Congratulations on the magazine article! Yes,I´ve tried adjusting the fuel flow and was able to reduce the smoke quite a bit,but never down to to an acceptable level.My guess is the combustion chamber is dirty or rusted or something is clogged.I´ll know once I have time to take it apart.

Everyone who builds a nice car would love to see it featured in a magazine. Most don't get to see it happen. I was very happy when my car was featured in Hot VW way back in July 07. Congratulation. You worked very hard for that.

Congratulations, you deserve the magazine article!!

Thanks guys! I'm stoked.

------------

Well, it's back to other projects! I was invited to check out a driver training center just North of Whistler, and so popped the car up on axle stands Thursday to give it a "pre-event" check. I was anticipating an issue with the rear wheel bearings on the right-side, and I wasn't "disappointed". The metal washer between the disc and bearing spacer had cut into the seal, destroying the first lip. Dirt then destroyed the second lip and the outer bearing had water/dirt ingested.

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Normally the job is annoying, but not too difficult. Public Service Tip: if you weld all new lower shock mounts onto your control arms, confirm that you can still remove the axle stub before assembling the car for the final time. Oops. Once I pulled the shock out I was able to get *just* enough room to cut away the required material. A mere 5mm was all I needed. With the stub axle free, the job was as per any other Volkswagen. Greasy but easy. Alas, we had incredible amounts of snow in the last few days, and the skid pad plowing went much slower then anticipated. Event postponed...but I'll get out there soon enough.

The Pre-event check also determined that the mud simply never stops. Geesh.
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Back to the tach project. Started with a lot of measuring, and some basic drawings / concepts to figure out the direction I was going to go.
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In order to get the drawings perfect I'm using a combination of Rhino3D, and then exporting it to Adobe Illustrator before finally exporting it to my vinyl cutter. The three steps opens a lot of room for file error, so test cuts are required.
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Once the file was sorted out, various stages of 'look' for the tach dial.
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The new tach will have the turn signal indicator where I can see it, as well as the high-beam indicator and an oil-cooler fan indicator so I can see when the fan is on (either tripped by the thermostat or by my override switch)
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After modifying the internals of the Stewart Warner Tach, and then determining that my original plan of mounting it all inside the Porsche housing wasn't going to work, it was off to the Lathe! Unfortunately, this is where the project sits for the next little while. A slight 'lathe accident' means I'm on the hunt for a new 914 tach housing :P
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-Dave

Ouch! It's amazing how fast a project turns junk after a lathe "incident"!

Jason

Yep, thin walled items don't stand a chance! :D

"Hmmm, this is so thin I can't really clamp it super-tight without deforming it. Ah well, lets try anyways"

...surprisingly made it about 4min before I was jumping back to avoid the housing flying off the chuck. Okay, not my smartest move.

-Dave

I have done the same thing...more than once! :lmao: The way I got around it was to use a bull nose "live" center in the tail stock to put pressure on part against some round stock with rubber glued to the end in the chuck...the hard part is getting the piece centered enough to cut. ;)

Well, rather long since an update. Whoops. Canton Racing and I had been talking about refurbishing my 1-quart Accusump, and after trying a few of their suggestions we determined the damage was too extensive. Lucky for me, however, as Canon Racing loved the build and sent me a little care package:

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Inside was a 2-Quart Accusump, and Canon Racing Products oil filter. Part of the issue with my original Accusump could have been attributed to less-then-ideal filtering, and this new oil filter cuts down to 8-microns. I'm pretty stocked to add this into the oil system.

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Installed and working like a charm. I'm back to pre-oiling before each startup, which I feel much better about.

You may have noticed the paper towel stuffed down beside the heating pipe...had a bit of 'fun' while swapping out the Accusumps. I was undoing the AN fitting on the old sump, sure that the line was depressurized since the gauge said zero. But just as I'm doing the last 1/4 turn my brain asks "what if there is no pressure on the air side, and the piston is all the way against the case?" BOOM! The line released and about 1/2 quart of oil went EVERYWHERE. My jeans were ruined, but only because I worked frantically to clean off the headliner, windows, back of the driver's seat, floor, door cards and everything else. Did I mention I was going to a work Christmas Party (we do ours in Jan) and thought "oh I'll just do a quick swap before I leave."? Oops.

I also got fed up with people who think they're funny at Gas stations, and decided to add a touch of clarity to the roof logo on the car. No more questions or jokes regarding a certain 30's-40's German political party.
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…and then I got a few weeks of trouble free driving before the car started spitting a popping a bit on idle during warmup. I figured I had a bit of tuning to do, but had a couple of busy days at work which included trips back and forth to Whistler. This coincided with my wide band 02 sensor taking a dive, so it was hard to say whether or not I was experiencing a major issue. On day two, I noted a bubble in the paint on the apron upon arriving in Whistler. Doh. Limped it home, cleaned the jets in the carb, checked the timing and then fired it up. Within seconds the apron on the left side was noticeably hotter then the right. Pulled the apron off, and there's your problem!! No wonder the wideband was showing impossibly lean settings at idle!
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The emergency exhaust gaskets I got on the last engine install were apparently really short-life units!
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I knew getting gaskets to fit the Vintage Speed exhaust in my hometown wasn't going to happen. And while AVRparts.com had a set on the shelf, that means they would have a system they couldn't sell until replacements came in. Time to find a better option!
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http://catalog.remflex.com/v/vspfile...words_web2.jpg

I've read a lot about Remflex gasket material, it's 100% graphite material, and is often used successfully for pitted and warped header flanges. Could be awesome in this application, as the Vintage Speed flanges are pretty long and narrow, making them challenging to seal if you're not careful. The Remflex is 1/8" thick, and crushes down to 1/16" (but seals long before that apparently). I traced out the flange, and cut out gaskets using a hobby knife and punch for the bolt holes. So far, so good! If the gaskets aren't the reason I pull the exhaust next, they'll definitely be a success.

-Dave

The gasket material looks good, interested to hear the results on it.

Whew, long time no post! Funny how that happens when I'm out enjoying and using the car, vs. building it.

A few days after installing the Remflex gasket material, I was heading over the Duffy Lake road on my way to The Thunderbird Rally. I was almost past the point of no return when I smell alerted me to a problem. Yup, burned out number 4 again...and this time it was the Remflex that was 100% gone. Clearly my issues were bigger then just the gasket material. I checked my watch, and was a little over 40min away from the closest town...and it was 4:40pm on a Friday night. Not good! I hammered down the road, and into a tire shop and general repair shop to peruse their gasket selection. I found a few that were close enough, and then hit the local snowmobile shop for a roll of header wrap. A parking lot backwoods repair was done, and I was on my way.

Since I'll forget to update it later, it turns out the issue was not the gasket materials, but that I had overtightened the flange when I last had the motor out and they were no longer mating flat. With the pressure localized on the ends, the gasket would blow out in the middle every time. I have since repaired it and enjoy leak free driving without issues...

For Thunderbird, I was serving the role of "Chief Steward", which is to say that if there were any protests, or issues with the rally I was the guy who would make the final call one way or the other. This also allowed me to checkpoint the rally, and run the whole route without competing. I figured after the last event having a few more 'shakedown' events on the car wouldn't hurt. And, as it would turn out, I was 100% correct. The next morning I was heading off to my first checkpoint, on regularity (stage) one, without a co-driver. I was probably...okay, I was definitely...going too quick. What can I say, I was having fun in the light dusting of snow and loose gravel. I came around a right-hander and saw three yumps which were definitely far too large for the speed I was going. With little time to react I opted for ensuring I didn't end up in the ditch or a tree, car be damned. Coming down off the first one, I was landing on the second. The rear went clean through to the bump-stops, and then I was hitting the third. Instantly I knew there was an issue, but kept the car pointed in the right direction and slowed down until I could pull off safely.

Crawling under the car I was met with a rather interesting sight, which I'll admit took me a few seconds to figure out:

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The observant amongst you might notice that something is missing. I could see the shock body, I could see the spring. I could see the lower spring perch but oddly enough there was no shock shaft joining the upper and lower halves of the assembly! Now, a normal person would probably look at this and think "call a trailer", but rally people have never been accused of being normal. I could see from the way the shock body was wedged, and how much movement it has without a spring, that there was very little risk of losing the spring out of the assembly. The embarrassment of not making the finish of another event was too much to consider, so I jumped in and began to figure out the new handling characteristics.

By the end of day one I was getting pretty comfortable with the car, and I had pushed it enough to know that I wasn't going to be at any real risk of losing the spring. I could take it easier on the gravel sections, and go with a much heavier foot in the snowy sections. By the end of the event, I was thoroughly enjoying myself. Sure, I had heavily damaged my car (who knows what else went with the shock), but it held together and I had figured it out enough to have a tonne of fun driving it. I drove home over the Duffy, which was snowy by this point, and I found that special bond you hope to build with a car. That moment where you can't wipe the smile off your face, that point where enjoyment and experience outweighs the build, the cost, the headaches and everything else. That spot where the car I imagined on paper was finally materializing in experience.

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Of course, one still has to fix the damage.

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Upon teardown of the rear suspension the first thing I noticed was there was no longer any bump stop attached to the trailing arm. My best guess, based on the experience is that I lost the bump stop on the first big hit, which then allowed for the shock to bottom out completely. The shocks haft snapped off right at the lower eyelet, at the beginning of the threads which are a stress-riser. Initially I was concerned that the shock was getting a side-load under full compression, but the missing bump stop (and cycling it through without a spring), points to a simple bottom out failure.

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Both the upper and lower hardware had the faintest of bends in the bolts (visible only when rolled on glass), so they were replaced. The load travelled through the Kafer bar to the right-hand side, where the upper bar mount snapped clean off at the weld. Needless to say, it had to be a big hit! While technically the QA1 shocks are rebuildable, and all parts are replaceable, for time sake I picked up another unit and installed it. The Kafer brace was removed, a new stronger mount welded up, and replaced. Sorry, no photos as I was trying to get the car running for work the next day!

The upper shock body received some damage from leaning against the body all weekend.
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More updates coming, but I think this one is probably long enough…

-Dave

I call this next shot "why I will never POR15 new metal again"...
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It literally just peeled off the bottom of the floorboards, iphone included in the sweeping up for scale:
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Interestingly enough, any of the "old metal" (spine, torsion bar housings, etc.) which was prepped the same way is fine...can't take the POR15 off with a chisel. So, I let the bare pans 'season' for a day or two and then repainted them. We'll see how this holds up...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8528/8...9932654b_c.jpg

-Dave

I found that too, POR just doesn't stick to clean metal or if the metal is too smooth, I also had issues with metal that had been prepped with a wire wheel in an angle grinder..

Its made to use on rusty metal. There's a chemical reaction that happens.

Which, normally I would agree with you, but their metal etch is supposed to solve that problem!

Ah well, I just 'seasoned' the pans by letting them get a bit of rust scale on them. Not mirror smooth (as you can see in the photos) but will hold now.