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Spyder Bait
I just realized I don't have a build thread for the street bug so I thought I'd put one in here since it's getting a little more attention.
This is Mojo aka. Spyder Bait, a 1973 Super Beetle Sports Bug, the day I brought him home http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...7.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...2.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...1.jpg~original ...and about a week later http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...3.jpg~original I swapped in Maxx struts and added a coilover sleeve with 300# springs (too heavy) and 4 wheel disks in porsche pattern for a set of turbo twists. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...6.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...4.jpg~original I also installed H4 conversion headlights with 6000k HID, Westin 5.5" driving lights with 3000K HID, and a Kamei spoiler to complete the german look. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...5.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...5.jpg~original I briefly had a big motor installed, but the 2276 ate it's cam after 1000 miles so it's on the bench for a rebuild. Since the beetle is going back to daily driver duties he'll be getting a few upgrades in the coming weeks. Rancho pro street freeway flier tranny New, built by me 2276 Tranny strap kit Urethane mounts Kafer brace New front 200# springs QA1 Rear coilovers with 300# springs 7/8" front sway bar Strut brace Sticky tires, (haven't decided which ones) |
Cool ride. Sorry to hear about the lifter/cam failure.
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ya nice ride, ive seen it in boulder creek quite a bit
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Very cool! Love the AutoXing pics!
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what a difference a wheel (and lowered suspension) can do!! Nice car with useful mods..hope your engine will work soon
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What are you driving now? I've probably seen you around :)
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What caused the cam / a lobe to go flat? Were the lifters new? Did you use a cam lube? Too high of a spring rating? Improper break-in procedure for the cam? Oil not have enough ZDDP?
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I didn't build this motor, I bought it used but when I drained the oil it looked like regular motor oil. I'm guessing it was a combination of valve spring and wrong oil.
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i drive a grey 04 gti with a black grill, sorry to hijack thread, but nice car, would love to see it with the bigger motor in it, also where did u get those coilover sleeves?
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The sleeves and springs I got from summit racing. I think all the part numbers are on the ultimate suspension thread.
Speaking of the big motor, I sent the spare case off for machining to bring the deck faces down. When I pre-assembled the motor to get deck height measurements I found the 3-4 side to be .020" taller so that will be evened out as well. Initial measurements add up to a .044" deck which will give me a 9.1:1 CR assuming a 59cc chamber. I'm going to measure those next to verify. A couple of notes: 1. New-ish rings are sharp as @#$&! and I sliced my fingers open pretty good 2. Using a wire wheel to clean the piston tops makes the garage smell like burnt toast |
A few new additions to the bug this weekend in preperation for the new drive train.
The street bug has been lacking gauges for some time and I finally got around to correcting that. A set of new Z-series autometer gauges now in the dash, 3 3/4" mini monster tach, oil press, and oil temp. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...8.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...1.jpg~original I also moved a lighted switch for the electric fuel pump over with the other switches. From right to left, hazard, oil cooler fan override, fuel pump, HID driving lights. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...2.jpg~original While I was leaning on the seat with my hands under the dash something in the drivers seat gave way. I haven't pulled up the seat cover yet but it seems like a weld broke. For now I stole a seat out of the race car until the other seat is fixed. Though after a quick trip to the store the stock seat may never go back in. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...3.jpg~original I'm still waiting on an order from CB to build the motor, and I got word that the new tranny is shipping out today so it'll be here later this week. Might be able to put everything together next weekend! |
Finally got the rods I've been waiting 2 weeks for on tuesday, and thus began a long 2 days of motor build. Had to make a couple emergency runs for pushrods, rod bearings, and a fan belt but otherwise everything went fairly smooth.
Getting ready http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...5.jpg~original new rancho pro-street freeway flier put together and ready to go in http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...7.jpg~original mmm, straight cuts... that are surprisingly quiet, must be something with the CB gears. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...6.jpg~original and about this time it was 2am and I had forgotten all about the camera http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...9.jpg~original The details: 2165cc CB aluminum case DPR 78mm crank Mahle 94mm forged pistons and cylinders CB 5.5" race rods CB #2246 cam, 260 dur. @ .050" .411 lift CB straight cut cam gears CB lightweight lifters Scat chromoly push rods Windage tray Scat wedge port heads, 40mmx35.5mm CB 1.3:1 forged rockers, measured out to 1.25:1 and .515" lift at the valve 30mm HD oil pump w/ filter 12 lb. lightened flywheel KEP stage 1 pressure plate The motor went together nice and easy. Had a bit of a scare when I tried to set the rocker geometry. The scat 1.4:1 rockers were uncomfortably close to coil bind and when I measured them out they were actually giving me a 1.32:1 ratio. I happened to have another set of CB 1.3 rockers laying around (I know right?) and I remember another builder saying they measured out with a smaller ratio. Sure enough, when I checked my set they measured out 1.25:1 which was good enough for .030" more breathing room at the valve spring. I got some help and we managed to swap in the motor last night. Couldn't do the cam break in until today and it sounds very mean. I had a little bit of popping so I know the carbs are a little lean so I'll sort that all out tomorrow. The motor is dry as a bone except a leak from the snout of the case, and the race car had a leak in the same area, grrr. The last problem I found while cleaning up tonight. I found the wing nut for the clutch cable on the tool cart, which means it's not in the car. Looks like I'll be back under the car tomorrow, but I still can't wait to drive it. |
"Do not leave parts or tools on the cart" haha love that ironic sticker!
Glad to hear everythings going well..good luck on the rest and be great to see that thing movin like it should! |
Looking really good. Where did you get the headlights and do they work well with the stock wiring ?
Rob. |
I saw that sticker on the cart and I couldn't help but get a pic of the tranny up there.
The light housings I got off ebay and they are h4 conversion housings. Look for the autopal h4 housings because they give a very clean cut off line. Break in update: The motor is very strong and gets to 60 in a hurry. I'm only revving to 5000 until the first oil change but there's more in it. I found myself doing 80 in short order with the freeway flier without realizing it. There's a few problems so far: -reverse gear is non-existent, if I pull on the stick hard enough i can get teeth to grind but no engagement. I tried multiple shifters and adjustments but it's no good. Going to call Rancho on monday. -One of the idle circuits is plugged, car runs on 3 cylinders until I get on the mains or hammer the throttle. I will probably pull all the idle jets and clean them. -There's an oil leak near the pulley on the crank that is leaking pretty bad. It's not the oil pump and I think it's coming from the crank even with the sand seal. |
Great to see it is back up and running. Having to pull a transaxle back out would suck. Sounds like the shift fork needs adjustment. Pull you idle jets and adjustment screws and blow some carb cleaner thru the passage and jet. Do you have a breather box/vent hoses to vent the case?
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I pulled the carb on the 1-2 side and cleaned it out and one of the idle jets was plugged. Got it back together and damn it's fast. I nearly rear ended a ferrari F430 cornering at speed. I'm sure he didn't expect to have a beetle barreling down on him out of nowhere either. Unfortunately when I turned arround the problem came back and I suspect its the idle jets again. I might have to do this a few time before its completely cleared out.
I do have a breather tower on the motor but right now its venting to atmosphere. Eventually it will be plumbed to the carbs on each side. One thing I've never done was open up a tranny. How hard is it to adjust the shift fork for proper engagement? I'm guessing it'll have to come back out to do the adjustment as well. |
Adjusting a shift fork is done in the build up case (holes are cut in the case to get to the guts). I would see if Rancho can do this for you.
This time to clean your idle jet/passage, pull the jet and the mix adjustment screw, then shoot some carb cleaner thru the passage and blow it out with compressed air. Maybe have a look in the bowls to make sure you don't have any trash in there. |
Called Rancho today about the transmission woes and talked to Mike. He said that by the sound of it, the shift fork is fine but the tranny was assembled with the wrong reverse gear. Rancho is a stand up company and they are sending out an advance replacement transmission under warranty. It sucks that I'll have to pull everything again but at least it's being taken care of.
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Yes it sux to have to pull it. But at least they are going to do you right.
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Cleaned the 1-2 carb the proper way, completely pulled it apart, blew out all the passages, cleaned all the jets again, and cleaned a small amount of rust and corrosion I found. Got it all back together, in the car and took it out for a spin. Runs great, very strong from 3k-5.5k, and scoots to 60 so fast. Oil temps hover around 200-210 with the fan going, after the 10 mile 2000' climb to the summit. On the short side, the summit climb is half that distance but still 2000' and in 3rd gear temps were 190-200.
Now to fix the heavy oil leak at the crank snout. This thing is pissing oil past a sand seal even with vents on the case, and I'm not sure how to fix this. The race engine does the same thing, so whatever it is both engines have it. There are no leaks otherwise anywhere on the engine. Here's a quickie start up video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj07EaMPPn0 |
sounds nice and strong ;)
take some video well ripping through the mtn. Chris. |
So I called Rancho late on monday, around 4:30 and the replacement tranny showed up at noon on thursday. How's that for speedy service?
I started the process of swapping the tranny out today. Got the motor out, bad tranny out, and the new tranny in before I ran out of light. Should get everything back in tomorrow morning. I'm going to change the oil, re-torque the heads, and check the valves while I'm at it. |
Sounds really nice and starts great!
So they trust you to send back the faulty tranny after you removed it? :rolleyes: Good service 4sure from Rancho. Weird thing on the pulley sealing issue on both engines. Curieus to know what that was in the end. |
I've got 150-ish miles on the new motor and I noticed the oil leak has gotten smaller as I drive it. I haven't been nice during the break-in and floor it or engine brake where ever I can. If the leak stops on the street motor I know its a good indicator for the race motor, that's the hope anyways.
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So I got the tranny swapped out and the motor back in over the last couple days. While the motor was out I took the pulley off and found the source of the leak. I hadn't used enough spacers on the sand seal pulley and it "kissed" the seal spinning it in the housing. It's a press in seal, so I pulled it back out, cleaned it back up, and bonded the seal in place with a thin coating of hondabond. I added a couple more spacers to the crank, put the seal back in and buttoned it all up again.
I discovered the hard way that the big HP1 filter doesn't have enough room to come off with the exhaust in place, so I changed it for a smaller filter. While I was at it I checked and the valve clearances, and re-torqued the heads. I checked the spark plugs since they were easy to reach and the mix looks spot on if not a hair rich. We took it out for a spirited drive yesterday, and I gave it the beans whenever I could and no oil leaks that I could see. So now I'm going to double check the seal on the race car and I'll probably find a similar situation. |
Well if it's not one thing it's another. New motor and tranny are too much fun, dangerously fun, but now the odometer in the speedo gave up the ghost. Apparently it didn't like the quick runs to 90mph so now it doesn't move at all or 10x too fast while the speedo reads just fine.
I also got a chance to refit the new front springs and dropped the overly stiff 300lb/in. for a pair of 200lb/in. Now it feels a lot more stable in the corners and rides a bit smoother in front, however mid corner bumps or aggressively driven banked corners put the tire up into the fender now. I still need to get adjustable front struts but they are being bumped for a set of front tires and an alignment. |
Sounds like you are well on your way.
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Good to hear your engine works so well now! |
Wally, do you know your front corner weights? How much stuff do you have up there? What rear springs/torsion bars are you running?
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Total weight with cage is probably around 985-1000 kg in street/track trim with about half a tank of gas, so its about 400 kg front side or 200 kg/450lbs per front wheel side. I have the DS oil tank up there, oil cooler, fuel pump and filter, hydraulic clutch reservoir, the battery, waterinjection tank, thicker sway bar of course, some bars in the front subframe and some to hold the DS tank in its place and a bar between spring towers welded in. Plus the usual 4 ltr reserve tank and some spare tools. All in all, it adds up I suppose and that was the whole idea too ;) In the back I now run 25.5mm torsion bars only with a Whiteline 24mm swaybar. |
Been working on the bug more, working the kinks out of it. I kept having problems with the idle jets and it was getting worse and worse. I finally realized the jets had collapsed after being tightened too much. A new set of idle jets solved most of the problems I was having. I also adjusted the linkage so I'm getting full throttle now (not 2/3rd's like before) and the motor just races to redline from about 3k. I'm on my 3rd oil change, a little over 1700 miles on break in, and I'll be switching over to brad penn 20-50 now. While I was at it I picked up oil to do the race car too.
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...9.jpg~original Now that the right front springs are in, a friend hooked me up with a free front end alignment on a new laser rack. We discovered that the front end has been tweaked a little bit so the smallest about of camber on the passenger side was -1.3*. The front toe was also way out from being lowered which killed my tires rather quickly. So the new specs are: Front: 0* toe -1.5* camber 1* caster Rear: 0* toe -1* camber Since the tires were cording out it was time for a new set, but unfortunately Kumho stopped making the Ecsta MX in my size. In fact the number of good cheap tires in 205/40 17 has gone down significantly. So I stepped up to the next size 215/40 17 and got a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec. Everything was fine in the rear but the front fenders needed a bit of massaging. It's a little rough and track rat/drifter looking now but the fenders needed a respray any way. Now I think I know the secret origin of the euro flared fender look, elbow grease and pliers. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...6.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...7.jpg~original With the motor at 100%, alignment done, new sticky tires and enough clearance for full suspension movement, it's just an animal on the mountain roads. As soon as I can afford a new camera mount I'll get some new in car video up :) |
Nice update report!
As an alternative wrt a video camera: I just bought a new ultra small (spy) cam in the shape of a key holder/remote car alarm device. $ 9,-- and a $12,-- SD cart and it works like a charm! You can just duct tape those things on your car :rolleyes: |
I saw the video you put up and it's pretty clear for a little camera. Where did you find it?
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Op evil bay; look for 'spy camera' ;)
Like this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=150410036677 |
I think I'll start tossing my race videos under the build to keep them all in one place. I took the street bug autoxing again on a perfect day. There was a light turnout since there were 3 other competing events so we finished up pretty early. I'm happy to have some external footage finally and it's nice to hear the mean exhaust note on the outside.
I really need to stiffen the rear of the car some more. Every time I touch the throttle it'll push if I'm not pointed straight, even if I slowly roll on to it. Internal shot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD7HtdAy3rg External shot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYzywFqh_Rw |
Well I will admit I like what you did with the front fenders. Can you post up some more pics of the fenders now that they are modified?
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Haven't put an update up here in a bit...
Unfortunately I only have bad news. About 6 weeks ago I was coming home and there was a bit of construction work going on where they had several plates over the road. Well one of the plates came up as I was driving over it and it collected my exhaust. It killed the muffler and damn near tore the header off the car. The street bug is stock height in the rear so it wasn't like i was scraping down the road either. I didn't get a pic of it but the pipe going into the muffler is nearly folded 90 degrees. http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...9.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...0.jpg~original http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l4...2.jpg~original I contacted the water district who was responsible for the construction and I have to file a claim. I've ordered a new exhaust which sure be here next week and once the car is up and going I can double check that nothing else is broken. :P |
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