Beer, Coffee, Tools, and Beer

Why good afternoon! It's Christmas day, and Susan and I are wrapping up our day of gifts, grub, and for me, lots of booze! I'll let the pictures tell the story:

From the in-laws, Jessica and Rick, I received a grouping of beers from both Washington (where they are from) and from Oregon. Several varieties of 22oz bottles to keep me happy over the next few days:



In addition, Santa got me an awesome little Coffee machine. A Keurig single serving machine like one of our customers has at their work. It came with about 50-60 single serving coffee containers of different flavors. So yummy. I'll be taking it to work so I can enjoy a cup of luscious brew and drive my co-workers mad with envy.



I also nabbed a pair of new slippers, an excellent de-motivational calendar, sausage and cheese and mustards, and various tools (not shown) from Mr A. Overall, a good haul on my part I would say.

Off to drink more beer......mmm.....beer.

C'

Engine is in the Car!11!!!1!!11

That's right, the built dual port engine has been sitting in the FV chassis for the better part of a week. I only had to take it out twice, and hopefully not a third time. I had expected some "issues" during the install, mostly because of the slightly bigger intake manifold end castings and their close proximity to the upper frame rails. As it turns out, I had to massage that area a tad. Luckily the frame was massged in that very area back in 1978, when this car was run nationally in Solo events, no doubt fitted with the class legal 1600cc dual port engine.

The next big hurdle was getting it turned over and ready to fire up. I followed all the VW directions and turned it over without the rocker arms installed (to keep wear off the cam) and spark plugs out (to keep compression low) until I built up oil pressure. This didn't long. Neither did getting proper fuel pressure AFTER i hooked up the fuel correctly. Not sure how I managed to reverse the flow, but whatever.

During all this, i totally forgot about the fact I have a 6v starter, which turns nice and fast on a 12v battery. Which also means you don't want to crank it for very long. As in, maybe 5-6 seconds at a time. Not the 30 seconds I was cranking to get oil pressure, fuel pressure, and set the timing. Aaaahhh. Nothing like a fried starter.

So I bought a new 12v starter from Kragen, which is funny because they carry a lifetime warranty even though it ran me a whopping $39.99. But, it won't simply bolt on. The 12v starter is meant to run a 12v flywheel, which has 130 teeth. The 6v flywheel I have has something like 112 teeth. So, I found a tech article on how to switch over the starter gears between starters. Mr A and I are going to attack that Friday, after Xmas. Hopefully, I'll have a 12V starter capable of turning a 6v flywheel. This way, I can crank and crank and crank.

For what's it worth, the engine sputtered a few times during the starters death, so I think it will light off eventually. Of course I wish I could go out and run it right effin now.....but oh well.

And just to prove some of this nonsense, here is a photo of the engine hanging on straps getting lowered into the frame.



And it case you were wondering, yes, I have long hair and demon eyes.



Have a great Christmas!

C'

Engine Mockup

I piddled around the garage this weekend working on the 1700 FV motor, doing all those small odd jobs that turn into small projects on their own. I installed the oil sump extension, front pulley, oil cooler adapter, and after setting the end play, installed the main oil seal and flywheel.

I also spent a little time mocking up the rest of the auxillary items, like the intake manifold and end castings, carburetor, air cleaner, as well as dry fitting the upper sheet metal tin and dog house shroud. Nothing too difficult, but each little task took a bit of work to get it all to fit properly. A combination of old original parts trying to mate up with aftermarket items I guess.

I need to pick up some new intake manifold rubber boots, and then I think I'm pretty much ready to get the engine back in the chassis. I'm going to set in the chassis with the minimum amount of connections and bolts required to get it to fire up. No point spend a few hours hooking up the suspenion, shift linkage, and all the mounting bolts in case I have a problem during the initial startup phase, and have to pul it out.

As an early Christmas gift, Mr. A gave me his old timing light, which has seen duty on many a VW dating back to his days in the air force, when he went through a couple Beetles of his own, including 36hp Oval window equipped with a Judson supercharger kit. So that should help getting it timed correctly.

Here are a couple photos of the mockup, mostly complete minus the upper cylinder head tin, which has since been installed.






Looks like Susan has plans both Tuesday and Thursday nights, so we'll see how fired up I get. Maybe, just maybe, I'll have the engine in the car by this weekend, and I can wake up the neighbores with the sound of barking VWs!

C'

Built Long Block

In the last post, I talked about the dinged up bearings I received. After a few days of phone calls and e-mails, SoCal Imports set me a new set that were in perfect shape. I got them Tuesday, just before the Thanksgiving break. So, I had a pile of parts just itching to be assembled.

Make us one they screamed!


The day after Thanksgiving, Mr A. came over and we started the assembly process. I had spent a little time Thursday clearancing the case, as the longer 74mm stroke pushes the rods just a tick too close to the edge of the case. Luckily, it didn't take much work with the die grinder to make very small notches. We got the crank, lifters, and camshaft installed fairly quickly, and then set about sealing the case using the permatex aviation sealant I picked up at the local NAPA. This stuff stays slightly gooey even when it sets up, and was highly recommended on the VW forums.

Basic internals set in the left case:



Installing clips in the pistons, getting ready to install the barrels into the case


Barrels installed, deck height set at 0.060" for a 8.2:1 compression ratio based on the 50cc combustion chamber volume



Basic long block assembled, minus rocker arms and accessory items



Rocker shafts installed and valve clearances set, with freshly installed fuel pump, generator stand, and oil pump



Almost ready to go back in the FV. Perhaps this weekends, assuming I dont spend the weekend watching movies.

C'