1968 Beetle. What's left of it. Plus some tubes and 350bhp.

Went OTT and made some for the front dampers too - they're still dry at the moment anyway as they're getting rebuilt shorter - problem is now I need to re-shim/valve and tweak the adjust internals to work with the smaller shafts (otherwise they don't blow off early enough on the high speed compression, and don't generate enough pressure against the smaller shafts either).
Need to print some clamps to piggyback them onto the front dampers too....you'd think we'd have learnt about altering one thing turning into 3 other jobs by now....

It ain't dead

Dyno day!

Drives nice

Seems like only yesterday it was running...



The culprit:



Anyway, while we were at it, had a new fuel rail to replace the OE one made up by Ed, plumbing tweaked and all installed , I finished off a new bit of coil pack wiring - noticed before the OE honda connectors had cracks in 'em, sealed them years back when the loom was made, but they've been on and off so many times since they've completely cracked through - one came off in my hand while checking it!

Seems like a fairly common Honda issue fortunately so there's aftermarket replacement coil pack connectors easily available - and I made everything on the engine side of the loom in modular sections so it's easy to replace or modify bits (coils have a section, first set of injectors has another, second set another, one for cam/crank sensors, one for temp sensors, etc, etc) so I've make a new section up with new connectors.



Did a few niggly bits, we cleaned and tweaked the springs/preload on the throttle body 'cause it was sticking slightly down low when cold occasionally, and I rebuilt the 'Magic Box 'o' Sparks*' fan controller so we can run fan speed control again and reduce the power draw from the alternator to help things out until we can get the bigger alt sorted out.
That and you don't get deafened by fan noise every time the engine is running now:



Now it's even more magic, look it's sparkly and colour changing and everything:



So she's back up and running, new loom, new bearing, new fuel rail and plumbinb, exhaust leaks sealed.

Just got a bigger clutch master cylinder coming as the bite point is right at the end of the pedal travel at the minute - it works fine but it needs lifting a bit - a consequence of us using the absolute smallest cylinder we thought we could get away with, as the old floor mounted clutch pedal and 2600lb Kennedy pressure plate was a nightmare, you were going over centre with your ankle when it released and it gave you a workout.

The new setup is far smoother and far lighter than we expected so gonna trade 20% more pedal effort for shifting the bite point to a slightly more comfortable position, and I want to make some fine tuning to the mapping where vtec engages tommorow.

Bigger belt = more boost = better. Right?

So, had a small issue yesterday - the alternator suddenly decided to stop charging properly, it'd sit at 11.8v at idle and 13.7v if you revved the engine - then hold 12.1-12.2 after that.

Which makes you think the regulator is shot right?
Only downside, it's pretty much a brand new alternator, but it's been on the car so long it's out of warranty.
You know what it's like here, if I can unbolt it I'll try fixing it, after a lot of swearing and hammering splitting the casing open I found the fault - two dry solder joints, great quality control there! Seems like the regulator was okay it'd just gone into a failsafe mode.



So, a bit of desoldering, cleaning and resoldering later, and a clean and check of the slip rings and brushes (and some grease in the rear bearing which was completely dry so I don't have to beat the casing for 2 hours to get it apart next time) and it was back together and holding a rock solid 14.1-14.2v even at idle.
Which is good considering it's underdriven to stop it going pop.



Way more stable than it was before so I guess it had the fault from day one and eventually just cracked out.

Windscreen is finished and nicely bonded in now, as is the GPS antenna and accelerometers for g-forces and inertial positioning (little black box on the roof)



Took it for a run and it's so much quieter with the windscreen bonded in, who'd have thought?

I bet that is a lot of fun to drive.

It definately is, much more fun in the car though, video's don't really get across the terrain well usually.

Next stop, racing at Pickering next weekend!

Location and a map is here.

www.norc.org.uk/event-details-registration/norc-round-1-pickering-17-18-04-2022

Itinerary is here:




No charge for spectating but try to park on the side of the access road so there's enough room in the pits for competitors, there's 75 entries and not much room!