Time attack beetle

[Humble]

Big holiday weekend means lots of car work! I started the weekend by working on the other project first and finishing up the rear suspension. I finished the weekend by pulling the motor out of the race bug.

First up, got my gear stacks back with a collection of new gaskets, seals and shims.


Also got the new pressure plate and clutch, Exedy stage 1



Lastly I got some wiring components in, 100' of 8 colors, 14ga, chemical and heat resistant wire, and a couple of 22pin bulkhead connectors.





"I should have this outta here by dinner!" Nope. Drained 2.5 gallons of oil from the tank, then some from the motor, then some from the lines... and there was still oil dripping from here and there. I didn't get a picture of it but the header had separated at the slip fit. That would cause all the symptoms I was having right before I trailered it. Still going to check the lift at the valves to be certain.







It took a while to get the header, intake plumbing, and oil lines out of the way. Besides where the header separated there was only a bit of an exhaust leak on #4 and everything else had sealed tight.

Sunday, I started pulling everything else to get the motor out and on the stand before BBQ time. Fuel lines out, and manifolds off, and the motor pops out nice and easy. I wheeled the EJ25 out of the garage for some good comparison shots before cleaning up.











Transmission comes out next then it's time to pull the seats and the oil tank. The subaru trans needs to be finished up in the coming days, and wiring is also on the horizon, which will be a tedious job, but should be easier with the wiring diagram I've been working on.

[volkdent]

Maybe get some A/B weights of those things while you have apples and apples to compare?

Jason

[Humble]

I wish I had a scale that could measure them, but I can already say that the type 1 is easier to move around with a couple guys than the ej25. I'm hoping the ej25 gets a little lighter once it's drained (it shipped full of oil) and the header/turbo come off, but I don't know if that will even things out.

[Humble]

Got some more work done on the car this weekend, even though it was 95F+ in the driveway on saturday. I spent most of saturday inside designing the new wiring harness and reading up on the MS3X VVT control. I want to see about using that for the ej25, but it adds 10 wires to the engine harness. Once it cooled off outside I started trimming down the center diff housing for the subaru trans. The guys at subarugears put an awesome video up on youtube that shows where to cut.

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

On sunday I headed over the Ambryn's place to get some help welding up the center diff housing, and to meet up with Ron who has a subaru swapped porsche 912. The 3 of us are at different stages in our swaps and so far have picked eachother's brains quite a bit. After chatting a bit (hours) Ron headed home and Ambryn and I got to work, but really Ambryn worked and I supervised.

Cleaning up some shoddy grinding that *somebody* did and making it look pretty




Looks much better after removing what's left of the freeze plug boss


Ambryn welded up the subaplug and the leftover holes. He blasted it afterwards to check for pin holes and clean it up.


I treated Ambryn to lunch and a great little taqueria (a staple food for me) and headed home to get a little more work done. Sean, my tire warmer/co-driver, came up to give me a hand for a bit. We pulled the seats out to make getting into the back easier to pull engine/ecu wiring and oil lines.




While I was at it I pulled the shift coupler free and Sean removed the trans and trans strap kit from the back.




I've been going over cage re-design ideas in my head a lot recently. I haven't been happy with the cage because it cuts into the driver space too much and it needs to be closer to the A/B pillars. I also want to eliminate the rear package tray so the firewall slopes from the bottom of the rear window to just above the transmission nosecone. That will give more room for the turbo and oil cooler underneath but I'll have to modify the rear cage stays. I'm contemplating chopping the cage forward of the main hoop, then shortening the rear cage stays to match the new firewall, and staying with a 4 point until a new cage can be welded in.