My ongoing Turbobaja build

[Steve Arndt]

I feel ya. The classic dual sport problem, you can't have it all.

I love my super squish pistons. An offset pin would be nice for quiet cold startup though (first 20 to 30 seconds are clackity). I understand the combustion space quest, that is why I bought 700$ pistons ten years ago.

I don't know if a 1 point or so bump in static compression would make much difference in the quest for better street manors from your engine. I haven't experimented with that, I always make huge changes...

[turbobaja]

Yes, the Space Quest for better combustion is not a cheap one . For now I'm going to keep working on improving the tune on the current combo. I'd really like to get it over to the VW Nationals later this Summer and make some passes for the 'home crowd'. PIR is literally minutes from my house.

Not out of the woods with the brakes, yet. My rear brakes were making a ton of noise and turning the rotors colors on both sides. I pulled a caliper off and the pistons were virtually impossible to compress into their bores. Took one caliper apart and found the O-rings coming apart and pieces were binding the cups against the walls. And more than one piston had scratches or marks from pliers on the OD, where you don't wont them! I contacted Tatum Motorsports and the owner offered to exchange my entire rear brake kit directly with him and save the trouble of dealing with Pacific Customs entirely. He assured me this new kit will actually bolt on and work very well, quietly, as long as I put the correct master cylinder in the car and get rid of the residual pressure valves on my rear circuits. The residual valves were a poor bandaid for a small, stock master cylinder, and caused the rear brakes to drag excessively and cause problems. Also, I've got a problem with my axle spacers/bearings/something that's causing my outer spacer to sit just inside the outer lip seal. So I've got my rear suspension torn off and I'm waiting for a set of SAW axle shims to arrive that will hopefully set me straight and have things lining up better.

My illusive front brake package from Tatum should also be arriving shortly. With any luck I'll be back on the road with matching brakes that actually stop...amazing.

[Clonebug]

That doesn't look like a DD there Karl........

Are you going to make the Burger Meet this year???

[turbobaja]

That doesn't look like a DD there Karl........

Are you going to make the Burger Meet this year???

Whats that...3 weeks out? It all depends on the parts getting into my hands ASAP. I'll be ready when they get here, thats all I can tell ya. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have enough parts to start making progress. Master should be here Wednesday, so i can start working on mounting that and making my stock pedal actuate it somehow. I also have to make the rear park brake calipers mount to the trailing arms on there own since the Tatum mount wont accommodate the park brakes anymore. It would be fun to make it up to the Burger cruise in. And the Vintage show for the first time with the baja.

[Clonebug]

July 17th is Burger Meet.

[turbobaja]

I should be chewing on a burger courtesy of Art right now, but instead I'm posting about my brakes again...what drag.

Long story short, Tatum was jerking me off the whole time about my front brakes, and decided to pretty much jerk me a little harder with an offer to exchange my entire rear brake kit due to all my trouble. Instead they replaced my original 2 rotors and sent all my old parts back to me, complete with old pads. I'd already replaced the rotors on my own dime, that wasn't the problem, it was the calipers! After 5 months, the list of excuses from different people about why my front brakes don't exist yet is getting pretty long. I've had enough. I canceled my front brake order and I'm shipping my Tatum rear brake kit back to Pacific Customs for credit towards a complete CNC setup. Correct dual master setup with balance bar, and 4 piston calipers all the way around...DONE!

[Clonebug]

Karl,

Bummer about the brakes.

On a good note you didn't miss the burger since I ended up having to work till 9:30 pm tonight for a total of 15 hours today....on top of 12 and 13 hour days all week. I'm not a happy camper.......

I guess I'm going to have to make the GCVWS and the offer will still stand there if we meet up then.

[petew]

Sorry mate, that's terrible.

[turbobaja]

Brakes from CNC looking and fitting GREAT right out of the box. Rear rotors come with optional shims, which I needed, and all the brakes test fit up w/out issue for a change . The challenge was in mounting the new dual master cylinder assembly with balance bar "structure" up tight behind the stock pedal cluster. Very tricky area to work in, but it fits great and everything clears and moves smooth. About ready to plumb and get this thing back on the road

[andy198712]

posh!!

[petew]

Super tight too. Wow. Love your work Karl.

[rubenski]

Those are some nice parts! Clean install. I hate working on brakes. I do it... but i dont like it

[turbobaja]

Hey Karl!!!!

Long time no see!!!!!

All is well?????? You need to update your build page........

Well, long story short, my life has somehow been taken over by a Vanagon... After a "brief" 6 month employment building custom Vanagons at a local shop (NorthWesty) I somehow managed to fall in love with these weird looking machines. I did a number of Subaru engine swaps and 2wd to Syncro conversions and got to know these Vans very well. However, that particular custom Van shop treated their employees very poorly and I quickly found out their reputation was not all it was cracked up to be, so I made yet another job change. I left that shop after spending over $16K out of pocket, literally paying payroll for the other employees by buying parts (and a Van) from the owner there. I made a plan early on working there; I needed to piece together everything I'd need to build my Van the way I wanted to, before leaving for good. That included all the parts to rebuild the brakes and suspension as well as a used Subaru engine and every part it would take to swap it into my Van. It was insane! That money and time was supposed to be spent on the baja, swapping cams and turbos, etc, aiming for better drivability. Instead, the baja sits unchanged, other than to be squeezed over to the side of my small garage to make room for a Vanagon project. The whole thing has been a real eye opening experience, life can take you places you never thought you'd be, that is for sure...

Anybody interested in the Van build can take a look here; viewtopic.php?f=14&t=147567

As for the Baja, my quest for confident braking did NOT end with bolting on the most expensive set of CNC brakes I could find. Unfortunately these rotors also had enough thickness variation to create quite a bit of pedal pulsation. The fix was to cut them with an on-car lathe. Nothing was easy or cheap about the entire process, but I've finally got very solid, adjustable brakes, and my steering brake can lock up either back tire on dry pavement...for whatever that's worth .



The current state of affairs...

[petew]

Given your Baja is already running and pretty great, spending the money on another project is good sense. I too am tempted by Vanagons. If the brakes work on the Baja, drive it! Enjoy it! Wish I could do the same with mine right now.

[turbobaja]

Given your Baja is already running and pretty great, spending the money on another project is good sense. I too am tempted by Vanagons. If the brakes work on the Baja, drive it! Enjoy it! Wish I could do the same with mine right now.

I've got around 10,000 miles on the baja now. We do try to take it out and enjoy it when we can. It needs to be tamed down a bit for better low speed driving offroad and lower CHT on the freeway. It's an animal in the upper rpms, pulls pretty violently on the 31" BFGs. Still haven't made a 1/4 mile pass with it, gearing is far from ideal for quick times I'm afraid.

Be careful with the Vans...it's a slippery, expensive slope