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Author Topic: The eternal rebuild  (Read 105920 times)
Peter Shattock
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« Reply #60 on: May 05, 2015, 21:06:36 pm »

The final fabrication job at Robinson racecars was to make the oil cooler mount which lives in the space where the torsion housing once lived in the passenger side of the car. This in principal was a good location as it was further forward and lower down than it was before and I moved it to the opposite side of the car to help with weight distribution.

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I had hoped to fit the filter on the passenger side of the car too but there was no room so that now sits in the same location on the drivers side which is at least better than it was before.

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These were unusual locations but suit my longer term plans for the dry sump tank location I had in mind as well as putting the weight in a better place as I needed to make up some ground with the additional weight of the new gearbox.



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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #61 on: May 05, 2015, 21:08:13 pm »

The gearbox in the pictures when the suspension was being built was his an empty case with the bell housing bolted to it. The bell housing itself was based on a type 1 case with the bell housing cut off with a plate welded to it to enable it to be bolted to the main gear box case. This proved to be more tricky than I sounds due to the mag bell housing and plate distorting but we got there in the end with a bit of machine work afterwards.

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The main modification work to the gearbox was the clutch housing as there is no room for the traditional release bearing and lever arm. The hydraulic set up is based around a Saab 9000 bearing and a two part hosing which is a machined fit to the gearbox case. I sized the internals of this to suit one of the SACO in tunnel master cylinders which worked out to be a good solution although bleeding the system is a pain as the backside as the bleed nipple is on top of the box.

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« Last Edit: May 05, 2015, 21:32:03 pm by Peter Shattock » Logged

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #62 on: May 05, 2015, 21:36:28 pm »

The gearbox is otherwise the standard Hewland part although I did need to have a ring and pinion set made for it to get the ratios to work. The only other modification was to super finish the internal parts.

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The plated and painted suspension going back together.

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #63 on: May 05, 2015, 21:44:09 pm »

Once the gearbox was built Martin Taylor of Taylor Machine made me some 300m axles to fit the tripod joints I was using instead of the usual CV's to save a bit of weight and reduce the friction a bit (every little helps).

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #64 on: May 05, 2015, 21:57:40 pm »

With the car all back together thanks to several very long days/nights/mornings with Ian it was time to get the car back to Robinson Race cars to set up the suspension and weigh it.

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Before we could do that though there was the motor to fire up and to see if we had some gears and a clutch! Fortunately this all went to plan with a 6 forward gears present and correct. I had no reverse gear at this point as we had not hooked up the reverse gear lockout cable at this point given it was not critical. Major excitement all round at this point as this was the Thursday night before UKDD.

We dropped the car back to Robinson Race Cars that night and went home to try and get a good nights kip as Friday was the day we were due to leave to go to the track and there were still plenty of jobs to do before the car could run.

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vwhelmot
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« Reply #65 on: May 05, 2015, 22:02:47 pm »

That's some serious development and evolution of the bug. Everything looks really expensive and it's all very impressive. I doth my cap.
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Cobrajet
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« Reply #66 on: May 20, 2015, 16:37:45 pm »

.........
Wheels on was a really good moment!



Amazing work! I hope that you don't mind, I saved a few of the pics to inspire me on working on suspension of my own.

BTW, what is the car in the background on the right in the pic above? Looks like an aluminum tilt hood.
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Zach Gomulka
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Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.


« Reply #67 on: May 20, 2015, 19:01:34 pm »

Shelby Cobra Daytona?
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Jesus
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WWW
« Reply #68 on: May 20, 2015, 19:41:12 pm »

Loving the thread Pete!
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Cobrajet
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« Reply #69 on: May 20, 2015, 22:30:38 pm »

Shelby Cobra Daytona?

Kinda looks like it to me!

What is it Pete?
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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #70 on: May 21, 2015, 23:15:52 pm »

"Amazing work! I hope that you don't mind, I saved a few of the pics to inspire me on working on suspension of my own."

No problem go for it.

In terms of the car to be honest I can't remember, but I can say in the time the car was there it shared workshop space with an eclectic mix of cars from Andy's own 5 second promod car a Skyline, Morgan, Lotus Elan, Mk1 Lotus Cortina, Luke's 11 second Audi S4(as it is now), an electric beetle, jet car and the one below which was very easy on the eye!

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That brown thing doesn't look to bad either......

Peter

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henk
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« Reply #71 on: September 23, 2015, 23:32:16 pm »

hallo Peter,

was great meeting you at DDD,always nice to place a name on the forum here.
you car is great to watch,does not only sound like a motorbike,but goes like one as well.
here some pictures of your car at DDD.

henk!!!







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richie
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« Reply #72 on: January 03, 2016, 15:35:11 pm »

A pic from 2002 of some friends waiting to run at Santa pod Smiley, thanks to Dan Orangemeca for the picture
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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #73 on: January 05, 2016, 18:35:38 pm »

A great picture in days when life was far more simple than it is now!

Nice to know Nico's old car is in good hands and still in use, its shame Nico is not about though as he was a good fun guy to have around. It would be good to see Eric out again too.....

You posting this has reminded me I need to do a bit of an update to this thread as there is a bit to say and some pictures to sort out which I'll try and do at some point in the not to distant future.

Happy New Year all!
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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #74 on: February 13, 2016, 23:02:05 pm »

One day I'll get this thread up to date but time has been limited since the end of the 2015 racing season for anything car related.

The last update was when the car had just been finished and was ready for the 2013 season. This was with the new rear suspension, gearbox, shifter and a modified engine oil system. So there was a lot of new stuff to try out.

It turned out to be a good year of racing with the car generally being reliable, but the clutch was still marginal. It did much better than in previous years with the clutch less shifting though.
The only other issue of note was the pushrod tubes as I was struggling to get them to seal for any length of time. There was a clearance issue with the pushrods which ultimately resulted in me going back to the steel pushrods I was running previously. This was the short term fix as there was not time to sort it to enable me to run the aluminum ones as the planned solution was a bit involved.

I ran the car at 3 events in 2013 CLDD, EBI and Bugjam. The car never ran as quick as it did with the 4 speed, but as I just stuck tall 5th and 6th gears in it, it was not that much of a surprise. I would be lying if I said I was not a little disappointed as needless to say you always want to go a bit quicker. That said the major positive was that it had been reliable and the suspension felt good and the gearbox shifting was becoming far more natural.

After the last race of the year I did do a few small jobs on the car whilst it was still on the road like mounting the dry sump tank and the new battery, thanks to Luke at Robinson Race cars again.

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #75 on: February 13, 2016, 23:10:55 pm »

Having had a few outings in the car on the street in what was left of the decent weather I decided to get it in the garage for good and get it apart ready to start on my plans for the winter of 2013 / 14.

In the gearbox the pinion head had a few marks, but nothing problematic and the 5th and 6th gear dog rings had a few small bits missing. As it was apart I decided to change these to be sure all was well although I don't think it was really necessary.
 
Interestingly the 1st to 4th gear rings did not have a mark on them, which is due to the ratios being close together when the 4th to 5th and 5th to 6th ratios were further apart. The differing gear speeds were the cause of the marks on the dog rings. I also added a sensor to the gearbox so I could data log the clutch whilst the box was apart.
Problem 2 was the clutch housing. When this was fitted originally I was out of time and did not get it hard anodized. This resulted in some ware on the bores that the release bearing runs on in the housing. I've since made another and repaired and hard anodized the original as a spare.

The main jobs I had to do were the new fuel system and the wiring for the ecu. As it turned out both jobs took for ever getting various parts and fittings and connectors.
The ecu a Motec M4pro I had bought some time ago and was fine in itself. I bought a generic loom from Motec which was terminated at the ecu plug end which was a good starting point. I'm not a fan of wiring and doing this has not made me any more so now! That said its done and other than looking like someone has spilt a plate of spaghetti in the engine bay and on the rear parcel shelf its OK. Being realistic it is a necessary evil now. Its a whole new language to me and I still have lots to learn about the ecu, but I've made a start and I'm making progress.

I terminated what wires I could without the engine in the car and labelled up the rest of the loom and marked up a wiring diagram.

Other than getting all the relevant sensors and connectors that was about it for the wiring. The remainder would be done when the car was in Sweden and the engine was in place.

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #76 on: February 13, 2016, 23:32:33 pm »

The fuel system was much nicer work and the only unusual thing in this case was modifying the standard tank to create a sump pickup point and some internal baffles to keep the fuel from surging.

 A couple of filters and a regulator, from fuel lab, a high pressure pump from Bosch Motorsport and a pile of P clips and a very expensive trip to Think Automotive for the hose and fittings and I was about good to go with the fuel system.

With the car ready it was time to make a plan to get to Sweden to fit and dyno the new motor which was coming along. This was summer 2014 by now and we set a date to get to JPM the week before DDD with a view to doing some test runs on the way home in a round about sort of way.

Ian Dave and I set of to Sweden with the car in tow as planned and the journey although long was trouble free.

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #77 on: February 13, 2016, 23:36:42 pm »

Needless to say seeing the engine complete for the first time was a serious bit of motivation after all the years we had been discussing it.

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #78 on: February 13, 2016, 23:43:13 pm »

There were a few jobs to do but we got the motor in the car as soon as we could so I could finish the wiring and fuel lines in the engine bay. We also set about cutting out the inner wings so the throttle bodies would fit which was fairly comical. Ian and I initially made a couple of small holes which soon grew to large holes when Dave got involved!

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #79 on: February 13, 2016, 23:45:43 pm »

Peak a boo!

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #80 on: February 13, 2016, 23:53:28 pm »

Motor in and ready to run. After a distributor related problem was solved, which by amazing coincidence Johannes had the part needed on his desk we had a few runs, but soon hit a misfire at 8-8.5k.

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #81 on: February 14, 2016, 00:06:54 am »

We thought this was an electrical related misfire at first, but nothing we tried made any difference so no quick fix!

This prompted Ian, Dave and I to fly home and leave the car my daily driver golf and Phil West's trailer in Sweden for an extended holiday.

With the pressure off Johannes worked through any potential electrical issues we had not already tried but no joy. It became obvious that there was more of a fundamental problem with the valve train and it turned out that we were loosing control of the valves.

This was a big disappointment as we had not got anywhere near the intended and calculated peak power rpm or the calculated theoretical valve spring rpm limit, but we were where were.
 
At this point Johannes designed an alternative less aggressive cam and found some PAC valve springs with a bit more pressure.

One evening in December I got a call from Johannes to say he had got the motor back together and back in the car and had just been on the dyno and pulled 10,700rpm!

Needless to say there was a lot of excitement all round and I was dancing around like an idiot back here in England. Obviously I was busting to see it and more importantly hear. So we made a plan for me to fly to Sweden to see a few pulls with the stinger and some with a muffler and bring the car home.

This all happened just before Christmas 2014.

Hearing the engine at 10,000 rpm is not the easiest thing to describe or to enjoy the dyno. It's such an un natural way to see and hear the engine and I'm not sure I enjoy it but it was great to realise the dream and hear 10,000rpm from an ACVW engine. Better still it was still all in one bit!

With the car back home there were a load of jobs still to do before I could race it the following year, most were simple enough but as ever everything takes longer than you think so I was keen to get on with it.

So in January once I'd scored a few house points with my wife and family I set about getting the car ready to race. The biggest job by far was making and fitting the throttle body enclosures and seal off the inner wings. With all the angles involved and the wing and tire clearance to consider whilst keeping sufficient space round the stacks so as not to restrict the air flow it turned out to be far more involved than it looks now its done. I got the two oval cylinders made and then Trevor a long time VW pal and I got to work to make them fit the car. This turned out to be many noisy evening hours of work for my neighbours at home to endure, but we got them finished in the end.

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A quick splash of paint inside and out and the car was ready to refit the motor and do a few last minute jobs like fitting a load cell gear knob to the shifter (at vast expense), fitting a gear position sensor to the gearbox and a gear position display screen, a shift light and clutch switch.

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« Last Edit: February 19, 2016, 23:13:11 pm by Peter Shattock » Logged

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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #82 on: February 14, 2016, 00:20:30 am »

I had no time to set any of this lot up before going to the track for the first time with the new engine, but the weekend event I was to be running at had unrestricted track time all weekend so I knew I would have time to sort things out and make adjustments.

This would have been fine if it was not for the fact that the laptop I had been using all winter on the car decided it would not talk to the ecu. Needless to say this fueled my hatred of all things electrical and did not get me off to the best start with it all.

There was also a fuel pressure regulator issue which prevented me from making the 1st pass. But with Dave's brains and a regulator from Michael (Tiki Madness) it got down the track at the second attempt which was great.

I did 3 runs that day starting with a 12.1, then and 11.8 and to finish a PB of 11.1 with and early shut off 111mph terminal speed. All these runs were with a quick spin of the tires rather than a burn out which had proved to be quite successful with the old motor.

All looked good with the car and was promising start to the season and I was looking forward to the following day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiEk_sE4Yzs&list=PL08x_IQUdVU8WIIJqHtc4vr4wdScDfQAR

Sunday resulted in another 3 runs, two 11.2's but I was still spinning the tires, so did a proper burnout and then ran the 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2L2UFqbL8c

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I was still struggling to get the car off the line without the ability to adjust the clutch, so actually managed the 10 with a far from ideal 60ft which was also promising in the long run.
Unfortunately by this time I was struggling to stop the pushrod tubes from leaking so that was it for the weekend.

So the 10 was in the bag but this was not the 10 I was looking for (said in a obi wan Konobi voice) given I had not driven the car to the track and it was not street legal. So there was plenty still to do.

The next event for me was Volkslife at SCR and with the laptop sorted, plan B with the pushrod tubes in place and some clutch adjustment sorted. I was feeling optimistic.
As it turned out I had hydraulic clutch related problems all weekend which wasted a lot of time and effort on the Saturday, but I did still run on the Sunday 3 times all of which were 11.1* at around 120mph so not slow, but not where I wanted to be either.

The hydraulic side of the clutch all came apart when I got home and I fixed a few issues I'd found and ordered some spares so if I had problems again I'd be better prepared.

Dragstalgia was next and as it was a nostalgia event I decided to run on the BRM's which also meant street tires (M&H DOT's), which would be a good step towards the street car 10 I'm looking for.

The first run of the weekend was a very solid 11.2 which was by far and away the fastest I'd been before on DOT's and a great start.

Unfortunately that was the best news of the weekend as clutchgate struck again! Only this time it was a bit more fundamental as it turned out.

There were various problems with an over traveling clutch release bearing being the first. I managed to waste a fair bit of time due to me miss diagnosing this as a repeat of the master cylinder issue. Once the motor was out the problem was obvious as the release bearing was half out of the housing. We fixed this and got the motor back in and thought we were all good. Unfortunately the slave cylinder in the gearbox then blew a seal and was leaking Hydraulic fluid into the gearbox, which brought the weekend to an end and with some work to do when the car was back home.

Taking the drain plug out of the gearbox confirmed what we had diagnosed at the track as a mixture of clutch fluid and gearbox oil came rushing out!

With the gearbox out (I have to remove the diff to change the seal as its internal to the gearbox) and seal changed it was just a case of getting it all back in one bit again for DDD.

That said I also fitted a line lock in the clutch line and looped the line with the valve round the line lock just the same as most that are using them have done. The line lock is activated of a throttle switch so it only works on full throttle which has proved to be a good solution with the clutchless shifting.

Up until this point I simply had the clutch valve in the main line between the master and slave cylinders. This would not be an obvious solution in most cases, but with only using the clutch on the start line I thought it would be a good simple solution for me, but I was wrong! Most of the seasons drama to this point had been clutch related but hydraulic rather than mechanical unlike previous years.

With the car together I was off to Germany for the last event of the year for me.

DDD is a great event and I had a great time. The weather played its part on Saturday but there was plenty of track time over the weekend.

The car was running well in general bug I was struggling to get on top of the clutch adjustment now I actually had some. This was partly due to not having anyone with me to watch what was going on and video the car of the line but mainly because the data logging channel I had set up was not working so it was just a trial and error job over the weekend which was not ideal. That said I did eventually get round to running an 11.15 by the end of the weekend.

So that was it for the 2015 season. The main success was to finish the year with the engine in one bit and proving the oil system and valve train was up to the job. The only motor maintenance I did in the year was the usual oil changes, valve lash checks, and bit of ecu adjustment. So all in all a decent year.




« Last Edit: February 14, 2016, 22:09:42 pm by Peter Shattock » Logged

The fastest beetle in the village
Eddie DVK
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« Reply #83 on: February 14, 2016, 09:45:36 am »

So inspirable, keep those stories coming.
Really love your rear suspension.

Regards Edgar
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Regards Edgar

" Type 4, it is a completely different engine. You have to drive one to understand! "
cedric
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« Reply #84 on: February 14, 2016, 12:04:52 pm »

Still cool engine,cool storys and lots off work to keep good times!good luck in 2016
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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #85 on: February 14, 2016, 22:39:04 pm »

The first job on the to do list when I got home was to get the tinware on the engine so I can get the car back on the road as that was the worst bit of the year not being able to drive the car.

I was intent on getting on with this when I got back from DDD, but things at work meant that didn't happen and it was not until the run up to Christmas that I had any garage time and got started with the tinware.

By this time I knew the engine was to be featured in Race Engine Technology magazine and that they wanted the motor on their stand at The Autosport International Show at the National Exhibition Centre here in the UK.

The motor was still in one bit so this was no great problem, but I needed to do a few jobs not least of all clean it as after a seasons racing it did not look quite as it did when I first saw it on the engine stand at JPM!

Fortunately we took some pictures of the motor before we fitted it to the car which was just as well!

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With a few jobs done I got the motor out and on the stand cleaned it and got a few other bits ready to see if I could make it look something like it did in the pictures above!
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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #86 on: February 14, 2016, 23:11:04 pm »

The magazine was due out for the show so I'd not seen it before getting there, but I was really chuffed to see an old beetle engine on the cover!

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I met Lawrence from RET at the NEC and he and I got the motor and some other parts set up the day before the show opened.

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Lawrence gave me a copy of the magazine to read that night, so once we were all set I went back to the hotel to read the article, which was a really nice 11 page treat before the show!

Johannes came over for the show with a couple of friends, to take in the sights. They were a little delayed due to snow and ice on the wings in Copenhagen but a cup of tea later and they soon arrived

If you fancy a trip to the show in the future it’s a really easy journey if you are traveling from abroad as the airport in Birmingham is just a short free shuttle ride and walk from the NEC.

It’s a good show if you’re like your technical stuff. There is not often anything specifically ACVW related, but there is lots of the usual peripheral parts suppliers if you are after parts or want to speak to their tech experts.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2016, 11:54:07 am by Peter Shattock » Logged

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Olaf A./DFL
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« Reply #87 on: February 15, 2016, 10:29:39 am »

Your reports are fantastic! Thanks for your time and effort sharing your racing experiences!
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jamiep_jamiep
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« Reply #88 on: February 15, 2016, 11:08:26 am »

Great read as always Peter!
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Peter Shattock
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« Reply #89 on: February 18, 2016, 21:31:13 pm »

The 10 second 1776 engine spec
The new 1776 is based around a modified standard crankcase. There's the usual full flow, shuffle pins as well as a few extra modifications. The most obvious of which is the steel plates used to help keep the wobbly old mag case stable. Several other oil control modifications were also carried out with a view to keeping the oil away from the crank and the 3 & 4 side of the engine and getting it back to the oil pick up which is now at the back of the case.
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