At least the lower cost option you can explore and you'll see if it cracks again then you can take further measures. It could last a long while without any issue as well.
Stay off the ski jump and you should be fine.
Add heater cable boots ($5 pr) to seal where the cables exit. Without them water enters the horns and bingo rust starts.
So to tie it all back together, the black foam for the bus totally fit. And yes, the engine should be level with the body.
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Foam looks good 
Looks good to me, Ryan - although I think Al would drill some holes in the patches to save weight.
Why not take some careful measurements of how far the exhaust pipe tips are off the ground and check that from time to time to see if they're moving?
It looks good from my house Ryan!! LOL
Seriously, it looks good and should hold well. I'm with Mitch but I'd measure from the front of the horn to the back, take note if it is level all the way across or if there is a slight gap, and check it monthly to start and after a couple months check it annually to see if the gap (if there is one) widens. If there is no gap take note if one forms.
For peace of mind - I'd put a rear truss bar on Christmas list ($160) and add it to winter projects. It will add support to the frame horns and eliminate their flexing/twisting which causes wheel hop and frame horn damage.
Other alternative is a rear motor mount but that is probably more custom work. Let the Madness in!
The rear motor mount is easy and a good idea...
The steel frame in the rear of a VS is there mainly to support the body.
Is it strong enough to support the engine without flexing and causing stress cracks in the fiberglass? I don't know - just wondering.
Has anyone installed a rear motor mount in a VS?
Sacto Mitch posted:
The steel frame in the rear of a VS is there mainly to support the body.
Is it strong enough to support the engine without flexing and causing stress cracks in the fiberglass? I don't know - just wondering.
Has anyone installed a rear motor mount in a VS?
You're not supporting the entire engine, just adding a little more stability.
Ryan,
Drive it. Worrying about it breaking won't do anything except make you resent driving the car.
Every 3k miles you will be under the car to adjust the valves. Look at the horns foe distortion or cracks. Other than that? The pedal on the right is the go pedal. The middle one is the whoa pedal.
Ted
Sacto Mitch posted:
The steel frame in the rear of a VS is there mainly to support the body.
Is it strong enough to support the engine without flexing and causing stress cracks in the fiberglass? I don't know - just wondering.
Has anyone installed a rear motor mount in a VS?
my gut tells me no, it's not strong enough to help support the engine/transaxle and all the torque involved between those two
Will, I don't doubt that Bill and Greg are right - tying the motor to the rear steel frame will limit its motion a lot. My only question is if that frame is strong enough to stay rigid. Or, would it start moving a little in ways it didn't before - which could stress the fiberglass.
Again, I have no idea whether or not it would. I was hoping someone who's done this on a VS would pipe up and let us know how it worked out.
I wonder if David Stroud had a rear hanger added to his VS to support his Raby T4 (which has lots more power and maybe 60# more in rear)? I know a CMC benefits from added steel hangers for added rear chassis frame (but some of butt sag is caused by the holes in fiberglass elongating too).
David has a subie frankenmotor im his pan based IM.
@Ryan (formerly) in NorCal Ryan needs a Stiffy and he'll need to worry a whole lot less.
Oops wrong David --- senior moment. David Crosby in Hot Springs AK
And now to complete the non sequitur, that's Jack Crosby in Hot Springs, AK.
Sacto....I have a VS and attached a rear traction bar to the two side 2" square tubes. So far there's been no problem....See photos........Bruce
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Why was there a giant hole in the frame horns?
Thanks for that, Bruce.
At first, it looks like it's just bolted to thin glass, but I see now it's right below where the tube is (on the other side of the glass). Did you just drill all the way through both walls of the tube, with a nut on the other side?
How many miles since you did this?
Actually, Jim, it’s Jack Crosby in Hot Springs, AR, not AK. That’d be one helluva drive to Carlisle.
Bruce's hanger is a thing of beauty!
Lane Anderson posted:Actually, Jim, it’s Jack Crosby in Hot Springs, AR, not AK. That’d be one helluva drive to Carlisle.
Argh - so I guess he didn't hang with Stills and Nash either?
Stan Galat posted:Why was there a giant hole in the frame horns?
Interesting question. I asked my Beetle neighbor but he didn't have a Type 1 on his property to check. As I understand it from Bugformance (and please allow for my misunderstanding of what follows), the Bug doesn't put the heater cable through the frame horns. Instead this hole was created by VS when converting the Bug into a Speedster. And Bugformance believes (since this is the second one they've seen in a Speedster and never in a Bug), that the frame horn problem was caused by a weakened frame horn, due to the conversion from Bug to Speedster. tl;dr: The mechanic was also concerned about the big hole.
Here's a little test I conducted quite a while ago when thinking about whether a rear mount is necessary. This is an old 2.2l Soob with a clapped together exhaust for the test. Not that the engine has no rear mount and it seems to stay pretty rigid under torque.
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Sacto...Yes, the 6 inch bolts go all the way up through that 2' tube and have a nut on the top and on the bottom of the tube. Then the bar mounts with the rubber bushings.
Stan... are you asking me something about a hole in the frame horns ??
Bruce
Nice to see it's fixed, Ryan. And I didn't see the hole in the frame horn- the only hole I know of is in the left horn where the gas line comes through. The heater cables come through little tubes that are incorporated into the frame horns.
Since even a stock engine (driven hard) can bend frame horns (Gene Berg documented this years ago in his stock '67 bug he was driving as transportation), some sort of support with any sort of more powerful/bigger engine is needed. With a kafer/truss bar installed (and limiting almost all of the up/down and twisting movement), some will argue that a rear engine brace isn't really necessary, and for a lot of people it probably isn't. If you like to drive your car hard (even only occasionally) though, it might be a good idea. I would think handling would even be slightly better with things moving less. Al
aircooled posted:I agree with Will and Rusty. The engine compartment needs to be TOTALLY sealed so that air can only come in from the rear deck grill. I have a VS too and that area behind the rear2" square cross beam and the tail lights MUST be sealed. I even sealed off that 5" hole in the firewall in front of the fan intake. Using a manometer, I have measured the negative air pressure in the air compartment at 70mph and found it to be about 1.5 ". This I have found to not be enough restriction to cause overheating but at least I'm aware of it. Here's a few photos of what I installed/fabricated back there to seal up that area totally.............Aircooled Bruce
PS...I'm back in Arcadia Ca, again !
Did you at any point see what happened if you propped the engine lid open a couple inches?
Al..........Yes I did. It eliminates any negative pressure in the engine compartment. It only takes a 1" gap at the bottom of the lid. I found that the restriction is not the Grill. It's the area where the air finally enters the engine compartment on both sides of the "rain shield" (under the grill) That area can be trimmed to make it larger but you will loose a small amount of protection provided by the "rain shield"......Bruce
aircooled posted:Al..........Yes I did. It eliminates any negative pressure in the engine compartment. It only takes a 1" gap at the bottom of the lid. I found that the restriction is not the Grill. It's the area where the air finally enters the engine compartment on both sides of the "rain shield" (under the grill) That area can be trimmed to make it larger but you will loose a small amount of protection provided by the "rain shield"......Bruce
What I'm getting at, Bruce, is since Stan hasn't found any benefit to a firewall hole, I'm wondering if it's because you can't stuff more air into the engine compartment if there's no way for more to flow out? I look at the firewall hole as a way of harnessing the at speed positive under car air pressure, and could it be more of a benefit if there were more exit points for that air. I'm guessing it would lower under-hood (and carb/fan entry air temps) considerably for more stable operating temps?
Al.........If I recall correctly, I stuck the manometer tube up in that area on the other side (in front of) of the fire wall. It was a slightly negative pressure. I also measured ambient under-hood temps and they were acceptable although I don't remember what exactly the temp was.
I think that maybe some of the guys who have cut holes in the right and left side firewalls and installed those "screw-out" ports from West Marine should do some testing to determine engine compartment temp differences with, and without, those port covers on.
All good questions Al.....and part of the fun with these cars too !...........Bruce
Holes behind the license plate would also help...
Bill Prout posted:Holes behind the license plate would also help...
or do what Porsche did, put two grills side by side, twice the air-flow...
In a thread "long ago" using rubber button to space the engine lid slightly away from the body was recommended over using a rubber water proof sealing gasket (as recommended in the CMC build manual).
Will Hesch posted:or do what Porsche did, put two grills side by side, twice the air-flow...
To bad that option isn't available for any Speedster replica. It would make a lot of sense and the added expense would be worth it.
grille Hesch posted:Bill Prout posted:Holes behind the license plate would also help...
or do what Porsche did, put two grills side by side, twice the air-flow...
I did twin lovers under the grill. 
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Terry Nuckels posted:...I did twin lovers under the grill...
Terry's usually pretty modest about his accomplishments.
I think he means 'louvers'.
Cliff Presley - 1956 Outlaw posted:Will Hesch posted:or do what Porsche did, put two grills side by side, twice the air-flow...
To bad that option isn't available for any Speedster replica. It would make a lot of sense and the added expense would be worth it.
@Cliff Presley - Charlotte, NC
It's ben done more than once...