Beetle circuit racer 2176cc turbo project (pic intensive)

[4agedub]

Thought I would share my turbo project here.

We race two vw beetle's in the South African historic tour, #71 and #170. About two years ago #71 had a big engine failure around kyalami... so after that the transformation began. I have always wanted to build a proper turbo engine and race it in the national time attack series

Before:


The previous engine was completely stuffed with almost no parts usable for the new engine, over time we have collected all the parts needed and the engine build began.

The new engine is 2176cc
CB 78,4mm crankshaft with H-beam cromoly rods and 94mm wiseco pistons
CB cnc ported cylinder heads with pauter roller rockers
Eagle k8 camshaft 310' duration with 12mm lift
Garrett Gt3076r with 0.68ar exhaust housing
Blow through 44mm throttle bodies

My dad (the master) assembling the crankshaft / rods.


New aluminium engine casing


Bottom end done. 78.4mm crankshaft with 94mm wiseco pistons. 2176cc. CNC ported cylinder heads


Blow through throttle bodies with eight 875cc injectors.


Engine trial fit and exhaust in process. The exhaust and boost pipes took around 30 hours to complete. Everything tig welded.


Fan housing and boost boxes trial assembled to complete the boost pipes and intercooler setup


Once we were happy with the fitment the engine came out again and engine bay re painted before assembly



Engine back in


As the engine is air cooled we decided to plumb the turbo bearing housing to a electric water pump with two small coolers on the front to aid the turbo life.


On the dyno, Steve from G&H transport racing doing some tuning.


0.8 bar boost with 20' total advance. Plenty torque 




This past weekend we took the car out for it's maiden run with the new engine and suspension setup. All seems to work pretty well, just a couple of small issues... but we'll get there. Drove it on low boost the whole day 0.5 bar. It pulls like a train!!



Not on the edge yet... but the car is already two seconds quicker than it ever was with the n/a engine. And it's on old rubber.


Some in car footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aml1oab0bI8

This is the power difference between the two cars.   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaDwSvC4WmA

[Frallan]

This is so cool!
Love what you guys are doing and the acomplishments already.
Thanks for sharing!

[BeetleBug]

Wow!

Thank you for sharing the story, the pictures and the videos. Your car is proper fast for sure and looks like great fun. I love the water..oil coolers at the front 

Best rgs
BB

[Stephen schmidt]

I'd love to know your suspension set up, especially since its link pin front with swing axle rear!  I see a big Z-bar with KYB GR2 shocks?

Nice car!

[nicolas]

very cool. please keep posting updates.

[4agedub]

Thanks for the kind comments

Both our cars are link pin swing axle. IRS cars are pretty scarce here, thus going with the link pin setup. The shocks are KYB GR2 on the 71 car and Bilstein on the 170 car.

If you like the water coolers then you will like my makeshift oil coolers too... 
I use to run a fairly big Setrab cooler in the front, but it was quite restrictive. The dry sump oil return runs through the cooler back to the tank. There is almost no pressure on the return line so I decided to try a universal intercooler and convert it to a oil cooler.

The pipes were removed, bungs installed for the oil lines, oil temp sensor and then closed off the ends









The oil temperature dropped from around 115'c to 95'c. 

[spanners]

Glad the new motor is up and running, one thing to be carefull of is running coolers on the return side from tank to the motor, tho it is advocated by many, I slay the myth, it achieves nothing,  the trouble is if you ever tank surge, low oil for example, the flow won't recover quick enough to supply the motor, , I know because I did exactly that with my first d/s motors, cost me a rebuild or two,,  now all d/s motors I build have the auxilarys all on the tank feed line. Best regards, spanners.

[Frallan]

Spanners, I am interesting in understanding that better.
Can you expalin in a bit more detail. Sorry if I do not get it fully.
Dry sump I know as I have had it since 1978 but not the ideas and warnings you share. Seems like you have some good insights and I wish to know more.

[spanners]

Hi Frallan, thanks for kind remarks, but I'm still learning from folk on the best forum around, but I suppose we all have something to offer, tho my discipline is completely different to most on the forum, anyway, to your question, some folk like to use the low pressure feed line from the tank to the D.S Pump for oil coolers, the thinking being that as it has no pressure it is safer in the event of a cooler leak, I've not had this in 45 years lol, all it has is gravity if the tank is high enough, and the pump suction. It IS possible to do this, and in a perfect world, would work, but low oil level or any event that could cause tank surge, high G or violent manoeuvres, would lead to the cooler or coolers, being emptied of oil, the lack of feed pressure on that line would then mean a LONG TIME for the oil to re charge the now empty oil cooler or coolers and by now it's to late for the engine, you are out the race any way supposing you spot the warning light, if indeed the cooler has not become air locked and impossible to re cherge itself with oil. I've also heard of oil filters being installed in this line together with coolers, if tank surge happens with the add ons on the FEED line to the tank, it will re charge the pump supply line quickly because it's now a direct feed from the tank with no extra cooler/filter volume to re fill on the way again,  you will get the light flash on, but you can back off and finish the event. You've lost the engine if it air locks with the coolers installed in the pump feed line and you don't see the light and stop the motor.
Best regards Spanners,

[richie]

Hi Frallan, thanks for kind remarks, but I'm still learning from folk on the best forum around, but I suppose we all have something to offer, tho my discipline is completely different to most on the forum, anyway, to your question, some folk like to use the low pressure feed line from the tank to the D.S Pump for oil coolers, the thinking being that as it has no pressure it is safer in the event of a cooler leak, I've not had this in 45 years lol, all it has is gravity if the tank is high enough, and the pump suction. It IS possible to do this, and in a perfect world, would work, but low oil level or any event that could cause tank surge, high G or violent manoeuvres, would lead to the cooler or coolers, being emptied of oil, the lack of feed pressure on that line would then mean a LONG TIME for the oil to re charge the now empty oil cooler or coolers and by now it's to late for the engine, you are out the race any way supposing you spot the warning light, if indeed the cooler has not become air locked and impossible to re cherge itself with oil. I've also heard of oil filters being installed in this line together with coolers, if tank surge happens with the add ons on the FEED line to the tank, it will re charge the pump supply line quickly because it's now a direct feed from the tank with no extra cooler/filter volume to re fill on the way again,  you will get the light flash on, but you can back off and finish the event. You've lost the engine if it air locks with the coolers installed in the pump feed line and you don't see the light and stop the motor.
Best regards Spanners,

Spanners I think you read it wrong, the original poster said he runs it on the return BACK to the tank which to me seems logical, on the feed to the pump from the tank does sound really daft, that would create all sorts of potential problems

cheers Richie

[spanners]

Thanks for the kind comments

 There is almost no pressure on the return line so I decided to try a universal intercooler and convert it to a oil cooler.

The oil temperature dropped from around 115'c to 95'c.

Hi Richie, congrats on your recent by the way, I'm seriously impressed, but yes, I did try to decipher 4agedubs  schematic in my head,  as I see it, he appears to have modified his latest, install,  the clincher was the above quoted text, ie ," no pressure",   This can only mean the pump feed line, indeed,  it's a common enough install, and again , as quoted, it produces good temperature drop because the flow is slow and lazy, Porsche indeed ran add ons on the low pressure line, I believe on  LeMans cars. But my take on it is still sound, I learnt the tank surge lessons in Rallycross were the oil system works harder then even circuit racing, the full tank volume has to be used with good breathing systems, in cabin tanks and breather systems are not an option for racing saloons, but I also see that often too.
 cheers any way, all input is good so others can learn from Porsche's mistakes , Best, Spanners.

[richie]

The wonder of the internet written word , I read it totally the opposite  

The dry sump oil return runs through the cooler back to the tank. There is almost no pressure on the return line

The return line surely has to be from pump to tank? and I guess compared to the pump to engine pressure that line would have less?  Hopefully he can tell us how he has it and clear this up

My only dry sump experience is drag engines so could be totally wrong

Thanks for the congrats as well

cheers Richie

[spanners]

The common rule of thumb for any d/s pump is left side pressure, right side scavenge.  Then we all sing from the same song sheet.
2 stage pumps are really the minimum for race motors, as seen in 4agedubs pics, with the extra ports useful for a second sump fitting or head scavenging, a 3 stage is a massive pump that must be really justified as it's beginning to get into diminishing returns territory with pumping losses, Autocraft also do a 4 stage with a rear accessory drive, how the stock drive tang copes with it I don't know, Minimum hose size is 5/8" , or 3/4" preferably for the tank scavenge line.

[Frallan]

Thanks Spanners!
Nope, that is and will not be an option for me.
Interesting to hear about this being done in the past.

[4agedub]

The oil cooler is on the return line from the engine back to the dry sump tank. Not on the feed line to the pump from the tank.  There is almost no pressure on the return line as the pipe is open on the tank side, so the only pressure you see is from the weight of the oil itself.

The #170 bug runs a CB performance dry sump pump with only a single stage pressure and single stage scavenge without any problems. The pump on my turbo bug is a bugpack unit with twin scavenge and single pressure stage.

[4agedub]

[4agedub]

This is what it's about. #170
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H_4h09uqzo