The Green-Go, 65 Beetle build thread

[danhay]

Yeah, I won't be rolling the fenders on this one. CIP had 4" beams on sale so I pulled the trigger. Hopefully I'll be able to tackle that this weekend or next. What sealed the deal is I took my 80lb daughter for a ride and the rubbing was way worse. Gotta get those wheels tucked in.

I'm trying to put miles on it, I drove it to work today. It was a cool morning but it stayed right at 180 oil temp. In town, no freeway.

Last night it was about 90 degrees and I was romping it around doing hard pulls and generally hooning it and it didn't go above 220. Granted, it doesn't have a decklid on it, so we'll see what happens when I put on the decklid. I plan to hole-saw some holes behind the license plate.

It leaks. I expected it, but it still sucks. Two of the leaks I should be able to fix, valve covers and sump cover plate, but there's seepage elsewhere I can't do much about.

Obligitory "Drove it to work" pics.

[toxicavenger70]

[danhay]

I got the 4" narrowed adjustable beam almost wrapped up. I bought a CB 2" narrowed sway bar because I think I can make it work. Dang this thing is low! I'm going to raise it up some.

I still need to install the sway bar and align the front end, in addition to setting ride height and inch or so more than it is now. Even raising it up it'll still look killer.

[danhay]

Some shots of the new stance with the 4" narrowed and adjustable beam

[danhay]

I've been playing around with the timing, and it likes more timing. Later on today I'm going to put a lighter advance spring in the magnaspark, as it has a bit of a bog right before full advance, so the advance will come in a bit sooner. Anyway, here's the results via GPS Race app, Now I want to take out the back seat and a few other parts to see if it'll go 12.99 so I can say it's a 12 sec car! Man this thing is fun to drive. If I could just get the valve covers to stop leaking, and it needs axle seals BAD.

[danhay]

EDIT*** I think the 13.0 time is not reliable. The 86 MPH top speed doesn't jive with a 13.0 1/4. I read some reviews on the app I used and the verdict is out on accuracy. I haven't had a chance to back up the pull, but I'm thinking it was actually a low 14 sec. pass, full disclosure. But fun nevertheless!

I've got some OG valve covers, bails and seals from Wolfsburg west, as well as two axle seal kits. I've gotta get the leaks handled before I drive this anymore. Too much oil is staining my pretty stainless exhaust!

[67rustavenger]

[danhay]

[danhay]

So I've been driving this thing, getting the tuning dialed... The HPMX's were leaking down at night, turns out the accelerator pump housing was loose on the right carb. While investigating that, I discovered the floats were WAY OFF from EMPI, way too low. Fixed that. Finally got the Valve covers to seal and not leak.

I drove it around in stop and go traffic on a pretty hot day, and the oil temperature just continued to slowly creep up and up and up.. I rolled in the driveway and shut it down when it hit 235-240. I had recently installed the decklid so I'm sure that added to the problem.

I probably should have done this while building it but I bit the bullet for an oil cooler. I'm hanging it on the driver's side behind the torsion tube, as there isn't room above the transaxle due to the EMPI truss bar.

It is attached at the front with a big hose clamp going around the torsion tube and through the cooler bracket. In the rear I made this bracket out of some sheet metal. The material is thinner than I'd like but I had it in stock, and the cooler itself is not very heavy, and this will only be supporting one side, I think it should be fine. Mounting this was the biggest hurdle so now I just need to plumb it to a Mocal Sandwhich plate that goes between the filter and the filter mount, and wire the fan. I have a fan relay kit from Painless.

[danhay]

I had to re-engineer my mount, the cooler was parallel with the ground but ran into some space issues with the fittings and lines, so I moved it up at more of a 45 degree angle, and used 180 AN -8 fittings.

Say what you want about the janky mount but it's secure. Two hose clamps on the front, and some 18 ga. bent in the vice with a BFH bolted to the traction bar. The sandwich plate between the filter and mount is a Mocal 180 thermostatic valve. It doesn't send oil to the cooler until 180 degrees.

I drove it around last night, ambient temp was 75 and it warmed up to 190-195 on the gauge and just stuck there. The fan didn't even come on. I have the fan thermostat switch in the out line, meaning it's reading the oil temp coming out of the cooler, that way the fan only comes on when the cooler itself cannot keep up. It's winter now so it'll be a while before I can really put it to the test, but this car used to creep up in temp no matter what the outside temp was, so I think I can call it fixed. Time for miles of smiles!

[danhay]

Going for a spin!
https://youtu.be/aQX8RYzZkS4