Aircooled VW South Africa

I have built 2buggies, a beetle rod with 32 ford front suspension, a 69 beetle, a rsk with 2l golf turbo setup... these are the aircooled projects iv undertaken previously....

and the "bug" seems to have bitten again, pun intended .

I fetched a 2l golf motored beetle in Springs last week, have removed the body already... I want to use the pan, which to my surprise is absolutely totalled, and will need to be completely redone. But I got it at a pretty good price, so dont mind the work involved... I have a swb buggy body which I want to use on the pan. Will be going with a digital acewell dash, led lighting, neat sound system, 18inch wheels, and a nice modern interior... Thats whats planned anyway, will document the build here, should be fun

Sounds interesting!

Subscibed!

Unfortunately all the pics iv got are of high res and I dont know how to resize to add to the forum.. will take lower resolution pics of the floorpan and motor setup tomorrow... looking forward to getting the car up and running

download imageresizer and install
then right click on the picture and select resize image
job done

You can also open the image in paint and click resize.

Hello again! So my 2l project is on hold... I have decided to build a different buggy first, with an aircooled motor...
Motor went to engineering yesterday morning, I got a 1915cc big bore kit, Scat 298 cam, Scat stainless 45mm exhaust valves, 42mm intake valves, windage tray, double valve springs with titanium retainers, new pushrods, Scat gasket set, sump add on for an extra 2 pints of oil, MSD electronic distributor, MSD streetfire 8mm plug leads and module. Then theres a set of 44dual Empi carbs, new alternator, alt stand, empi doghouse and new tins, billet Badger tappet covers, new billet Scat pulleys... heads will be flowed and ported and fly cut to match the big bore kit, compression mmade a bit higher with thinner cylinder/head spacers, bottom end will be balanced, button clutch is being built to match. Im hoping the motor will make some decent power once completed. Buggy doesnt weigh too much so it should be fun. Then its down to the wiring and preparing the buggy for paint. Iv got a set of 17s for this one, Racing Hart Concept wheels, widened rears to 10j with 255/40/17s, front is 7j with 215/40/17. loads of work still to come before the buggy will be finished... will add a few pics in the morning

Hi your plans seems good but: The valves you quote are too big there is very little meat in the head and 42 x 36 which is what I assume u meant means that one seat has to be installed then the other seat machined to fit. no meat between valves. and no place for the std plug. I would go for 40 x 35.5 once you have the combustion chamber opened for that you will find that the CR is way to low this means that sleeves need to be shorter not spaced.
You don't mention anything about crank 8 dowels etc. I hope you will have it counterweighted or else it wont last balancing a stock crank is only for very mild std engines. if you don't work on the crank to flywheel interface you run the risk of destroying everything. Your cam will make the engine rev. therefore you need to check on the rotating bits and work them fully. double valve springs can be a liability as the heads needs to be very thin for the inner to work replace guides first and then cut or it will crack. What Oil pump will you run?

As this is my opinion I am not trying to offend but put a bit more thought in how these parts will work together. It seems there is a lot missing
Armand

Hi Impi, valve guides are being installed, new scat bits, the crank is being counterweighted and balanced as far as im aware. I als have a scat oil pump, with an offset oil filter. There is also a serpentine belt system that will be fitted. I dont know too much about the beetle motors when it comes to technical bits. Im going on what the engineering guys have said is a good setup for a fun engine that will last a good few years. Franshwa at Performance Balancers has built quite a few performance aircooled motors, as far as i know he does all the engineering for Bruce in roodepoort as well, he specialises in all aircooled motors... appreciate the input, from the sounds of it you seem to know all the ins and outs of these little motors, something i dont, unfortunately. Iv been down the turbo path and it was a very pricy business. Always something else that can (and will) break on them, in my opinion anyway. Wasnt a very fun process. Thats why iv decided to build a nice aircooled motor for my buggy, im hoping to have a reliable and fun toy for weekends, but iv still got a hell of a lot to learn where the aircooled setups are involved...

on a lighter not, I managed to get all my tinware for the motor prepared and primed yesterday, will hopefully get to lay down the gunmetal paint on all the tinware, doghouse, pan and suspension this weekend... have decided on colour, pan, gearbox, tins and suspension parts will all be painted charcoal, body will be sprayed ford st electric green. The contrast should be good, and will do the interior in charcoal... any opinions? Maybe there is something the same or simular colour? If so pls add a pic, id love to see what it will look like

Follow the link and check the stunner Bugger created in nearly the same color scheme http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopi ... nt#p231416

With the serpentine pulley kit, you better weld your fan to prevent it coming apart at higher rpm
I prefer to run the stock pulley style system unless you need to run a serpentine setup.

Otherwise your buggy sounds like plenty fun. I hope you dont chicken out on compression, you should need at least 9 or 9.5:1

thanks for tje link Buggyfan, that buggy really is beautiful... Z i am not quite sure what compression im going to run just yet, welded fan may be a good idea. i have a new fan on the alternator, makes sense to make sure its not going to come loose at any point

And some news, bad this time... iv had to get a new engine casing and heads, after acid wash and cleaning the casing I had was deemed scrap. Plenty corrosion and pitting on the casing both inside and outside. Heads were also useless after being cleaned and blasted, both have massive cracks on the valve guides on the exhaust side...

on a lighter note, i got a set of heads, in good condition. And a casing thats pretty decent. I asked about the crank and rotaing assembly balancing and was shown the procedure, must say im pretty impressed with how everything gets put together. Crank is balanced on its own, the gears added and balanced, then clutch and pressure plate, then flywheel... my order may be very off, but each bit is balanced, not the whole assembly at once, so im sure this will be the counterweighting spoken of in a earlier post... will start adding pics once assembly starts

nope
counterweighting is the adding of weight to the crank to offset the weight of the crank throws. This stops the crank bending at higher rpm

are both cranks in the pic for the same application? if thats a stupid question pls forgive me. im very new to the building of air cooled motors. i have plenty to learn here. pls explain how and why it gets done. im not planning on revving over and above 5500rpm, if my motor will even reach that im not sure.

A 298 cam will rev way beyond 5500 and will be flat under 2500 with that in mind it doesn't leave u with much of a range. A big valve heads with then also be pointless. Plan for more revs or smaller cam.