Time attack beetle

[SuperRSi]

Which exhaust is that? OK another silly request... if you unbolt your exhaust and have time, please spin it around and see if it bolts on backwards and misses the cam covers. I am building a STi Manx and would like to reverse the entire exhaust/turbo, intercooler, and intake manifold. I just have not had time to take the stock exhaust off. So I was hoping you might be unbolting your header....hmmm.

Thanks,
Randy

[Humble]

Not much done today, got a pretty godd tan (burn) from spending all day thurs working on the car in the sun.

Mikey:
I really dig how you laid out the gauges in your dash I wanted to do something similar but put the tach and speedo in the center of the dash and the rest behind the wheel. I thought about hacking up the dash a little bit just to mount the tach and speedo higher for better view.

I want to shorten the oil pan but widen the bottom so i don't lose overall capacity and raise the engine but as little as possible to keep all the weight as low as possible. The exhaust actually hangs lower than the oil pan by almost an inch and nearly touched the ground when i got in the car

SuperRSi
No problem, all the nuts were finger tight. The exhaust is a megan racing header from ebay, I tried a couple different ones but settled on this one. I tried to fit it on backwards for you but the up-pipe doesn't clear the cam cover and to make it work you would have to add a few inches to the bottom of the up-pipe next to the flex coupler to make it clear.

[Humble]

So far my hunt for the correct clutch master cylinder has been unsuccessful. I've had a lot of "that should work" but no hard calculations so I tried to figure it out on my own. I don't want to go through the whole return process (or eat the cost) of 3-4 MC's to find one that works.

*warning math ahead*

If you start with the presure plate and work backwards it makes a little more sense. Next in line is the throw-out arm, where the bearing side is 1.5" from the pivot and the cable eyelet is 3.5" from the pivot providing a ratio of 2.3:1.
The slave cylinder and master cylinder also have a ratio (at least with my preliminary setup on paper, I haven't commited yet incase this math is horribly flawed). I have a clutch master that's 1" diameter and a slave that's .88" in diameter giving a 1.136:1 ratio. and Last I have a tilton pedal assembly that's 5.5:1 pedal ratio.

So here's what I came up with:
Pr = force needed to release presure plate ie 3000# (guessing here)
T = thowout arm ratio on 091 tranny 2.3
M = master cylinder/slave cylinder ratio 1.136
Pa = Pedal assembly ratio 5.5

((Pr/T)/M)/Pa=Pedal force
or
((3000/2.3)/1.136)/5.5=208.76# at the pedal

Now playing with the values a little bit produces more realistic results but the biggest unknown is how much force it takes to release a KEP 3000# presure plate. Next guess 1500#
((1500/2.3)/1.136)/5.5=104.38# at the pedal, still a very heavy pedal

Trying the same 1500# release force with a different clutch master slave combo, a 1.125" master and same .88" slave give a ratio of 1.278:1 so...
((1500/2.3)/1.278)/5.5=92.78#

I wanted to bounce this off you guys to see if I'm totally crazy, or kinda close with my thinking here. Tomorrow I'll call KEP to see if I can get a better figure, but I'm more worried about my general formula here. Any Input would be a big help.

[Humble]

Still no definitive answer on my previous question, just too many variables. I was told that the force needed to release the clutch varies due to clutch plate thickness, flywheel wear, flywheel surface depth and so on, and that the force needed is not linear with wear or different clutch plates. So I went ahead and ordered a 1" dia titon master cylinder, to be continued...

Work has been progressing, little bits here and there. I had taken more pictures but our net access hass been down for the past week (we're on a long haul wireless setup) so I couldn't update or upload till now.

I've been waiting for some time for a bus-into-bug transmission adapter kit, about a month now, and it's kinda holding up everything else. I realized that A) I was probably gonna hack it up to make it work how I wanted and B) judging from the kit I could make a better one for less. So off the to metal supply I went. With stock on hand I started playing with how the transmission would sit in the car, how high and how far forward I could put it. The goal here is to raise the transmission and tilt it forward a few degrees so that maybe I don't have to modify the oilpan or exhaust or modify them very little (optomistic I know). I had to cut into the body to clear the nosecone and to make room for the new front mount. I also replaced the type 1 cv's with new bus cv's on my old axles and test fitted them to see if they will still work. They are 21.5" long from a late model vanagon and were perfect for the porsche swap and type 1 tranny. They felt okay-ish but i'll need better measurements (and pictures) once everything is set in stone.

[Humble]

I started fabbing up the nose cone mount from some 2"x1/8" flat stock and ended up drilling the holes a little too far apart. A little bit of grinding and its a clean fit. Then welded it together and I'll grind it down tomorrow. Here's what I'm thinking for a main transmission mount similar to a bus to hang the 091 from. Then I'll fab up mounts on the bottom from the motor to the tranny saddle.

[Humble]

Next, I hacked into the firewall behind the pedals to make room for the tilton floor mount unit. I also need to raise the pedals to clear the body and strengthen the floor so I made a spacer from 1/2" square tubing. Pardon the welding, I never welded before tonight. Somewhere a purist is crying, I can feel it...







I haven't decided if I need to brace the floor pan from underneath or not. I could tack in a couple strips of the 2x1/8" flat stock length wise for support if needed. Anyone else running floor mount pedals?

A couple of other odds and ends, I ground off the studs for the heater controls and finished removing the rest of the forward part of the spare tire well to prepare for the radiator/intercooler mounts and ducting.

Thoughts for another day...
As a result of the new transmission and mounting the shiftrod will now be above the tunnel. It will probably want to occupy the same space as the ebrake handle. No shiftrod in the tunnel frees up the tunnel for coolant lines.

[Humble]

All my parts are in so now the only thing standing between me and a finished beetle is... me. Our connection here on the mountain is doing a little better so I try to upload some pictures tomorrow. Made some progress since the last update but not as much as I would have hoped.

I started fabbing the new hanging tranny mount welding it into place in the car. When I welded the tabs in place the left one was 1/4" too high and then I final welded it before double checking. So I had to cut the welds and grind everything smooth and try it again with 4 part harmony. 2nd time around I used a laser level to line everything up to car center, measured about 10 times, then final welded. Now that its fixed I've started on the rest of the mounts, and I'm almost done with the nose cone mount. I had bounced a few ideas off a friend who specializes in fabrication for a living and he suggested a couple of changes to my hanging mount design. I took some of those suggestions to heart and redesigned it with a few ideas I picked off of drag cars.

Started some sheet metal work for the area behind the pedals and fabbed up a radiator frame/housing. Played with the housing a bit in the front of the bug, there's only a little bit of clearance on each side. Also looked at where air is going to go once it's past the radiator and while I think there's plenty of room for the air to sort itself out, it's not smooth flow. Anyone else with a radiator in front have any air flow problems?