Projekt Hoopty update -- Oct. 13

There's a lot going on here, but the big news is that everything is coming together better than expected.
A bit of bad news on the engineering front, but that was fixed yesterday; the transmission case I wanted to use was intended for a different kind of clutch plate and bearing assembly than the one I bought to go in it.
No worries. I made a horse-trade and have the right case now. It just sucks I had to clean two in the same day. ... Live and learn.
Anyway, here are the promised photos. In the first series, the wires for the front clip are running past the fuel pump and fuel line from the tank. The Facet pump (which will be replaced when the CB pump arrives) and its rubber isolators can be seen in the background:

I re-used my old starter. The turn signals are the focus of the second and third shots, with the Ace Wrench wiring them in the third picture.

The wires under the MSD platform, the layout of the master switch in relation to the MSD and the end-of-day shot from last night.

This is the best home-done wiring job I've ever seen. The second was the high-beam switch and the third was the true test; the entire electrical system checks out at 100 percent.

Cool!..The Ace Wrench looks pretty pissed...at least on the photo....

Nice! GREAT progress! Hey Cory, that's the same garage... Did you get a wee extension on using that facility? By the way, I found a model of a particular seafoam green Camaro 302 race car. Considered it a very lucky find, should arrive in the next few days. angela

Angela, things are going very well on all fronts; the garage is there for my use until I'm done. By extension, the Wrench is secure there, too. At least for the next two weeks. And I'll let the Doc know you found said Camaro. He'll be tickled pink.
Thanks, Ricardo. Looks like there may be some VW work taking the Wrench to Puerto Rico sometime in the next year, also. Details if it comes about, but there are apparently some dragsters down there needing his attention.

Cool; some of the racing guys here are pretty serious about their cars and they own pretty decent stuff, the guy who ported my heads is one of them.

Cory; following your time honored tradition of posting photos here's some of mine. We finally got most of the engine together today and couldn't finish it this weekend but we'll certainly get it started next Saturday. Here's some photos of the ported heads with D shaped exhaust ports. Over at the Samba they told me those work wonderfully as they create a strong vacuum inside the chamber which makes the heads breathe a whole lot better. On the third photo the chambers are shown with the .060" Scat copper shims installed. I want to lower the compression ratio enough to use regular gas without pinging or overheating; as you know gas prices especially premium have gone over the roof. Note the Gene Berg rigid rocker shafts with 1.25 OEM VW ratio rockers (Gene Berg swivel feet valve adjusters not shown).

Ok; here's a couple more. The engine on the stand in the process of swapping the heads and the engine almost finished on the floor with intake manifolds installed. Note we swapped the Scat crankshaft pulley for a Gene Berg Achiever pulley (nice, eh?). We installed 1-1/2" diam. heater boxes from CIP as well as a Tri-Mil muffler as sold by Vintage Speedsters and a new SVDA Bosch distributor from Aircooled.net. We had to beat the hell out of the OEM VW cylinder tins (I bought them from Howardvw.com, glass bead blasted them and got them painted) just to make room for the manifolds. We found out that the CB 044 heads are a little thicker so we had to "convince" them (term coined by Jake Raby) to fit. There's some very important air vanes inside that we had to cut a little with a plasma cutter to make the tins fit.

We also installed EMPI stainless steel windage pushrod tubes as well as Gene Berg chromoly pushrods and a welded and balanced fan. Before installing the OEM doghouse fan shroud (another salvage yard find) I installed the ever important "Hoover bit" (also shown in the third photo) at the base of the oil cooler. I got that one from Howardvw.com as well. This time I'll be trying Shell Rotella 15w-40 heavy duty oil (as used by Diesel rigs). It's recommended by a lot of knowledgeable folks at the Samba.com

Those are some pretty impressive parts in there. What is the compression ratio you want in order to use the lower grades of fuel? Will you wind up having to add lead, or are the go-parts hardened?
I like your exhaust, too. Let us know how it sounds, eh?

I'm using a bunch of parts that came with this engine -- of origins unknown to me -- based on the Wrench's opinions. Several have been replaced with newer or almost new pieces from race cars whose engines have been slated for parting out, and I've spent a few dollars on my distributor, 6AL and coil so I don't have to mess with timing.
As long as the micrometer is happy, I'm not going to go broke on new parts -- especially considering I've had to make decisions like that on the entire car.
Sounds like we're on the same sheet of music. Looks good from here!

Thanks bro! We're just trying! I've been buying these parts little by little over the course of close to a year to get them all installed at once. We haven't really calculated the compression ratio but judging by our deck height and the .060" copper shims we could be looking in the vicinity of 7.2:1. With that compression ratio and using dual carbs you can get away with using 87 octane gas without problems. With respect to hardened parts like seats and guides; those have been the standard for VW since the mid '60's if I recall correctly so you can use unleaded gas without worrying about it and aftermarket parts such as CB 044's are the same. I'm dying to crank this guy over and hear it run with Dellorto 40's and that Tri-Mil muffler. Vince says they're throaty sounding, hopefully not like the newfangled rice burner Fast & the Furious fartcans....