Time attack beetle

[SuperRSi]

It looks like Alex has built some Uniballs that look better than the MBT I bought for my bug. And easier to get the parts by far. Nice choice and build.

[Humble]

effvee, I remember reading somewhere that the ez30 was only ~3 inches longer than the ej25, but if that's the case it'll put the cam covers past the apron. I guess that would work in a baja build, but not other wise. I'll get some better pics to show where the cam covers sit on the ej25.

SuperRSi, Alex's parts are awesome, and one of the best parts on the car. Not cheap, but worth every penny.

[ricola]

I read the latest (chain driven cam) subaru 6s are only 0.7" longer than the quad cam 4s

[effvee]

Hi all, now I'm going into my Mr.technical mode. Given the fact of a 5 speed Subie trans added length. Since I am desperate, for room(in my mind) I wonder how a normal 4 speed would fair. I could choose taller gear ratios. Take que for the many gear ratios, like some of the Porsche do. . I have aRhino case, quaife diff, the case is gussited. Maybe I can get the needed back clearences. Are you going to change your exhaust length.

[Humble]

effvee, I haven't got any pics yet, didn't even get pics of the work i did this weekend :P I'll try to get some today or tomorrow and put them up but it looks like it'll be a very tight fit.

It was also a race weekend and I had to borrow the porsche again, how awful David borrowed my excursion to go to burning man so it seemed like a fair trade. My good friend Sean (not my usual co-driver Sean, yes they are both Sean) helped me by taking the race tires down to the event and taking some video. I was out it the first group in the morning and traded times by and forth with my nemesis all morning. I edged out a victory by .1 sec, and had top time of day for most of the morning. At the end of the day I finished 1st in class, and 10th overall in PAX. If i finish 2nd or better for the next 3 races I'll be champion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4joEK3ONKw

[-Alex-]

Looks very nice I cannot even imagine the powerlevels



But looks like you have mounted upside down the uniball housing If you are riding a lower rear height, you should try the uniball housing so the uniball joint is higher like remmele kits here:

[Humble]

Good eyes! I was hoping nobody would notice, but I did have to flop them around on sat. I wish these had the double-adjuster like the remmele units but the only ones I can find are in standard sizes not metric :P

[spannermanager]

Guys, its possible to scare yourself shirtless reading about coolant pipe Galvanic corrosion etc, back in 'the day' plumbing hardware was almost universally used by everyone, and i mean works teams too, not back street cars, its very common still today, together with stainless pipework, and with the huge classic racing scene growing bigger and bigger, i was pleased to see a replica of the BTCC winning Imp of George Bevan recently, complete with copper coolant pipes to the alloy screamer in the back, Georges son and the cars engineer said they never had any such problems back in the '70's, and wanted the replica to be authentic in detail to the original car. not my choice by any means, mine are alloy and rubber/silicon where necessary, just some more input to the subject.. cheers Johnny.

[al_kaholik]

Isn't there a lot to be said about modern coolant helpign keep it at bay too? G12+ is meant to be a good choice at a reasonable price.

Pretty sure Ricola uses stainless with his Subaru and Iain Ambrose uses it with his WBX with no ill effects at present

[cookvw]

Well I feel like a hack I guess... LOL. But I just used all galvanized steel for mine and have had zero problems at all. I had an exhaust shop just bent me a bunch of 90* bends, then I went to home Depot and bought 2 10ft. Sticks of 1 1/2" galvanized steel electrical conduit for the whopping price of $15 a stick. It's worked great for me thus far. I chose the steel route cause I didn't have the means to weld aluminum, nor even get it here in the small town that I live in.

@humble with the wiring I can feel your pain cause I've ditched the OE fuse block in favor for a much more updated unit. Vw used the same fuse block in water-cooled cars from 89'-99' called CE2 (central electric 2). I've been happy since I switched over to a newer unit.

[spannermanager]

Originally Posted by cookvw

Well I feel like a hack I guess... LOL. But I just used all galvanized steel for mine and have had zero problems at all. I had an exhaust shop just bent me a bunch of 90* bends, then I went to home Depot and bought 2 10ft. Sticks of 1 1/2" galvanized steel electrical conduit for the whopping price of $15 a stick. It's worked great for me thus far. I chose the steel route cause I didn't have the means to weld aluminum, nor even get it here in the small town that I live in.

@humble with the wiring I can feel your pain cause I've ditched the OE fuse block in favor for a much more updated unit. Vw used the same fuse block in water-cooled cars from 89'-99' called CE2 (central electric 2). I've been happy since I switched over to a newer unit.

Good work, its all about getting to what you want to achieve in the end.

Isn't there a lot to be said about modern coolant helpign keep it at bay too? G12+ is meant to be a good choice at a reasonable price.

Pretty sure Ricola uses stainless with his Subaru and Iain Ambrose uses it with his WBX with no ill effects at present
October 17th 2013
^^^^^^^^^ this too.
Yes, G12plus is good, and there are many even higher spec brands available.

[ricola]

I've used copper in the past, currently using mild steel, never any issues with either, just use a good coolant...
Rich

[Humble]

Good notes on the galvanic corrosion, I'll keep that in mind. I chose stainless steel for it's corrosion resistance to the elements but as others mentioned, with modern coolant it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I've followed a number of other race/kit/street car builds that made use of stainless pipe without issue so I figured it's a good choice.

Didn't get to work on a few things that I wanted to this weekend. Our road was closed for resurfacing, so no mail/ups/fedex deliveries, and no parts I was expecting. On Friday I started on the fuel system, which meant lots of fittings, and finding a good place for the fuel surge tank. I also needed to find a spot for 2 fuel pumps that is easily reachable and good for plumbing. I ended up putting the walbro lift pump on the wheel well next to the tank, and the 044 below the surge tank and mounted to the lower radiator support. I also started running the fuel return from the fpr to the surge tank but I need to wait for the coolant lines to determine the route.





I was going to try and use the subaru sensors but the outputs needed conditioning for use in the ms3x. It was much easier to drill and tap for GM sensors which work out of the box with the ms3x. I already had the sensors, 9/16" drill and 3/8" npt tap laying around from a previous project so it was a quick job. I also clearanced the intake for the cable throttle body and bolted it into place. Since it's an ebay find I took the time to check and lock-tite the butterfly screws which were barely finger tight. The throttle plate area seals okay but the idle valve port doesn't, so I'll just make a block off plate for that.





I lied, apparently my IAT sensor went missing :P Ordered a new one and a knock sensor mod kit for the ms3x from diyautotune.com. I've been getting all my megasquirt parts from them since forever and I have never been disappointed.


I finished the weekend by making this poorly welded masterpiece. It took most of the day of fit-measure-cut-tack etc. to sort out the exhaust path. It's a little close to the truss bar but it clears just fine and there's about an inch clearance on the axle and spring perch at full droop. I hacked the bellmouth off an old downpipe and welded a v-band to it, then used some 3" stainless bends to put the muffler between the tire and valve cover. There's about 2" clearance on the tire, 1" on the header and it doesn't hang any lower the the engine cradle. The welding could be better, but you can only do so well welding outside with a slight breeze. What you can't see is the O2 sensor bung in the 90*downturn next to the transmission. There's one near the tail pipe exit because that was some scrap 3" I had laying around :P I just need to make a bracket to support the end of the muffler and the exhaust is done!

[Humble]

I'm not making as much progress as I'd like, just too much going on with work, weekend meetings and finishing the racing season. Speaking of race season, we had our last race on sunday and I borrowed David's Cayman S again. It was surprisingly warm in Marina and we over heated the tires, slowing us down by over a second. I came in 2nd in class, but had I run in the correct class for the car I would have been 1st in pax by .3 seconds. I think I need to get a cayman s soon! The good news is that I am now officially the 2013 OSP class champion, and I finished 3rd in points overall for the year. Woohoo!

I've been doing some work on the dash, both digital and physical. I picked up an AIM MXL Pista dash after a great deal came up on it. I took over the dining room table and setup a test bench with the ms3x and the MXL Pista talking via can-bus. I was able to read everything but calculated gear and vss from the ms3x. I shot an email off to AIM but haven't heard anything back from them. The dash is very nice, but the back light is kinda dim, so I'm wondering how well I'll be able to see it in the car. Another concern is oil pressure and temp sensors. I'm not sure if I can add those to the ms3x then read them into the Pista, or if I have to just use the AIM sensors for the dash.





As for the actual dash in the car I started hacking up the foam and steel to clearance for the new dash using the template. I want to put the gas gauge and switches in the center, then put the fuse box and relays where the glove box was.





Using poster board and tape as a base I started doing a very poor job of fiberglassing. I mean it's really bad.



This is only the 2nd time I've used fiberglass so I'm learning quite a bit in the process. It is a bit of a pain to do outside and on your own, the wind didn't make it easier. I did try a few different types of cloth in different areas so I can see how it differs on a non-structural part. The goal is to be comfortable enough to do my splitter and radiator ducting soon.



It really does look awful but I'm going to do my best to clean it up and make it serviceable. It's a race car not a show queen, I just need it to hold gauges and hide wiring.

Moving on!

While I was hacking things up I decided I'd make whats left of the roll cage look presentable. I ground off the stubs for the door bars and the forward down bars. I shot it with a little paint afterwards and it's all pretty again. I still need to cut off the rear plates and trim the rear cage stays to meet the new raised floor in the back.



Another check box on the list was to test fit pedals and modify the shifter. The pedals are a tilton 3 pedal set I had lying around from a previous car, and they almost fit. the MCs push the pedals to far back if i try to fit it all in the footwell. If I try to mount it flush, the body/pan mating surface gets in the way. I've wanted this setup for a long time, because once you've driven with properly setup pedals that's all you want. I did find a reverse floor mount pedal set from OBP so I'll probably pickup one of those to test fit, and it should work with the standard tilton/wilwood MCs. With the move to triple MCs I'll probably re-plumb the brakes with -3 ptfe line, and use the same stuff for the clutch as well. Ironically, it should take longer to remove the old setup than putting in the new one.

As far as the shifter goes, it's an empi hurst knock-off and I've always loved the way it felt. Unfortunately, the vw reverse lock out was effectively 1-2 lock out on the subaru 5sp. I pulled it apart and modified it so the lock out can no longer work. I tried it in the car and all gears engage perfectly. I really want a bug-tech shifter (omg so bad) but I just can't justify $460 for one. I've started to cad up a similar design with an adjustable pivot and more stick height. That way you can adjust the throw to your liking and it puts the shift knob in a race friendly position. I've already had a couple design iterations (one of them was even on purpose!) and I'll put it up soon enough.

[Humble]

The build is slowing down a bit because Nov-Feb is my busy season. I visited a very cold Chicago for a week and a very warm LA for a week. We had a small Thanksgiving with fried turkey for about a dozen people, and did it again over Christmas. I finally got some time to work on the car over the Christmas break so I've done what I can with the nice but short days.

I swapped the intake out for a dbw wrx intake. I need to widen a few of the mounting holes to make it work, but it seems like that is a common mod. I also picked up some wrinkle finish paint to pretty it up, but it hasn't been warm enough to use it yet.




The intercooler mount is half done, the lower support is in place but it needs to come out again for paint. I'm not sure how I'm going to brace the top yet but it'll probably use the wing stantions for support. The intercooler sticks out more than I thought it would but it should work pretty well as a result.








I got the new OBP pedals in the car as far back as I could mount them. The beetle footwell narrows down too much to put them against the "firewall" so they sit forward about an inch or two. Once the pedals were mounted I could start measuring hose and assembling a dozen fittings.