56 beetle, a long build

[thatbeetleguy]

The work put into this is just awesome and great pictures to document!

Dang man , awesome job on documenting this . Following closely getting pumped to get into another AC Bug

Wow this is great, looks stunning! Good work.

this came out great

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm proud of the car and there is still a lot of cool surprises i've got left to show. Now mostly i'm focusing on trying to get the car running and looking presentable for Southern Fresh 5 August 1st. But don't feel that this is over because there is so much more to come.

[P78]

this came out great

[FunfGang]

Wow this is great, looks stunning! Good work.

[12vsex]

Dang man , awesome job on documenting this . Following closely getting pumped to get into another AC Bug

[Queef|Chief]

The work put into this is just awesome and great pictures to document!

[thatbeetleguy]

Engine Build Part 2

After getting the long block built we began to install our tin. For those of you not familiar the engine tin is the back bone of the air cooled system. Most aftermarket tin fits like shit, due to this most modded type 1 engines run hot. Our goal was to not run hot

We began to put on our tin from cb with the cylinder head tin.


after this we fitted the fan shroud and threw on the oil filler neck.


The tin looked super cool and fit okay after considerable cutting and bending. I was satisfied for the most part other than a couple problems with paint. But after a lot of consideration from my dad, who has actually built a 2 liter VW motor before, the tin would not work. Due to the pretty expensive engine we've put together neither of us wanted it to burn up so we had to give up a little bit of form for function.
The cb tin had some problems that would really prevent us from getting the cooling we wanted. the first problem was that the tin didn't have thermostat flaps, which are almost never used in aftermarket applications. Even though the flaps are unpopular and cause 4 screws to need to be in the fan shroud, (ugly), they are necessary in letting the engine cool properly. The way the flaps work is that a thermostat located under the cylinder head for the 3rd and 4th cylinder expands and contracts with the temperature of the air. When the engine is warming up from a cold start the thermostat will close the flaps so no air is blown over the engine. This allows the engine to warm up quickly and properly and prolongs the life of the engine.
The next problem with the tin is that it doesn't fit very well mostly due to the fact that the engine is significantly stroked. The big ass crank makes the engine anywhere from 1/8 inch to about a full inch wider, making the already shitty aftermarket tin fit even worse.
The final problem with the tin is that we decided to use the 36 horsepower early style fan shroud rather than the late model shroud. The late model doghouse shroud cools the engine the best out of any shroud other than Jake Raby's DTM fan shroud. The problem with this shroud is that it cost 750$ and doesn't allow the use of heater boxes.

After deciding our tin was not sufficent and doing some research we decided to have a tin set specially made from clark at awesomepowdercoat.com . While his wedsites name is a little cheesy imo he knows his shit about engine tin modification. We had him make us a set of his modded tin from original german tin. His mods first of all include widening the various tin pieces specifically for the width of our motor, which we gave him specs on. One important part of the tin that he usually installs is an important air vein in the cylinder head tin. Because we had him get us original german tin this was already installed. we also had him install a venturi ring on the back of the shroud on the inlet for the air to the fan. The venturi ring was added from the factory when they switched beetle to fuel injection and began having heating problems. we also had him fill various holes and gaps for things we wouldn't be using, like the fan shroud mounted coil. We also bought a restored thermostat kit from him. Then we had him buy some custom powder for for powder coating our tin that color matches the L75 beige that all the interior metal is painted. Then he powder coated the tin and sent it over to us and the fun began.

Before installing the new cylinder head tin we noticed that part of the casting of the head's cooling fins went too far into where the tin was to be installed. I grinded this clean using a dremel type tool so the tin could fit flush


After grinding this flush i put on the tin with the lower piece that's not usually used at all.


and on the other side as well


After trimming and some slight grinding it all fits very tightly and I'm really satisfied with it. It fits really tight around the case as well as the heads. So then we put the flaps in the shroud and put it on. we also put on the sled tin, necessary for heater boxes and usually not used on aftermarket engines, and we also put on the front pulley tin.


It all fits very well, clark did a very good job extending it. Next we had to put on the linkage for the flaps of the thermostat. That ring in front of the inlet for air for the fan is the venturi ring that we had welded in.


The clearance on the oil cooler was pretty bad so we had to cut some notches into it so it could move without scraping





The blue lines would line up if the thermostat was heated, we put them on so we could move the linkage from opened to closed and keep accurate linkage movement without having to actually heat the thermostat. We grinded away an linkage piece that scraped.

The thermostat was put on with the sled tin and other lower tin pieces. Here it is.


It is in the heated position. When cold the coil binds and only takes up half of the space it does in the picture.

Here is the engine with all the tin installed.

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y443/Decker_Ellis/C5B0D824-243B-410A-A3CF-36D6D58F9AA6_zpsyr3jh3xu.jpg

and a teaser with the carbs and manifolds mocked up .


damn I love velocity stacks.



next we secured the flywheel by torquing our gland nut to 500ft lbs with the torque meister tool thats popular on vw's.


and then we put on our kennedy stage 2 pressure plate. 2300 lbs if I remember correctly.


Next we vented our valve cover to run for our breather box later on


and that concludes the engine build part 2. Part 3 it will go into the car.

[thatbeetleguy]

Damn! Looks kick ass! I'd love to see some slightly smaller tires in the rear, but I love it.

Thanks, I appreciate it. The rears are old 205/55's from decades ago that were on the wheels when I got them. They're on their way out but they were free and for initial fitting/ mock up purposes that's one of the best characteristics of a tire.

[aLaFleur]

Damn! Looks kick ass! I'd love to see some slightly smaller tires in the rear, but I love it.

[thatbeetleguy]

Alright stanceworks Ill give it to you straight. The car is almost done, Ive documented pretty much everything and i have a lot of cool stuff to share. while i wanna preserve the magic of a steady progression i want to also just show the current progress. so here it is









So that's the ride height for now. my front beam is about 2.5" off the ground while my muffler only sits 2" off the ground. The beam is adjusted all the way down + 2 inch drop spindles while the rear has 2.5" drop place + its lowered 1 click on the inner teeth of the torsion bar. overall lowered about 5" all around. Its my dd and is using stock torsions so the suspension is not very stiff to say the least. considering this, its not going to be lower before i have money for more goodies one day.

Ill do a real update actually documenting some work later tonight, but for now that's the current situation.

[P78]

damn

how did i miss this the first time

so awesome

[ALRoN73]

That's awesome! post pictures in the build thread or pm them to me when you're done i'd love to see that.

[thatbeetleguy]

Part 1 Engine Build

So here is part 1 of the engine build, it is unlikely that i will be consistent wit the length of the updates but I'll try to get the posts up as quick as possible so here we go.

We decided it would be fun to layout all the parts on the garage floor before we got started so here it is minus tin.


So we threw on the flywheel to get the crank to stand up so we could heat up and put on the cam gear (straight cut) a spacer and the distributor gear (no that it matters, electronic ignition will be used). The crank is a cb forged 82mm crank for anyone wondering. Here is my mom heating up the cam gear. She wanted to show off her acetylene torch.


Heres the crank with the cam gear spacer and distributor gear installed.


Next we put on and torqued down our rods as well as the oil slinger and another bearing. They're cb super race rods. Very technical name i know, but cb makes quality stuff.


We then dropped the crank into the case after putting in the bearings and all that, I like excessive pictures so expect them.


Next I tried to put the cam gear on the cam by myself with the fancy allen key whatever they're called bolts and in my inexperience and stupidity (engine was actually one of the earlier things I did on the car) i stripped out a cam bolt pretty bad. After my dad and uncle almost killing me i managed to grind down the bolt and back it out with some vice grips narrowly avoiding their wrath and thankfully allowing my engine build to go on. We then threw in an extra set of stock cam bolts we had, carefully avoiding stripping them, and they worked just fine. Here is the carnage.


Next we put in the cam bearings only to realize that the box had one bearing that was notched that wasn't supposed to be, irritating but not devastating. Instead of taking the easy way out and grinding off the notch we drove to our local, (Hour and a half drive away), aircooled parts vendor to buy another set of cam bearings.

Its supposed to go in that spot below it, as you can see it isn't notched.


After driving back from Alabama with our second set of cam bearings we put in the lifters, lubed everything up, and dropped in the crank. After dropping in the crank we put permatex on the case so we could seal it and cinch it together. It is an Eagle "Drag Race" (FK-8) cam.

Then we put the second half of the case on and torqued it down. Then we put the case studs in and the oil pump and the oil pump plate setup for a full flow system.


We then put on the pistons, 94mm, lined up the compression and oil rings and put the cylinders on.


We then put in the copperhead gaskets then tried to put on the heads. They're cb 044 super pro heads, 44 x 37.5 valves. We then tried to put on the heads and then realized that the head studs were too long so we began the long process of measuring and cutting all the case studs to fit properly. We dont have any kind of machine shop type equipment to do this so we used a hacksaw, a jewelers saw, and my moms "foredom" which is essentially a dremel on crack.

Here is the giant ports and a good picture showing why the case studs would not work.


Once we got the case studs cut, which annoyingly took the better half of a day. we finally got the heads bolted on and threw the front pulley on for a quick picture. We also had the distributor block off and fuel pump block off installed at this point.


Then we put on our additional oil sump, it will limit how low i can go but it'll help the engine get the cooling it needs with all the additional go fast goodies I have on it.



Next we put on the alternator stand, oil cooler, and oil filler neck.



After this we had to find our rocker geometry and have our push rods cut to length. I dont have any pictures of this process but it involved using an adjustable push rod to find the length, having a machine shop cut them and then installing them as well as the rocker arms. I have forged 1.4: 1 rocker arms on that I'll make sure to post pictures of soon. Then i adjusted the valves and put the valve covers on which I tapped for a line to the breather box.


There's a hint of some tin in there and some color previews. I went through two sets of tin before finally coming to the fit like a glove setup i have now. But that's a story for another day. There'll be plenty of content for another engine build post over the next couple of days.

[thatbeetleguy]

You know, I guess your car is alright, but I would definitely take a Rx8 over it.

k

[idonthaveacarbutiwantone]

You know, I guess your car is alright, but I would definitely take a Rx8 over it.

[aLaFleur]

Really can't wait to see this thing.