How do you make it rain in California?... buy a speedster.

Funny. Not funny.

So, today being December 6th, I figure it's a great California day to take the speedster out for a spin. Pulled into my local watering hole and was greeted by 5 couples who were out for a spin on their HD Motorcycles.

One of the guys asked if it was an original. I said no it's a replica. One of the harley guys said "Yeah, I knew it was a replica, just look at the wheels. They are obliviously  wide five bug wheels..."

My eye is still twitching from that one...

 

Forget it, Ted. Idiots are everywhere, but the people who would give a kidney just to drive your car (let alone own it) outnumber the Harley idiot by about a 10:1 ratio.

Your wheels are all that and a bag of chips, and you know it. That's cool enough.

Ted, I had shoulder surgery on thursday and can't drive. However a good buddy who has 2 911s offered to give my Speedy an airing out on a beautiful 55 degree day on the Jersey Shore. he returned with a grin from ear to ear. He couldn't believe how tight it held the corners and best is the fun he had, people waving , saying great car and when he stopped for a beer their was a small group just giving a thumbs up ! Come to the Jersey Shore for a ride you'll love the response you get.

Craig R

Thanks, Stan and Craig. It wasn't about my wheels directly. It was the fact that he said "the wide 5 VW spacing gave it away...".  The wheel spacing on a 356 and a bug are identical. 

It's okay, I think he was riding an 883 Sportster.

Just shows how much he doesn't know, Ted. 

Next time a guy on a HD tells you that respond with, "Thanks, BTW nice V-Star."

I like to twist the knife a little by telling them there is "no helmet required."  If I'm really in a bad mood I might even say "and I don't need to wear silly leather pants either."

I've built 5 custom cruiser bicycles. One of them is a chopper and I always get the thumbs up from the Harley crowd, but, I often get the "Where's the motor?" I have two replies depending on attitude. "It's has a two cylinder, Pat and Charlie." (my legs) or "I'll put in a motor, when I get old and weak."

Our bike shop was in the local X-mas parade this weekend. We rode all 5 of my bikes in circles around our shop truck and trailer. I got the "Where's the Motor" about 3 times. Whatever, we were having fun, and the kids loved them.

 

Nice bike! 

I've been busy tobay. Next up? Clean that workbench! Getting closer to having a clean garage again. Can't wait. 

Around where I work, there are not a few eccentric types and clever folks of all stripes.  Our environment is one where typically, the staff are housed in offices, usually two to a room.  So you get a few square feet  for desk, chair, bookcase, computer, etc.  Some, like myself, end up working here a pretty long time, and so tend to "settle in" you might say. The saying goes around here is that a clean office is the sure sign of a sick mind.  This is expressed by those that can't for the life of them manage to keep stuff from piling up.  These latter folks would be the group I fall into.  That is an awesome garage you have there, and if I had such a place, I'm not sure I'd know how to behave inside of it.

Other than the fact that it has four walls (one of which opens up), a floor, and a ceiling, there is little there that resembles my garage (sigh).

Ted,

Nice lookin garage !!

You have too much time on your hands, Ted!

ALB posted:

You have too much time on your hands, Ted!

Isn't that the truth! I had to shorten all of my cabinet doors by 1/2 so they wouldn't drag the new floors. I also have to trim the folding closet doors 5/8th of an inch!

It's a sickness... 

But the garage does look good!

Documentation of my slow descent into the madness...

The 1600 was good for about a minute...

Then added the 36hp shroud, some Kadrons, and the stainless A1. I spent some time trying to make the motor look a little more like an original 356.motor.

Well... The motor ran well, but it was slower than Teby in a singles bar. I upgraded to a 1915 and a new transmission built by Ken Porter. Oh, then there was the Setrab.

Everything was cool, then Teby had a 1905 built and it was real fast. Jim's 1915 was fast. Troy has always been fast. Everybody was fast... I needed Moar Powa!

So then this happened... 

CB Performance 2054. Giddy up!!

The slow downward spiral into the madness.

Speedster ownership... One hell of a sickness.

 

Since those first conversations when you were looking for your car, I had a feeling you'd get it bad....

ALB posted:

Since those first conversations when you were looking for your car, I had a feeling you'd get it bad....

Real bad...

AWESOME!!

With all three of those motors in that car, it ought to go like stink!!  Not sure how you hook 'em all up to the transmission tho, maybe you can explain that to us . . .

And there she is, Natalie's former motor.

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

"Slower than Teby in a singles bar."

I don't know Teby. Never met him. Bear him no ill will whatsoever. But I did laugh out loud.

Hn

Ang in there Teby, nice guys finish last and end up with the classy ones

At least you'll know where all the stuff is going

For those who don't know Teby, He's one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. The first night my wife and I met him we had a blast. We laughed so hard our sides hurt. He is truly a class act. I just love to give him a hard time. Mostly because his car (Jill) is near perfect.  That and because he got to kiss Terri Nunn. 

Love you Tebs!

 

Great build thread!!!

Very cool, Ted! 

Do I see a cinco speed in your future as well? That would really piss Teby off.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! That's a secret. Nobody knows that I've already sent my shaft(s) off to be lengthened. Once they get back they'll be sent to Anthony and Ken Porter so that my Transmission will go 'one louder'.  It will go to ... 11. 

Ted,

That is seriously, seriously cool. You sir, are the man.

I didn't realize there was a place a guy could have his shaft lengthened.

Haven't you heard of silicon valley, where nothin is real, it is not called that for nothin. 

Stan Galat, '05 IM, 2276, Tremont, IL posted:

Ted,

That is seriously, seriously cool. You sir, are the man.

Someone once said that if more of these cars had big motors and a 5 speed there wouldn't be rush to suby motors.  

So they did. I think you'll find that "somebody" is right. 

I love my 5-speed.

My only complaint is that it doesn't go to "six".

Somebody's right for sure, but others might not like putting the $$$$ into both or either when the Soob is such an economical alternative and has quality parts availability well into the future.

Others don't mind putting large bucks into their cars and I'm definitely cool with that. It's just not my route as a self confessed DIY'er.

You can always use another gear.  

Which motor is in the Knuckle dragger?  My goal is to keep up with you this year in SLO. I'm still gathering parts for the 5 speed. I think I'm down to the 10 tooth spider gears and the axle end gears. I've amassed everything else, even the elusive beef-a-diff.  I found one that was new in package for 50.00 delivered. I've actually found two of those now. The one in my 4 speed box and another for the 5er.

Need to send my shifter off on Monday. Vintage Speed is going to convert it to a 5 speed unit. Other than that, I'm at the mercy of the Kens. Ken Jansen gets the Motor next week. Just a quick pass under his magic wand. I'll get the tins chercoated while the motor is under the knife. Hopefully Kenny P can get the trans turned around before March/April. 

Kicking around the idea of a synclink set up for the carb liknage. I'm not looking forward to learning about the finer points of Weber Idle jets and the dreaded yoga moves necessary to reach them. Downward Praying Mantis Lotus Dog? If I have to run 2 metal fuel filters in line, I will.  Are those hex head idle jet holders worth it?

Anthony has been a veritable guru along this journey. He's a gift to the VW world. The patience of a saint.

3.88 R&P and a new main shaft. 

Should be fun.

David,

Don't get me wrong. If I had your talents, I may consider a soob motor too. I personally have no bias one way or the other. I'm sure a few soob guys will be laughing in 10 years when the quality VW parts are like hens teeth.

Ted

Ahhh...the Synclink! The best $300.00 I've spent on Penny. All the little Weber gremlins disappeared when I installed the linkage. You will not be disappointed, Ted. And, yes, the Jaycee hex head idle jet holders are worth every penny.

My engine, you ask? It's just a Ken Jansen sedately-built 2110. No porting or polishing, just slightly enlarged valve openings and a 120 cam. The Weber 40 idf carbs have a moderate boost on the venturis and I'm sporting a MSD 6al box.

I keep waiting for something to fail but I haven't had to touch anything since the last rebuild and Synclink installation. That was 18,000 miles ago.

Knock on plastic...

Jaycee hex head idle jet holders...hands down best solution to bloody knuckles.

Todd - posted:

Jaycee hex head idle jet holders...hands down best solution to bloody knuckles.

...or a bloody Nuckels.

Terry raved about the Sync-Link until I bought one. Terry was right. Terry's most often right. 

...except when he's wrong.

I really thought Zima would be the next American drink of choice.

Original new york seltzer...Is the best drink

Very cool Ted! The closer 3rd and 4th are so much fun to drive, and then to be able to shift into 5th- it doesn't get any better! Is your mainshaft a 3.80 or 3.78 1st? Are you going with a 4.125 or 3.88 r&p? Have you decided on what 3rd, 4th and 5th will be? What are you doing to the engine while it's out? 

Is your car swingaxle? (sorry, don't remember) There's a thread on the Samba where Ray Vallero (may he rip) modified a superdiff for better oiling, as the swingaxle diffs are said to not pass enough oil through the spider gears. It's not really a concern for a street car that only goes to the drive-in/hangout on Friday and Saturday nights and does a little bracket racing, but it apparently (this is just what I've read) does come into play in cars that spend more time at highway speeds. When I find the thread I'll post it. Al

PS-

Found it- http://www.thesamba.com/vw/for...wtopic.php?p=7602210

TRP  I posted a really nice jet holder modification last year on 5-7-15 titled Weber Idle Jet Holder Modification. You would need to buy 8 of the jet holders to do this but the nice part is that they are now magnetic so when you drop one (and you will) you can retract them with a magnet......Take a look......Bruce

Interesting Rabbit Ears concept to replace a Kafer bar and stabilize the tranny to prevent twisting and hold it from going up and down... wonder if this can be done on a 356 ? 

Caretech-IM posted:

Interesting Rabbit Ears concept to replace a Kafer bar and stabilize the tranny to prevent twisting... wonder if this can be done on a 356 ? 

In a replica, Bruce, you'd be bolting them to fiberglass. I think you'd be better off with a kafer bar, tieing the shock mount tops together and triangulating down to the frame horns. You'd then have a place to run roll bar supports to.

Ted;

Looks great!  As I recall didn't you consider routing the carb linkage in front of the shroud ala 356 on "one"  of your motors?  Was it difficult?  And successful?

Art

DEAREST TED:

After wasting 3 -4 ounces of good Guinness laughing my a$$ off at your comment:

"Slower than Teby in a singles bar."   which was obviously taken from Terry Nuckles book; "113 Witty Dive Bar Comebacks" (Circa 1965) ..

It seems you are engaging me into a challenge  in which I must retort.

As we speak Pat Downs and I are working on a super secret engine build that is so secret that anyone who reads this post has to eat it after doing so.. (SEE VIDEO LINK BELOW)  I cannot stress to you enough that your car may "go to 11" when completed....  rest assured  mine will go to 11 & 1/16th.   with a 4 speed!!!!!!   do I need to send pics of my tack and speedo representing  3400 rpm at 90mph?    Now with the new super secret engine build I'm looking at hmmmmm  let see ..............  I'm sorry too secret to say!!!    Lets just meet on HWY 1 in June..      LOL LOL !!

(FOR ALL WHOM ARE THINKING A TRANS REBUILD, tips on a 5 speed effect with a 4 speed trans)

Ted I know your set on a 5 speed but if configure your trans like I did you can get that 5 speed effect without the extra expense,  and keep it a 4 speed, just need to do your home work.   Working with Scott Sebastian ( Metal Craft ) transmission guru and all around transmission genius.  He guided me to the Weddle Industries site  weddleindustries.com.  They have a gear ratio calculator and you can input all sorts of scenarios..   That's how I was able to decide my trans gear ratios .. Its driver preference.  I wanted to keep the 4 speed, so with a taller 4th it acts as an overdrive without any lug on the engine..(depending on the ratio you pick)  also allows me to have more peddle if needed without maxing the RPM!!  It's simple to read and it has all of the info you need  like, Vehicle speed, top speed, rpm drops and alternate gear combinations...  What I liked most is the Vehicle Speed chart that shows the gears and the speed for each ( after you enter the ratios).   You could spend hours fine tuning the exact ratios that suit your needs.. 

Yes the Synclink is the way to go.. although mine is behind the shroud it still works flawlessly.. Although when Pat Fine tunes my engine he does mumble something while tinkering with it...   The Jaycee hex head idle jet holders ARE worth every penny and work great Wish I had them last year    Big thanks to Sacto Mitch for all of his help, even though I had to limp Ms Jill home.. Mitch worked hard to help fix my situation.. Thank you again sir..

other than that   " I Got nothing"....

see you all soon ...  looking forward to meeting some newbies as well  the SLO run is a blast..   !!!!

Tebs

ps  TED  please see video link below...     did I say my car will go to "11 1/16?"        

 

"Ted I know your set on a 5 speed but if configure your trans like I did you can get that 5 speed effect without the extra expense,  and keep it a 4 speed, just need to do your home work."

You've piqued my interest, Teby- do you mind sharing your gear combo with the rest of us?

Teby is the subject of my latest book: "Wishful Thinking - the Delusions of an Incurable Optomist"

Hummpf...

 

Don't worry, Ted; Tebby is just messin' with you.

VW's gear spacing is perfect for it's purpose- getting the car moving in traffic and still being able to run at legal highway speeds with such low horsepower. If you want your car to go like a bat out of hell (with shorter spacing between gears to take advantage of the engine's power output) AND have decent highway speeds, a 4 speed ain't gonna cut it. If you go to a longer 1st you lose that stop light "jump". Closer 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears are incredible to drive (and will make your car SO MUCH MORE FUN! ). You've got to drive a car with close gears to appreciate what they can do. But then (and this is the trade-off) max highway speed (3500rpm) tops out somewhere between 50-60mph (depending on tire size and the ring & pinion used). Pretty hard to have it all, when you consider the constraints.

I've done it (in a Cal Look bug); a 4.375 (short for acceleration) r&p, stock 1st and 2nd, 1.48 3rd and 1.12 4th (instead of the 1.31 3rd and .89 4th) and with a 1750 (69x90- this was before 90.5's were on the market) the car went from being a high 15/low 16 second car to running mid 14's in the quarter mile. It came with a price, though- 3500 in 4th produced a mind numbing 52(?) mph, and it took forever to get anywhere on the highway. The answer- a 5th gear. 

 

My 5er will run a 3.78 main shaft and a 3.88 R&P. Most likely stock overdrive. Haven't decided on 3/4th yet. Ten tooth spiders with a beef a diff. I'm trying to figure out which axle end gears mate up with those suckers. New Rhino case, etc. etc.

Should be an improvement. 

 

 

Maybe Teby's optimism comes from all those years in singles bars claiming he could deliver the same performance as a lengthened main shaft.

 

Ted,

Once upon a time, there was this gearhead guy from some hicktown on the plains who argued until he was blue in his fat face that a 4-speed could/should be all anybody would ever want and need (assuming "anybody" was ready to buy a new mainshaft with better 1 and 2, and go with a nice 3.88).

This guy was right, too. He did it, and his gear-spreads were really, really good-- almost perfect, in fact (he declared). Except the reach was a bit long from third to fourth, and the car was kind've soggy under 3000 RPM. A guy can dork around for years, buying this third or that R/P, playing with the ratio calculators and sending really large checks to Weddle or Erco for what (in the end) are just little bitty $400 gears.

Don't go down that road. I figure my desire to prove the 5-speed evangelists wrong is probably when my choo-choo really headed around the bend, and I lost all sense of financial prudence. 

Here's why: a 2110 with a 120-ish (FK43, et al) cam is a happy and eager little motor, which sings along nicely between about 3000 and 5500 or so RPM. The power is perfectly adequate, as long as the engine operates within that fairly narrow RPM range. When you ask it to pull hard at lower RPMS, it's kind've soggy for a guy raised on 'murican V8s. So what does a corn-fed boy do when presented with this situation? He does what anybody would, right? He tries to build a motor that won't be so soggy at 2000- 3000 RPM, and still make brutal power at 5500 rather than just add another gear to fill in the spots where the engine is lugging-- the theory being: extra gears are for guys without enough torque.

At this point the world goes kind've akimbo, and normal stuff stops making sense. A flat 4 is not going to pull like a 400 cubic inch motor, unless it's turboed or pushing up on 3L, no matter how much you wish it to be otherwise. After considering both-- in the end, our white-trash hooligan had built "King Kong" a 2332 Type 1: a long stroke, short rod 2332 beast with ports the size of golf balls with a crank that was constantly trying to yank the wrist-pins out of the slugs. Such an engine takes a 1-3/4" exhaust-- so our protagonist constructed not one, but two such exhausts.

While stuff was apart, I decided to tweak the gearing a bit. I kept the expensive mainshaft, went to a .89 fourth (from a .82) and added a ZF LSD. This was transaxle rebuild 1. It was sooo nice. "Perfect, for the new motor," I opined. 

Hypothetically, if a guy were to head down this road, he'd find that there's a reason LN Engineering gets about $20 billion dollars for a set of nickasil jugs. The Chinese knock-offs would be perfectly adequate, assuming they stayed round and didn't split in half under side-loading. I personally learned this in Salt Lake City coming back from "the first great road trip" to the golden state (your part of the world). That 2332 made power, yes it did-- tons of it. Waves and waves of power. Crazy, soil your pants power. Tilt the axis of the earth power. It started at about 3000 RPM. It was kind've soggy below that. It threw oil out the breather like the Exxon Valdez at highway speeds.

So I went back to the drawing board and pulled Mr. Kong's teeth. I de-stroked to 2276. I put in iron bores like everybody else. I kept the heads and tried a strange narrow lobe-center cam to try to bring the power on sooner

... and I put a few more Erco/Weddle gears in the 4- speed. I kept the high-dollar mainshaft (do you see the theme here?), put in a 3.44 RP, and bought a nice little Erco .93 (I think) fourth. It was nothing a stack of Benjamens didn't take care of. A couple thousand here, a couple thousand there, and pretty soon you're talking about some real money-- but a better, more powerful lawn-mower engine is worth whatever it costs, right? 

The transaxle was better(ish), but the motor was just weird. I had succeeded in taming the beast, but at the expense of cutting off it's gonads. It was now soft everywhere, but at least it was consistent. It was at that this point that my choo-choo, chugging unseen around a far-off bend, jumped the rails for good. Some would argue the point had been arrived at long before-- but those folks are cowards, and greatly underestimate the power of real, abiding insanity.

I pulled the 2276. I purchased some CB Super-Pro CNC heads and port-matched manifolds and sent them to a gentleman in WY who claimed he'd twin-plugged hundreds of heads. 6 months later, I had some really cool $1000 boat-anchors (with nice valve-springs and retainers). There were an extra set of holes in the heads, to be sure. He may have done hundreds, but he never did tell me if any of them worked.

Not to be deterred, Don Quixote started over and obtained a nice new set of Revmaster 043s perfectly set-up for twin plugs. There was joy in the camp, and large piles of money changed hands. The whole kit and caboodle went to Blackline Racing in Salt Lake, who were kind've reluctant to indulge my insanity (the nerve of some people!). There was a backlog, and this part of the program put me deep into June. I wanted to drive.

So, I put my spare 2110 in the car and drove it to CA again. It was... nice. Really, really nice. I didn't need to babysit that little motor. It didn't try to kill me. I never got the vibe it wanted to leave me to die alone in the desert. It just sang along happily back there-- not using oil, not making a commotion. Even when it got way too hot in Barstow. Even when I drove it for 1100 mi one day. Even over 100 mph for a couple of hours.

I came home after 3 weeks of driving pretty much non-stop with that little feller back there, and I thought, "You know what? This would be a perfect drivetrain for this car... if I just had another gear to fill in the low spots".

The twin-plug motor was finished eventually, and I'm still dorking with the timing map. And yeah-- it's pretty cool. It runs really, really good... but it's just a bit soggy under 3000 RPM or so. It makes a lot more power than the 2110 or the de-nadded 2276, and not as much as King Kong. It's an order of magnitude more cool.

But what it really needs is another gear.

Just sayin'.

Wow!! thats a lot of words and even more $$ all in the name of "soggy". Sheesh . . .

why not just put a turbo suby in there and be done with soggy forever??

  

That is an excellent question, oh frazzled one.

Alternately, one could just get a 5-speed...

So, Stan The Man from Stanistan, you have been around the barn w/ these AC engines more than most.  You change engines like I change socks.  well OK then.  I have a 2332 engine, and think it is pretty swell.  I love torque too. It works at 2500, and is happier still above 3000.  OK with me.  So here is what it is, according to printed material supplied by the builder:

84x94, CB pent-roof case, full flowed, shuffle pinned, cut for 84 crank, filled behind #3

Scat 84 crank 8 dowel forged nitrided chevy bearings

chevy H beam rods arp 8740 bolts; CB billet cut straight gears; Scat lifters; Engle 110 cam, clearanced for crank; german bearing kit; Scat chromoly flywheel lightened, 8 dowel, chromaly gland nut and head studs; Mahle 94 pistons; CB 044 heads 40x35.5 single spring; Manton pushrods, Scat 1.1 pro-rocker assy.

Scat welded and balanced fan; 2 x Weber 44IDF, Sidewinder ex; Kennedy 1500 ilb pressure plate and spring disc; blueprinted.

So the deal is: I understand about 50 or 60% of this. At least from a basic "what is that" PoV. What I do not understand is why this or that might have been chosen, how ths or that might have been chosen differently, and what one gets/gives up by doing this vs. that.  This seems to be where you are with all of this -- you understand what going one way will do, and why it might be good or bad.  Given the specs for my motor as stated, what would be your off the rails and around the bend analysis of choices made here??  Just curious.

El , I think Stan counted the Green backs as a word counter.  

Roger that.  But, hey, it's a hobby, right??  Financial logic and reason do not apply.

Gents !!! I am stitting in a little cafe in Visalia ca enjoying all the recent posts. 10 minutes east of me is CB performance Home office of Mr Pat Downs.. He will enjoy my sharing these post with him.. It will fuel his desire to build my super secret engine that much more ..lol lol either that or throw me out of the shop lol When I get home I will be more than happy to share how I achieved the transmission I have and what I'm currently working on.. My pleasure I've always been one to push the boundaries of mechanics and formulate a solution that suits my driving needs. The great thing that's napping here is all of the awesome feedback that may help someone who trying to improve their experience with these cars.. To me no one is wrong we all just have different experiences and ideas, and with technology the way it is, it's easy to work things out on paper or software before you actually build it ..

I just dropped off the CB 2054 at the shop for a top end refresh. I'm hoping everything checks out with the internals. The motor won't go into the car until the Berg 5 is done.  The shafts are 4 to 6 weeks out. Then I'd venture another 6 to 8 on the 5er.  I still need to figure out the 3rd&4th gears.

Ted

The correct flat-four engine choice for "non-soggy performance below 3000 rpm" is

Subaru EJ25 block, crank, pistons @ 2457 cc

Subaru EJ22 heads, pocket-ported and polished. Stock valve springs.

Cometic head gaskets

Delta 220 cam grind

Ed do you have the specs and output of such a beast?

Move along.... Nothing to see here... Move along... 

This is a no Subaru zone...

Move along... Nothing to see here...

 

Why do some of us so resist the whole Subie thing?

Me, I just couldn't do it. Part of me says, Hey, that makes a lot of sense. Modern power and torque curves. Modern engine control. Modern reliability and maintenance schedules. Easy parts and service. Real heat whenever you want.

Maybe it's the poketa thing. You know, VW's and Porsches gotta go poketa-poketa or they're not VW's and Porsches. I can overlook the plastic body, the Chinese gauges, the crappy chrome on all the trim. But when I turn the key, it can't sound like a Corolla or a Civic or a Forester.

I gotta have my poketa-poketa.

 

Actually Mitch the pocketa pocketa is only off a tad  because of the firing order .  With non fart can exhaust the Subie Flat 4's sound pretty good.  It's just quiter without the fan spinning and the carb induction. 

It is reallllll quiet, but I do miss that exhaust note at times but not the fan.

 

Now, there you go again, Marty, rationalizing away the important stuff.

Now that you mention it, I think I gotta have my fan whine, too. And my teeth have gotta chatter a little if it's cold out. If the road is rough, I want to be fighting the wheel a bit.

I've gotta suffer a little. The suffering is all part of it for me. It reminds me of how my motoring ancestors suffered in their day. I don't want to be too comfy in this car.

It's too easy to be seduced, a little bit at a time, by modern comforts, but you don't realize what you're giving up along the way. I knew those driving gloves would prove to be a dangerous thing.

 

Ccccold is minus 40 for 8 weeks per year, check out GM cold weather testing centre, my old stomping ground.  You guys that are lucky enough to be in the Governator's state enjoy quite the balmy weather just saying.. 

ALB:  AL Correct?  

Well,  as promised I said I would share my  current set up and my thoughts on my next  super secret engine / trans  set up.  

So currently I am running a:

1903 cc  aluminum block  77hp 105 ft lb torque , Weber 44 idf's,  engle w-100 mid range cam. Trans is a 3:88 ring / Pin....... 3.81 1st, 2.06 2nd, 1.22 3rd, .82 4th. 

Currently I can cruise in 4th  3500 rpm @ 88mph with ease,   I'm not messing with you either.   LOL   Pat said I've been lucky my engine is strong..

Here is how it all started with the transmission.  I was tired of doing high rpm low speeds on the freeway soooooo.. I had .70 4th installed but it was too tall, even though it never lugged the engine it was too tall and I had to have high rpm's shifting from 3rd to 4th, but it made for awesome cruising down the freeway with plenty of room, low rpm, high speeds...lol lol    

So I was introduced to Scott Sebastian (Metal Craft) he is our local transmission wizard. This guy is really a mad man.  Any visit to his shop will verify his credentials as he receives transmissions from all over the US for rebuilds..  He is in demand!!   We sat down, told him what I wanted to achieve and there ya have it.  (SEE ABOVE)

Currently my car is close to my preference 1st and 2nd are not stump pullers but I can keep in them longer than most but not long enough. 

The way I see it air cooled engines like ours need to be kept cool, especially if you put a big power plant in them.. The bigger the engine the hotter it will get.  Its my understanding that type 1 engines need to keep a constant 3 k or higher rpm to help with this process..  I did experience hotter engine temps with my .70 4th so, I don't see how adding a 5th gear to lower the rpm will help, but maybe I'm not accurate in my thinking.... I will entertain feedback though

  Again I stress its all driver preference.. I'm not looking to have my car do well in a quarter mile..   So I will go consult both Pat Downs and Scott  Sebastian in my super secret build (aka: PROJECT SLEEPER) and we will come up with a combo I'm sure will match what I want, which is a reliable car that will get me to the coast a half hour faster...  LOL!!!.... and go to   11 1/16 !!!!!!!  TED!!!!!

Tebs....

PS...   Terry   please send drafts of your book to my agent   SACTO MITCH..

Tebs, in my experience, not that I have that much, is most times the OD 4th or 5th if you have one is set so that your favourite cruising speed say 70mph is 3000-3100 rpm.  If it was me, I would shoot for a very long 2nd and 3rd gears like the original 356  that was what I really enjoyed on my old 356A

I really enjoyed the long gearing.  Ray 

Teby,

Yeah.

I can do all that too, and I used to sound just like you. I drove mine 5k mi in three weeks in 2014. I live in the flat-lands, and I've got the freeway thing pretty well dialed in as well. I can do everything I need to do in this one horse town pretty darned well with my lunar module dune buggy, what with it's big 'ol 200 hp 2276. Except, these days econoboxes make 200 hp. My car is an order of magnitude more cool, but it's not like the frame of reference is just floaty old powerglide Pontiacs any more.

And the thing is... well... the car says "Speedster" right there on the side. So, it kind've seems like false advertising if the only thing I can do is fry the tires all the way through the quarter, or cruise 90 MPH for days at a time on the interstate.  Heck, a 6-cylinder Camaro can do that. A 4-speed can do one or the other really well, but probably not both. It puts a man with sporting pretenses at a bit of a disadvantage. 

What is really, really hard to do with only 4 speeds is to go fast in the mountains. To do that you need to have a nice, close "passing gear" about a half step down from the final drive and a power gear about a half step down from that.

All the new cars come with about 14 gears now, for just this reason. My wife's minivan has 8 or 9 of em, it's hard to tell since I can't really hear the engine. I'm really close to that "passing gear" thing now, but it's been at the expense of essentially giving up a "light 'em up" first. I've essentially got 5 speed gearing, with no first. I kind've miss the "white-trash" first. 

Most VW guys want drag-race gears, and then a workable 5th to drive home. I have zero interest.  If I want to drag race-- I'll buy something built for it, thanks.

I once went for a ride with Terry Nuckels through the Sierra Nevada foothills in his pan-based JPS with it's cute little 2110, and nearly tore the tiny little pretend handle off the passenger side dash looking for something (anything) to hold on to. Don't let the wear-your-sunglasses paint-job fool you-- it's no art-car: it's as serious as the heart attack I nearly suffered riding along. The thing is, he never seemed to be in the wrong gear. I drove the same roads in my car, with an engine that was about 50 hp up on his, and seemed about 3/4 as fast. Maybe I was moving as fast as he was, but I had to really work for it: looking for the right gear (fourth was lugging the engine just below the real powerband, third was almost right... until it wasn't), and relying on the power to pull it out. Terry spent a lot of time in 3rd, but shifted into 4th quite often. He was light, easy, and his engine was just trotting along. I was flogging my car for the same speed. If I spent the same time in third, I shifted later and fourth was often just wrong,

I'm OK with what I've got, and I'll happily run with the biggest dogs I can find. I just know that I'd have spent less money along the way, and been happier if I'd have just put the Berg or 915 or even 901 in the silly thing to start with. These engines lust like to spin at between 3000 and 5500 RPM. Keeping them there ALL THE TIME just makes them happy. I can do it in Illinois with a 4-speed. If I lived in a mountainous state, it would's even be a question.

If more engine is better, then more gears are too. It's just physics. Keeping the engine in the powerband ALL the time is just good business, and means you don't need to build a $15K Type 1 to do it (not that anyone would EVER do such an idiotic thing).

Teby S posted:

 

 

...Terry   please send drafts of your book to my agent   SACTO MITCH...

 

Terry, I think Teby has had enough drafts already, and has started in on the bottled stuff.

 

Stan, have you shifted a 901 much, I never seem to get used to that pattern but I hear there are new adapters to have a spring tension the shifter so it stays in the 4th to 5th area when you shift and next to impossible to get it into R... I think they call it Automatic shift... just kidding.      Actually the 915 pattern is more to my liking. 

Ray, a 915 with a WEVO shifter coupled to a Porsche flat 6 is what I plan to drive in heaven.

STAN:

Yes Precisely my point.. GEARING IS EVERYTHING!!    I want to drive my car not race it.. There is a group of us that do Sunday drives here in Fresno Ca.  Robert McEwen (our guide) takes us on foothill roads with elevation climes much like you experienced with Terry.  My car does well in 3rd and 4th during these hill climbs, just need a little more torque... We also do a lot of flat land roads as well ( at above average speeds mind you lol).  During these drives I am able to evaluate the cars performance and drive-ability this allows me to narrow down my preferences.  I'd love to drive Terry's car and compare.. 

The cool thing we all have is this forum and the experience you and everyone brings to the table.  Along with that, having Pat Downs and Scott Sebastian right next door (not literally) but you know what I mean.. All of this input helps me reach my goal I have set for my car.. I'm sure it can be done both Pat and Scott have told me my goals are not far fetched and can be achievable and then some..

Tebs..

 

 ps   Mitch...    Nope still on the drafts.........  GUINNESS that is..  Buy ya one in june?

 

The first trans has stock VW gearspacing, Ted, and (although the r&p changed over the years) is what's in most gearboxes. The 2nd example, with the 3.88 r&p, 1.48 3rd, 1.12 4th, and 0.89 for 5th, would probably suit you quite nicely. Note the recovery rpm when shifted at 3500 keeps on going up for each gear (just like the VW spacing does), and would equally be at home in traffic, carving through the mountains, or on the freeway. The only down side to using the longer (3.88) vs the 4.125 r&p is the car will be just a little slower or "lazier" off the line. It does give 4mph more in top gear, though. 

http://calc.teammfactory.com/i...26+2&trannytype=

Or, if you decide you really want to maintain the car's "explosiveness" off the line but still want to the higher cruising speed, check out the 1st example in chart 2 below. Using the 4.125 r&p, I put the 1.48 3rd with a 1.09 4th and a .82 in 5th. The 3-4 shift isn't quite as tight as with the 1.12 4th, but it keeps the shift into the .82 5th close. 

And if you want to get really silly with top speed  (and the possibility of tickets), the 2nd gearstack is the same with the 3.88 r&p. You might be getting up into the speeds where the torque of more than a 2 liter is needed, though...

http://calc.teammfactory.com/i...26+2&trannytype=

PS- Teby- You really need to drive a car with close gears (4 or 5 speed) to find out what the stink is all about....