evernon's Baja Build

[Leatherneck]

Pretty sure only way it would get hot enough is if you blocked it off from the air then your kind of defeating your purpose.

[evernon]

Well - I hadn't thought about oil temps being too low to flow. What temp is needed for the thermostat to open? I have felt the airflow at the outlet & it was warm but I haven't checked it since winter. Maybe if I insulate the oil cooler & all hoses it will stay hot? Guess I had better check this prior to building all the ducting.

Thanks for the comments

[Leatherneck]

You would have to look at the thermostat or look up an identical one from a vendor and see what they say. You might get it to open but pushing cold air through it I don't see your oil staying warm or hot enough to warm anything else. If you keep it to cool you will do more damage to the engine then good for you. Just some thoughts.

[Piledriver]

If its a stock ACVW oil system setup, the oil flows to the cooler at whatever oil temperature...
... drops the oil pressure enough to allow the pulley end pressure relief valve to ~close.
(a bigger than stock pump and/or thick oil makes this temperature higher, sometimes ridiculously so)

By the way, BTDT, burned the Tshirt, don't bother, you will only get decent heat from the oil cooler when you absolutely don't need heat.

Gas heater, BN4 or a SW conversion like Steve has rocks.
The NOS BN2 I have wasn't worth the effort or $$$, fortunately the 40+ year old BN4 I used and had in a box for 25 years just needed the spiders chased out, fired right up, using the ~same holes in the body.
(I did convert over to 5" recirc ductwork tho)

The exhaust (ala factory) is the only other viable option on an ACVW.
I even fabbed up a water cooled J pipe once. Almost worked.

[evernon]

Thanks for the input on the heat options. Since it is starting to thaw & the snow is turning to rain, on to other items on the fix & complete list.

My drivers side wiper has about 3" of play at the end of the blade & due to this, it covers a lot less area than it should. After looking things over, it appears that the play is due to looseness of the connection between the shaft & this plate. I am unsure what sort of connection holds the two pieces together but I am tempted to apply a small weld at the arrow perminately connecting the two pieces & preventing slippage. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

[Leatherneck]

Wipers, that is black magic right there.

[BAJA-IT]

I would think that a small tack weld would be fine to keep it from slipping or twisting.

[Steve Arndt]

These new style Webasto gas heaters are sweet looking. Much more compact than my 1966 Southwind insta heat.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=381916

[evernon]

The weld on the wiper mechanism worked but I still have a problem with the shaft sliding back down in the bushing. There is a tiny c clip that is supposed to hold the shaft in position but apparently mine is a little loose or maybe the groove is broken in a little to much. The wipers work but I am pretty sure that I am going to be wearing something else if the shaft will not stay seated properly. I saw that CIP sells the right & left side replacement shafts separate so I will probably just buy a replacement.

I am still trying to solve the ignition problem. When it is running & I turn the ignition switch off, the green light illuminates on the dash but the engine is not affected. If I probe the wire connected to the green light with a test light, both bulbs illuminate & the engine dies immediately. Maybe the ignition light I have installed does not draw enough current to kill the ignition. I have thought about adding another hidden bulb but wouldn't a resister accomplish the same thing?

Ha ha - 0° here this morning! That Webasto heater is sounding pretty attractive again

[evernon]

I got it weighed with my 190lbs included & a full tank

Front Axle: 800lbs
Rear Axle: 1360lbs
Total:2160

I added another 100lbs to the rear weight to account for another front passenger. The front seats measure very close to half way between the front & rear wheels so I figured for a 200lb passenger. I will eventually have a rear seat but I do not anticipate catching air or going crazy with a full load so I don't think I should add in another 300lbs to calculations. I am thinking I would prefer to have it soft at full capacity in stead of extra firm with me solo or with a co-pilot.

1360 + 100 (front passenger) = 1460 total rear weight
Subtract unsprung weight (estimated): Tires, wheels, brakes, hub, trailing arm & 1/2 of the shock & axle 1460-260= 1200lbs (have any of you actually weighed the unsprung components?)

I measure 19" from the torsion tube to the center of wheel & 16" to the shock bolt.

At full droop, the shock is 11" extended and the shock is tilted forward at about 20° at ride height but that number decreases to 0° at full compression

The FOA spring rate calculator says I should go with a 668 main & 445 tender.

They sell a 14" x 600 or 700 for a main and a 8" x 400 or 450 for a dual rate setup.

If I round up on the main, do I round down on the tender? 700 x 14" / 400 x 8"?

When I fabricated the shock bolt tabs on the trailing arms, I made a 2nd set of holes 2" further out than the ones I am using now. If I calculate for this location, the springs are reduced to 530 & 350.

[evernon]

I called FOA to order springs & apparently the spring rate calculator is not the right tool to figure out springs for trailing arm suspension. The guy I talked with seemed very knowledgeable about VW installs & suggested that I go with a 300 over a 450. When I disassembled the torsions, I was able to remove the spring plates and end cap easily as the torsions had bend so that there was no longer any preload! The coil over install was fairly easy with the most time spent installing limiting straps. What a difference though! I love the ride with the soft spring floating over and absorbing everything so far. I still need to strap down the battery & shock resevoirs before I get to aggressive.

The engine is running much smoother after re-synchronizing the carbs. I think the cheap wallyworld throttle cables are compressing or maybe seating themselves a little further into the splitter as the carbs were quite a way out of sync. 200 miles logged now & amazingly the leaking front seal has fixed its self! Not sure how or why but I think maybe with things getting broken in a bit, the pressure is dropping a little. Head temps get to around 300 degrees if I climb a hill in 4th at lower rpms.

So I just came up the drive in 2nd & drifted around the hair pin leaving a huge cloud of dust & debris behind. When I parked it, there was a distinct smell of burning oil. The smell was similar to the smell you get when drilling through steel with oil on the bit - not like oil on the exhaust or oil burning in the engine. There was no indication of the smell on the outside around the engine, only inside the vehicle. Could I have possibly overheated something in the transmission to cause this?

[Steve Arndt]

What rear trailing arms do you have?

[Piledriver]

On decel you can pull a lot of oil oil past the rings (max manifold vacuum), ends up in the exhaust//muffler..

I think that's where most of my oil went, a ECU setting change to keep the idle valve wide open into decel for awhile reduced my oil consumption from ~1 quart/1K to 2~3 quarts in 12K.

[evernon]

The trailing arms are 3x3.

I am pretty sure that the hot oil smell was not coming from engine combustion as neither the engine or exhaust smelled. My thought was that it was coming from the small vent hole on the nose cone of the transmission. The tranny is very noisy but this is the 1st vehicle that I have owned with no urethane in the transmission mounts. With no upholstery to absorb noise, the harmonics are torture to my ears! Not sure if it is on its last leg or if they all sound that bad with solid mounts.

[Steve Arndt]

Run synthetic in the trans, it won't smell and it will shift much better. I run amsoil 75w90 gear lube in all my vw gear boxes.

Seriously, the temp rise is so slow that I can't imagine any smelly air being forced out the vent hole on the transaxle. It is there it allow expansion as things warm up and cool down, not for passing bulk air.