New member Intro

James, welcome to the Madness and may I add...what a beautiful car!

Is this the one from Dallas?

Welcome aboard from another Garrett.

Yes, I will be driving from Dallas back to Houston. 

Pretty Blue.  

Enjoy the ride home!  Just the beginning of a lot of Speedster adventures ahead!

Great purchase!

safe travels back to H-Town

I happen to have a CSP shifter for sale in the Classified section.

Welcome to the Madness!  We are almost neighbors, I live in Lumberton, north of Beaumont. 

Welcome to the madness James and thank you for the foot peg order. I didn't know you were a new member when I answered your PM......Bruce

thanks guys!

@ Michael, I will let you know

@James, once I get her sorted out a bit I will have to come by for a visit

@aircooled, no worries, and I will let you know. Have fun in Mexico!

Welcome to the madness James! You seem to have a particularly severe strain of the disease. Just as a friendly reminder remember to start your wallet. 

Beauty car and welcome to the group. 

Great ride!  .....and WTTM!!

yes welcome to the madness..

Congrats!    You will love the drive!

I spent the summer of '82 in Galveston, working on a tow boat, and spent many evenings in Houston (at least that's what the film in my camera showed).

Visited Spaceland parachuting club a few times, and just happened to Google-Map it the other day.  They still have the big arrow on the ground they pivot to help newbies point themselves in the right direction so they can land close to the hanger.

Good times!

Welcome to the madness!

Looks good James! Love the 5x205 wheels. Enjoy the drive home, and WTTM. Al

Welcome to the madness! ! ! !

How did the drive go? 

Drive went without a hitch, thanks for asking. I did over 300 miles in 6hrs or so. Hit rush hour traffic for the first bit. 

Overall first impressions, good, not great but good. Detailed the car yesterday and she cleans up nice. I had a sticky throttle cable, turned out to be the tube that runs thru the shroud. Had to push it back in, did that then had to loosen the throttle cable on the linkage or it revved really high. (First carb car, and it is no joke how sensitive they are). Greased up the pedal cluster (need to upgrade). Steering wheel needs to go, too big hits my leg(order placed with Vintage). I have oil sweating from around the case (no drips, but need to have someone look at it). Also a leaking valve cover on the passenger side (will address soon). My tail bone got numb, plan on taking a small pillow from the house on longer drives. Steering has more play than I would like (waiting on my books to arrive and hoping I can just tighten the pitman nut). Glad I took the backroads otherwise I would have been ran over, the sweet spot seems to be 65 @ 3K rpms to keep the temp down (75 outside). If I try 75 @3500 RPMS engine heat creeps up after 10min or so. (Hopefully a Setrab oil cooler fixes this. It has the stock VS oil cooler). Has a 1915 in it. Need a larger gas tank, has 8gallon, I think it is also running rich. 

I see the fun factor in the car (as long I dont expect it to drive and go like my 911). I like the price of entry into it, and the cost for parts, and what seems to be a simple design. I plan on taking it to a pro sooner than later to get an overall once over done. 

Around the back and sides of the engine- are there sheet metal pieces isolating the engine from the ground? Can you see the exhaust or ground from above? 

PS- Glad it went without major incident! Al

James, congrats on making it through your first long trip - always a milestone with these cars.

You raise a number of issues, all of which seem pretty normal - and solvable.

A weak point in the VS build is not the oil cooler so much, but where they place it - in a small, mostly enclosed space that doesn't let it do its job very well. Moving it to the rear wheel well will help a lot, although most people who go to the trouble of doing that upgrade the cooler at the same time.

One thing you'll want to do is find a cooking (or candy) thermometer that reads to 250 degrees or so and that will fit in your oil dipstick hole so you'll be able to relate the dashboard gauge readings to actual temperatures. Your engine may be running hot when stressed - or not, but you'll never know for sure until you figure out what the gauge is really telling you. The gauges in these cars are Chinese repops and vary from one car to the next.

The engine 'tins' that Al refers to also play a big part in keeping the engine cool. They're installed on all new VS's, but are removed by some owners who don't understand why they're there.

What Mitch said. But I like reading my temp in Chinese. I have a similar set up from VS with a few go faster add ons. I live at Lake Tahoe so the only time I have ever seen my temp rise is coming up the passes during 75. I have a T stat controled valve to prevent the oil cooler from getting involved until needed.

I added the thin line oil sump last year so I suspect the car is more oil cooled than air cooled. 5 quarts of oil vs VW’s 2.5 plus the ill mounted cooler. I have not seen my gage go above mid temp even in 100+ degrees on Donner Summit. 

I think the guys with the really large motors the temp is more problamatic. 

Mitch I have never seen a Factory built Speedster with the tin removed. I know there were some folks that thought removing the thermostat and tin made the engine run cooler. After all what the hell did those Nazi engineers know. 

Thanks guys, anyone got a quick link for a thermometer for me to start figuring out the temp vs gauge. (or you really mean anything like a cooking/grilling thermometer) I ordered a save my bug light that makes the light blink when it gets too warm as a just in case that is going to get installed this week. 

I might end up moving the oil cooler to the wheel well in the summer. 

I do have all the shrouds below in place, but I do have this gap when looking down to ground. (see pic). I know hot air rises and you want the engine sealed as much as possible. I did check and the foam around the engine tin seems to be in good shape. 

Yeah, that's going to let the spent cooling air and heat radiating from the exhaust in. It's not huge, but it is an issue in warmer temps (as you've already found out). When it's 75'F. out you should be able to run up anything  and not be worried about engine temps. Is the proper tin installed under the pulley? What's missing that's causing the gap?

James, this is the only one I'm aware of made for VW dipstick application.

Here you go, Jim.  Tell them you want the one for a VW Type 1.

http://www.precisionmatters.bi...tick-thermometer.php

Gordon, last time I checked, Ron was all out of the VW thermometers and since they have to be made/ordered in quantities, he wasn't going to re-order. Could've changed, I don't know.

Thanks guys, I will give them a call tomorrow. From a quick google search on engine tin kits for a type 1, it appears all the engine tins are there. Like it was said, the car normally runs dead middle of the gauge but when pushing it to 75-80 for a long time it would creep up to 3/4. What that mean in termsof actual temp, no idea. I don’t trust the gauge at this point and will do another run on these long high speed freeways in Texas once I get the VW thermometers. 

Is there an opening below the crank pulley?

If you can't find one designed for this purpose and go looking for a generic kitchen thermometer, keep these factors in mind:

The oil filler tube can be very close to the dipstick, so a thermometer with a dial much larger than an inch or so may not work.

The probe needs to be long enough to reach well into the oil in the sump. Thermometers will often spec just how much of the tip needs to be covered for an accurate reading.

The range needs to go up to at least 250 degrees, but too wide a range and it's hard to see the difference between, say, 200 and 220.

Finding one that will be useful can be harder than it seems at first.

James:

Welcome!!     looks like you had a nice drive home... 

Enjoy the new car!!

  Feel free to ask questions EXCEPT on the following topics:

Transmissions

Engines

Carburetors

and sometimes, Types of beer,  (that can get really heated)

Other than that 

Again Welcome..!!

Tebs

Ps  Just kidding on the topics..  We are all here to help  Feel free to PM me as well if need be.

I've read that a candy thermometer is reasonably priced, accurate and can be found both long and thin enough to fit down the dipstick tube. I wouldn't leave it in there while the engine is running for any length of time, but it's supposed to work well for determining oil temp.

On the other side of the coin, Gene Berg Ent. seems to have their oil temp dipstick back in stock-            

http://www.geneberg.com/produc...&products_id=256

And what Gene had to say-

How to know when your engine is hot.

Or should it be, how hot is hot? How hot is your oil? Over 230F? This can cause case studs to pull out, head and case sealing surfaces to warp, cases to be internally distorted, permanent case metal fatigue and engine bearings to wear prematurely.

Here's the answer! This slick little temperature sensor goes into the dipstick hole and hooks up to the oil light switch. It takes just a minute and can be done by anyone who can check the oil. Simply remove the dipstick and install the temperature sensor in its place. Install the wire ends and hook the wire to your oil pressure light switch. When the temperature reaches about 225F, your oil light flickers. Hotter temperature turns the light on steady. Low or no oil pressure still lights up your oil light in the normal manner. When the light flickers, slow down until it goes out. If the light continues to flicker, check your oil level. If problems continue, carb jets and timing should be checked and corrected.
Possibly, a larger main jet is needed....

Teby S posted:

James:

Welcome!!     looks like you had a nice drive home... 

Enjoy the new car!!

  Feel free to ask questions EXCEPT on the following topics:

Transmissions

Engines

Carburetors

and sometimes, Types of beer,  (that can get really heated)

Other than that 

Again Welcome..!!

Tebs

 

Ps  Just kidding on the topics..  We are all here to help  Feel free to PM me as well if need be.

 

Tebs forgot, you can get lots of great advice on dealing with questions that are inherent in having girlfriend on the side when you wife knows. 

...and so the famous SOC thread-drift begins...

James Garrett posted:

Thanks guys, I will give them a call tomorrow. From a quick google search on engine tin kits for a type 1, it appears all the engine tins are there. Like it was said, the car normally runs dead middle of the gauge but when pushing it to 75-80 for a long time it would creep up to 3/4. What that mean in termsof actual temp, no idea. I don’t trust the gauge at this point and will do another run on these long high speed freeways in Texas once I get the VW thermometers. 

 Hi James,

 For what it's worth, I have a new VS with a 1915cc engine with an oil cooler - Kirk told me if your past the half way point on the temp gauge, your running too hot. I've been at 80mph, but only for about 20 minutes or so, and I was never close to the half way point on the gauge.

 Congrats on your car - I love the blue!

  Bill

Thanks guys! 

@ALB, I got one of those. Just showed up on my doorstep, what timing

Got it from here,

 http://www.savemybug.com

James Garrett posted:

Thanks guys! 

@ALB, I got one of those. Just showed up on my doorstep, what timing

Got it from here,

 http://www.savemybug.com

 

Excellent!

Just looked at this- very cool and looks simple t install.

James Garrett posted:

http://www.savemybug.com

 

@James Garrett, I have one of those too, still in the box. Let me know how long it takes to install. I've watched the video, but haven't invested the time yet to install it. Curious if you come across any snags getting it into our cars.