Lightning Bug II Clone Heads....

[rick m]

I was amazed when I saw Dean Kirsten's shots of the old LIGHTNING BUG heads how similar the intakes were to some I just finished for my 2275 street motor. I just had Mike Fischer clean them up and ensure the valve job was ready for engine assembly.  Can't wait to get these heavy breathers on my motor and get it buttoned up to go in the chop top.

I'm running BERG IDA short manifolds.  For any of you who have seen them before the work I did, you will recognize there is a lot of meat missing. They came with two bolt patterns on top so you can set the IDA's with the adjustment screws toward the fan schround or toward the outside of manifolds. I cut off the extra bosses, we milled off about 1/4" of the top, and I ground and worked on the manifolds getting rid of all excess metal and then we had them polished. I think I have as much time in the manifolds (with porting) as I spent on the heads.  The heads started as the CNC ROUND PORT heads from CB and I modified them to my desired port design.

Rick M

[deano]

Rick if you closely at Schley's heads you will notice the serious lack of fins.... and what you can't see is the 15cc chambers (well, close to it!). They ran 15.0:1 in 1972!

[rick m]

Yeah...I remember how much RAY VALLERO had cut out of his early BUG-IRON heads.  Usually only a couple fins left and an incredibly small chamber. I'm right around 8.8 to 9.0 to 1 compression on mine.  Had to leave some cooling capability.  I also do the flow treatment between the fins like the article you guys ran on dropping head temps.  I have lots of flow through and over the intake runners and exhaust runners. Can't wait!

Dean, how is your car coming. Looks pretty good in past shots you shared.

Rick M

[deano]

Also, look very closely at the intake manifold studs.... Notice how short they are? Too short for a nut, correct? Yes! They used a strange tab-bracket deal to hold the manifold edge down tight, since the intake manifolds were welded on so much, there wasn't enough room for a conventional nut to go on. Schleys also used two different ratio rocker arms, different on the intakes and exhaust; 1.4:1 and 1.5:1. That engine also had one of the very first, if the not the first, Engle FK89!.... Remember, this was back in 1972!

[rick m]

Deano,  I think it is incredible that they got this car back.  What an exciting thing to recover a car that was so much a part of your life, the early gas class days, a true part of the whole VW performance history and still in tact. Does this car still have a tube axle too?  I can't wait to see it done.  Will definitely make it over for the Debut of the Schley Gasser and Dragster. Wow, seems like it was just yesterday. The picture of me in these posts was taken back in early 72.  It was all the chop top gassers that made me love the chopped look.

Rick M

[Diederick/DVK]

that's quite unconventional, making Wedge Ports out of CNC Round Ports.
stunning work though, those manifolds look amazing!

[rick m]

Yeah...got the heads home as ROUND PORTS and decided after all I was doing to my car to run a bigger cam and heads, there was no sense in paying someone to do the work as I've done a lot of my own heads over the years (41 to be exact!). The top of the port is where the biggest gains come from as well as the backside of the valves...so, I went to town!

RM

[rick m]

that's quite unconventional, making Wedge Ports out of CNC Round Ports.
stunning work though, those manifolds look amazing!

Hey thanks for the compliment on the heads 67-indeed/DVK.

If you've ever seen the BERG manifolds without the work I did,  you would appreciate the hours of work I put into them.  I think I spent as much time reshaping them and modifying them as I did the heads.  Thank goodness I have Competition Engineering close by. They re-ran my valve job for me once I was done with the heads.

Can't wait to fire up the car. Not to far off now!

Rick M