Time attack beetle

[graham]

Hi Humble

I am watching your build with interest.

I am planning my engine and gearbox swap and slowly collecting parts.I was planning on shortening my sump and extending it forward a bit. Ricola has done this and the Idea is his, so I cant take any credit for it, but in addition to this he has added one of these

http://www.rogerclarkmotorsport.co.u...ctID=3147.this

This looks like a good insurance against oil surge.

All the best
Graham

[Humble]

Two steps forward, three steps back, pretty frustrating weekend, but important update none the less.

I started by getting the motor ready, bolting on the flywheel, and clutch assembly. This job was made easier thanks to the aircooled vw flywheel lock, handy little thing.





While I was at it I did some more body mods to make sure I had enough clearance for the motor and turbo. I removed the sealing tin from the rear package tray, and cleaned up the sides to match.







Next I got the motor and trans together nice and easy and tried to get it into the car. Firstly, the output stubs had to come off to get the trans in the right position. Then it became obvious the turbo wouldn't clear the package tray. Try as we might I was about an inch from getting the new motor mount bolts in. Finally I pulled the trans off the motor so I could manhandle it into place and see what the problem was



I'm going to come out and say it right away, the subaru trans will not fit the bug without modifying the body. With the medeola motor mount in the lowest position, the top of the bell housing just clears the package tray, BUT the clutch fork does not. Also, the new nose cone/old center diff housing contacts the body above the torsion bar tube. You need to modify this area like you did for the old 901/914 trans swap.









I was hoping I wouldn't have to do any body work but it's necessary. I'm going to use this as an opportunity to re-do the cage as well as prototype a mod I've had in my head for a while. The idea is to take the rear package tray and make a 45* angle from the bottom of the back window to the floor above the transmission. To make this happen I have to sacrifice the front of the roll cage to keep the main hoop/rear stays, so out came the cutting tools and the cage.





The rear cage stays will have the plates cut off and the legs shortened to meet the new raised floor. It will be cleaned up and have what's left of the old front section removed.



A very empty beetle...






On a side note, I'm drawing up the new wiring plans, and I want to switch to a digital dash. I've been looking at the Aim MXL Strada, Race Technology Dash2 Pro, and the Racepak IQ3 and want to find folks who have used them. Of the 3, the MXL Strada is the only one with official support for the megasquirt MS3 on CAN bus, the other 2 are CAN capable but don't support MS3 on CAN bus, only serial. Once you factor in logging and camera control the Dash2 Pro and IQ3 start looking better due to price. Any info would be helpful.

[Voiden]

Really inspiring build.

I see you have chosen the extended Subaflanges.
What driveshafts will you use?
I can not find any that fit when you have extended fitted.

[Humble]

I haven't measured yet, but I'm sure there's something out there that will fit. The wide turbo arms give me a bit more room, so I'm guessing I'll need something around 17" +/- 1". I'm not opposed to custom length axles from sway-a-way but I want to find an off the shelf part if possible.

[Humble]

It was a rough week, but I hunkered down and soldiered on. Found out a good friend and former co-driver passed away very suddenly a week ago. He was pretty young at 29, and I didn't even know he was sick, but he had late stage liver cancer. Biehruz was the kindest and most competitive guy I know, he will be dearly missed.

Worked on the bug off and on but got a lot done over the weekend. It seemed like I was spinning my wheels, but hopefully now I'm over the hump. The rear package try was ready to be modded so I started there. I cut along the sides and in the corner so I could fold the flaps up to meet in the middle.





I trimmed up the sheet metal and I'll make a new floor later. You can see the new floor brace I started on that may also support the accusump later. I started to pull the rear suspension apart because it needed to come out to get the front transmission mount in.



With the floor trimmed up it was time to try and fit the motor again. it's a bit of chicken and egg when it comes to the front trans mount. You can't place it without having the motor/trans together, but its a pain to get the motor/trans into place as a whole unit. Eventually I got them into the car and bolted the motor mount in using the lowest setting. Just eyeballing it now looks like the cross pipe for the header sits about where the old turbo was mounted.





I had to cut a little flap to clear the nose of the trans. After the fact I realized it might fit if I had ground down the rib on top but it still would have been a tight fit. Of course I failed to notice the brake line for the rear was right against the body so I cut right through it :P





Now it was time to completely remove the rear trailing arms so I could locate and drill the holes for the forward trans mount. It was such a pain in the ass to drill the holes, my arms were killing me by the time I was done. I needed to pull the trailing arms off anyway to upgrade the spring plate and swap out the driver's side trailing arm to match the passenger side.





I quick comparison between the old '87 944 turbo trailing arm (bottom) and the new '90 944 S2 arm (top). The big differences being the elimination of the bump stop pad and the new arm is ready for a wheel speed sensor. There is a different stub axle with teeth around the cv cup if you're curious.



Passenger side bolted in loosely for test fit of the new 935-style adjustable spring plate. Seriously awesome part, thanks Alex!





That's about it for now. It doesn't seem like much but for each thing I had to do something else to get it ready. Hopefully now it goes a little smoother and there won't be as many problems.

[effvee]

Please excuse me haking up you wonderful post, but this side view looks so good. I'm dreaming of how a EZ36R can be stuffed in there. The builder in Downey fell off the net, so I can't ask him how is his project going. Question, does it look very, vey close for a 6 cylinder to fit?. Again sorry for haking up your wonderful post. I think there is a less problem with oil pan height on the EZ36R, I did not hear if the EZ30 oil pan would fit the EZ36r.. Just think they come in 12cylinder too

[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

[-Alex-]

I would also prefer that connecting rod with left and right hand threads - but it would require also left hand threads to uniball joint or to arm bracket. At the moment i dont have left hand taps. At small quantities it is not cost effective to make this change. I could make these at near future, but it would rise the total kit price about 40-50 euros. I have to think this at next time.

To ease the adjustment, i made all three bolt holes to same diameter at bracket, and not like remmele bracket or stock springplate, which have one large bolt hole.

[Humble]

Lots of little projects to keep me busy while I wait on money and parts. I worked on getting the new fuel tank frame fabbed up and painted. It'll hold the larger 15 gal fuel tank in the stock location (which is higher than I want), and do to the slight angle I should have better fuel pickup but slightly less capacity.









I want to get a stock dash back in the car, to clean it up, and because one of the classes I want to run in requires it. I bought this one a while ago but only unwrapped it this weekend and it was a mess. A lot of rust and dirt from sitting and the dash pad was cracked. I threw some paint on it to make it a bit more pleasing to the eye and I'll clean it up later. The metal dash strip in the original from the car and has the correct VIN, I saved it just in case I wanted to put a dash back in the car.



Installed the mendeola stiffy brace and got the suspension bolted back in to make sure everything cleared alright. I also replaced the brake line I cut through when I was cutting the flap for the transmission nose cone. I also tested fitted a modded down pipe from a previous project to get an idea of routing for the exhaust. While everything was in place I measured for the new axle length I'll need and it's 18 3/4" which I'll need to order from sway-a-way.







You probably noticed the trans fluid and catch pan under the car in those last pics. I turned the motor over with the trans in gear to make sure everything was still good and one of the axle seals started leaking. It's about a drip a second which is pretty bad, so I think the retaining spring came off the inside of the seal. I'm going to have to pull the trans back out of the car to fix it which is a pain, but better to do it now than later.