Questions about VW1302RSis ride

[ricola]

Great extra pics and video on your site. Sounds nice :-) Any reason you didn't just reverse the coolant manifold?, look like a lot of work went into remaking it like that!
Rich

[VW1302RSi]

Hey Ricola

Thanks for the comments, it wasn’t until I made the video of the car going up the street that I realized I hadn’t herd the car under power on the road
I'm pretty happy with the sound.

Originally Posted by ricola

Great extra pics and video on your site. Sounds nice :-) Any reason you didn't just reverse the coolant manifold?, look like a lot of work went into remaking it like that!
Rich

A few reasons, I decides to run one main cooling pipe down each side of the pan, this worked well getting the pipes from under the pan up to the radiator.

I cut and welded the coolant manifold to turn the out let round towards the flywheel and then welded a alloy 90 deg bent to it so it would then go down behind the head and face the ground, then it was just a matter of getting a 90 deg moulded rubber hose to connect it to the main coolant pipe.

The other reasons were that I wanted the heater out let pipes to face towards the firewall in case I decide to put a heater in the car and it made for a neater and shorter hose run when by-passing the throttle body pre-heater circuit.

Scott

[Steve C]

Hi Scot

Well done, you just inspired me to drop the paint brush and go out into the garage, my wife will call you later.

To the casual observer your car still sounds like a bug, altough one with a few herbs added.

Steve

[VW1302RSi]

Originally Posted by Steve C

Hi Scot

Well done, you just inspired me to drop the paint brush and go out into the garage, my wife will call you later.

To the casual observer your car still sounds like a bug, altough one with a few herbs added.

Steve

Hey Steve

Thanks for the comments about the car, I haven’t heard from your wife yet? You must have picked up that paintbrush again?

Took the car to the track on Friday, I’m still smiling best fun I’ve had with my pants on for quite some time.

I have posted it at http://vw1302rsi.multiply.com/

Good luck with the painting

Scott

[Steve C]

Hi

Got back into the painting before she noticed. Im trying to keep ahead of the builders and carpet layers. Almost done and then I can get back to the bugs.

My ADSL comes and goes, I will download the video whens its working and have a look.

Steve

[jakriz]

Hi Scott,
Good to see another sooby superbug conversion.
I've had mine on the road since late 2004, it's a daily driver & it's done 9 supersprints with the local porsche club in that time as well.
I was wondering how u are going with your inlet temps. I'm running a RS Liberty water to air intercooler on my wrx engine. My inlet temps run around 5 - 10 degrees above ambient on the street, on the track I can get them up to 50d which I have been told by many Subaru experts is more than acceptable & I shouldn't worry until I get near 70d inlet temps.

Also how are your water temps going as well, I noticed that your inlet & outlets run incredibly close to your sump & exhaust headers. The temps between those are huge.

I also read about your mod to your thermostate to help bleeding, I actually don't run a thermostate, 2 reasons, 1, it gives the perfect bleed & doesn't allow air pockets around number 4 piston water jacket & 2, I have 16 litres of coolant cooling my engine (standard wrx is 6 litres) I spoke to many guys that had done kombi conversions, some of which had experienced head cracking & warping due to the thermostate opening once warm & letting a huge volume of cold water in to the engine. I just let mine warm up each morning properly & it's been sweet. Just something u may want to think about.

regards
Jak
http://www.superbeetlesonly.com/foru...y&cmd=sc&cat=6

[ricola]

At the risk of hijacking..

Jak: in the UK there is a BIG problem with those surges of cold water straight to heads on the Rover K series engines when used in mid mounted cars (MGF/Elise) as they too have the thermostat on the inlet. When I built my libra I fitted an external BMW thermostat on the outlet and removed the original one and it worked fine. I won't consider removing the thermostat as 90% of engine wear is on warm up, maybe an external mount is a good option for you? I'm thinking about it for the cabrio..

Rich

[VW1302RSi]

Hello Jak,

Thanks for the reply

Originally Posted by jakriz

I was wondering how u are going with your inlet temps. I'm running a RS Liberty water to air intercooler on my wrx engine. My inlet temps run around 5 - 10 degrees above ambient on the street, on the track I can get them up to 50d which I have been told by many Subaru experts is more than acceptable & I shouldn't worry until I get near 70d inlet temps.

My cars is powered by a 2.52L N/A engine so inlet temps are one of the things I don't have to worry about.

Originally Posted by jakriz

Also how are your water temps going as well, I noticed that your inlet & outlets run incredibly close to your sump & exhaust headers. The temps between those are huge.

Your right the temp difference between the exhaust and the coolant pipes is huge. Only the thermostat to rad pipe/hose the runs near the exhaust and I don't see over 85 degC normally on the gauge and when I dynoed it she was just peeking of 90 degC after two hours.
The other thing to remember is lots and I mean lots of vehicle manufactures run coolant pipes near exhaust systems, Its not a problem on my car if it was turboed it may be a different story.

Originally Posted by jakriz

I also read about your mod to your thermostat to help bleeding, I actually don't run a thermostat, 2 reasons, 1, it gives the perfect bleed & doesn't allow air pockets around number 4 piston water jacket & 2, I have 16 litres of coolant cooling my engine (standard wrx is 6 litres) I spoke to many guys that had done kombi conversions, some of which had experienced head cracking & warping due to the thermostat opening once warm & letting a huge volume of cold water in to the engine. I just let mine warm up each morning properly & it's been sweet. Just something u may want to think about.

The reason these guys cracked blocks or heads or what ever was due to thermal shock and as they have worked out if you open a thermostat when one side is 30-40 degC hotter than the other side thermal shock can occur and its worse when you run huge coolant volumes.
When you look at my car running from cold as the engine warms up coolant still circulates through the complete cooling system and as the engine warms up to operating temp and the thermostat opens the gauge drops about 5-7 degC I have confirmed this with a temp gun on the coolant pipes, so there is no thermal shock.

Most manufactures have a small hole in the t/stat one of its tasks is to allow the coolant to circulate before the t/stat opens and warm up the cooling system evenly, all I have done is enlarged the hole due to the amount of coolant I’m running.

Again look at big trucks and coaches some of them have over 15L of coolant in the radiator alone and they run thermostats and warm up evenly, why because the circulate enough water thought the radiator etc to allow an even warm up before the thermostat opens.

What sort of temp variances do you get on your gauge between say:
1- Crawling along in rush hour?
2- On the race track?
3- A fast drive on the motorway on a cool night?
I’d love to know.


Not trying to be rude or a know it all but I still can’t figure out the logic in not running a thermostat on a road car.



Just something you may want to think about
Scott