My '63 Rat Notch

I've been on this site for a bit. I know a few blokes on here. Or, Yanks, as the case may be. I live in Oregon, about 28 miles from the California border.

I have a lot of projects in the kettle, including: A '66 Variant Pigalle, a '66 Fastback (my son’s car, one owner, California car that originally had dealer installed air conditioning), a ‘68 Squareback (my first VW), a ‘67 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet (serious project), a ‘69 Fastback (automatic!), a '69 Squareback, a ‘70 Baja (son’s other car), a ‘70 Karmann Ghia (parts car), a ‘87 Cabriolet, a ‘88 Cabriolet (wife’s car) — whew! That’s a lot of typing.

But I'll post probably the most interesting VW that I have, is a ‘63 Notchback with a 2332 CB fuel injected motor. It’s always in a state of perpetual progress. I'm running DRD Stage 5 heads, MSD ignition and a Kymco 1 5/8" Type 3 merged exhaust.

Here is a concept for the Notch Rat: Stock wheels, no caps, fat tires in the back, skinny up front. Keepin' the paint all faded for now. I think I'll clear coat it with some satin.

Dan Evison is the engine builder - just so you know who Dan is...

Bolting the case together with the bearings (test fit):

Case bolted together with bearings:

Checking bearing specs:

Rods:

Crank detail:

Pics of me cleaning out the motor case, and deburring the edges:

Detail shot:

Made some progress on the motor! After tons of problems with two sets of rod bearings, Keller Machine finally found some bearings that worked! I ended up getting some Chevy 2.8l bearings that fit the bill. Last weekend spent a little time at Dan's shop and he started assembly. Had a little scare with one of the rod bearings, but Dan did a little filing, and everything is A-OK!! I am stoked!!!

One main bearing in place!

1st rod in place!

2nd and 3rd rods in place!

All four getting torqued down.

Final torque. Man they were all nice and smooth. I gotta give props to Dan, he really takes his time to make sure it's all right. All four rods felt nice and smooth. Looking forward for more progress!!

Some pics of the shortblock progress:

Case tapped for Type 3 full-flow

Checking the distributor drive shaft for clearance

Clearanced side of case for distributor drive shaft

Drive shaft in place

Installing small crank bearing

Small crank bearing on

Checking large crank bearing in case

Had a lot of problems with the key for the fan. You can see how this crank was machined too far down into the shoulder. The key kept moving to far down:

Here you can see the key pushing down too far:

After some creative clearancing on the key, it fit and the oil washer fit (what the hell is that thing called?)

Installing cam gear (ooooooo, I love the sound of straight cut gears!):

Installing cam bearings:

Checking cam play against thrust surface:

Cam back out, installing lifters:

Crank installed:

Crank and cam installed:

Now you can really see those straight cut gears!

Closing the case (it will have to get opened up on more time after the cam is dialed in)

Case closed:

Check out the recessed washers:

Case fully bolted down, nuts torqued to 25lbs (remember this is not final):

Dropping in temp pistons and barrels:

Don't worry, we're just using these pistons temporarily to dial in the cam

The correct pistons are ordered for the 84mm crank

Dialing in the cam

Deck height tool used to find TDC:

If you look at No. 1 intake, Dan had a lifter with a rod welded to it

I think this is No. 1 intake...

It's tough to tell, but Dan is rotating the crank and watching the guage here:

Guage at TDC:

This is a nice closeup of the dial indicator guage and the lifter tool:

I guess this is the reader's digest big print version (degree wheel):

One bolt in cam gear getting tightend down after cam is dialed in:

So, that's where we're at. Short block pretty much done. Just need to pull the case apart and take out the lifter tool, drop in the rest of the lifters and tighten down the cam. Dan also wanted to make sure the cam bolts have enough clearance from the case.

Dan had to order some parts for the long block. He said we could hit it again next weekend. I'll have to bring more peanut-butter shakes...

Engine update. New build sessions.

This is where we left off. Short block was almost done. It sat in hibernation for a bit.

Balanced flywheel (balanced with whole rotating assembly, crank, rods and pressure plate)

Final assembly of short block. I didn't have all of the lifters in before. Cam plug wasn't in either. And, had to torque down the cam bolts.

Final torque of cam bolts

Cam in. Final assembly of the short block. I wish I would have taken more pics here. The other half of the case received the rest of the lifters. My engine builder had some cool springs to keep the lifters in place. I really wish I had a pic of that. O-rings added to the 6 case studs. Special German sealant added between the case halves. Cam plug in. One thing to note is that Dan likes to start tightening the two cam studs first on the case.

Test fit of full flow fittings

I'm using 94mm Mahle "B" pistons for the 5.5" rods

Adding cylinder studs (I don't know how I ended up with so many of these pics...) Engine builder had a cool tool that fit over the studs, and would allow for tightening without utilizing the threaded areas

My engine builder likes to set end play while the pistons and barrels are still off. Can't get an accurate measurement with them on.

The pistons were weighed and came out dead even out of the box!

Had to check the deck height. This motor is set up with a zero deck.

Pic of the shims used for the cylinders

Once the correct number and size of cylinder (barrel) shims were established, we started final assembly pistons and barrels

Some shots of my DRD Racing Heads – These are DRD Stage 5 heads. 40x35, ported and polished, matching intakes, bench flowed. Some of the pics have two valves out to see inside

Close up of the intake

CCing the heads (this may be out of order, I can't remember if we did this earlier)

Final assembly of the the heads

.060 copper head shims were used.

This copper shim was inserted into the head. I don't have a good pic of the copper shim in the head unfortunately...

One side

Other side

Voila! Almost a longblock! Just need to set up the valve train geometry.

Leak down test was between 12 and 18% for all cylinders!

Some Pics:

Push rods cut. Rockers installed. (I need to post a few more pics that I have here)

Here you can see the Kymco 1 5/8" exhaust not quite fitting on the 1/2 side. Just a little short.

Cutting at no. 1 port. Or is it no. 2?

Test fitting exhaust.

Welded back together.

Copper exhaust gaskets.

Finished exhaust.

Throttle body with exhaust.

Test fitting oil pump.

Pulling back out to see where cam bolts interfere.

Clearanced oil pump.

Pump drive gear welded.

New oil cooler stud.

Oil cooler and pressure fitting.

Oil cooler installed.

Cylinder tin over oil cooler.

Cylinder tin test fit on 1/2 side.

Intake manifold gasket. I had to match these to the ports. DRD marked them for me.

Intake manifold test fit.

Cylinder tin test fit on 1/2 side with deflector plate.

Test fitting the distributor.

Final installation of oil pump and test fitting of full-flow fittings.

Rear engine carrier test fit.

Installing muffler. I need to take this back off, but it kept Harrisen busy...

Setting up the throttle body linkage. Had to clear the distributor.

Inspecting the fuel injection wiring. This required taking off two miles of electrical tape...

Starting to hook all of the connectors on.

Gettin' closer!!

EFI + MSD wiring.

I need to tap the head for the head temp sensor.

EFI wiring.

Control box and switched wire.

Oil filter mount using Parker -8AN fittings.

Another pic of the oil filter mount.

Fan.

Pulley shroud on.

In this pic you can see the flange that I've removed from the sheet metal.

Alternator on with pulley and belt.

Here you can see the alternator and MSD distributor touching. I need to fix this so that the distributor can rotate.

Gettin' close!

Sooooo close!

3/8" fuel line running to the fuel rails on the throttle bodies. The coil is mounted, but I haven't added the connectors to the end of the wires yet. You can also see that I need to tap the head for the temp sender for the EFI.

This is a pretty good shot of the fuel line. I had to make a few bends to go around the distributor and center pivot for the throttle body linkage. I'm going to add the fuel regulator on the 1/2 side. I've taken off the alternator, until I can fix the clearance issue with the distributor.

Nice close up of the fuel line. The line is really close to the throttle body. I'm going to fix this with some fittings.

This is were I landed this weekend.

And a shot of my work area.

I'm in the final stretch of installing my 2332. Some recent pics...

"T" fitting on tank

Factory EFI fuel lines at end of pan tunnel

Fuel pump mounted — This is the first time I mounted this, I ended up moving it down into the front beam so that it's lower than the fuel tank

Shot of the new brake fluid reservoirs that my friend Ethan gave me (and installed!) a while ago

Harrisen, my son, removing the rear wheel to get access to the back fuel lines where they exit the pan

2332 EFI beast in the engine bay

Still working on lots of little details at this point. But the motor starts and runs in the car!

A few older pics of the flywheel, pressure plate and clutch getting installed

Measuring end play with a dial gauge

Aligning clutch with trans main shaft (works great!)

Pressure plate installed

Detail of pressure plate and flywheel balance marks (two zeros together by bolt)

Some more work on the Rat Notch...

This is how low the muffler was before — really low!

Muffler welded back on — this pic doesn't really show how much higher it is

Muffler with new bumper and hitch!

Cleaning bumpers

Front bumper mounted

I guess the tabs on the engine lids on the older Type 3s were smaller — we had to improvise and grind the tabs smaller from the donor '69 Type 3 engine lid

Harrisen, my son, working on the wiring for the alternator

Detail of the DDB alternator wired in — notice that it just barely fits with the MSD distributor

And all the dipstick parts getting cleaned in the dishwasher — shhhhhhh don't tell my wife Cindy!!

I have a #&%$ oil leak. I'm pretty sure the oil is leaking from the oil cooler... Someday Brian Fye will actually come down and fix this for me...