VWRX, is about to have it's first Dyno run today. I'm exspecting an Text from Rueb somtime late today, so I'll post the Horse power @ fly wheel and rear wheels.

I believe he's looking around the 300hp mark. Fingers crossed for more.

I'll keep you all updated on Reub's behalf.

Due to Dyno Tech in Darwin and there severe lack of assistance (they have no bloody idea) the Dyno test was unable to be completed.

However another Dyno has been sorced and the run is forcasted for midday today.

Standby for the results.

On the Dyno as we speak. Looking promising so far.

Can't wait for this, am excited, even though its not my own ride....

how do you not complete a dyno run? what could go wrong.... drive it onto the rollers, tie it down, fan the radiator with that big blower box, and put your foot down while watching your tacho...

haha

and the results are ?????

I haven't heard yet, but I don't think Reub was expecting 300HP, the person tuning it was. Reub just wanted it to make a decent amount of power and be driveable.

Well guys...here is the news...

Car overheating meant no power runs on the dyno.
The car is overheating at light road use.

70% of the load points have been set up to 10psi boost.

The car is running well other than that.

Ian has done and awesome job, practically rewiring the car with a new ecu, msd ignition, new injectors and a host of other things including reworking the trigger system.

This car has just bitten me in the bum again. Joys of buying a half finished project.

Unfortunately, not wanting to accept defeat, it looks like Ian will be leaving on Sunday morning to Cairns without a full tune on the car or dyno power results.

It's not a case of 'how do you not complete a dyno run? what could go wrong.... drive it onto the rollers, tie it down, fan the radiator with that big blower box, and put your foot down while watching your tacho...'

Maybe on a stock engined vw maybe....

We did however get some great video footage from Pete (bone collector) and he got to witness me giving the car a little stick at 10lb boost off the line. I tell you, when the car is sorted, 18lb boost will put a smile on my face indefinately....as ever time i think what 10lb is like I have a small chuckle.

Time to revise the cooling system now.

The car is now alot different to what I bought...more than just a paint job, but it seems I'm endlessly reworking what was done. I'd seriously recommend all potential purchasers of half finished projects have a really serious look at what they're buying before commiting.

Hi

Thats must be very dissapointing for you, so close. I must say Ive never seen any picturs of your cooling system. Maybe you could post some on the forum. Myself and others have run watercooled converted VWs before and we may be able give you some help.

Steve

A bit of a let down......Cooling is a big factor for these engines and must be done right.

Reub...how is your radiator placed? more importantly how does the air get away from the back of it? Those fans do not work as well as on the street, although sounds like an air lock to me...do you have a bleed valve at the front. I have a one way ball bearing valve which can expel any excess air trapped in the front. Park on a f**cking steep hill overnight with you rad cap off. Fill a 2 litre coke bottle and stick it in your fill pot. It will bubble away like a water dispenser as it purges the system. You know the airlock as it suddenly spikes in temp after about 80.

Good luck, hopefully soon. Have a jug of water handy to tip on your radiator when on the dyno.
Matt

My cooling system works a treat , its never over heated todate .

Have a look at jaks I made that one

It must be air lock or a stuck thermostat or something.

Laurie raced it for laps at a time around Raleigh raceway and it didn't overheat. The radiator placement isn't too bad.

Last time I saw it the radiator sat in the cradle behind the bonnet hinge

Hello Reub,

it is sad to see that you have trouble with your high quality project. One difference that you did to the cooling system, is isolating the cooling pipes inside the car. Laurie had it pretty warm inside the car, for sure. By isolating the pipes, you have hotter coolant reach the radiator and therefore hotter coolant returning to the engine, too.

I have seen several attempts of running the pipes inside the car, next to the tunnel (like yours) or through the tunnel. They all had cooling problems!

You should run the pipes under the car, you have plenty of room for scoops under your flip front. And maybe you should add horn grills to your front, for additional cooling. The horn grills look pretty small, but you can fit 70 mm hoses to them, that makes a difference!

Well....I'm not sure how cold it was at Valla when Laurie raced the car but I can't see how he never had problems with it....

I've put in a new Commodore V8 radiator replacing the Commodore V6 radiator Laurie had installed. I've also put a shroud to the rear of the radiator which helps to duct hot air under the car - away from the fuel tank which was soaking up so much heat you couldn't touch it. I had a thermo fan die as well which hasn't helped so it only has a single 14" on it at the moment. It's working better but not perfect. It still needs a shroud to the front of the radiator to stop hot air blowing through the core and being recirculated. I've also got an air bleed at the rear of the car at the highest point on the engine which helps.
Also, some front ducting would help...

So far we've street tuned the car to 10lb for which it blew off an inlet pipe hose off. We're fixing it now and heading out for the 14lb and 18lb tune.

This thing flys....and I've not yet felt full boost :P

pS..unfortunately I'm unable to run the pipes under the car...it's way to low and can only be lowered not raised due to the suspension modifications done...

update...

Ian flys out back to cairns in 5 hours.

Good news is we've got a fairly fat tune done on the street and have run 18lb boost in third gear.
WHAT A RUSH :P

Bad news...where do I start :cry

I've absolutely no clutch now, failing just as we got home, looks like the slave cylinder is gone.
I've still got overheating problems.
Looks like the gearbox input shaft bearing (hope this is all) has gone as it has an engine speed related bearing type noise that goes away when the clutch is disengaged - anyone know of a trustworthy and reputable Porsche repair shop who could look at the box when I eventually pull it out?

The car cover is going back on the bug for a while so I can recoup from what I feel is a ridiculous amount of money I've had to throw at the car recently.
Even considering selling my Oval beetle if people are interested....

I should also mention how much I love and appreciate my Wife for enduring my passion in creating what I'd consider to be one of Australia's most crazy and extensively modified street registered beetles.

Reub,

if you can´t run the pipes under the car, you could probably do something no one has tried before.

You have no heater installed, or have you? In your climate it is probably not necessary! The "little cooling circulation", that was made for the heater, could be used for additional cooling with a radiator in the back. A small radiator or even the original heater would sure make a difference.

Your engine bay is already pretty tight with the turbo engine, but it would not take much room.

This thing flys guys. I was cuzing along the stuart highway @140kmph in my beetle attempiting to overtake Rueb, when he stomped it. I've never seen anything like it, this bloody thing flys. She's not a modified beetle, she's a an extreamly customised beetle, thats for sure.

Should have the video converted soon. So stand by to stand by!

Good luck with the chalanges ahead Reub.

Guys keep in mind this is not the exact same engine that Laurie was running in the car either..... its *slightly* modified from what I am aware (please correct me if I'm wrong Reub) in as much as it is running a different exhaust, bigger turbo and more boost ? Which makes it likely to generate more heat too. Plus, its in Darwin too - ambient is significantly warmer up there.

Reub - commiserations, to get so close to having it sorted just to be pipped at the post must be wearing.... stick at it, and rest assured that you have the most wild beetle in Australia.

Nice work Reub.:thumb
I had the same overheating problem after I'd relocated the radiator to the front of the car, I'd not fitted a closing panel on the bottom of the radiator shroud (about 18" x 2.5" high), and was recirculating hot air with the fans on. It was fine at the drags but as soon as it was on the dyno it started to get very warm....read that as hot!
Once this was fitted my overtemp problem was gone. I do have the radiator completely shrouded from the grill opening.
Recently I replaced the coolant and also had overtemp problems, engine temp skyrocketed but coolant lines (1 1/4" aluminium lines through the cockpit) and the radiator had no temp. I had to loosen the radiator hoses at the engine to get the block airless and then once warm coolant was at the radiator I could bleed that completely.
You should have plenty of cooling capacity with the Dunnydoor radiator even with a highly modified engine, your still running low boost so I'm betting on air in the system.
Can't wait to see the car at Valla......I hope your going this year:thumb

[ Edited on 24-4-2006 by speedster356 ]

Don't forget about the road temps up here guys. The avarage road temp is well over 70 degree mark on a cool day and the humidity on avereage is 80% +. I know for a fact even slightly modified aircooled engines have problems up here.

Reub,
Sorry to hear about the all this grief. You've made it this far, I'm sure you'll sort it out. Chin up. :kiss

Now, I'm probably asking the same question as everyone else, but is there a clear forced cool air supply to the front of your radiator?

I've been fiddling around with mine again recently and have got to the stage where the rad is almost entirely boxed in. I'll be sealing the box completely when I can come up with a neater way to do it. I'm finding that the result is that the car runs much cooler in traffic and at low speed. I haven't tried it on the freeway yet, but I'm expecting it to be better there too. My philosophy is that any air that goes into the scoop HAS TO GO THROUGH the radiator core and then exit at the back without any chance of A. escaping out somewhere OR B. being recirculated once it's been through the rad.

I'd talk to Ricola more about this. I think he could really help you here. His EJ20t powered speedster copy was very similar to what you are doing. Also, he works for TVR as an engineer so he has the credentials to back up the know how.

Some rubbish going on here!..... Reubs.....When cold air pushes threw your rad...where is the air from behind rad escaping to? For one you can not have air trapped around the rad after blow threw,Hot air around rad will cause overheat..Reubs send pics of rad location!.....JVL

Yeah your right, with the flip front setup exit air volume shouldn't be a problem, there's plenty of holes:P

Here is a pic of how the car was setup before I bought it



The radiator is essentially setup in the frame that supports the tilt front per the previous pics posted by Wes. Plenty of space for the hot air but the only place to exit was under the car...only once fully heating the entire underside of the tilt front. Also, hot air from the radiator blows straight onto the fuel tank getting it that hot you can't hold your hand on it. There is also no air scoops from the front of the car or shrouding.

I've replaced the radiator with a 3 core v8 radiator and installed a temporary shroud to the rear of the radiator which directs air down under the car. There is no shrouding to the front of the radiator as such at the moment which allows hot air to exit the core and recirculate....obviously not the solution....

The thermostat has also been removed which has helped.

It did however prove to help the initial over heating problem, but only when the car was stationary with the tilt front open and was only able to reduce the temperature to 80deg. I'm also not totally confident of the computer temp sensor calibration but think Ian calibrated it based on the mechanical guage installed in the car.

I feel air locks were a big problem but effective shrouding I feel will be a huge help in resolving the problem.

I plan to do some mockups in cardboard to isolate the front of the radiator and only allow cool air from the front of the car to enter. I've purposefully not put holes in the front of the car, even though I understand it would help, as I want to retain the smooth bug front, and have not seen a bug that really looks good from the front with holes cut into it. The car is also a little low to have a bib spolier across the front so unobtrusive scoops will be created (yet to be designed).

An idea that would certainly resolve the problem would to be to use my intercooler as the radiator and install a water to air intercooler in its place. I will however persevere with the current setup having just invested in the new larger capacity radiator.

I understand that 75 to 80 degrees is the optimal temperature to run these engines at...correct?

The engine is now margainlly different running a different exhaust (but is still a straight through 3"), a larger turbo, and more fuel as well as a maximum boost of 18lb. I note that is still gets hot on 10lb boost....

I appreciate everyones input here, rubbish or not, the ideas are flowing.

Kinda feels weird that 3 1/2 years after getting the car and rebuilding it I'm only now looking to the forum for some assistance....