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Old April 9th 2015, 10:14
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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My German Look '70 Ghia -- GhiaMonster

I've had several member of this site suggest I do a build thread of my Ghia over here

Picked up the Ghia in April of 2012, in a little town about a hour and a half north of Phoenix..... The car had been in VW Trends magazine in August 1997. The PO had been road racing it in Phoenix and Las Vegas and had parked the car in '02 to start racing open wheeled cars, so it hadn't been touched in 10 years. Here's some pictures of the way it was when I brought it home, a 6 hour drive to SoCal.







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  #2  
Old April 9th 2015, 10:21
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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It came with no engine and a 901 Porsche 5 speed trans -- and you can see it was a stripped out race car -- --

I had a big engine laying around and some plans to put it back on the street, as a fast street/track car. Initially, I had plans of doing some land speed record stuff with it and wanted to so a trip to Bonneville and race it on the salt and maybe do some drag racing and some SOLO parking lot/cone racing.. In other words, I wanted the car able to do it all.

Here is the car setting on the ground just after getting it off the trailer....

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  #3  
Old April 9th 2015, 10:31
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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Here is the engine that I had decided that I wanted to put into it..... Notice anything strange



This engine was originally purchased and built in 1987. It is based off a ARPM case and barrels, and has angle port heads. It's displacement is 2989cc's, almost 3 liters. It uses Siamese cylinders to that 4" SBC chevy pistons and rods can be used -- and with a 90mm crank, offset ground to accept the small journal chevy rods. -- -- It also incorporates a drop cam placement of 150 thousandths so that there is no cam interference with the big crank..... ARPM also used a very different head stud setup with 6 main 1/2" studs and 4 smaller studs.... All this means is that if anything breaks, I will be so screwed to replace it LOL





This engine is also 3" wider than stock, so there is a lot of modifications required to get it to fit in any VW

Last edited by Fiatdude; April 9th 2015 at 11:14.
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Old April 9th 2015, 10:36
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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Here is what the engine compartment looked like when I got it.... I bought a box of cutting discs to get ready to put the engine in there -- One positive, is that the car came with a removable rear valance already done......



Afterwards:::::

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  #5  
Old April 9th 2015, 10:45
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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The car came with a stock gas tank, which of course wouldn't do --



All the brakes on the car proved to be junk so I upgraded to some new ones.



These came with a choice of Chevy or Porsche pattern, and I was leaning towards putting Chevy rims on the car,,, BUT I came across one those craigslist deals of the century and found some 16" teledials on there super cheap and within 20 miles of my house

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  #6  
Old April 9th 2015, 10:53
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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Being everything had to be fabricated, I had Marty Skaggs hand fab me some intakes



And since Marty Runs the US division of TurboSmart, a quick decision was made,,, to turbo the 2989 ... I'm still giggling about that..........



So I, the worlds worst welder, decided to start fab-ing up the intake and exhaust,,,, You can't buy any of this chit anyway..... Here is some early attempts -- --


Last edited by Fiatdude; April 9th 2015 at 11:00.
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  #7  
Old April 9th 2015, 10:57
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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The exhaust and turbo are fab'd -- -- OK, OK bubble gumed together



of course it needed an intercooler -- so bought a water/air one off ebay -- a few more bends and poof, chit has occurred LOL







Here's the rest of the intercooler system -- a tank and pump (mounted behind passenger seat) and a small radiator (oil cooler) that I mounted under the car --


Last edited by Fiatdude; April 9th 2015 at 11:07.
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  #8  
Old April 9th 2015, 10:59
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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The Battery, Fuel Tank and fuel pump getting their initial lay out, and lines ran

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Old April 9th 2015, 11:02
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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The Dash gets a little redo



Those itty-bitty small-ass seats that were in the car, got pulled and given away, and were upgraded to some Kirky seats



Of course all this is occurring with all the normal 'life' issues going on, like work, money, work, less money, family, even less money and the other normal distractions



Anyway -- about 9 months after getting the car, it's first attempt to drive it around the block occurs



Well, at least it made it to the corner LMAO -- needed to get on a dyno and get it tuned for sure

Last edited by Fiatdude; April 9th 2015 at 11:14.
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  #10  
Old April 9th 2015, 11:22
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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SO I got it running kinda good and took to Donut Derelicts in Long Beach for a early morning cruise for the start of Jan 2013 -- --



That's where I found out what a POS the 901 Porsche trans is as I blasted the main shaft leaving the parking lot -- Of Course, it couldn't have anything to do with my driving habits,,, could it????

So the car gets parked for another 6 months as I save my money up for a new transaxle
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  #11  
Old April 9th 2015, 11:36
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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So suddenly I get the new 091 Bus trans -- --



of course, it is nothing like the 901 that was in there and the old rear of the car has to be redone to fit this monster in there





Some new 930 CV's and axles and stubs are in order



I went out and did some parking lot stuff and found that without a posi in the car, it would just burn the inside tire going around any corner, so the motor and trans had to come out again to get a new LSD put in....

and the car got cleaned up and a few things done to it







Here is a video of it on the dyno::::::::::::::::::::::::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m52kBy7a6fc

Last edited by Fiatdude; April 9th 2015 at 11:52.
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  #12  
Old April 9th 2015, 11:45
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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It was while on the dyno I started having issues with my Electromotive EFI system -- so currently the car is all tore apart (AGAIN) and all the electrical is getting redone as I put in a AEM EMS4 system







I started this project using Weatherpak connectors and then was told that Metric-pack were better, so I'm currently waiting on a crimper that I can use with the Metric-packs --- I've got so many crimpers now,,,, I just need one more tool LOL

I beginning to wonder if I'll find the ends to all these wires LOL

or

Dude, where's my interior

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  #13  
Old April 9th 2015, 11:47
Fiatdude Fiatdude is offline
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So that's the story to this point -- -- I have a sick sense of humor and I've left out numerous sick adventures (OK -- MISadventures) I've had in this build, but I'm sure I add some as This chit keeps going

Last edited by Fiatdude; April 9th 2015 at 11:53.
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  #14  
Old April 10th 2015, 12:31
spannermanager spannermanager is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiatdude View Post
So that's the story to this point -- -- I have a sick sense of humor and I've left out numerous sick adventures (OK -- MISadventures) I've had in this build, but I'm sure I add some as This chit keeps going
Nice post Fiat, not taking it all to serious and having fun, what's the point if you never laugh out loud! rare and interesting engine build, , any more pics?, what was up with the old injection setup?
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  #15  
Old April 10th 2015, 18:35
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NO_H2O NO_H2O is offline
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Thanks for sharing. Nice build.thanks for hanging in there while we sorted things out.
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