isnt remotely fair as the larger heavier cars are a good 7-10 seconds of the pace of the ligher/smaller cars. Its a handling track, not a power track so I'd have the edge over the 1500kg+ cars for sure in an 800kg bug.
They are still building the drag strip up here, so that will be a few years off till I get a chance to do a 1/4 mile in the car. The closest 1/4 mile is an 800km round trip away. They used to run 1/8th mile drags at a remote airstrip but as is common with car events enough so called "car enthusiests" with bad attitudes managed to upset enough people so that the events arent run anymore.
Praying for dry weather...
wow big project.
what am i getting myself into.❗
"A car for the people, an affordable Volkswagen, would bring great joy to the masses and the problems of building such a car must be faced with courage."
Adolf Hitler At opening of 1934 Berlin Auto Show
Its pretty complex fuel delivery system I have to say.
71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE
Finally the weather has cleared up and I haven’t had to work for a change so I was able to take the car out for another test drive today.
The fuel system changes have solved the surging issues that were making the car un-drivable before. So I’ve finally been able to start on the low end drivability tune.
So far I’ve only driven about 20km. I had one heart stopping moment though when I noticed the oil pressure dropped to 0. What had actually happened is that I had blown the fuse that supplies power to the gauges, due to a wiring issue with the power windows (that is on the same circuit as the dash). A change of fuse and a little insulation tape and I was off again.
After this first "successful" drive I’ve made a few more front end alignment changes. More camber and more caster basically. The rake on the car due to the rear springs being too soft to carry the weight had been counteracting the camber I had dialled in at the front end, so the car wanted to changed direction too easily.
Ive really got to get around to sorting out the spring rates. Im thinking 7kg/mm rears and 2.5kg/mm fronts will probably be my first try. The rear spring attachs 2/3 the way out the trailing arm, so the actual rate at the wheel will probably be around 4.5-5kg/mm.
I got to wind out 2nd gear to about 4000 rpm once and based on this experience I can tell the car is going to be incredibly fast. I think I’ll be changing the gear ratios in the box at some stage as the spread isn’t particularly friendly. And changing back to 1st gear while rolling to get around neighbourhood roundabouts is tricky, as the 1st gear synchro isn’t very accommodating.
Its amazing the looks the car gets too. It practically stops traffic. Ive had people pass me, then pull over to watch me drive by, thumbs up etc. One guy followed me about a km before doing a u-turn and heading back to where he wanted to go.
That’s all for now.
Ian
Excellent progress! It's amazing, considering the amount of original design in this car that you're able to move to tuning and sorting already, a testament to the quality of the work.
Peter Hill
1975 Type 2 Double Cab
modulus.com.auThanks for the vote of confidence... but really its been 3 years... and tuning is just the next step. On the bright side it feels a lot more stable at 80km/h now with the extra camber. Ordering new springs monday!
I went for another drive again late this afternoon. I must say its scary pulling out onto a freeway with a mostly untuned engine, that has a usable power band of only 2000-4000 rpm but I survived. Made it to a local service station and car wash without mishap and gave the car a long overdue clean. I ended up spending a good 2 hrs at the service station... people coming up to chat when chammying it dry etc. I forgot to buy the coke though... too busy chatting so I'll have to do it again.
Here are the pics:
Cheers,
Ian
OMG sexy
Huge congrats dude. Almost call for me to jump on a plane 🙂
Reub
WOW!
Those last pictures make me realise how awesome the whole project has been.
Good on you Ian!
You are going to need t least 450lbs/inch wheel rate on the rear.
Mine used 550lbs and it was close, but you will want a little more comfort.
westi wrote:That's mad Alan.
👍👍👍👍👍👍 that looks awesome, the pics still make the rear wheels look not quite right depending on angle but thats crazy good looking, must feel good to have a drive finally?
what happened to the tail lights though? just not a fan of L bug lights or something else...?
Volkswagen Drivers Club of Queensland - member 🙂
STIDUB - yep its still a work in progress
Vwdcq club car racing/ and crashing while my bug isn't finished.
The above are personal views, no more, no less
Wicked!!! 👍
wow, if ever a bug would race le mans, it would look like that...........congrats. how bout drivin up to qld 2 take me for a spin wowowowow
