The eternal rebuild

[Peter Shattock]

That meant new pistons (cylinders honed OK), valves and the new 3rd time lucky steel cam. The plan was always to change the cam and pistons, so the only extra un budgeted expense was the valves which although unwelcome was definitely a no brainer necessary expense given the hard time the valve train gets.

By the end of November 21 the heads had new inlet guides new cuts on the seats and a few more cfm which was a welcome addition so the heads are now re branded to MS260’s.
Interestingly the heads as they came off the motor still flowed 256cfm at 16mm lift 25”H2O and they are out of the box MS250’s. The new additional flow was all in the valve seats no other head work. So a bit of extra air speed too as they are today.

The new cam was designed and in production. We went for a steel cam this time in a hope there would be a bit less flex given the valve springs and work the whole system really hard.

Come Feb 22 the cam was done the case was modified with the through bolt to support the centre cam bearing the new pistons had arrived so it was just the valves left outstanding.
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[Peter Shattock]

The short block was together in June 22 but still no valves.
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[Peter Shattock]

The valves proved to be by far and away most difficult parts to source and the biggest delay which ultimately meant looking for a new supplier. Ferrea came through in the end as the best alternative and the valves eventually arrived in Sweden in August 22.
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[Peter Shattock]

The motor was complete by the end of August and it was time to make a plan to get to Sweden with the car to fit the motor to see what we could find.
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[Peter Shattock]

The stars eventually aligned and we were set for the end of October for me to make the long trek to Sweden.

The journey turned out to be about the best weather of any of the journeys to date and although the journey doesn’t get any shorter it went without a drama and I arrived in the late afternoon sunshine.

[Peter Shattock]

We unloaded the car and all the gear before it got dark, I had a quick peak at the motor on the stand and headed off for some food a catch up and an early night as we wanted a good early start the next day.
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[Peter Shattock]

All went loosely to plan and we soon had the motor in the car and we’re fitting up the ancillaries. Before long we were putting oil in the tank (most of which I managed to spill inside the car as a bit of additional rust protection), we spun for oil pressure which soon came up then put the plugs in sorted the valve clearances and put some fuel in it and primed the fuel system and we were ready to go.
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Ready to make some noise.

[Fastbrit]

And... 

[ibg]

.... you know how to tease people. 
once again it is excellent to read about your car and the 'journey'

[richie]

Good to see it again after so long

But one thing really bothers me   how heavy is that old dizzy? just looks so out of place   Guessing its for cam sync? must be some lighter options out there

Sensor through front of case and magnet on cam gear would be my suggestion for less weight and less friction   can lose the dizzy drive as well then.  Something for next time though.

cheers Richie

[Peter Shattock]

2nd crank and it was running and after a little warm up Johannes took it for a quick drive on the rollers. As ever hopeless at the links to the videos but there are some clips on Instagram but will try and get them on YouTube and put a link here.

After a few more gentle runs and cooling time it was time for a few higher rpm runs to check the fuel map which turned out to be close and only needed minor adjustment.

As the rpm crept up and the motor came alive there were a couple of runs where it spun the tires and went straight to the rev limiter. This made it sound so aggressive and it was making good power already which all looked promising. This meant a quick pause to glue the tires and strap it down a bit tighter.

It was the next pull when we hit a misfire and a strange vibration, which after a lot of chasing around and methodical checking turned out to be the spacing of the crank trigger sensor to the trigger wheel. We certainly have a bigger gap now than before but surmised that the ignition was working a bit harder with the extra cylinder pressure.

We did a lot of checking before going for another pull, but decided the vibration was nothing engine related and was just perhaps the gearbox and the solid mounting of everything.

So with everything checked and misfire cured we went back to set up and found that it preferred less ignition timing which was a good sign as we crept up the rpm range.

As I’ve said I’ll post some clips but 10,000 rpm does not get any easier to watch / hear stood at the back of the car and I think I take a step or two backwards for every 500rpm increase! Much better filming from the front of the car.

Honestly we didn’t find all we hoped for given the improvements we’d made in terms of peak power, but as ever we learned a few things along the way not least of all that there are no givens regardless of the theoretical improvements made. None the less it made more torque, more power and there is more area under the curve in the operating rpm range, so all things being equal it should be a quicker car. How much quicker if at all we’ll have to wait and see. 144hp/ litre is still a very stout little motor though so it’s all relative.


We did decide to make a racket with the stinger too just because and it did make its best numbers with this setup, but I still plan to run with the muffler in general, although I might run with the stinger just because at some points next year.

Realistically the main thing holding the car back in terms of et is getting it of the line, and to 60ft well and consistently, which remains a challenge. I’ve made a few changes to the car which I hope will helps but time will literally tell.

I’ve got various jobs to do now to get the car to a point where I can drive it on the street and a few performance related mods to make which if time permits I can try next year.

Plan D is already taking shape, as there is unfinished business here,  but as ever we need to prove what we have is reliable next year and see what the improvements made look like when I get the car to the track.

Hopefully there will be a few more frequent updates in the next 12 months, rather than the 18 month radio silence.

Peter

[Peter Shattock]

So the dizzy thing is a bit of a compromise, but I do like it. Realistically there is compromise all over the place with the car most of which are on the back burner. I need to get after this 10’s street car thing again, before getting carried away…

[richie]

. Realistically there is compromise all over the place with the car

That statement pretty much sums up racing a rear engine aircooled VW based car full stop 

cheers Richie

[Eddie DVK]

Thanks for the update, cool reading again Peter.

[Peter Shattock]

So I don’t really know what I’m doing with YouTube but I have posted 3 clips of the car so hopefully you can find them and someone who knows what they are doing can post a like on here.

There is one through the muffler with a bit of roll on roll off throttle where it spins the tires when it gets on song. There is another from the back with the stinger to the 10k limiter and another from the front again to the limiter.

Enjoy the noise.

Peter

[Steve D.]

https://www.youtube.com/@petershattock

Thanks for sharing with us.

[Peter Shattock]

Thanks Steve, glad someone knows what they are doing…

Peter

[JezWest]

That really is an amazing sound. I'm not sure I could be in the same building as the car with those runs going on, you must have nerves of titanium!

[Peter Shattock]

So as usual a longer than planned delay in this update, but as ever time has just slipped past  but there’s not been a lot of interesting things going on.

So when I got back from Sweden I had a few jobs to do, but nothing major and soon enough the car was back to a point where I could drive it on the street. The only problem was the weather although I did manage a short drive just to check all was well in a brief dry spell in the weather. I did have trouble starting the car though which was a change from the norm. Given the weather was cold and wet and there was no obvious chance to drive the car I decided to change the rubber tubes which connect the inlet manifolds and throttle bodies and organise some spacers between the two now the inlet tract length is set. As ever a simple job turned out to be a bit painful with some really poor quality hose and then some hose the wrong size, but I got there in the end when Johannes brought some with him when he came over for his tech talk at the Volksworld Show.

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Finally some dry weather arrived and I started to use the car again on the road, although starting was still a problem.
I found what I thought was a tps problem just before the volksworld show so set about changing that after the show, but no change.
Actually what I had thought was a problem turned out not to be and was only user error on my part! On the positive side I do have a spare tps in the tool box now…..

The starting issue turned out to be a simple fix as we had moved the crank sensor away from the crank trigger pulley when on the dyno to cure a misfire. Sensor back to its original position and starting returned to normal and rather strangely no obvious misfire. From a few cold start checks I positioned the sensor as far from the trigger wheel as possible without starting issues in a hope that the misfire that triggered the change would also stay away.

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Doing a bit more street driving it was fairly obvious the low speed street running with light throttle was a bit off and needs a bit of dyno / street driving time to sort. Given the clock was ticking to the Doorslammers event which I entered having missed the first Outlaw round I decided to tow the car there rather than drive it given the light throttle running issues which is exactly what it gets for the 2 hour drive to the track and no time to sort it as this was just before the event.

So after a 3 year absence from racing I found myself walking round the garage early on Friday morning wondering what I needed to take which felt quite strange after all this time.

Setting off to the track towing the car is never what I want to be doing, but it did feel like the right thing to be doing as I hadn’t done anything like the usual mileage I do in the car having changed a load of stuff, and given the low speed running issues it turned out to be an easy choice.

Once at the track I unpacked the car and the very first job was to fit the oil catch tray and I realised I’d forgotten a block of wood I use on the jack. No big issue but I think I need a list. So once the car was checked over I was ready to run for the first time since the same event 3 years earlier.

Dave Dinning was there at the weekend to keep an eye on what was going on outside the car, so we headed down to the staging lanes to see what does.

I did a little burnout to clean the tires off staged and off it went, well nearly. The clutch did something a bit odd so I shut off and then went again and then it did actually go. This all resulted in a 12.** et but as it turned out it went well in terms of top end speed at over 120mph. In fairness unusually for Santa Pod there was a tail wind which no doubt helped.

Back in the pits there turned out to be two problems both clutch related. If you have followed this thread for a while you will know clutch issues are a common theme and the phrase clutchgate has been used more than once in my ramblings. Fortunately this version was not as problematic as it has been in the past. The first very simple issue was the cotter pin on the rod, which actuates the master cylinder was loose so the simplest of fixes. The second was either a dodgy solenoid valve or proportioning valve. After a bit of head scratching with Dave and taking various hoses off the valve and solenoid we discovered it was the valve which was not holding pressure. As I had no spare we parked the idea of using the valve and decided to use left foot clutch management instead.

By the time we had all this sorted the track was closed, but we were all set for the morning.

[Peter Shattock]

The left foot clutch management actually proved to be reasonably successful all be it leaving on time was not my strong point with letting the clutch up slowly with my foot. To be fair I was never going to be competitive at this event in a 4 cylinder class with predominantly 9 second cars quite a few 8 second cars and two 7 second cars. So this was very much a test weekend for me.

Having warmed the car up and checked the clutch we were all set and on the way back to the staging lanes. Quick burn out and an uneventful run.

That said the car pulled a bigger wheelie than it has for years, which in fairness did surprise me. Dave and Ian claimed that I lifted, I’m claiming it bogged the motor. As luck would have it something went wrong with the data logging and the run was never recorded so there is no evidence either way and I’m sticking with my story.

The uneventful run turned out to be quick as they often do. With the car set up for the street (fan belt, muffler and street tires) it ran a new PB of 11.01 at 122mph. Needless to say that was great news and oh so close to the 10 I’ve been chasing. Needless to say this fuelled discussions of me lifting and the car being up for a 10, but the driver not so. Once my light weight driver skills had been fully debated we got the car ready for another run.

This time the plan was no burnout and to just drive around the water as the track was in really good shape and obviously the motor bogged last time and we would be back out at the hottest part of the day.

This resulted in another uneventful, but quick run. This time though not only was it a new street car set up PB, it was also the quickest the car has ever been with a 10.90 at 123mph and only the second time the car has run a 10 and previously that was with slicks, stinger and no cooling on the car.

This was a bit of a moment for me, the car and all the people who have helped to get me and the car to this point as this is the 10 second dream I’ve been chasing with this set up for about 10 years now.

The only problem is I didn’t drive it to and from the track so there is still a couple of boxes to tick, but it’s good to know the car is in the ballpark performance wise.

I did another run later in the afternoon, but the track was not as grippy and we got the setup wrong, but still ran a scruffy 11.06 at 122mph so fairly consistent all day.

What was also consistent was some fairly awful 60ft times with a 1.62 best for the 10.90 and a 1.73 worst for the 11.06.

I was really happy that evening when my head hit the pillow, but it all went down hill rapidly on Sunday morning. On the first run in eliminations, just after leaving the line I broke the driver’s side axle. I managed to limp to the end of the track just in case there was a chance of getting a bye and making the next round as Jonny in the other lane really broke. Unfortunately it was a no go and that was the end of the weekend for me.

As much as I would rather have brought the car home in one bit and it feels odd to say but I really wasn’t disappointed with the weekend given what the car did on Saturday.

So with the car back home in the garage, I need to sort some axles and hopefully get the car back in one bit in time for Bugjam.
 
Veedub racing has the 3 runs on YouTube which hopefully you’ll see here. https://youtu.be/n_AxuqX4Fig

[richie]

Glad the excess of cake didn't slow you down 

cheers Richie

[Peter Shattock]

It did on the way home as I might have said I’d take a few bits for the family, not all of which made it all the way home. I’ve got a while to get back down to race weight though whilst I get the car fixed.

So ‘just enough’ was just enough in the end.

[nicolas]

I did miss the car. but jealous, yes jealous, about what you and Johannes, and all the people involved really, are doing. take care!

[Peter Shattock]

So I’ve just read my last post to see where I left off and I see that I had some misguided idea that I might have been back out in the summer of last year. Needless to say that didn’t happen. I actually didn’t drive the car again until Good Friday this year. I did run the car before then, but the maiden voyage in 2024 was a quick run down the road to a local car show at a mates garage. The car ran ok, but still had the light throttle running issues it had last year so not the most enjoyable drive ever, but it was good to get out in the car again and see a few people I’d not seen in a while and talk car stuff.

With the car back in the garage I had a few small jobs to do and to sort the low speed running. I thought the latter might have been an issue with the new TPS so I decided to swap back to the old one as it was a possible variable from the previous starting issues it had and I was not sure that I hadn’t inadvertently created this new issue. This involved a bit of faffing about extending wires and finding and fitting a new connector so that the two sensors shared the same type of plug and are easily interchangeable. As it turned out it made no difference, but on the bright side it means I have a spare TPS in the toolbox.

I spoke to Johannes and he suggested trimming the overall fuel map as a quick check. As the stumble is just off tickover it’s easily detected with the car just sat at idle. So I added 5% and it was no better and if anything maybe slightly worse. On this basis I decided to take 5% fuel out from the original position and it was better. Not perfect, but certainly better. I took the car for a drive to check the air fuel on the data log which looked OK and sent the logs to Johannes to be sure he was happy. We agreed that assuming it was just light throttle which it is for general road driving it was fine.
This conversation was the morning of my drive to the track for my first race of the year.

So with that sorted I set about packing the car. It was nearly 12 months ago when I did this last and I really should have a list as I always manage to forget something. I got what I thought was the necessary tools, spares, fuel, oil, clothing, helmet, race suit, sleeping bag, pillow, a drink and a bit of food in the car for the weekend and set off.
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[Peter Shattock]

The car was fine on the journey and I played the usual oil temp / oil pressure / speed comparison game whilst messing about with the fans on the cooler to see what difference they make. Temps weren’t a problem as it was a cold day so 55-60mph was just over 40psi oil pressure with oil temp at 90 degrees C. The drive was uneventful, but for a bit of rain, traffic and a diversion due to a road closure. The journey was consequently a bit longer than usual, but about 2 and a half hours after leaving home I arrived. I was glad to get out of the car, but not for long as it was really cold. I caught up with those already there and got myself signed in. I’d arrived before Alex who was providing somewhere for the car and I to sleep for the weekend, but Alex soon arrived and we got set up, unpacked the car, had some food and got our heads down for the night. The first run was not scheduled until lunchtime so we had a leisurely start and had plenty of time to get the car to tech inspection. The car was all good, but I was told I needed some new race boots. Fortunately Alex had his in the camper which I borrowed for the weekend (thanks Alex). It was a bit of a clown shoes job as he has bigger feet than me but it was all fine.
Ian, Dave and Lee arrived in the morning so we had a good crew of eyes ears and experience to try and keep me and the car on the straight and narrow for the weekend.
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[Peter Shattock]

I put some fuel in it and warmed the car up about an hour before we were due to run. It really was cold still so it certainly needed it.

The first run was a bit odd in that I got round to the burnout box tried to spin the tires but spun the clutch instead. There was a bit of smoke in the car, but definitely not tire smoke as planned. I put it back in 1st and it pulled away, so I tried a quick spin of the tires and the clutch gripped. With nothing to loose I pulled up to the start line and ran a nice opener of 11.03 @ 120mph. After the run I was a bit confused about what had happened as the clutch felt fine up to the line and on the launch. I drove back to the pits with no issue with the clutch and I did a bit of unnecessary start stop and gear changing using the clutch. Back in the pits there was nothing visually to indicate any sort of issue and the data confirmed the clutch held and if anything didn’t slip enough off the start line so all very confusing.
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[Peter Shattock]

I decided to run again and see what happened. We pushed the car down fire up lanes and when it was our turn I fired it up, selected 1st and tried to pull away, but there was an unusual momentary pause a bit of the thud and then the car pulled away. All a bit alarming. I dipped and released the clutch again and it was fine. I did this several times and again all fine, usual feel bite point etc. So just like the first run I decided I had nothing to loose so I did a little 1st gear spin of the tires and rolled up to the start line. The car left the line in an unusually scrappy manor pulled right, not drastically but it was all a bit messy. Otherwise the run was uneventful. I was not a happy bunny though as I’d not controlled the launch well either. I got back to the pits and had the hump as it felt like a wasted run until Alex rocked up and said it was a 10. That didn’t compute at first and I thought he was winding me up, but I could see in his face he was serious so all of a sudden the world was much better place.
The timing ticket confirmed it was a 10 all be it only just with a 10.99 at 121mph. So smiles all round.
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[Peter Shattock]

Anyone who has followed this thread will know this has been a long time coming as it was way back in 2011 when I first got after the idea of a 10 second 1776 na street car. Whilst the car did run a 10 in 2015 when it was first out with the 94x64 1776 that was on slicks, with a stinger and no cooling. There have been various issues between then and now which have slowed progress, but it was not until 2023 that I ran another 10. The delay was in part due to me wanting to get the car to a point where I could drive it to the track and most importantly run a 10 on street tires, with the cooling and fan belt on and through the muffler, basically in the same state as when I drive in the gate to the event. The only compromise I make is fuel. Whist I run the car on the street on super unleaded I’m a bit cautious running it all out on the track without a bit more octane to make sure I keep things safe. So wanting to run a 10 and just rock up at the track unpack the car adjust the tire pressures and put some fancy fuel in it proved to be a bit more difficult than I had first thought. Even the 10 in 2023 although through the muffler, fan belt on and on street tires was good, the problem was I didn’t drive it to and from the track.

[Peter Shattock]

So this was the 10 I’d been chasing all be it to complete the job I needed to drive the car home.
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[Peter Shattock]

Looking at the data it was clear that the clutch slipped a bit after initial engagement as it kept the rpm up at around 7,000 which is better than normal. There was clearly something not quite right with the clutch though. It was one of those fellings when you know there is something not quite right, but I really had no idea what it might be. After a bit of thought and a cup of tea I decided to take it for a drive as I was planning to get the car weighed anyway so jumped into the car and fired it up but it was running on 3. This again was really odd as it had just run a 10 and I’d driven it back to the pits after the run and it had been running fine.

So I started with the plug leads as I had an issue with a lead coming off the coil before, but they were all connected. However number 4 felt slightly odd so I pulled it off to check it. It turned out the 90 degree connector in the boot had broken off and half of it was left on the coil and half of it was still attached to the lead.

When this happened, how it happened I’ve no idea, but needless to say I needed to fix it. I do carry a few connectors but they were all the plug end variety not the coil end type I needed. I run a Ford Zetec coil pack and they have a smaller diameter connector. No one else in the pits had one of but one of the guys who runs in Competition Eliminator recognised the connector type and mentioned that there was a Ford Focus round at the other side of the track that the monster trucks were due to run over the following day. We needed some food so we’re heading over that way anyway and sure enough when we got there there were actually two Ford Focus’s to pick from. We asked the Monster Truck guys to see if we could nick a plug lead to which they said ‘no problem help yourselves’. A few minutes later we were wandering off to find some food with 8 plug leads, which needless to say was a right result.
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