Time attack beetle

[Humble]

Hey everyone, thought I'd share my project with you guys and maybe get a build log going here. I'm resurrecting my poor race beetle that's been dormant for nearly 2 years waiting for me to complete this project but was always put on hold because life got in the way. Now that life has been taken care of the beetle's time has come again. Since it's been so long, I want this project to move fast and I'll try to update accordingly.

My goals for this project are:
A wet weight w/ driver of less than 1900lbs.
350-375hp at the wheels
1+ lateral G cornering
Out perform a C6 Z06 on the racetrack
street legal-ish

So far I've already done a '86 944 N/A suspension and brake conversion and raced on it for a couple seasons. Since then I've upgraded to an '87 944 Turbo suspention and brakes (4pots) though it hasn't run since the swap. I'm currently working on a subaru swap (ej20 twin turbo) and bus tranny conversion.

Some test fitting with the stock tranny




New bus tranny, 3.78, 2.06, 1.26, .82, 4.57 R&P, superdiff, HD covers, and TO bearing for now


Gotta do this in multiple parts...

[Humble]

First load of parts from Summit and Aircooled.net, I meant it when I said moving fast






Already found a problem with the new parts. Put the Corbeau FX1 seat in the car, centered on the seat mount... it barely clears the window, but unfortunately you can't but 2 of these seats side by sidesince they cross the centerline of the car. I'll have to get another picture that shows this. the FX1 Pro looks to be a bit narrower on paper so hopefully I can trade for those.



Can you guess what the final colors will be?
Also the seat brackets need to be modified to put the seat back a bit farther. I pulled the seat tracks back to their rear-most setting and this is what I get.



That's about it for now, I'm waiting on my tranny adapter to mount new tranny and motor to get final ground clearance. Once that's done I can modify the oil pan and rework the megan racing exhaust (it hangs lower than the oil pan)

[Yellow69]

Nice seats!! :righton:

[speedy]

keep us posted , i am running 275-300 bhp on the road from a type 1 engine so would be interested to find out what you think running 350 turboed bhps on the track if it is anything like mine a right handfull
all the best
jon

[chug_A_bug]

very nice but that oilpans abit low eh ya I'm canadian

[junkyard oval]

Keep us posted on this one. I have a 56 Oval with the same engine, but with a Porsche trans. Not on the road yet.

Ernie

[Humble]

Got a few more parts in today, 3" cat-less bellmouth downpipe meant for a wrx, accel edis-4 coil, and 2 of my 4 1" wheel spacers.

As promised, here's a better shot of the FX1 seat in the car, a little too wide for a bug. It hangs over the center tunnel almost on the other side!


Spent most of the day running around trying to find brake hardware. Had to hit 3 places to find the M12x1.00 fine pitch bolts that hold the calipers on. I'm wishing I hadn't misplaced them during my move to the bay area, and I'm kinda worried about what else could be missing.

Here's a teaser photo of whats to come. I had to try the 1" spacers on the back to get a general idea of what the track width will be and to test fit a fender to check for clearance. The narrow valley is the tire center, and center to center on the rear wheels with spacers is about 60 3/4". That makes overall car width close to 6ft.



Here's a couple things I'm trying to nail down that maybe you guys can help with. I'm looking for the resistance on a stock 72 super beetle fuel sender. I read somewhere that it's like 73ohm/10ohm empty/full for a stock beetle, but I don't know if it's the same for supers.

I've seen people with ej20 swaps that have a tiny belt for the alt but when I hit up the subaru dealership they didn't have belts in the right size. What kind of belts are these or what car did they come from?

And lastly I'm trying to determine what size of clutch master cylinder to get that will have decent travel and not kill my left leg. The slave cylinder is a wilwood 260-1333 .88" bore 1.38" stroke going on an 091 bus tranny with a 3000lbs. KEP presure plate. I've been trying to find anything about this for a while now but can't find anything relevant.

[ricola]

Nice to see another scoob project on here

Rich

[junkyard oval]

For the alt. belt I just took a small piece of rope and put it around the pullys to get a length. Then took the rope to the parts store and they let me look through the belts untill I found one the sale length. Tonight I will get the numbers off the belt for you.

Ernie

[Humble]

A little more progress on the bug these past few nights, some good some bad.
Got a few more parts in, koyo alu. radiator for a 93-97 rx7 turbo, 944 to beetle e-brake adapter swans for vdub engineering (very cool guys), wilwood clutch slave cylinder, and intercooler water pump from a 2002 ford lightning.

Test fitted the 1" spacers on the front and finally mounted the calipers (they don't fit without the spacers), and I tried the 2 sizes of fuchs that I have to see if they both clear inside and out.

6jx16 et36





I tried the 7jx16 et23 on the other side, I think it would be kinda sketchy but I can dial in up to 6 degrees of negative camber if needed.





Another project that didn't go so well is running my fuel lines. I ran fish tape down through the heater channel from the front and taped my fuel lines to it then tried pulling it back through. It got jammed right at the bottom corner of the door where it turns up and goes into the trunk under the fuel filler. I really want to use that route but I think it might neck down to small for the -8 and -6 AN lines.

[Humble]

So frustrated, I put the on the back burner for now and tried to fit the new front bumper and brackets to see hom much I need to widen it. Brackets and bumper aren't even close. I got 2 different front bumpers and neither fits, so that will need to be modified. I should have taken pictures but I forgot to.

Next, I tried test fitting the radiator in a few different positions to see what could work and what wouldn't.

(A)


(B)


(C)
Had to trim the front section of the spare tire well some more to get this to fit


(D)
pretty much like (B) but a slightly different angle and different bottom mount


Originally my plan was to route radiator exhaust through a hole in the hood ala mitsu evo 8/9. But if I can get enough clean flow to the fender wells I won't cut the hood which will probably look better (stealthy) anyway. I also need to make sure there's enough room for the radiator for the air-water intercooler.

[Humble]

I also took the motor out and cleaned it up a bit, flipped it over and got some detailed shots of the exhaust and oil pan. I pulled the oil pan off and it's soaking to remove the oil so I can start hacking it up. The exhaust will come next.










That's it for now, I think my rollcage maybe on it's way. I decided to go with a RLR weld in cage for racing. I plan on topping out at 150mph/240kph on the track with this tranny and wheel combo and I want something I can trust if the worst should happen.

[ccain529]

OH WOW!! The more I look at Subby conversions, the more I want one!!! Great job! You are doing some awesome work! Keep the updates coming!

Cheers

Cheech

[Mikey]

Sweet looking project. I like the pictures of all the new parts laid out. Another Suby conversion. Looks great!

You asked about the fuel sender. For my set up, I bought a universal sender and the correct guage from Summit. I'm also using Autometer guages, I spotted the yellow boxes. I tried to figure out the resistance of a stock sender. I figured either go with their gauge/sender and know for sure it'll work, or guess. I'd rather not guess with something like that.

Belt? The rope is a good idea. I worked for a little while at a truck part store. They had a guage to measure old belts if the numbers are worn. That might help in some way. They had a HUGE rack of belts. I know, I stocked it.

I have a thread for my project, it may or may not help with your subaru conversion. http://www.germanlook.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=7050
There is also a Subaru advice thread, it may or may not help. Just thought I'd throw it in here too.
http://www.germanlook.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=6676

My only advice would be to raise the engine and transmission for better ground clearance. Also, it looks like the exhaust is as low as the oil pan. So why shorten it? I shortened mine and I almost wish I hadn't. I didn't gain much ground clearance.

Just my 2 cent.

[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