1303 Progress
 

The relief of getting Sue's '98 Passat back together Saturday was quite motivating, I must say. I dragged the 1303 out of the woods and into the garage last Saturday, for something to do, and since I had to pass up seeing Rush again this weekend, I decided to start tearing it down.

I got the interior out completely. The only thing I saved was the seats, steering wheel and column, and the wiring harness and switches. Found out the car had been hit on the right rear, behind the door. Dents were pulled with a spot-weld slide hammer, and the bodywork was done very nicely, not a "cave and pave" job. The body needs front and rear aprons, rear window lower corners, and patch panels under the half-moon vents.

I got the body off the pan, and scraped up all the old tar boards, and found only one 1" rust hole in the inside corner of the battery box. Should be an easy fix :rolleyes:. Removed all the old heater cables, and controls, handbrake, shifter and shift rod, pedal assembly, and master cylinder.

TO DO:

Fix the hole.
Get a pre-'73 moustache bar to mount the drivetrain
Make the 901 fit
Make the 914 shifter fit
Make it shift gears
build a cross-member and front trans mount (aluminum or steel; your thoughts?..)
Build a Kafer Cup Brace
Install 944 brakes and suspension in rear
Aquire, and install later 1303 front arms, Kerscher joints, and 944 brakes
Paint the pan
TO DECIDE:

What kind of struts? Make my own, or take the easy route with some MaxxStruts?
Use my steel 944 trailing arms, or try to score some aluminum ones? 3" wider rear fenders are in the plans, so late 951, 952, and 968 arms should work.

Once thats done, then I'll start on the body :help:

Enough talking about it, get to work. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

That reminds me... I have things to do in my garage... :laugh:

:laugh: He he, "Man up and wrench" you might say...

I like that...^ It has a nice ring to it... ;)

Heard from Len, the heads should be ready in 2 weeks.

heard from Charles the lifters will be ready sometime soon. (?)

Got my heads back from Len Hoffman last week. 1.7 "Q" heads, 42x36 valves, 57.5cc chambers, P&P on the exhausts, and polish only on the intakes. Tapered guides, radiused stems...

BOIOIOIOING :D

Len does some fine work. These look like new heads! If you want Type IV heads done right, and don't mind waiting, I recomend his services implicitly.

Gonna need .090 spacers to get a .040 deck, so they are on the way too.

I'll figure out the rocker geometry and pushrod length next, but first I need the lifters from LNE... :confused:

COOL. :cool:



? I thought that polished intakes were bad because they are more prone to causing fuel to drop out of suspension from the lack of turbulance.??

You don't want turbulence in front of the intake valve. The intake charge must be smooth, straight, and kinda shaped like a teardrop as it reaches the valve.

After that charge enters the combustion chamber, THEN turbulence is an advantage. If you can get the charge to roll into a vortex after it passes the intake valve, it will draw a larger plug into the combustion chamber, thus having a ram-charge effect.

Think about a roll of toilet paper, and how much space it occupies when it's on the roll. Now think about that toilet paper when it's unrolled, like all 500 sheets. It would cover the floor of your bathroom. A roll of hockey tickets is dense, a wad of hockey tickets isn't. (what an analogy :laugh: ) If you can get the plug smoothly thru the intake port, around the intake valve, and make it swirl as it gets drawn into the chamber, a more dense air-thus-fuel mixture can be burned during each cycle.

Well, Toccoa must'ive done something to me, that, and my Ahnendorp header arrived while we were in GA. :D I spent 12 hours this weekend on my Bug doing all matter of stuff.

I spent most of Saturday doing math 'cause it was raining. After talking wid Len, I found out that I need to run ZERO deck height on my engine. He gave me a .040" step-cut in the chambers to keep the pistons safe, so I had to re-fig the rocker geometry, and pushrod length. I have to use .060 rocker pedistal spacers to get the valve, and adjuster parallel at .250" lift, and use 274mm pushrods to get a good range of adjustment. Ordered snap-ring type wrist pin retainers ('cause I hate spiral-locks :mad: ), the pushrods, rocker pedistal shims, and some other stuff.

The weather today was nice here for a change so I rolled the pan outside and spent most of this afternoon fitting the 901 to the chassis. Got the holes drilled in the bellhousing for mounts, and attached the mustache bar, got my aluminum crossmember mounted to the tranny, and measured for, and drew up a plan for chassis mounts for the front of the drivetrain. Cut the access panels for the shift-rod joints and bushings.

Finished up the rear suspension basics. Arms are on, shock towers modified for 951 springplates, springplates are on, parking brakes done, cables attached on both ends. Gotta take the right side back apart though, as it seem as if I've indexed that torsion bar lighter than the other when I jump up and down on the frame horns :doh:

I'm shootin' for firing it up by Dec. :cool:

Man you work fast, I haven't even seem my car in 3 weeks. It is still burried under all the hurricane stuff. You are making me look lazy, and I just can't have that. :laugh: :agree:

I'm a professional. :cool:

:laugh:

MAJOR SETBACK: two cylinders were damaged during buildup of the top ends. The bottom oil scrapers scored my Nickies, no.2 is likely not repairable, but no.1 can prolly be salvaged and re-plated. They're off to Charles Navarro (again) to see what can be done.

The rings felt a little tight when I test-fitted them a month ago, but not un-ordinarily tight, considering how much the iron top rings spread when I put them on the pistons.

What ever the cost is, I gotta fix it. I'm into this car too deep now to let it go. So much for me milkin' the cash cow now. My cash cow's milkin' me!

Sorry to hear that man. That really sucks. :bawling: :(

Thanks BG. Mabye I'll take up fishin' as a hobby and leave this $#!+ as my regular job. :laugh:

Don't give up man. Take a week off of your car and go fishing to relax, than jump back in. I'm going to take a few days off from my car since I found out that the body isn't straight and it doesn't fit on the chassis that well. I think it is just about time to rent a Penske truck and take my car to the body shop. :mad:

keep at it. you gotta have one thing in life sucking you dry. there always is. it might as well be something you love. oh, and i'm talking about your bug. don't want sue thinking i'm evil. :laugh:

keep your eye on the prize.

That sux. See what L&N can do with them and move on. Life is full of setbacks. Some cost more than others :bawling:

I called Charles after I finally got it off the piston and described it to him. Wasn't expecting him to answer the phone on a weekend, but he did. :) He sounded pretty optimistic, but I don't think it'll be repairable. That oil ring just flat gouged into the no.2 wall,.. DEEP!!! I don't think it was a plating problem, as much as it was a ring problem. I dunno :(

Mabye I should sell this whole heap to someone and build it for THEM. I never have problems working on OTHER PEOPLE'S cars, but when I work on something that belongs to me, Murphy is always standing by... :laugh:

Don't worry fellas, I'll move on soon. ;)

:laugh: LOL! She knows what's love, and what's just a hobby.

You too huh. I have yet to reassemble my other bikes engine and it is going on 3 years now. I keep running to more and more problems. :o :laugh:

:laugh: I think your finger of death syndrome rubbed off on me at Toccoa dude :laugh:

Nooooooooo!!!!!!!


First Zen, than Dave and now you... Is no one safe from the touch of death. :rolleyes: :eek:

LOL on the finger of death.

Yeti, maybe you should just pay yourself and all should be fine then. Just keep your guard up. There are a lot of unethical engine builders around. :laugh:

I know, I must be one of 'em... I keep giving myself a raw deal. :rolleyes:

Joe made a slight "goof" with the oiling ring installation thatcaused the Nickies issue....

as soon as I read his email I knew what happened to them.

I'm sure the cylinders can be repaired. I threw one off the lathe trying to trim it and it was repaired easily.

Joe, call me tonight. I'll be here all night trying to get a racer going for this weekend!

After finding out what a set of those cost this weekend....that hurts....sorry to hear about that. Keep at it, I wish I could get that much done in one weekend!!!! :agree:

Thanks Nigel. Yeah, it hurts, more ways than one.

You won't be seeing any more posts from me on this thread.