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Old April 1st 2012, 04:40
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owdlvr owdlvr is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Canada - West Coast
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Today started off as a bit of an odds-and-ends days. I was working on the heater box cable linkage when I got the call that Nick was over at the rally shop. I loaded up the wheels and tires that have been in on the car, and took care of flipping the tires around (so the overspray from previous paint job doesn't show) as well as solve the slow leak in two of them. Rusty rims were attacked by the wire wheel and all seems to be holding air now. Not that I plan to use these wheels and tires, but so far Lorne hasn't had time to dig up the rims I'm getting from him and tire-company-which-will-remain-unnamed hasn't jumped on board with some fresh shoes for the car. So, for the moment, it will have to hang out on these.

I also mounted up one of the spare 15" snow tires I have kicking around. By law where I live you have to be running snows (or carry chains) until April 30th, so when I get the car on the road I'm going to need something for while I'm out doing shakedown runs. A 195/55/15 looks hilarious on a 4" rim...but not exactly safe. Will have to see what else I have hiding in the tire and wheel collection. Might be time to break out the original German Sprintstars!

While I was playing with tires, Nick was welding my exhaust (and swearing my name). I guess the only stainless I could get in town was causing him fits as it was a bit thin. Good thing he's had my sandblasting cabinet for six months...otherwise I might owe him an even bigger favour :P With the exhaust welded up, tires ready, and the heater box cables hooked up I then moved on to sorting out the other "under car" items I need to deal with. The starter was wired up, one transmission leak was "solved" and another mysterious leak found...but still mysterious. I'm getting a clear-yellow fluid with no smell weeping down the side of the transmission it takes over a week to form any thing even close to a drop-sized amount on the bottom of the transmission. It would seem to be coming from the reverse switch seal, as that portion is wet but not immediately above it. The weird part, though, is the transmission fluid is red...and this doesn't smell at all like trans fluid. My initial thought was brake fluid, but all the fittings and lines on the rear are dry. Very odd.

Leaving that alone, it was time to hook up the heat between the engine and the body. The '71 came to me with these terrible black plastic units which obviously won't fit with all the stuff I've crammed in under the car, so I began stripping it down to it's core to determine what I might be able to build to suit the purpose.


I was thinking of taking the plastic core, and simply wrapping it in heat wrap, when I found stainless steel corrugated pipe in one of my many parts bins. Dad had given these to me years ago when I bought the '69 (and promptly stole as many parts from him as possible). I remember him mentioning that he used to use similar stuff in the engine bay for heater tubes. (Must have been those whacky 80's). For what I needed though, they'd be perfect.


I didn't want to leave them just as the bare metal, as I do know that the airflow right out of the heater boxes can be incredibly hot. No need to risk melting any wiring when I have a spare roll of exhaust wrap kicking around. Finished heater duct, ready for install:


While I had the exhaust wrap out, I took the time to wrap the portion of the muffler that close to the oil-pump. I definitely didn't want to wrap the muffler, as this stuff retains moisture and frays, and looks like crap after a while...but at the same time I'm so close to the oil pump I think anything I can do to help with heat is a good idea. I'll get rid of the hose clamps once I figure out where I put my stainless safety wire.


I figured that mounting up the exhaust was going to be a breeze, but then discovered a problem I hadn't thought of. When I ordered the exhaust with Vintage Speed I was running standard heater boxes, but after seeing the quality knew I just had to uprate them to high-flow boxes. The problem was that Vintage Speed had sent me the flanges I originally requested, which were for stock sized pipes. A few cuts with the angle grinder, about 6 on-and-off fittings of the muffler, a little welding...a bunch of grinding...and I had flanges mounted to my heater boxes.


Muffler and rear tin installed:


...and with the rear apron and heater hoses:


I have to say, I am soooo stoked on the body modifications I did. Between the firewall move, the Weber doors, access panel and the removable apron I can't pick my favourite...they are all so awesome. I can't believe I worked on the '69 for so long without any of these mods. I don't think I could own a modified Beetle without them now. That month of cutting, welding and grinding was 100% worth it! Case in point, I pulled the plugs to prep the car for building oil pressure. Took me 30 seconds, and one long spark plug extension. True, I have the wheels off so it's easier, but that would have been a bear of a job without the weber doors.

Where were we? Oh right, oil pressure. Well, for whatever reason I decided to prime the fuel pumps first. 10L of fuel went into the car (no leaks!), but my fuel pump wiring isn't working as planned. Pump one is working fine, but doesn't shut down without a tach signal as it should. Pump two has an issue at the switch, which is new as I know I had the pump working when I was testing the dash. Regardless, #1 was pumping away and I was working on solving number two when I realized it was getting really smelly in the garage. "Hmmm, has the fuel gotten to the back already?" I could hear air bubbles working their way out of the system as I walked back, only to realize that no...those are airbubbles being worked out of the #4 intake runner as the left-side carb pukes fuel everywhere.

Yeah, float level? Not so correct.

With that fixed, I have a surprisingly well-sealed fuel system! The fuel tank breather still needs finishing (just an 8" hose at the moment) but otherwise it's leak free.

I filled up the oil tank, oil filter and tossed a litre in the case-sump to help prime the scavenge stage of the system. I started priming the oil system and realized a few things. First off, this was going to take a while due to all the lines...and secondly, if you're contemplating a 901 swap...do the starter modification now before you install it. My starter doesn't engage the teeth properly every time, so until I mill .100" off the front face of the starter I'm going to sound like a jalopy every few startups!

Priming the oil system sucks. On a stock 1600 build you might have to hold the key for a total of 30 seconds to prime the pump and the engine...but I have like 30ft of oil lines and accessories. This isn't going to go quickly! The whole time that poor motor and its bearings are riding on assembly lube and/or oil-film. I usually begin by undoing the outlet on the oil pump so that I can go in 10sec bursts until oil is being pushed out the pump. Then I attach the pressure line, and disconnect it at the next fitting. Again running the engine in short bursts until I can see oil. I do this at every fitting, every stage, for the whole oil system. Things like the accusump and oil cooler are disconnected (and their fittings capped) until I can reliably build oil pressure. It takes forever, but at least I can check each fitting for leaks as I go.

About an hour ago I finally built up pressure in the engine with everything but the Accusump lines attached. With it being so late, I figured that my neighbours would probably appreciate me packing up for the night and installing the plugs tomorrow. I have to run down to Vancouver at some point, but hopefully I will still have time to shoot a video of it firing up. Not bad for seven months work!

-Dave
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'71 Type 1 - Rally Project
'58 Type 1 - I bought an early!?!
'73 Type 1 - Proper Germanlook project
'68 Type 1 - Interm German 'look' project
'75 Type 1 - Family Heirloom
'93 Chevy 3500 pickup - Cummins Swap
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