What I've been up to this winter (... and spring, and summer)

They say a picture's worth a 1000 words, and I've been accused of saying nothing with a lot of words, so...

 

This will be the last internal permutation of my engine for the foreseeable future. Changes include: 

• Revmaster 049 heads, 82.25 cc chambers, CNC ported, twin-plugged, 42mm intakes. Thermal coatings on combustion chamber and down the entire exhaust port. Compression will be 10.6:1. This is the second set of heads I purchased for this project-- the first set is $1200 worth of scrap. 

• Port-matched (by me) CB big-beef manifolds. 

• Web 86b cam, Udo Becker tool-steel lifters, resurfaced and Parkerized by SLR. 

• Twin-plug ignition- Locked out 009 distributor modified for Datsun twin-plug cap/rotor running through Dubshop (in Monroe, WA) modified CB "Black-Box" ignition controller. This allows me to tailor the ignition curve, while still using "old-school" looking ignition parts. I really, REALLY want 2 coils hanging off the shroud and a distributor with 10 wires coming off it. It's not as good as crank-fire, and way more complicated... but some things cannot be helped. If it's cool, it's cool. This complicated the project exponentially.

 

You've got to want to do this stuff to get this deep into it. I'm running the 2110 from the bus (or will be, when I finish getting the car back together) for the summer.

 

This is the project that got out of hand.

Stan:

 

I don't know half of what you are talking about here, but it sounds (and looks) very cool.

 

 

You da man.

Stan, that is going to be one beautiful power-plant.

Stan....  That picture says WAY more than a thousand words.....    Good on ya !!!

Running SuperSquish pistons, I assume? Because that is one big chamber.

The large chambers have me wondering what Stan is up to as well...

The chamber seems large for a turbo, but that may be lurking out there....  

Sorry guys. That was a typo, of course.

52.25 cc chambers. 82 mm bore, 94 mm stroke. .040" deck, and I am at about 10.6:1 compression.

No turbos with this combo.

10.6 to 1 compression....damn, I thought I was going a bit high with 9.4 to 1 on my new (again) 2276!

That's kind've the whole point on the twin-plug thing. Two flame-fronts. If it's too much, I'll do H2O injection.

 

There's never been a problem more complexity won't solve (he says with an eye-roll). 

10.6:1. Dual plugs. Damn it!  This is a Star Trek motor. Boldly going where no man has gone before.

 

That's awesome.

 

I totally have power plant envy (aka pp envy)

 

Ted

Stan, I love ya, buddy.

But you are a sick man.

Don Quixoti of the Type I. The Subaru wind calls to you...

Terry knows me pretty well, Ted-- this is the latest installment in a never-ending saga to make my Type 1 into a 911/4. It's getting pretty "Star Trek" complicated back there.

 

A couple years back I dry-sumped it. I've got all the "Bob Hoover" oiling mods, as well as 911 oil squirters to cool the undersides of the pistons. I'm running full thermal coatings, and I drive the car like I stole it... across several time-zones. Every winter I do something stupid, and this thing has been the queen-mother of all stupid projects. I do this stuff because it keeps me interested. I share it reluctantly.

 

My wife is finally calling this insanity to an end (at long last), as I've tied up the asking price of a nice bungalow in the various permutations of my power-plant. Somebody is finally helping me to help myself.

 

... but this last thing is really, really cool. It won't be ready until spring 2015, but it'll be all that and a bag of chips, I think. I'm pretty persistent that way.

Keep at it. Any project worth while takes time.

 

Just don't go to the dark side... the subi side. 

 

/me ducks...

T

Ted, it's not too late to show up at Corn Daze Trois to meet "Scotty from Stanistan".

I'm going to stop trying to enter text with the iphone. That is (of course), 82 mm stroke, and 94 mm bore. A thread meant to archive somebody's project isn't much good with perpetually bad basic technical information.

 

Sorry about that.

Whew!...and I went to bed last night really perplexed as to how (and especially why?) Stan is engineering a 94mm stroke... remembering that Morris Garage produced a long stroke/small diameter piston (to avoid idiotic British taxes) that invariably 'beat themselves to death' at sustained high rpm's.  

Sounds VERY interesting! I like it! What are you using for fuel? Your Dells?

 

C'mon Stan, come to the dark side of crank fire, you won't go back! I realize that Megajolt 2 isn't ready yet, but I'm pretty sure you can drive multiple coils with a Ford EDIS unit. I know you can definitely run two EDIS boxes off of one VR sensor.

I am running two coils on my EDIS / Megajolt.

 

 

For twin plug, two packs? Or are you running individual COP.

"two packs?...twin plugs?...individual COP?... EDIS boxes?... VR sensor?

 

Jeez, you guys are sending me to Google this evening instead of relaxing with a couple of more chapters of Zimmer's book. 

...oh, and least I forget "Bob Hoover Oiling Mods"!!!

Reminder: I have a full edis setup with a crank wheel and megajolt for sale, anyone wants. New-in-box megajolt and fresh-from ebay Ford parts

Actually, I've got a MicroSquirt3 w/ harness and a Quadspark coil driver I purchased before my choo-choo really went around the bend and I decided I wanted a distributor with a snakeball of wires coming off it. The idea was to be ready for that inevitable day when I injected it. I've reconsidered, and am not going to head down that road.

 

I'm using Dells. I've got some 45s I think will be the cat's meow with this set-up. Mario from the dubshop.com has the CB "Black Box", and is converting it for a second coil-driver. If this works, I'll have everything I want in one tidy electronic package, masquerading as an analog set-up.

 

For perspective: the 2110 for my bus is in the speedster for the summer. It's got a 120-like SLR cam, 1-1/2" sidewinder, no dry-sump, 40 Dells, and a simple SVDA/blue coil set-up (no CDI box). It runs beautifully, pulls nicely, and does it all with very little fuss. The perspective this little engine has given me is sobering. I'm not sure that all of this Buck Rogers stuff has improved my motoring enjoyment even $1000 worth, let alone the many, many times more than that I've got invested.

 

Sometimes, less really is more.

Here you go, Carl.

 

Hoover Oiling Mods (click to linkify)

 

One more thing to obsess about. Thanks me later.

Yup, the less is more comment is why I did Webers and an 009. BUT the 009 was too inaccurate, way too inaccurate for the 10.1:1 compression and advance I need to get the power out. So off to Megajolt I went because I'm too cheap to spend a grand on Electromotive. Stupid money for a relatively simple task IMHO especially considering electronics and software today. So EDIS uses late 80s to early 90s OE technology and adapts it to the aftermarket. Somewhat simple, very hot and accurate spark, and to be honest, cheap. $160 all in including machine work. My kind of cheap!

 

Stan, I'm interested to hear the progress on this motor, cause, well, it's cool! You are a certified retro-grouch, and I love it!

 

I regret that I can't make Corn Daze but some day we'll have to meet.

Things are coming together in fits and starts, as projects of this nature are wont to do.

 

Mario Velotta at the Dub Shop has the CB "Black Box". He's torn the box apart, and looked at the electronics: the internals will support what we are trying to do, so he's ordering some coil drivers, and will be modifying it "soon". That's all anybody can hope for with a project of this nature-- one-off stuff almost never pays for the builder.

 

I've got an 009 on the way to Clark Callis of Awsome Powdercoat. Clark is a twin-plug aficionado, and has figured out a way to adapt an old twin-spark Datsun 4-cylinder cap and rotor to an 009. The advance will be handled by the "black box", so the distributor will be locked out. Clark told me to figure "a couple of months", which generally means 6, if I stay on the "Hey! How's it going" weekly calling plan. Clark's a good guy, and wants my micro-squirt stuff, so perhaps this will go better than I'm figuring, but at this point I always just triple the time estimate.

 

Web is having some problems machining an 86b that has the bearing surfaces in the right place, so I'm switching to an Engle FK8. The "K8" is a proven performer, with roughly the same duration as an 86b, but less lift. I'm OK with that-- as I agonized over choosing between an 86b and the FK8, but in the end, the choice was made for me. That's the way it goes a lot of times in this hobby.

 

I'm talking weekly with Tiger from A1 about a sidewinder that will clear my dry-sump. He's mildly interested, but stupidly short-handed. I've got one of his merged headers and an elaborate exhaust I built that clears everything... but it hangs pretty low, and is way too complicated to be "perfect", and "perfect" is what I'm after. If I do another exhaust it'll be the 4th really expensive, full custom exhaust I've built for the car (not counting the one that I slapped together for the 2110 that's in it now). I'm getting pretty good at cutting up mandrel bend tubing.

 

Justin at Blackline has me next in line. The long-block will come together long before everything else is ready, so I need to find a home for stuff while I wait for other stuff. I've been running a Raby DTM since I got the car, but I'm thinking I'm going to try a modified 36 hp shroud, so I can mount the coils on it, and look all "retro-racer" like. I've got Urethane trans mounts waiting for next year to see if I can eliminate the really, really complicated rear hanger bars. The combination would REALLY change the appearance of the engine in the bay. I'm probably going to give the Sync-Link a try as well. Terry Nuckels swears by it, and it seems like a really good idea.

 

I've been driving the car a lot in it's present configuration (wet-sump 2110, 120 cam, 40 DLRAs), and I really like it. It makes me think that the same kind of power, just "more" is what I'm really after-- so the milder cam is a direction I'm OK going in.

 

More updates as they become available.

Stan,

 

You give me hope that I'm still an entirely normal, middle-of-the-road car guy, who isn't the least bit obsessive-compulsive.  You lead, I'll follow, at least until the dough runs out.  BTW, if ANYONE sees the welds on Tiger's work, they will comment.  That's how well he trains his guys, and why they're always busy.  Keep up the good work! 

...so here I hobble out of bed at 3am to replenish my 'pain killer', (and to check Delta/Travelosicty emails if a decision as made that the physical devastation of torn rib cartilage qualifies me for a rebate on my prepaid itinerary to the mid-west Corn Daze) and I'm blown right out of my chair by Stan's detailed plans/progress of ambitious engine modifications!!!!

 

   Mind blowing and incomprehensible...But I thank Jim Kelly for his observation that there's nothing obsessive/compulsive as long as the 'dough doesn't run out'...Seems rational enough to send me back to bed pain-free and a mind clear of contemplating such possibilities! 

 

 

"but at this point I always just triple the time estimate."

 

Unfortunately, I've found this out the hard way.  In August my IM will have been off the road 2 years.

I would have had the car back a lot sooner, but I had to get fancy and have my mechanic build a new exhaust system, install a Porsche 5 speed gearbox, and crank fired ignition (which didn't want to work with my CB fuel injection).

I think my car customizing days are coming to an end.

My wife thought I would have learned my lesson after owning a V8 powered Miata, but not me.

We're getting progress!

 

Justin at BlackLine has an FK8 in hand, and is dry-fitting my engine today. I've requested a bunch of pictures, and will post a few when I have them. I'm really, really happy with the way this is coming together. The heads are 100% complete, and my first attempt at port-matching the manifolds only needed a bit of touch-up. Once it's back together for real, Justin will break the cam in on the dyno, but I'm not going to do any pulls for numbers, as the ignition stuff will not be ready in time.

 

Clark Clallis has my distributor in hand, and is progressing on the adaptation of the Datsun twin-plug 4-cylinder cap/rotor to a locked out 009 I sent him. I haven't bugged Mario this week, but tomorrow is Thursday, so it's on my "to do" list.

 

There really isn't a rush anymore, as the 2110 is doing just fine for this summer. I would like to get the whole thing buttoned up... but once I do, it'll just be something else equally stupid I try to do "for the heck of it".

 

I'm grateful for an understanding wife.

I'm glad things are moving along smoothly for you.  I wish I could say the same.  My engine builder/installer told me two weeks ago that the engine was going in 'tomorrow'.

As of yesterday it was still not in the car.

 

Isn't there a song titled 'tomorrow never comes'?

 

 

 

 

 

Now into week 3 at the muffler shop here.

 

You are a lucky man, Stan...all Jeannie asks is for a comfortable passenger seat 

 

Stan- For what it's worth, I tried the urethane trans mounts when they first came out and was very disappointed. It didn't take long for them to start to tear apart. This was with only an engine support bar in a 14 second street sedan. I'm not aware of any design changes that would make them any better

Al,

What would be an alternative to urethane tranny mounts for a relaxed laid-back street cruiser?

Carl- As long as the factory mounts are in good condition I would stick with them, or there are VW trans mounts with harder rubber (which a lot of guys with fast street cars use, but are a little noisier). With more power and a more spirited driving style ( oh come on, you have a little fun with it once in a while!) invest in a Berg mid-mount-

http://www.geneberg.com/product_info.php?cPath=351&products_id=1064 

The front and rear trans mounts will last longer and the transaxle will be properly anchored down which, if your car's swingaxle, will improve handling.

PS- If you click on the link it will tell you that Gary Berg drag raced his street car (190hp 2110, FK8, 42x37, 48IDA's, 10.5:1 on race/street gas mix) with factory mounts, the mid-mount, a traction bar and slicks and it was very fast front wheels off the ground low 12 second car (I believe his personal best in it was 12.3's). This combination totally stopped all wheel hop (even with slicks) and anchored the transaxle so it didn't tear up the front or rear mounts. Some of our cars have no mounting points for a traction bar (and I don't think most Speedster owners do the type of driving where it's needed), but if the mid-mount isn't enough then a kafer bar (ties the frame horns and shock towers together) is the next step. Al

Al-

 

I've got all that: factory hard-rubber mounts, a mid-mount, a very elaborate traction bar on 911 motor mounts, a copperhead disc, etc., etc. etc. I still get a lot of wheel-hop and clutch chatter. I think the culprit is the way IM mounts the rear hanger on the transaxle on Type 1 cars, but what I've got (especially the rear hanger bar).