The eternal rebuild

[Peter Shattock]

The crank is a billet EN40b by Phoenix Crankshafts here in the UK. The flywheel is a modified standard VW 12v 180mm, with a Kennedy steel pressure plate and 180mm black magic center disc. The front pulleys were made by Martin at Taylor Machine toothed for the crank trigger. Martin also made the crank trigger sensor bracket.
The rods are Pauter ti.

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[Peter Shattock]

I've used a CB single suction stage dry sump pump 21mm supply and 26mm suction gears. The lines to the Canton filter, oil cooler and dry sump tank are all -8 and the tank to pump line is -12 as is the vent from the tank.

The cam is a one off JPM design with reduced width magnum cam gears which have been super finished.

Cam location signal for the ECU is via a modified standard hall effect distributor.

Lifters are shubek ceramic.

The pistons are custom 2 ring JE with light weight DLC coated piston pins running in JPM cylinders.

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The heads are MS250's with only minor modification with 7mm stem Dell West ti valves, keepers, lash caps and retainers.

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Pushrods are Manton steel dual taper and the rockers are split ratio 5 stud JPM.

The exhaust is a stage 2 CSP Wasp.

Induction is via JPM 50mm roller throttle bodies which are cable operated. Injectors are by Keihin originally designed for single cylinder motocross bike engines and run at 3.7bar. The fuel pump is from Bosch Motorsport, which runs 2 Fuel Lab filters  one each side of the pump and a regulator on the return line to the tank.

Ignition is via a Bosch Zetec coil and expander Taylor leads and NGK plugs

The ECU is a Motec M4 Pro with the usual collection of sensors.

So that's the 10 second 1776 engine spec. The collection of nice parts doesn't really tell the story though as the detailed design is where the power comes from. The good quality strong and lightweight parts just help it live and do what it's capable of.

[BeetleBug]

Thank you for sharing!

Why not JPM alu pushrods?

-BB-

[Zach Gomulka]

A couple geeky questions if you don't mind...
Any reason you went with a mag case with steel plates rather than an aluminium case? Is it through bolted?

What length are the rods?

[Jeff68]

Thanks for sharing the details....This engine is the perfect example of what can be achieved when every component / detail of an engine is optimized and a high degree of engine tuning and testing has been done with the combination. You get the optimum results as you have here. Awesome! Best of luck with the continued development of the engine and your car. 

[Peter Shattock]

Thanks for the encouragement all, hopefully there is still some more to come.

BB, there was too much spring pressure for the ali ones. We have a plan B for some lighter ones, which we'll be testing so will have a better idea once we have the results of where we are and where we can go next.

Zach, the rods are stock length, and there were a few reasons for the mag case. There are as you suggest through bolts to help keep it in one bit. I do like the quality of the original mag cases, the weight, and just the fact they are the original item. There are disadvantages too of course the strength and expansion being the main ones. Overall strength is less of a problem in my case (no pun intended), but the expansion is the biggest problem in general, with all the baggy tolerances when things get hot. Consequently I always try and keep the temps down to reasonable levels. The good news is so far so good and I’ll be sticking with the mag case all the time I can. 

Jeff, your dead right just keep plugging away improve what you can where you can and it’s amazing what you can do when it all comes together.   

Peter

[dangerous]

What did the car weigh when it ran its 10 second pass, Pete? Thanks, DB

[Peter Shattock]

DB,

I'm afraid I don't know. I've not weighed the car with the new motor in it. It will be heavier than it was, but still around 1500lbs mark with me in it as a best guess.

I have a few plans to save some weight again before the car gets back to the track and I suspect I will weigh it again then and post it up here.

Peter

[BeetleBug]

BB, there was too much spring pressure for the ali ones. We have a plan B for some lighter ones, which we'll be testing so will have a better idea once we have the results of where we are and where we can go next. 

I hope you dont mind me asking but which valve springs are you using?

-BB-

[Peter Shattock]

BB just to be sure I've understood when I said lighter ones I was meaning pushrods not valve springs. Springs are from PSI with around 480 on the nose which is more than we would want ideally. The plan is to stick with this spring for now and try and reduce the weight of the valve train parts to a point where we can get back to the cam we originally wanted in the engine.

[BeetleBug]

BB just to be sure I've understood when I said lighter ones I was meaning pushrods not valve springs. Springs are from PSI with around 480 on the nose which is more than we would want ideally. The plan is to stick with this spring for now and try and reduce the weight of the valve train parts to a point where we can get back to the cam we originally wanted in the engine.

Thats a fair bit above K800`s which is the highest I have tried with alu pushrods. I guess that is what it takes to have control @ 11000 rpms. You do not want float with those lifter that is for sure. I used K800`s with 430 on the nose and with a 51mm titanium intake valve in combo with a FK98, 10800 rpms and the same ceramic lifters as you.

Best rgs
BB

[Peter Shattock]

Hi BB,

That is seriously good going! Was that regular 10,800rpm? On the 1641? I need to hear it as I do love a bit of rpm, youtube?

Peter

[BeetleBug]

Hi BB,

That is seriously good going! Was that regular 10,800rpm? On the 1641? I need to hear it as I do love a bit of rpm, youtube?

Peter

Nope. It was my old 2386ccm. 281hp at 8800 rpms but it kept on going until 10800 rpms. Angle flow heads by JPM. Not sure youtube existed at that time  Kidding... here I am at a street legal race with 7.60 break out @ 1/8 mile. Launch only 7500 rpms. Max rpm at this race was set, if I remember correctly 9200. Non prepped and very narrow street:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDMQ3olee50

Best rgs
BB

[Peter Shattock]

Hi BB,

That is seriously good going! Was that regular 10,800rpm? On the 1641? I need to hear it as I do love a bit of rpm, youtube?

Peter

Nope. It was my old 2386ccm. 281hp at 8800 rpms but it kept on going until 10800 rpms. Angle flow heads by JPM. Not sure youtube existed at that time  Kidding... here I am at a street legal race with 7.60 break out @ 1/8 mile. Launch only 7500 rpms. Max rpm at this race was set, if I remember correctly 9200. Non prepped and very narrow street:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDMQ3olee50

Best rgs
BB

Very good!
Got to love a little fast blue VW! Just as well it is little too judging by the width of the track.
Really impressive to keep good power 2000rpm past the peak, particularly when you consider where your peak power is relative to most! Must be a good looking torque curve....
Nice to see and hear, keep at it
Peter

[dangerous]

What is new Peter?

[Peter Shattock]

Sorry to say there is not a lot to report. Won't be racing the car this year as there are jobs for me to do and I've not had time to do them.

Since DDD there has been next to no meaningful progress basically as I've had very little time in the garage. I've got bogged down with 3 major issues at work which have taken just about all my time. That said all 3 are fairly well sorted now there is a bit more to do with one of them but I'm hopeful garage time is on the horizon.

I did go and see Johannes to test some new engine parts for the next development of the engine in March. The first test (pushrods) went incredibly well but the second test valve spring retainers went incredibly badly!

I hope to get back to fitting tinware and once that and some new fuel rails are done we can hopefully get back to testing the other parts I'd made with a view to making a plan for the motor over the winter.

I'm afraid that's it!

Peter

[Peter Shattock]

So its been way longer than expected, but life really overtook me! But finally news worth reporting. The car has been on the JPM dyno breathing on Sweden's finest air over the last two days to test a number of changes. Lots to update here no time now, but the headline changes are top shot injectors, big bird pushrod tubes, MMC pushrods and the old cam. 9k bmep 14.22! We learnt some really interesting stuff, so there is already a plan C, but first we need to prove what we have again.
Fantastic few days, can't wait to get the car home and the tinware fitted and street legal so I can drive it as its been far to long!
Now its time for beer, barbeque and some bench racing.
Some pictures on the JPM faceache page for those of you who can't wait.
Peter

[Neil Davies]

I'll say it's been too long - it's been 12 months since the last update!

Are you coming to Drag Day at all, with or without the car? Be good to catch up!

[richie]

The injectors look interesting, cool you got it all figured out now

cheers Richie

[LGK]

HI Pete it seems you got it figured out now 14.22 BMEP  
Tell me about the MMC pushrods,did you also make the retainers out of it?


Well done mate.

Rgds Steve

[Peter Shattock]

Hi Neil,
Yes far too long, but I've been busy. I had originally planned to get the car to UK DD as the street car shoot out would have been fun, but it’s not going to happen. I've lots to do still and I'm not going to race it until its street legal again and that's not going to happen this week as I've come back to a mountain of work. That said the plan is to keep working on the car (starting tonight) and get it on the road ASAP then I'll get it to the track to see what it can do.

Hi Richie, yep top shots are go! Amazing really we just moved them from the port stuck them up top and it just started and idled with no changes to the fuel map at all! I can tell you I was certainly not expecting that! There was a bit of tweaking done to the map to get it right when we did some proper pulls but not a lot. We had no idea how it would pan out, but once it was running we just blipped the throttle and it responded well so we took it for a drive on the rollers and were amazed how it drove without any problems and this was before fine tuning the map. I know I've read plenty about reduced throttle response and only good for top end power etc, but we found neither to be true as we picked up power all over rev range and no perceivable drop in throttle response.

Hi Steve,
I had actually hoped to call in and see you on the way home, but time was really tight on this trip so had to just get the journey done and get home.
The motor is fitted with the MMC pushrods, but Ti retainers. The single cylinder test was with the MMC pushrods and MMC retainers. It was the retainer that let go and rather ruined the single cylinder engine! We are hoping to get back and test a new retainer design, but Johannes and I have a bit of work to do before we get to that point.
So the new pushrods basically saved 39g per pushrod and allowed us to rev the motor Just beyond 10,000rpm when previously we only managed just over 8,500rpm so we gained about 1,500rpm with the weight saving.
The hot lash was far better controlled too, and I do think this contributed to the additional rpm capable as previously the ramp on the cam was all gone by the time the lash had been taken up so the lifter was crashing into what is a very aggressive accelerating cam, which is obviously not a nice combination mechanically.
So the added strength of MMC and the fact it expands much like 7 series aluminium's makes for a really good pushrod material in our engines, the only down sides I can see are the price and the difficulty in machining it.
We have a bunch of other MMC parts made to check on the single cylinder motor once its back in one bit. There are a number of other possible parts to make and test too subject to how we get on with what we have made to date.

The real unsung heroes of this trip were the pushrod tubes though. Plenty of work to get them designed made and fitted, but the big pushrods don't touch them and they don't leak which is a massive step forward as it’s been a constant problem given the short stroke of my engines. I hope this a good long term fix now as I can't stand oil leaks!

How are you getting on with your stuff, any chance LGK or Fast Scrap will be out and about this year?

I'll get a proper update done here too when I'm next on the train and have some typing time.

Peter

[dannyboy]

good stuff peter look for ward to seeing it back out

[Peter Shattock]

Finally a proper update.
So back in March 2016 I went to see Johannes with a bunch of parts I had made to test on the single cylinder engine. These were generally with a view to saving weight in the valve train plus a few other weight saving bits.
The main aim of this was to get back to using the original cam that Johannes had designed for the new (back then) engine, but given the issues we had previously with this cam we decided the place to check everything was on the single cylinder engine.
The first test was the pushrods which turned out to be a massive success. We did a few initial baseline pulls with regular steel dual tapper Manton pushrods so we had a starting point. Then fitted the new pushrods which were 39g lighter. As you might expect this gave us an rpm limit increase (about 1500rpm), as the valve spring had less to do, and a power increase as the power had not yet peaked. The added rpm was certainly responsible for added power above the point where we lost control of the valves with the steel pushrods, but there was also an increase below that rpm which certainly looks to be down to the valve lash control with the new pushrods expanding far more than the steel.
I know there has been a fair bit of discussion recently regarding valve lash with various opinions, but I can say from what we found on the dyno controlling lash to reasonable limits does help hp, and valve control. We all know our engines suffer hot engine valve lash due to expansion, but I had not understood the full extent of it until I had seen it, measured it and compared it with the ramps on the cams. When you consider the single cylinder engine is quite narrow (69mm stroke, std rod length and high compression), the push rods are short relative to most. Consequently the physical material in the engine for expansion relative to the pushrod is a lot less than some with long strokes. Even with a narrow engine the hot lash with steel pushrods was 3 plus times that of the the MMC (aluminum based) ones!
So beyond the mechanical nicety of not having the all the valve train parts slapping in to one another in a hot engine, the engine actually gets to see a bit more of the cam it was intended too as it is not taking up a bucket load of lash before it try's to open the valves. I'm sure we all spend hours deliberating what cam we should use then in a lot of cases throw a load of its lift and duration away with excessive valve lash! Get your dial gauge's on your hot engines and check and you will see you are not getting anything like what you get when the motor is cold and sat on the engine stand.
Suffice to say I won't be using steel pushrods again unless I absolutely have to.
So having had such a good result with the pushrods we were feeling very please with ourselves.
Valve spring retainers were next on the list, but unfortunately this test did not go so well in fact it went really badly. Part way though the 2nd proper pull the inlet valve retainer let go. This resulted in real mess. Bent valve, broken guide, cracked head, stuck top ring on the piston scored barrel and piston, broken ceramic lifter, buggered cam lobe, knackered oil pump and bearings.
Needless to say we were not quite so pleased with ourselves now! I was mortified to be honest but Johannes was very matter of fact saying it happens and it's in part why we test. He was keen to point out that it's not that often you find much with testing but its a long game so you just need to keep trying and you will learn and find things that help even if its not what to do!
So that was a very abrupt end to the fun, but on a positive note the pushrods were really good news and by calculation at least the weight saving was enough let us use the old cam.
Here are the gruesome pictures.
What no retainer?
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Theres the retainer well part of it....
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A bit rough round the edges!
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Peter

[Peter Shattock]

After the single cylinder dyno disaster, things went on hold during what proved to be a very busy period where life overtook me! It was back towards the end of 2016 when I finally found some time to get in the garage and make some more meaningful progress with the car. I had been thinking about various things and noting a few ideas down,  but spent almost no time actually working on the car.
When got back in the garage I got on with a list of jobs I had made from the last time I had run the car, but the two main ones were fitting tinware as well as finalising the design and location for the top shot injector fuel rails. This was all with a view to getting the car back on the street which remains my main priority. Moving the injectors was necessary as in their current location they hit the fan shroud in a fairly major way. It was actually always the intention to give the top shots a go and the throttle body extensions in the inner wings were originally designed with this in mind, so other than designing, drawing and making the rails, fitting them was a simple job.
I eventually got these two jobs finished as well as a bunch of other smaller jobs, but we were well into 2017 now with various deadlines I had set my self having come and gone, but I was finally ready to get the motor back to Sweden to take a look inside to see how it was all looking.
 I agreed a date with Johannes to get the motor crated up and posted to him with a view to getting out there my self in May to be able to make a plan for the next steps.
I flew over to see him as planned in May. The main job before stripping the motor was to measure things for the new pushrods and tubes. Because the engine is narrow it causes a problem with the angle of the pushrods being greater than normal which in turn causes clearance problems in the tubes particularly when using big diameter pushrods. We measured and re measured everything to check we had the room required as the tubes would need to be made to suit so given the opportunity we wanted to be sure.
Once we got to a point of agreeing a loosely sensible plan we took the motor apart to see how things looked.
I'm pleased to say it was basically all good news with the bearings generally in good shape. It did look like one bearing had eaten something it shouldn't have but it had not damaged the crank so was not a drama.
Basically that meant all that was needed was a good clean, some new bearings and a light hone of the barrels and the long block would be good to go with the new (old) cam.
I did also take the opportunity of getting a couple of new pressure plates whilst the motor was apart as I have some new clutch parts to try to see if I can finally get the car off the line successfully, which to date I've failed miserably to do!
Finally we had some fuel injectors to test at varying fuel pressures which we did just before I left to ensure we had things covered with the proposed top shot locations.
We made a plan for me to get back to Sweden at the end of June with the car and the new pushrods and tubes. As I've said this was all with the intention that we could run the more aggressive original cam a hope the valve train would cope with the required rpm to reach peak power rpm and hopefully some headroom to see where we are.

[Peter Shattock]

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Plenty of room here!
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Not so much room out here plenty of clearance required!

[Peter Shattock]

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Just about ready to go in the car.

[Peter Shattock]

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Ready to go in the car

[Peter Shattock]

So in late June I set off on my pilgrimage to JPM with the car on the trailer ready for the engine which was now back in one bit and ready to go back in the car minus pushrods and tubes which I had picked up from the machine shop the day before I left.
The journey does not get any shorter that is for sure, but it all went to plan but for the last 5 minutes as I got stopped for speeding just before I was due to get off the motorway having driven for nearly 900 miles! Fortunately the policeman had some sympathy, told me to slow down and sent me on my way. Phew! Just so you know its an 80 kph speed limit when towing in Sweden not the 100 kph as I thought so don't be caught out with all the trailers with 100 kph stickers on them!
Anyway I arrived unloaded had a cup of tea and a catch up Johannes, went for some food and then fitted the pushrods and tubes and did a few other jobs so we were set to put it in the car the next morning.
So with the motor back in the car and all the oil fuel and electrical stuff hooked up we were ready to fire it up.
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My exhaust is longer than your exhaust......
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Ready to rumble.

[Peter Shattock]

 I hooked up my laptop so we could see what was going on, but this is where electrical problem number one struck. The laptop was dead! Absolutely nothing happened when I switched it on. Needless to say this was very annoying particularly given I had been using it the week before I came away from home having changed some stuff in the ECU and then just charged the battery so I knew we would be good to go, only we weren't!
Fortunately I intentionally got the same ECU as Johannes has in his red car so that dramas like this would be less of a problem so Johannes used his laptop instead which got us going.
So we got some oil pressure fired it up which was fine other than the idle being sky high. So we sorted that (nice simple mechanical job) plus resetting the tps.
I have a new alternator on the car this year so Johannes suggested we just check we are getting a decent charge. This is where electrical problem number 2 appeared. Brand new (very expensive alternator) 12.8v! Battery charger to the rescue and we were underway, with my list of electrical jobs for when I get home growing.
So we got the motor warm and checked everything was ok, then there was nothing more to do but to see if the calc's were going to stack up in reality?
We set the rev limiter to 10,200rpm and it pulled round to the limiter and we still had control of the valves! Needless to say this was great news. The calculations had suggested this would be the case, but it was great to see and hear it doing it for real. I say it was great, but I still don't like the dyno and I step further and further back as the rpm increases!
That was it for the day so we packed up and got a good nights rest.
The next morning we had a few more adjustments to make so planned to just get on with it. The problem was that we turned the ignition on and nothing happened. The battery was totally dead. I have to put my hand up for electrical drama number 3 as I had re wired the lambda heater as one of my other jobs and had picked up a permanent live not a switched one so the heater was going all night. My little Li battery was not at all happy about this, but Johannes had a spare so we were soon up and running again and I had another electrical job to add to the list!
We carried on with the mapping, but there was another drama. During a pull there was a load of stuff came flying out from under the car and all over the floor. I say stuff as I was not sure what it was. The motor was still running and sounded OK but Johannes realised something was wrong and shut it off.
It turned out that the clutch center plate let go and with the holes I have in the bell housing it flew out and the fans blow it out the back of the car.
It was all a bit dramatic at the time but once it was clear what had happened it was just a case of getting the motor out and replacing the center plate having a clean up and getting it back together.
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We did this and ran the car up and all was well.

[Peter Shattock]

We were all but done with the set up as it was, but during a final pull there was a big bang and the motor just died! There was no visible mechanical nastiness, but that didn't help my nerves. Rocker covers off everything looked OK, so turning the motor over by hand was next and again everything appeared to be doing what it should be so I was feeling a bit better. It turns out the ECU had no power so it was electrical issue number 4! We soon traced this to a blown fuse, but fuses don't blow for nothing. That didn't stop me just putting a new fuse in and trying, but of course that blew too. So off we went looking for a short. I was huffing and puffing at this point sifting through all the spaghetti in the back of the car, but fortunately it didn't take to long to find. It was an injector wire that I had not tied back up away from the head when I connected everything back up and it had fallen down and melted through the insulation. So simple fix but some more time wasted, and a lot of initial heart ache!
With the wire insulated and tied up where it should have been and a new fuse, we did a final pull and all was well.
Next stop was to move the injectors. This was a nice mechanical job after all the electrical drama. I had pre fitted everything at home too and extended the injector wiring and the fuel hoses so the only job of note was to block the existing port injection holes before we could give it a go.
This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Johannes and I were stood at the back of the car looking at the injectors sat there in fresh air with no idea if it was going to run or not! So a quick check for fuel leaks then we hit the start button and it just ran and idled perfectly, a quick blip of the throttle and the rpm jumped up and fell back to a clean even idle. We switched it off and laughed! Neither of us had expected it to do that straight off. So Johannes jumped in and took it for a drive on the rollers, to check the air fuel was in the ball park. It turned out it was really close actually and it drove well and throttle response was all good too. We had both heard plenty of comments about reduced throttle response, but it certainly did not apply in our case. All that was required was a bit of minor map adjustment and we were right on it with the air fuel.
We did several pulls to check it was all good up the rev range at various throttle positions but as we were running out of time we concentrated on light throttle cruising for general street driving and full throttle for the track just roughly filling in the gaps in between.
We then did a couple of proper full pulls and found we made more power all over the rev range relative to the previous port injector locations, which needless to say was very welcome news and there were no obvious downsides. Obviously this was great news as I had to move the injectors and it looks to be a good solution to not only make more power but allow me to fit the tinware too.
I had wondered about the external (to the throttle body) injector locations with there being fuel being exposed in the engine bay being a risk, but it actually appears that there is no fuel spill. Needless to say its not like a dribbling carb or an uncontrolled leak and the injector position and spray pattern is very intentional to ensure the fuel and air mix does not get sprayed all over the throttle body walls but fills the 50mm diameter bore and makes the most of the air around the stacks.
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