Thingaru

[av8shunmeckaneck]

[av8shunmeckaneck]

Alright, I'm all in now. Broke down and cut out the louvers. It's nice now to have direct access to the outboard tanks on the radiators. I was able to do a better job at using speed tape to seal off the openings around the radiators.

This definitely helped some more but still not quite there. I took up the mountains to do some canyon carving and its still getting too hot. I experimented a bit with hose pinching pliers and pinched off one and/or the other of the bleed hoses I talked about in the last post. Can't say I could tell a difference, pinched or not pinched. I'll just wait for the check valves and give them a try.

A small oil leak from the aluminum oil pan has been bothering me for a while now so I took it off for some weld repairs. Not sure how this one passed QC.

This Ultra Grey RTV works really well. It took a lot of effort to remove the pan with a pry bar.

Tried doing some repairs on the gas gauge. The cardboard that holds the terminals bit the dust. I snipped off a piece of a PC board from from when the CNC router used to be a CNC plasma cutter. I had to solder the itty bitty wires back onto the studs and attach them to the PCB. Some research on the fuel gauge vibrator made me decide that the whole setup was going to be too janky so I just ordered a standalone VDO gauge. Here's a pic of the back of he gauge.

[av8shunmeckaneck]

Got that weld fixed on the oil pan today. I also moved the drain plug to the front side of the pan instead of sticking out the bottom. Afraid it protruded too much and was going to get damaged by road FOD. Its back on and doesn't seep oil anymore.

After I fixed the pan I drove it some more to see if that helped the cooling issue. It didn't, so I got an 'Oreilly special' thermostat. I was blown away when they rang me up. Only $7.99 for the thermostat and another $1.99 for seal. Subaru wants around $50. People on NASIOC say the autoparts store thermostats are crap and to just buy the OEM. I'll give this one a try for $10. I'll try thermostat first but I think my next step will be to make the scoops bigger. Maybe make them a little taller vs wider.

The CV's have been cackling in corners since I put in the Subbie tranny. Stock 181 axles are 16.25". I measured 16-5/8" with the stub axle level with the tranny flange. Dude at Pacific Customs says it should be fine as long as the axle floats at full droop and doesn't bind. Neither were an issue so I've been driving it with stock axles since. The noise seems to be coming from the right axle so I removed it, cleaned the CV's and inspected. No issues noted with either CV joint but they did seem a little low on grease. Nothing makes any noise when its on jacks so I'm not sure where I'm going to look next. Only thing I noticed was one CV is a GKN and the other an original VW. Not sure if mix-n-match CV's would cause any cackling.

[av8shunmeckaneck]

The $7.99 thermostat just about fixed the cooling. Drove it up the mountain again and still overheats under light load going up hill. It seems to cool well enough at highway speeds now and stays around 200. Another small problem that I have been forgetting to address is the intercooler. The fan is attached but I haven't wired it yet and I haven't devised another vent for it.

That being said, I think the scoops need to be a little bigger. This is the rendering from Fusion360. I'm going to make foam plugs and then fiberglass molds. The scoops will be carbon fiber (been waiting to use it for a long time).

Here is the progress so far for machining the foam. Still another hour or so to finish cutting.

[av8shunmeckaneck]

Replaced the water pump this weekend. It was the least I could do since I've had the pump for a little while now. Didn't expect it to make a difference, and I don't think it did. Still not sure if the cast impeller is better or worse than the stamped impeller.

Finally made a tool to hold the crank so I could properly torque the crank pulley afterward.

95ft/lbs??! *CLICK* done..

Nut inserts on the left AND the right cam belt shrouds spun in the shroud. Had to rip off the left shroud. Guess I'll go without the shrouds now.

The right cams sit at the tippy top of the lobes when everything is set to Zero for removing the belt. Its incredibly difficult to get them to stay in place. Learned my lesson and made a cam holder this time.

I have a bunch jets from the DCOE on the turbo 1600 so I used some 160 Air Correction Jets to restrict the flow back to the expansion tank.

Since I had access with the pump off, I was able to properly weld up the unused ports and weld in the -8AN fitting.

[av8shunmeckaneck]

Thought I'd break up the posts a little. Got a couple of the carbon fiber scoops made. I thought the first design was a little too much for a Thing.

Drew them to look a little more like '74 vents.

Got this squeegy tip from work doing composite repairs. Need to figure out where to store the guest comforter and pillows now.

Some more layup stuff.

Came out OK. Mold didn't survive though.

Double sided 'carpet tape', that I sometimes use on the CNC, and 1/8" pop rivets hold the scoop on.

This carbon fiber stuff is fun. I think the radiator shrouds in the engine compartments may be carbon fiber in the future.

[av8shunmeckaneck]

Well I think I finally got the cooling issue hammered out. It looks like the high pressure air under the car was fighting tooth and nail with the air coming in through the scoops. I put lightning holes behind the license plate about a week ago but that didn't seem to help. I think I could have spaced the plate further off of the holes.

Today I took a run up the mountain without the deck lid installed. Voilà!!

If I run it hard and/or lug it, it will get hot but it takes a bit of effort to get it there.

I need to put a splitter in the right shroud to direct a little more air toward the intercooler. Intake temps keep climbing on the fwy.

[av8shunmeckaneck]

Turns out 80% of my cooling problem was my Ignition Map. I managed to find a screen shot of a user on Nasioc with the same engine as mine. I copied his ignition map and loaded it on my ECU. Ignition was too retarded by as much as 10° or more in many areas.

Amazingly, coolant temps are a little too low now. I may need to put the original thermostat back in. I already adjusted the fans to come on at 190° and they rarely come on now. This means I will need to separate the intercooler fan to come on by itself. Probably control it with the ECU and put the rad fans on thermostat switches.

[Ark]

Excellent work! That is great news to hear the map solved most of the issues.

Given the updated map, do you think you could have managed effective cooling without the scoops, the pressure relief holes in the decklid and without cutting the louvers?

I would like to swap a Subaru engine into my Thing but I'd like to keep it as stock looking as possible. I don't mind removing some sheet metal inside the engine compartment and trying to duct the radiator exhaust down under the engine compartment but I'd like to avoid exterior mods if at all possible.

[sam_w]

My thought is that the 74 vent change to muufs was not in vain. It has been explained to me that as the body is angled back at the scoops a negative pressure develops at about 60 mph. The intake on 74's is not affected tht way so they stay cooler.
In defence I have a 73 with a 2054cc miotor with a high performance cam and twin webers, probably gets over 100 HP. I do have an extermal full flow oil coiler, but I have been cruising at 80-85 for a long time on US101 and don't dee my oil temp go over 230. I have been told that ius just fine by the Brad Penn techs.
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63 singlecab
73 thingster
74 Thing

[av8shunmeckaneck]

I finally got it running perfectly. I had a misfire that would show up once the engine hot and heat soaked. Been troubleshooting for the oddest month or so. Spent a bunch of time and money in parts to finally fix it. In the end I used an oscilloscope to find that I hadn't grounded the#1 and #3 coils (both on the left, as viewed installed in the Thing). They were grounded to a convenient bolt hole in the valve cover. Mother f*ing valve cover is completely electrically nsulated from the engine! Not sure why it would only show up when the engine was fully heat soaked. I feel like an idiot for not realizing that when I was seeing everything up. On the other hand I'm proud of myself for figuring it out. Here is a picture of a properly working coil current waveform. The picture with my hand blocking the top half of the spike is what a bad current waveform looks like (imagine the line going straight across where my hand is blocking). The ECU sends voltage to the coil as shown by the ramp but since the secondary coil is essentially not connected, there is no back EMF to cause the current to continue to rise until the field is collapsed.

ARK - I'm pretty sure I could have gotten away without removing thr louvers. Maybe even without the lightening holes in the deck lid. Addy some point I'll try out without thr scoops but since thr louvers are gone, I need something to cover the holes.

I wouldn't hesitate to do the Subaru again.

There were allot of variables for engine placement and I had to guess at most of it. If I do it again I'd go straight removing the arched portion of the fwd firewall and the whole bottom shroud just like I did for this one.

[av8shunmeckaneck]

[panel]

Love this build. Just stumbled across it , WOW! All custom just like my build. Very cool. Lots of similar stuff as me , well done ! Out of the box for sure.
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My '65-Subaru EJ20 Turbo conversion

[panel]

Couple questions now

What is this machined billet piece on the right of the block ?

And what brand etc of BOV ?

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My '65-Subaru EJ20 Turbo conversion

[av8shunmeckaneck]

[panel]

Thanks !
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My '65-Subaru EJ20 Turbo conversion

[av8shunmeckaneck]

It's been a little while. I had a short the other day that blew the fuse for the coils. Had to quickly go from the fast lane to the right shoulder. After a couple fuses and jiggling the wires i got it to run and made it home. So now it's time to clean up the engine wiring a little.

Changed up the harness and wired a Deutsch cannon plug in.

Also changing up the fuse box wiring. Used to look like this.

Wiring up the fuse block

Using the convenient hole that the PO cut out for heater boxes to install the plug receptacle.

Piece of 3" tubing cut to match the profile and CNC'ed a piece of 16ga for the mount.

Need to take a carbide burr to clean up the weld.

[Ian Epperson]

Just came across this build thread, love it! Nicely done!
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VW-181 shirts and stickers.
http://ian.epperson.com/vw

[av8shunmeckaneck]

[sjhotz]

Fantastic work! I'm impressed with the cooling setup.

-sjhotz
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BAY PRIDE!

74 Thing
72 Bay Window Westy TinTop