TheSamba.com :: View topic - Iron Lion | prep thread | New York

Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:06 pm

Hey guys,

After our trips to Beijing and Cape Town with our bus it's time for another adventure. Our next trip starts in New York and we're driving all the way down to Rio. We're first going to drive to the west coast and from there all the way down through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and finally into Brazil.

So, we've got about 15.000 miles ahead of us. Fortunately the bus is in pretty good condition. At the moment our to-do list is limited to finishing up the audio system, raising suspension further (raised spindles, coil-overs, 930cv's etc.) and some modifications to our oil cooling system.

Although the description is in Dutch, a google map of the route can be found here.
http://www.oranjetrophy.nl/2014/route.php

So, we left of the last thread with an unfinished audio system.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=448292&start=40

We finally got everything installed and upholstered. We still need to do some cleaning up in the interior and some bits of the wiring, but everything is up and running.

Dynaudio system 360 installed, tweeter and mid-range cross firing towards opposite passenger for best sound quality. Window winders had to be eliminated and are replaced by electric windows.

Modified dash with fiberglass to accommodate the Focal 130CVX center driver firing at the window for a wide sound stage.

We built a new center console which now has a small housing for the 8 inch Sundown Audio driver. The enclosure for the woofer is only 6,5 liters. Leaves enough room in the console to store documents and two fire extinguishers. We still need to finish this with a nice black mesh to conceal the woofer.

When we had everything installed we had some trouble with the JBL MS-8. However, after a call with JBL they shipped me a new unit which arrived to my doorstep the next day. Probably best service experience ever.

We still have some deadening to do on the left door, but the system sounds awesome. It has cost us a whole lot of time and money to get it done, but it was well worth the effort. It plays extremely loud without distorting with intense base.

So, that's it for now, we'll keep you posted as we go along.

Sun Dec 16, 2012 6:26 pm

let us know if you need anything!

Sun Jun 23, 2013 5:23 am

America!!!

Departing from New Amsterdam (currently known as NYC) on the 27th of March 2014, coast to coast in 2,5 weeks before crossing the border into Mexico.

80 days, 25.000 kilometres (15.500mi), 14 countries

Sun Jun 23, 2013 8:16 am

where are you crossing (mexico) and when?
give us a call for Pizza.

Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:06 am

Looks like it's going to be epic boys!, can't wait for the pictures!

Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:39 pm

Too bad you can't dip a little bit south and let the engine return to Aircooled Heaven where it was conceived :-)

Awesome trip!

Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:55 pm

Jake Raby wrote: Too bad you can't dip a little bit south and let the engine return to Aircooled Heaven where it was conceived :-)

Awesome trip! We'll figure something out, don't wanna miss the opportunity!

In the meantime, we swapped the Thunderbird exhaust for a Vintage Speed one. After 5 years, 30k miles and some patchwork the TB was f****ed up beyond recognition.

Vintage Speed was shipped in a matter of days and the packaging, as with everything else on this product is ace. Comes with studs and 12mm nuts for easy mounting.

Getting dark here, pic of the end result doesn't do it justice.
Sound is a bit heavier compared to the TB, and a bit louder as well.

Sun Jun 23, 2013 3:07 pm

Looks great. Please include all of your info on the Megasquirt system, which I assume your going to run on this trip.

M

Sun Jun 23, 2013 3:51 pm

Thanks!

We have always planned on doing a write-up on the MS install, but we had some problems during our trip through Africa.

The problems were most likely caused by a configuration problem. We have since upgraded to MS3 and we are going to re-tune it from scratch.

We also had some problems with failing O2 senders. We hope this was related to the way it was mounted, so hopefully it will work better with the new exhaust.

Also we're going to move the MS ecu out of the engine bay, to eliminate possible heat induced problems.

Once we got everything wired up and the O2 sensor replaced we'll start re-tuning with a set of new injectors. Once everything is dialed in and the system is running reliably we'll do a write-up. Don't expect anything soon though, still a lot of work to be done and nowadays we don't have that much spare time to put in the bus.

Sun Jun 23, 2013 4:58 pm

Thanks for this, I'm looking forward to following your further adventures, fantastic.

Are you going to dare the the Darién Gap or take the ferry? It looks like Samba member HastaAlaska tried it (or considered it - YouTube blocks the video, something to do with the music used) earlier this year from South to North, and in his thread he says he knows the way through and to message him on how to get across! But it seems from what I can deduce that he still opted for the ferry:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=535714&start=20

Three Corvairs successfully did the Gap in 1961, although it suspiciously looks like they had a considerable entourage of support staff with them:

Sun Jun 23, 2013 8:19 pm

Looks like a lot of fun. Keep up the posts.

One thought no many people know about O2 sensors is how sensitive they are to silicone spray. If you are "water proofing" anything that way- it might have an effect on your o-2 sensor.

Love the exhaust. Might get one for mine when the time comes.

Tue Jun 25, 2013 10:31 am

chimneyfish wrote: Thanks for this, I'm looking forward to following your further adventures, fantastic.

Are you going to dare the the Darién Gap or take the ferry? It looks like Samba member HastaAlaska tried it (or considered it - YouTube blocks the video, something to do with the music used) earlier this year from South to North, and in his thread he says he knows the way through and to message him on how to get across! But it seems from what I can deduce that he still opted for the ferry:

We're going to bypass the Darien by ferry. As you can see in the videos, it's quite a challenge to get through. It would take far too long and besides that, it is rather dangerous. Nice video btw :)

williamM wrote: Looks like a lot of fun. Keep up the posts.

One thought no many people know about O2 sensors is how sensitive they are to silicone spray. If you are "water proofing" anything that way- it might have an effect on your o-2 sensor.

Love the exhaust. Might get one for mine when the time comes.

Never put anything on the sensor. Let's just hope it was due to it's mounting position. Maybe the airflow was messed up where it was mounted, allowing it to build up soot on the sensor.

Tue Jun 25, 2013 11:32 am

MadMax78 wrote: Maybe the airflow was messed up where it was mounted, allowing it to build up soot on the sensor.

I think VW originally mounted theirs pointing straight down going into the top of the exhaust pipe. Is this angle what your referring to, or more related to the distance you place it from the point of exit?

Tue Jun 25, 2013 12:49 pm

The sensor should always be mounted between a 3 and 9 o'clock, this is too prevent moisture collecting around the sensor. Probably also the reason why they are mounted in the 12 o'clock position on the VW's and pretty much every other car.

We had the first one fail after about 7000 miles, at the time I thought it was due to leaded fuel we may have used in Africa. The replacement sensor we carried failed within a couple of days.

Once we got back to Europe we installed another new sensor and it failed within a couple hundred miles. These were all brand new Bosch units, so no crap quality.

The sensor was mounted in a weld on bung right between the collector and muffler on our Thunderbird exhaust. Maybe the bung caused some sort of weird turbulence causing soot to build up on the sensor tip. It could also be a temperature problem, if the exhaust flow is not hot enough it won't burn the soot of the sensor.

The guys at Vintage Speed said the ports on our new exhaust are suitable for continuous O2 sensor operation, so we'll see how it holds up.

Tue Jun 25, 2013 1:49 pm

L

First of all good luck on your team and happy miles.

I think a heat sink bung extender from Innovate might do the trick or you may fabricate a copper butterfly and use it inbetween the exhaust and the sensor as long as there is an airflow.

http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16148

Good luck on your convoy once again.

Tue Jun 25, 2013 4:33 pm

Bursch wrote: Jake Raby wrote: Too bad you can't dip a little bit south and let the engine return to Aircooled Heaven where it was conceived :-)

Awesome trip! We'll figure something out, don't wanna miss the opportunity!

In the meantime, we swapped the Thunderbird exhaust for a Vintage Speed one. After 5 years, 30k miles and some patchwork the TB was f****ed up beyond recognition.

Vintage Speed was shipped in a matter of days and the packaging, as with everything else on this product is ace. Comes with studs and 12mm nuts for easy mounting.

Getting dark here, pic of the end result doesn't do it justice.
Sound is a bit heavier compared to the TB, and a bit louder as well.

We'll see how the unit holds up internally, my experiences with it were less than positive.

Wed Jun 26, 2013 4:53 am

Jake Raby wrote: Bursch wrote:

In the meantime, we swapped the Thunderbird exhaust for a Vintage Speed one. After 5 years, 30k miles and some patchwork the TB was f****ed up beyond recognition.

We'll see how the unit holds up internally, my experiences with it were less than positive. We'll see what happens indeed. The TB was beyond repair, tried to fix'r up a couple of times but the material was just too far gone

Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:19 am

ill have to go back and read your other thread, but i cant wait to watch this one! :D

you should try and catch up with hastaalaska...that would be pretty sweet. i bet he would enjoy the company for a little bit ;)

Wed Jun 26, 2013 9:14 am

While on your trip through California, if you are in need of a camp spot or a maintainence stop I will volunteer my place here on the central coast.

Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:21 pm

any updates? :D