Now that I have my introduction out of the way, here's what I have. Dunno if it belongs here as it's still VW, but watercooled..........mods, feel free to move it around as you see fit if I messed up........

1956 Porsche Speedster replica. This used to have a nice 2.0 type 4 out back on loan from my engine builder while mine was being built. But I decided mid build to tank it and go watercooled.

Watercooled motor of choice is a VW 2.0l 8v watercooled lump from a mk4 golf. My reasons for this is dirt cheap, I can get parts anywhere and it's reliable as a pair of scissors.



Currently the front has been chopped to fit a 2001 Honda Civic Dual core radiator in a steel frame that is then in turn bolted to the car. This allows for easy access should I need to either pull or service the radiator, plus it allows the car to be returned to stock, should I ever fee like it, I doubt it though.









As you can see, once the bumper goes back on, you can't see the cut. The intake scoop still needs to be fabbed though.

Here's the dummy engine going in. The adapter plate and flywheel come from Gilo Engineering in Johannesburg, these guys make kits for pretty much anything and are well priced too. At about $280 AUD it's not bad compared to what I've seen priced on here and on other forums.







The exhaust has also been fabbed up and consists of a stock exhaust manifold, downpipe and 2 silencers. Nice and quiet for the meantime.



Bootlid on, nothing to see here.



This is a swap that was done by intermeccanica. Looks almost stock if you've never had a speedster engine open before.

Looks very well thought out..
I like the idea of updating but keeping it VW..
How did you deal with the wiring conversion.?

Regards Tony

Looks like a quality adaptor.... I'm surprised they dont do Subaru adaptors

Yeah fair call

I basically have 3 days work left on her.

Day 1, finish up the fibreglass work on her as well as fit the 912 tach speedo and clock, water temp gauage under the dash.
Day 2, Mock up the ECU, fuel pump, mod the fuel tank as well as fit the flex radiator pipes
Day 3, fit the engine

Soooooooooooo close, I'm gonna try and do some work on her after work this week to get the day 2 stuff done so that hopefully next weekend I can get the motor fitted and then get this baby on the road for some testing and trouble shooting.

However this weekend I was finally able to find a bloke who bent me a killer set of radiator pipes for the speedster from 2 x 38mm 2mm exhaust pipe. I have really been struggling to get this done and also get it done to where I could finally call this job done. I went through noise boys who made a total cock up of it and wanted me to pay, to a so called specialist in jhb who said that I would have to get manderal bends done at a cost of $400 per side. ouch.

I then went to a local place, how local? Well 2 blocks from my house and he swore that he has a great pipe bender guy who can do what I want in 2-3 hours. (lol, it took then more like 7 hours, but I was chuffed. Price?.......about $60 per side.

Initial mock up as I wanted it to follow the floor pans lines as much as possible. I'm just waiting on my metal tabs and rubber feet so that it can be attached to the floor pan and then I can call this job DONE.

Thats a clean replica, never seen one of them down under.

My mate had that motor turbo charged with a small garret turbo T28 it was just right for the motor

I had a south african metion Gilo Engineering in Johannesburg only today at work for a trasfer case adapter.

Oi Vey, no update in a while. Shame on me.

I ended up backtracking on a few things as I wasn't happy with the arrangement. First to be turfed was the cradle for the radiator. Mainly because my welding skills had gotten way better.





Rebuilt this properly this time with the sides actually lining up. If I was to attempt to box this up, then it would of left gaps of about 10-15mm which would of looked crap.



Metal tabs and the dry fiberglass panels mounted. This all is well sturdy and a HUGE improvement over what I had.

From the front. The new set up comes down about another 25mm from the old set up and the base of the pan has also been built from 2 layers of 5mm 40mm flat bar, so if I do bottom out, then it's not going to smash up my radiator.



Ps, A-frame is bent.......not the car.



Starting with CAD for the upper cover for the radiator. All of this will be painted flat black and then a loose carpet will be trimmed to fit over the top. I want to hold out on this though until my new tank is in place.



The final design will box in the front of the radiator and then the upper panel will join to it. I have a tonne more pictures to come, but my phone died on. So stay tuned.

I was actually waiting for a certain motor that was on order for me and then the shop went and sold it when it arrived by accident. Hence me deciding to rebuild a few things that I wasn't 100% happy with.

Also had some bad luck with my new fuel hard lines. I was hoping to use some old honda lines, but they didn't like being bent that much and they were about a meter too short, so I'll be using the fittings as samples on some new lines and then get some copper ones made up this weekend. I have the whole of next week off to tie everything up so that I can go and get the engine on Friday.

I finally got my fuel lines...I ended up buying new ones as the Honda ones that I was planning on using, but they didn't like to be bent and so I just pulled off the end fittings and will add them to my newly bent fuel lines this weekend. I'm having 4 High pressure fuel lines made up this week for the fuel filter, fuel pump and the fuel rail. But I'm getting there.

Also picked up from mandrel bends for my radiator lines.



I've also decided that I'm going to use these guys for my parts for my exhaust as it's something that I'm not happy with.

The fibreglass panels have been completed for the front and now it's a case of just fitting them.





The last of the radiator lines are in and this weekend is some wiring and fitting of my fuel lines and hopefully next weekend is the engine.

Had a good weekend. I finally got my fuel lines in. All I can say is that there is a LOT of work involved in getting the bends right, and also doing it all in one shot, front to back.

After seeing pics of what this forum member did. Can't think of who it was off the top of my head, but to get it this good must have taken a crud load of work. So I seriously take my hat off to the guy that did this lot.



Started in the front with braising rods to get the bends right and then pulled out the pipe bender and started going to town.

Fuel tank out and routing the main line and the return line.





The main line comes out in the spare tyre well as along the outer wall is where the fuel pump will be mounted. We want to take advantage of the gravity feed from the fuel tank as well, hence it being so low. I have some glass work to do in the nose section before I can close all of that up, but that should be the last fibreglass work on the car.



The return comes out right by the top of the tank and we'll have a 180 bend going right into the tank.

This gives you an idea of the where the lines are run. They are attached to the pan using P clamps with a rubber insert which hold the fuel lines very secure, I'll have a total of about 20 holding the lines from front to back.







The fuel lines are run between the radiator lines, so it'll give some protection if I do ever hit anything, but that's highly unlikely as even with the car slammed all the way down, I'm yet to hit anything. The lines run down the center of the floor pan and is attached with tec screws all the way to the frame rails out back, where it then goes up to the Honda Fuel filter.



Some things did change this weekend, for starters, the fuel filter is being moved again as the spot for it would be putting it right above the distributor, so we're going to move it to the other side of the engine bay and then make a hard line to go around the rear of the car.

This week I have a friend picking up the last items that we need for the build. (new water pump, my new rubber lines, manifold sensor, knock sensor, new air filter box as I can't bring myself to using a cone filter and some misc stuff, cam belt and tensioner and then we should be set).

The car goes on Friday to have the radiator pipes nudged up a bit as I'm not happy with how low they hang, so the shop is going to bend them up so that they exit through the front H beam. That way, I won't have any issues. They also have to weld on an adapter so that I can use stock radiator pipes.

Another cool weekend.

Got all my goodies together to find out what I had to fabicate mounting brackets for in order to mount the whole lot. Looking at the boxes of stuff it quickly dawns on you how much more stuff there is on a modern motor compared to an AC motor. I also decided to replace the dizzy as to get MP9 to work with the import motors, the internals have to be modded. It worked out about 1/2 price to just buy a new one.

This is about a 1/3 of what I bought for the build. One thing that I have to admit is nice is how cheap good quality parts are. It was however weird seeing so many small water pipes in the mix



Expansion tank and it's bracket mounted to the firewall. One this bracket there is another bracket that holds my fuel lines that come through the back to the fuel filter as well. I have to refit the section that I cut out of the back and then the fuel filter will mount to that and then in turn, the airfilter box will mount in front of the expansion tank. It's all a tight fit, but the final arrangement will make servicing easy as well as allowing access to everything that I need to do. I was thinking of pulling a lot of brackets off a mk1, but at the end of the day, I would of been cutting and modifying everything to fit, so it was easier just to make my own.



I've already fabbed the brackets for the airbox, but that can't be mounted until the fuel filter and it's pipes have been fitted first. Hard lines will run from the fuel filter to the wall opposite the fuel rail as that way my rubber hoses are as short as possible.

This weekend coming is making the last radiator pipe for the back as well as some finishing touches on the fuel system and some minor fibreglass issues as well as wire in the engine harness and fuel pump and then we're good to go for the engine.

Serious light at the end of the tunnel. I'm still waiting on some V8 engine mounts as the rear cross member, but we can only go for that fitment once the engine is running and everything is where it's supposed to be.

I have also not written off the idea of fitting the stock AC on the engine as well as I get a working pump with the motor anyway.

those fuel lines aren't copper are they? Bundy tube? Which is good btw. Vibration work hardens copper and then it cracks and.... werl you get the idea. Nasty!

Looks good. Keep at it. If you're anything like me, you'll not use the AC in a convertable. So much work when you have the breeze, but then I guess it gets hot in Sth Africa!

Hey Pete. Noooooo, not copper. Yup Bundy Tube, I have no idea who came up with that name, but that's apparently what they are called. Pretty easy to get locally and also, not too pricey. Apparently guys have been using this stuff for zonks with zero issues, the main thing though is making sure that they don't move too much. They like to be clamped down.

Well there are about 8 diifferent mods to do to the speedster including a removeable hard top for the rainy season, so the AC will be a long term maybe. It does get pretty hot in SA, but where I live, it's pretty dry, so you can't beat a nice late afternoon drive in this thing.

Hopefully the second last update before I can post a video of a running motor.

The fuel system on this car has been a challenge of note, but I have to admit that I've loved every single minute of it. We bent the last of the hard lines that link the tank in the front to the engine at the back. My lines are now just awaiting to be attached to the car with P-clamps as I need a few more in order to finish the mounting. I also have to weld a few tabs to the cars frame in order to make sure that everything is neat and solid mounted.

I had to first repair the rear fiberglass section of the car that I pulled out way back when because the lower section of it was totally rotten and looked like it had been badly joined. So that was trimmed and a new piece was sectioned and then glassed in, this had to be done because on this panel I'm mounting my fuel filter as well as my expansion tank. (It's moving from the firewall because I want it more accessible.

Before



After



Yes I can assure you that the very bad picture is indeed the repaired section. Still needs a lick of black primer which I'll do when I'm 100% sure everything is where I want it to go.



The filter finally in it's final resting place. There is a rubber hose to the rear of the car, then it's all hard lines from there with a rubber hose to the fuel rail.





Where the last of the hard lines will be located. It's been fun bending these pipes into the shape that they're supposed to be in order to follow the steel frame of the car.



This is the main line and to give you an idea, this has seven bends in it.

So the plan of action, during the week I've got to fit all the small stuff like the pipes as I need more P-clamps and also get some more hose clamps. Then it's back to the exhaust shop to get the to make the final changes to my undercar cooling system, then it's off to my buddy on Saterday to tie up the electrics and rear radiator hoses.....

I was on the search for a few things from the agents. I love how cheap things are with VW, if this was my old honda, then I'd be lucky to get 2nd hand parts for double the price as new parts from the VW agents.

1) Expansion tank cap, I got one, but it's the wrong size. So time to take that back and just take my tank to make sure that I get the right one.
2) I was looking for the baseplate of the 99-03 Polo 1.6/2.0 for the airbox as I wanted to save some time, but it seems that it's a royal schelp of note trying to get one, so I've decided that I'll fab one this weekend and know that it's going to work. Plus it's going to cost me nothing as I have all the material at home already.

Very productive weekend as well as a public holiday that I had yesterday.

Willem finished off my hard line radiator pipes that go out to the back, including adding all my bends. A quick lick of paint on these to clean things up and then we've got to wrap the rear section to help with heat.

Crappy photos.sorry about that. dummy engine out, which only means one thing.......I'm done with mock up and dont' need it anymore.



I also decided to move the overflow tank from the firewall, to the side wall, this will make it easier to fill up if need be. Even with the engine lid on. I also wanted the pipes to point either towards the engine or the firewall in order to clean things up.



I'm still waiting on this part from VW as well as the two screws that go with it. This prevents the water being sprayed over the engine bay and instead directs it straight down in case of over-flow.



Then work started on hooking up the last of my high pressure fuel lines, this was a bit of a pita because to get it all evenly spaced, took a bit of thinking. Luckily we had bent these before hand and all that I needed was a bit of tweaking.





Flex hose connectors in place to join the front with the back.





In all her glory, the mainline, filter and the return line.



There are some final things to tie up this week before we go and pick up there engine.

1) Wiring for fuel pump - Not too hard
2) Wiring for water temp - basic (Temp unit is going to be mounted under the dash for now.
3) Wiring for fan switch to ECU - Basic
4) Fab a heatshield for the exhaust as it's a bit too close to the fuel lines for my liking. - Easy job that.

I have 4 nights to tie up all of this before we get the engine, so, so far so good.

Had a good day yesterday.

Pulled the last of the harness through. This is all tucked up high against the firewall, so that you won't see anything. The cables will be attached with extra P-clamps that I have lying around. At R12 each, I'm planning on using all the old ones that I had left over. I also got my cover for the expansion tank in place to clean things up.







Decided to start on the scoop for the front. This thing looks huge. I had some hardboard that I mocked up to the right size and then hot glued the lot together. After this weekend I can get an idea of how much of the lower section of the bumper will have to be trimmed. At the end of the day, I'll have a radiator opening about 40cm x 10cm.







And how much of this do you exactly see when the bumper is back on?





Obviously the bumper section will be trimmed below the belt line, but the scoop, (which will be made in 1mm galvanised plate) and then painted black will be able to poke through. Very chuffed with how non-evasive the install looks. A few little projects to kill before the weekend, but we're getting there.

awesome awesome AWESOME weekend, but, she's still not running......will get down to that now-now.

Willem picked me up and we were off to Engine Den in Pretoria West to have a look see at what they had, I'd glad that I waited, because 3 weeks ago they got in a stash of at least a few hundred 2.0 8v units. I was spoilt for choice.





Straight away 4 units caught our eye. Not only because they were new looking (which you should never go by), but they we're sealed up properly, still had all the stickers on the engine as well as soft and supple rubber hoses and almost brand new looking water channels and also had perfect cam covers which are an agent only part and it's what I wanted, and at a few hundred for the part it was a no brainer.



Cranked each one over to check for compressed and this one by far was the best. The dude was trying to talk us out of buying it and rabbiting on about book and cover yadda yadda yadda. But I reckon he had it stashed for a buddy or something

Willem gave me the look and said that this by FAR was the nicest one here, it also had it's power steering pump, starter, AC pump and all the sensors. The sensors I wans't too phased as I've bought new, but it's always a bonus to have some spare. Plus once the 30 days are over I have a buyer for the starter, ac pump and ps pump which will recoup $100 of my money back. We had the tappet cover off as well as the spark plugs out and we were both happy with what we saw....so we bought it for about $450.

Got the motor to Willems house to start stripping it down. Most of the stuff we won't be using, but it was the perfect time to replace the plugs, drop in oil and a filter, the camebelt, tensioner and sensors will be added once I know that the motor starts and that there is no knocking or smoking. We also still have to shop around for a new drive belt so that I can remove the power steering pump as well as get a belt for the alternator.





Adapter is on, flywheel is on, but the clutch kit......she didn't fit.

The problem, the 1.8 kombi kit that I was given by a local supplier was not the correct clutch kit. It was for the 1.8l inline 4 watercooled and not the 1.8 for the flat 4 type 4. Bummer, I took the clutch kit back this morning and got a refund, wasn't cheap at about $150. But I was able to track a 1.8 flat four kombi unit locally for a little that I'll collect this afternoon. No-one else has the clutch. So will know for the future to have one handy before I swap out clutches.

So the rest of the day was spent tying up some loose strings and getting the car jacked up on stands so that we could run through the routine of testing everything. Fan switch set at 80 degrees, thermostat, ecu, the Honda fan and all my connections.

Now the waiting game again. She'll be running and driving this weekend though............FACT.

Opps, have not been updating.

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo close, yet sooooooooooooooooooo far.

The Motor is oficially in. Willem told me that the intake manifold, exhaust manifold and alternator had to come off in order to get the engine in.





From the side shot, you can see that it's going to be a tight fit. But I had a feeling that most of the inner skin of the decklid would have to be cut away. No real concern there. But you can see that this is still going to be a squeeze. I can't imagine doing this all under the boot lid in a beetle engine bay.





And plus I still have to get an airbox in there. My plan is to keep the polo upper box and the trim of the bottom and then make a lower section that will go to the bottom of the car. The exhaust that was made for the ride was also too big and it hits against the pulleys, so it's got to go back to the shop this weekend to have the last rear peice and a new tip fitted.

We'v also had to pull the wiring again as we want to hook up the factory plug that will allow, quick plug and unplug of the system.

So we had some issues............surprise surprise, it was the wiring. We want to use the plug at the back of the car as a stock motor so that if the time comes to pull the engine, it's a simple case of just disconnecting the plug. All the wiring for the engine, with the exception of the alternator will go through this plug. I was DREADING having to cut everything off and go through it again.



The fuel pump wasn't priming, the injectors were'nt clicking as well as a few other things. Plus having a dead battery wasn't making my day any easier. So We went through the harness and pulled the last of the wires through and nothing. Engine turned over, but nothing else.

Armed with a new battery last night, Willem traced the issue down to a relay that had been wired wrong, simple error and an even simpler fix. Fuel pump primes, injectors click away. I was dreading pulling the harness, but dreading even more that I had a faulty ECU, willem tested it on his bus and it started and ran perfectly...phew

So now it's time to make some final adjustments with the fuel hoses and then to start her up. Flush out the coolant system and then once that's done, we can top everything up and then fire away.

I also found out that the pulley system on the test motor is different to pulley system on the import motor as the import motor has the extra pulley for power steering, so it sticks out further. I told Willem that he could take what he needs as his motor has the normal single pulley. This will give me the 3cm odd of clearance that I need, so the exhaust can be fitted this weekend as well and the car can come home for a bit of final fitting. We're going to use this exhaust for a bit to sort out the bugs and then Willem and myself will be making a custom mandrel bent unit.

so............finally.

1 simple wire swapped and she started up first time. This is probably the 3rd-4th start. The hesitation in the beginning is because my starter is not among the most healthiest and the motor has damn good compression. Video and pics from my BB, hence the cruddy quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_cbhUMdfGA&list=HL1353995782&feature=mh_lolz

The knocking that you hear is the big truck exhaust hitting against the body of the car. They have to change my mountings for it on Friday and also do a new tail pipe as the current one isn't going to work. But you can hear at 20sec when I pull the exhaust away it's dead quiet.

I've actually decided that the truck exhaust will remain on as damn it sounds throaty. Because my whole exhaust system is less than a meter long, I need every bit of silencing that I can get. I will however re-do my downpipe.

And after a lot of trimming the engine lid also fits. Albeit, I'm going to have to trim my vent at the back so that it won't foul my oil breather. But from the outside, you won't see any indication of what's in the back unless you peak through the engine vents.









Yup, all of the bottom of the engine lid had to go, because of the shape, it's actually damn stiff and once we put the gussets under the hinge points, you shouldn't be able to see any different..........from the outside.

Next step is 4 water leaks that I have on my main water pipes. These will be sorted by the shop on Friday and there is a small one out back that I'll do as it's on the engine. Car will now unfortunately be off the road for the next 2 weeks as I have family commitments that I can't break and then on the 14th, we'll do the final settings and make the cross member.

Many people have asked me if going EFI is worth it and also if going 2.0 over 1.8 is worth it as well. On the lighter cars, the 1.8 should push a car like a beetle along with no issues whatsoever, but I wanted the torque more than the outright power and the price difference between the two is marginal. The parts are basically the same and also easy to get. The issue is space. The height of the 2.0 8v long block that I have means that it's had to be squeezed into the back. I'm sure that you could look into clocking the motor on it's side, but on a beetle, you would probably run into issues. This has only JUST fit into a speedster and I have way more space than a beetle on the sides.

As for EFI...............only time will tell. One thing I do know running fuel lines, fuel pump, and return lines etc is a pita of a job and that's not even touching the wiring. I kept it easy and stuck with stock mp9........so it was all plug and play. But it still look some sorting out to do.

wow that a lot of engines!

Well.............the conversion is done.

From the normal view.



Getting in low.



Up close



Once the scoop has been painted black, you won't notice anything. I've been driving this thing for a week with only really one issue. (fan won't switch on sometimes), but I'm putting that down to the fact that it's a 12 year old part that's come out of a junkyard and that it was suspect to start off with anyway.

Some points.

1) Engine - She sure as hell has some power. I was feathering the throttle most of the way and the first thing that you notice is torque. I could potter along at 60 in 4th and push my foot down and she'd launch. I forgot how much better throttle response is with EFI. This car was built as a cruiser and damn, she does that so well. The one thing that I noticed was that she runs damn quiet, I mean super quiet. When she's idling, you can't really hear it. The truck silencer kills it all. I may be looking at changing this as I think that I do want an exhaust burble. I really need to get my tach fitted as I kept on tapping the throttle pedal to hear if she was still idling or not.

2) Cooling - This is one thing that I was really worried about as I had mixed and matched cooling systems from 3 different makes of cars and also used a radiator set-up that has not been done locally yet. The Civic dual core unit was fitted because it was small and fit in the nose like a dream. I was however worried that I was going to have issues with cooling while the car was running as I doubted that I didn't have enough cool air coming in as the actual opening is about 400mm x 50mm. I shouldn't have worried though. The car came up to operating temps pretty quick, (2 minutes or so) and then proceeded to stay rock solid at 82 degrees the whole way home. I was in traffic a few times at a few robots and the temp gauge crept to 84 degrees, but didn't go any higher. Once I was moving again, it came down to 82 and stayed there. I was mainly worried about moving temps, nice to know it's sorted though.

3) Brakes - They actually felt good. I will have to adjust them up a bit as they haven't been done in ages. But stock brakes have no issue reeling in this car. The speedster only weighs in at 740kgs though.

4) Misc - The engine mounts are 100% toasted, I get tonnes of vibration through the body of the car. So this means that the upgrade to the V8 mounts next year will be done sooner as well as fitting the cross member. The vibration comes in around 4k rpm and is annoying as hell.

This weekend I'll be making the last few changes to the scoop up front as well as the bumper and mounts and try to get everything back to normal looking and also to clean the car as it hasn't had a decent wash in about 8 months. I also have to start fabbing the air intake and air box set-up. I do first have to clean out the rats mess of wiring behind the engine and that'll take me a few weekends to do on it's own.

But at least I can drive it and enjoy it while fine tuning.

Top work, mighty fine car !

that vibration you get at 4k, well thats characteristic of inline 4s. the higher you rev them the more the vibration generally speaking

Its a 2ndary vibration inherit of inline 4 design. I wouldn't go to v8 mounts as they are more often heavy duty and might let more vibration pass to the body.
what you need is hydraulic dampening mounts. They absorb the vibration like a shocker. Typically seen in modern inline 4s and V6s

Well over a year later and its still running like a champ. I've incorporated the water temp gauge into the porsche 912 water gauge and that's working fine.



Next is to re-do the radiator set up up front and I can now work on getting it smaller so that I can fit my spare wheel back there.

Pics to follow on that, but just to give an indication of how tight things are back there.



The pod filter is coming out and I nee to make space for the airbox that's going in. That's going to be fun to try and find space for that.

Been trying to update here for ages and I don't know, something has changed in the way that the forum does stuff and all of a sudden my pictures aren't viewable and I can't post.........bugger.

So here's where we are with the car.

I've been driving the balls of it and decided about 8 months ago to gut it down and do everything right on the car one time and that would mean taking the body down and making some pretty serious modifications to the car.