Engine Compartment Beautification

Excellent....

Holy CARP!  That's gorgeous.

Bruce - that is soooo bad-ass cool! Nice work! 

Outstanding!  Excellent in both design and execution.

Bruce;  Is your lid hinge stop still working as designed and built?  Nice looking compartment. 

Looks great! when are you going to cut the air intake hole?

Very nice.  How big of a piece is needed- 4x4'?  Do you get it from a steel supply place or Hot Rod shop?

Hi Art,Al And Wolfgang....All of you have good questions so, in order......

 

Art....yes, the engine lid stop works perfect every time. If you do this just remember to leave a little slack so you can slightly lift the engine lid up to release the latch from the detent slot. I also put a little grease on the slot so I can't hear the stainless steel detent rod grinding on the aluminum because of the spring tension. It's such a relief to not have to hold up the engine lid and hunt around with the pin to line-up/find the hole to insert the pin to hold up the lid every time!

 

Al....I opted not to put the air intake hole in at this time. The reason is that I wanted to determine if it's needed first. I have gone through great pains to seal the engine compartment off from any possible recirculation of hot air from anywhere but through the grill in the engine lid. I know (by reading your comments on this site) that you have a lot of knowledge and references to draw on and I appreciate them very much.

What I want to do is start from scratch (and this will be a learning process for me) and try to get this VS Speedster back to as close to the original design as possible , at least in this area. The VS "roller IRS" I bought had a lot of "engineering over-sites" in the engine compartment and in the wiring. I don't blame VS much for this because it would take a lot more time/money to correct them than it's worth in order to put out as many Speedsters as they do, so they find short cuts which are more expedient and, in the end...profitable. Hence the hole in the firewall.

I intend to find out if it's necessary. If so, I will cut a hole.  i should explain that the firewall on the car I bought is 3/4' too far forward and will not allow any sealing to occur with the engine tin on the front of the engine with any known rubber or foam strips. Additionally, there isn't any "C" channel to slide in any of the OEM rubber sealing strips. On the sides of the engine, adjacent to the cylinders and all around to the rear of the engine, the engine tin is supposed to be sealed as well. here, in the VS, they do provide some fiberglass flashing but it's crudely cut and not exactly on the same level as the engine tin nor of the proper thickness to allow a good seal with the foam "H" rubber they provide. Again, no metal "C" channel is provided to allow use of OEM rubber seals. Finally...The rear area above the sub-frame just rear of the engine tin is not sealed either. This allows engine heat and wheel well heat/debris to be sucked up into the engine compartment as well. So, you can see... there's a lot of areas to be improved and it is my intent to take care of these first. Testing with a water manometer, cylinder head temperature with a pyrometer, and oil temperature monitoring at various places will go a long way to determine where and what i will do/modify in the future.

I really enjoy this kind of stuff and it gives me great pleasure to go to sleep at night thinking about what I will do next. In the end, Al, I appreciate your input too!

 

Wolfgang....It takes a 4ft. by 4ft. sheet of engine-turned stainless to do one car. I bought it from a company called Mc Nichols.com....I think they are in Texas but have a branch in Cerritos Calif (LA Area). Their toll free number is (877) 884-4653

It comes in 4ft by 8 ft sheets (minimum order) at $600.00. I have a buddy who wants to do the same thing to his 63 bug so he bought half of the sheet. A local Hot Rod shop here wanted $500 for a 4X4 sheet.  Mc Nichols has tons of really unique products and a great website and catalog so check it out.

 

I hope this answers your questions...You know ....this really IS madness ! but I am enjoying it every day. I'll talk about the wiring issues on another day........Aircooled

Bruce- What do you mean by "...and try to get this VS Speedster back to as close to the original design as possible, at least in this area" and that it has a lot of "engineering over-sites"? What kind of water manometer are you planning on using? Please publish what you find out; it will be interesting to see if your data matches what I know/believe. Al

Raise your hand if you had to look up what the heck a water manometer is...

I had to look it up the first time as well, Ted. That's how we learn...

Ambient pressure is 29.92" right? It was many beers ago but that's how you measure ambient pressure is by inches of water in a manometer if memory serves -right? Aircraft school was a long, long time ago.

So then if you say "So what good is that?" It's around Bernoulli's principle and carbs. A carb venturi is narrowed in order to increase velocity and an increase in velocity is a decrease in pressure (B's principle). If you hook a manometer to the center of a venturi you can measure the inches of water or reduced pressure. And high seeks low so that's what makes the fuel move. If I'm remembering this correctly.

 

Couldn't find a job when I graduated from aircraft school but I can regurgitate useless info like this at 53.

You guys really make me laugh with your humor....Thank you for that !

 

Here's some of my humor. A Manometer is a device used to test your manliness ?

 

No, Really it's a simple device to measure positive and negative (think vacuum here)pressure. It is usually filled with water or mercury depending on how much negative or positive pressure you intend to measure. The water one can measure up to 29+ inches. If you use Mercury it is approximately 13 times more so if you are going to measure some real low pressures, the water one is very accurate and sensitive. Manometers are very accurate and most, if not all, gauges are calibrated using a manometer. The manometer I have is called a "slack tube" model because the tube which the water is in is just a simple piece of clear plastic hose. The hose is arranged into a "U" shape with a piece of steel measuring tape in the center of the "U" about 15 inches long. Holding this device in a vertical position you put vacuum or pressure into one end of the hose,the water level obviously moves one direction or the other. The amount of inches the water level moves is then multiplied by 2 to give you the exact measurement of the vacuum/pressure. If you look at a vacuum gauge, somewhere on the dial face it should say "inches of water" or H2O " or something like that. If its mercury it will have something like Hg "on it. Since these measurements are in inches and they are absolute, they can be converted to PSI using a simple formula.

I haven't looked but I'd bet Wikipedia would have something on slack tube manometers.

I will put a hose into the engine compartment and connect it to my manometer to measure for vacuum (negative pressure). If there is a vacuum, then the engine lid intake vent may be insufficient. This of course should be monitored at all speeds and conditions. One thing for sure. I will be certain that the only way the engine compartment will get air is thru that intake vent. After i get the results I will determine what to do next and probably be asking you guys some questions as well. 

A Manometer is an inexpensive little tool to have. It never gets out of calibration even if you drop it and dead-on accurate........Bruce

Well, "manometer" and "slack tube" should make a lot of us old guys uncomfortable to begin with right? I'd rather leave the manometer off my firewall thank you. Why remove all doubt?

 

Besides, I'm also uncomfortable with where my wife would want to hook up the thing.

Boothy...High lift dip sticks work well enough in lieu of slack tubes don't you think ?

And now, since I'm not exactly a big guy, I'm afraid to be alone in the same room with you...

Just don't tie your shoes when he's around........ever.

Would that be considered dip stick envy?

 

Pilots with short exhaust stacks and low manifold pressure should taxi up close and
hold

At all of 5' 6" tall (that word is sort of an oxymoron here, isn't it?), wise advice!