Baja Squared's Big Adventure

57baja · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 11:02 am Post subject: Baja Squared's Big Adventure

... So it's not really that big of an adventure... But it was to me. I actually have this thing running and got to drive it around a bit.

WOOOO HOOOO!!!

For those of you that aren't familiar with this project, my 15 year old son and I are building a Baja Bug from a Squareback for his first car. Yes, it's not your typical lowered T3 that you'd find in this forum. Quite the contrary. Here are a couple of pictures of progress so far....

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

And here it is driving on the street.....

Link

So here's where I could use some ideas:

It drives OK, but it seems to be overheating miserably. The previous owner had it stored for many many years, so it wasn't running when I bought it. The guys said that there was about 30,000 miles on the engine, but he could have been giving me a line of crap. Who knows? I don't have any gauges on it to get actual temps, but after you drive it for about two miles, the oil light flickers on the dash. I used some synthetic 5W30 in it that I had laying around the shop from my baja, and plan on trying some thicker oil. I've looked at timing and timed it to 30 BTDC at full advance (009) with dual ICT's (new). I know I should change the idle jets to 55 or 60, so maybe that's contributing. I didn't do a full compression check, but I did check one cylinder and found it pumped up to 100 at full operating temperature. Maybe I should check them all. It seems to have plenty of poop, so no issue there. It runs smoothly through the whole power band. There's no smoke and no smell of burning oil, either. Anything else you can think of? I'm going to drain the oil, refill it with 20W50, and do a valve adjustment today. I'd sure like to have it running well before the Classic, but know that it may actually need an engine.

I have about 20 years of VW experience, but very limited with a T3 (I only had one once before).

Your thoughts?
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Russ Wolfe · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 12:40 pm Post subject:

If the car sat for a long time, check for mouse nests in the engine. I have mouse nests in one of mine, and it has never been installed in the car. They love to get inside our T-3 engines.
Actually, there is theory, that heavier oil increase the overheating problems.
It does not give up the heat as fast as the thinner oils in the cooler.
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Pierre G · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 2:35 pm Post subject:

X2 on some crap between cylinders and cooling tin. Could be mouse nests like Russ said, or dust/oil mix, or anything else...
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66311 · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 2:59 pm Post subject:

You can't tell from the outside. The thermo flap is stuck on this one also.

notchback · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 3:33 pm Post subject:

Another thing is where your cooling air is coming from. Having the body lift on there makes it so that the cooling air intake on the engine and the cooling air exit on the body do not line up. I can't tell what you're doing about that, but if you have leaks in there, then you're pulling cooling air over the exhaust, thereby warming it before it can cool the engine. You need to figure out a way to seal the cooling air intake like it is on a standard Type 3. This, along with a general lack of motivation, has been one of the things keeping me from using my lift kit.
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Bobnotch · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 3:44 pm Post subject:

He's got the cooling bellows in place as shown in this pic.

I am however wondering if his taller than stock sized tires (look like 235-75's) might be causing the engine to lug, thereby overheating it. d'oh!

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KTPhil · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject:

If compression and timing are good, overheating is probably a mixture issue. Does it ping at all?

Do you have a way to measure oil pressure other than the light? Could be a bad sensor. Does it "smell hot" or are you judging from the light.

Oh, and tell the yahoos downtown at the power company to turn off the streetlights during the day!!

sharkskinman · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 4:28 pm Post subject:

thats great man

Im still fighting with the idea of lift plates
I have the steel plates now
but Not sure the IRS will go 3" down
tried today and didnt want to go down that far

maybe i forgot to unhook the Ebrake
??

Looking great
Keep em coming
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57baja · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 4:46 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Here's an update:

I was thinking about the bellows misalignment and found that to be restricting the airflow, as it was pinched somewhat. So.. I removed the bellows for now. I have cut up the fenders so far that it is actually service as a ram-air intake for the cooling air behind the tires. After removing the bellows, it didn't make any difference whatsoever.

So I adjusted the valves, changed the oil to Royal Purple 20W50, and took apart the passenger's side engine tin to check for problems with the thermostat. I discovered that there is no thermostat, and there was no debris in the engine there. That was a very good idea about the mouse nest. I'd never have thought about that.

So I took off the hose that goes to the heaters on the driver's side, and it literally fell apart. Hmmm. After looking at it, I noticed a couple of great big holes in the aluminum flexible tubing going to both sides. So for now, I removed both sides and capped them off with the bottoms of baby bottles. I hope my wife doesn't notice them gone or I'm gonna be in trouble!

I just drove it about 8 miles, 3 of which was on the freeway. It runs fine with no oil light at idle.

Hmmm????

Maybe there is/was a rats nest in the driver's side? Maybe the cooling air escaping was causing havoc, but I would have never thought it would have been happening that quickly, and with the ambient temperature as low as it's been lately.

Hmmmm.....

For now, I'm going to continue driving it around town until I see reason to do otherwise.

Keep the suggestions coming, though.

BTW, it doesn't ping, and I know it's running a little lean. I should have 55's or 60's as idle jets if I recall correctly. I think I have 52's.

And I have a 002 bus transmission in it that made the gearing extremely low for dirt running and rock crawling. The ring and pinion is 5.37 as opposed to the T3 tranny that has 3.88. The gears are otherwise the same inside, or roughly so.

It is a cool crawler, and I can't wait to try it out in the dirt!
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57baja · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 4:50 pm Post subject:

Oh, and BTW Phil. One of the first things I did was change the sending unit with a brand new one. My nose is not calibrated as well as some, but it doesn't smell hot to me. It smells like a VW, though! I'm serious about that!
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j5josher · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:22 pm Post subject:

well with my luck if you didn't rebuild the motor then running synthetic will make the oil light come on.. idk why it just does.. happen in the fasty, thing and the baja... i just dont run synthetic its a waste of your money if it just drips out anyway..
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Russ Wolfe · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:27 pm Post subject:

Buttafuoco · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:44 pm Post subject:

JSMskater · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:53 pm Post subject:

Buttafuoco · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:00 pm Post subject:

At Aircooled.Net we recommend that you run synthetic oils in all cases, with one exception: you should continue to run dino oil (and change it every 1k miles) if your car still has the stock oiling system.

There is one thing I need to clarify though -- if you are not running an oil filter, there really is no point to using synthetic since your oil is going to become contaminated very quickly. Your engine will still benefit somewhat from it, but due to the higher cost of synthetic oil, the gain of running it before it becomes contaminated is negligible. Oil change intervals range from 1000-3000 miles in the VW engine with a strainer (not a filter). VWoM (Mexico) recommends 1k mile intervals on non-filtered engines; keep this in mind for your pride and joy! But on the flip side, the stock VW engine only takes 2.5 qts anyways, it's not going to break you if you do want to run synthetic!

JSMskater · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:36 pm Post subject:

Buttafuoco · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:42 pm Post subject:

57baja · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:43 pm Post subject:

Now that this thread changed direction a bit... I run synthetics in everything. Here's why I'm a believer: I had the oil pick-up tube come out of the case inside my baja with a brand new 2187cc engine with 500 miles on it while on the freeway stuck in a traffic jam. I idled it off the freeway, down the off ramp, around some turns, and on to a side street in heavy traffic getting off the freeway for the horse races at Santa Anita Race Track. All of this took about ten or fifteen minutes of on and off driving with the oil light on solid. I added three quarts to get it home, and tore the engine down, fearing complete and total meltdown of the bearings. The rods and mains looked absolutely pristine! Figure that.

I'm a believer.

My son and I also entered a project about synthetic oils in the LA County Science Fair a few years back. After researching it, synthetic oil is the only way to go.

Now I'll get back to the originally scheduled programming....

I may get up the balls to drive it to work this week. It's about a 30 mile trek one way, so I really need to work up to it. We'll see.
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Adriel Rowley · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 9:22 pm Post subject:

Walmart has Castrol 5 quart at $21. Considering I paid just less than that for dyno Valvoline, not bad. $10 oil change to me is worth the extended life and insurance. Over heated on an occasion, and have pulled a couple studs, but was due to not having case savers.

They are hardy! Put in some tooled and parts, and have an adventure. Breaking down is a bit of a pain, but can be rewarding. I discovered a beautiful place in not so nice L.A. running out of gas! Laughing

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Russ Wolfe · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:33 pm Post subject:

I just switched my 21 year old VW Fox over to Mobil 1 a couple weeks ago. Drove it to Charlotte, NC and back with no problems. 2300 miles, and used 1/2 quart of oil. Now this is an engine with 95K miles on it, and I was pushing it pretty hard at times.
I will probably change the oil and filter again shortly when I get time.
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Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you end up with a lot of scum on the top!--Edward Abbey

Gary: OK. Ima poop.


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