Spring Buggy Upgrade

[clonebug]

[oprn]

Good point on trailer tires and wheel bearings. I have no idea how old the tires are but I pumped them up 3 weeks ago and they are holding air fine with no weather cracking. The whole trailer loaded including canoe will be no more than 500 pounds so not much for the trailer running gear. As far as confidence in them they are not your typical tent trailer fare, they are front spindles and 12" wheels off an early Toyota 1200.

I do need to repack the wheel bearings though as I haven't done that in a long time.

[clonebug]

A few week ago I took a Friday off so I could go to the Burger Meet in Seattle.
I decided to take Wythac up on his offer and set up camp at his place that night in order to go to the Vintage Meet on Saturday.

I left my home at around 12:00 pm and headed south where I stopped in Conway for lunch and a beverage and then continued on to the Burger Master to get a good parking spot.

I got there about 3:00 pm and the parking lot was already half full.

Scored a spot in the shade and even saved a spot for Mario and Travis with Travis's 70 MS FI red and black bug.

Lot's of VW's showed up and it was packed by 5:30.

I left around 8:30 pm and headed off for a couple mile drive to my camping spot for the night.

I even gave the remaining crowd a little second gear scratch hitting second pulling the trailer.......

Here was my camping pad.....

I was up awake at 5:00 am and outside chatting with Wythac at 6:00 am.
The trailer was folded up and I was at breakfast at BurgerMaster by 7:00 and arrived at the Vintage Meet before 8:00 am.

Entered the show and stayed till 3:00 pm.

Cool camper...

Travis's winner......cleanest engine compartment I have ever seen....

Some shots of the show....

The other turbo at the show.......

Left at 3:00 for a 100 mile drive home.....cruised at 65-75 mph.

It was a good day.
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[oprn]

I got the wheel bearings packed and had another Boo at why the tappets always sound loose even though I have adjusted them. Cleaned up the valve covers and found that 7 out of 8 adjusters were hitting the covers! Put dimples in the covers and now she runs quiet!

Looks like a good meet! Some day I will get to one.

[wythac]

oprn,

If you make it down to the summer PNW Vintage meet towing your trailer behind your buggy you are also welcome to camp in my yard! It's about 2 miles from the Friday event and 5 from the Saturday event.

I like your trailer...I am in the process of incorporating a roof rack on my CAR to hold my 18' sea kayak but will be looking at the possibility of mounting it on my trailer now that I have seen yours.

[oprn]

[wythac]

http://www.cascadekombis.org/vintage-meet

It just happened a few weeks back, that's when clonebugs pics were taken.

See you next year maybe, depending on how far your part of Canada is from Washington State!

[oprn]

I just Googled it, about 15 hours one way so it is a possibility. I will think on that over the next 8 months it is very tempting! It would make for a nice break in run for a fresh engine - yes?

[clonebug]

Did a 4 day, 1,106 mile cruise through Eastern Washington for our anniversary this past weekend.

We covered a lot of country and some was pretty desolate.

Climbed the Vantage grade both ways about three times pulling 0-3 lbs boost and 65-75 mph.

We even did a tour of the Wild Horses Wind Farm on the Old Vantage Highway.

Vantage Highway view....

My Fav Brewery in Ellensburg.

Airfield Winery in Prosser.....

We even had lunch in Odessa at "Chiefs"

Went north to Grand Coulee Dam on the way home....

Stayed overnight in Pateros and then went home on Highway 20 past Diablo Lake.

All in all a great trip and my upgrades seemed to have paid off.

All I had for tools was a 1/2 inch wrench for the hood bolts, a lug wrench kit and a flashlight.....
The Buggy is truly a daily driver when the weather cooperates.
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[wythac]

Nice trip through Washington's Empty Quadrants. Love it out there. Nice pics too.

[oprn]

We just finished a 1300 mile round trip from east central Alberta to Vernon British Columbia. We too had a few wrenches and odds and ends. All we actually used was the funnel to add oil. And add we did! She use about 3 quarts on the trip, totally expected as this engine is not pristine!

Mixed it up with the general flow of the traffic pretty well I must say. Highest oil temp we saw was 208* F on a 97* day pulling a trailer. This picture was taken at the summit in the Rodger's Pass. I told the missus "If she blows now it's all down hill from here whether we keep going or turn around and head home!"

[clonebug]

Since it was too hot to camp anywhere and fires weren't allowed we stayed home for the Labor Day Weekend.
I ended up setting the trailer up in the back yard and we camped at home for a night since it was almost too hot to even sleep outside.....

Went for a day trip of 140 miles to Artist Point and got some great views of our mountains.

Baker....

Shuksan

Table Mountain to the left.

All in all a great day......
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[oprn]

Thanks for the posts, nice to see these Buggies being used! Someone else here referred to them as "smile generators" and that has definitely been our experience this summer!

In addition to the above posted 22 hour round trip we have made a 7 hour round trip to the lake with friends last weekend and yesterday a 6 hour round trip to meet up with a couple we haven't seen in a long while. Took the Buggy again just because!

Just last evening while fueling up, a gent in his late 80's came over and just stood looking at our Buggy for a long time. Finally he said "I cut up a few Bugs in my day too. A lot of fun to drive!" Then I drove off and left my oil filler cap on the road where I set it.

That likely made him smile too!

[clonebug]

This is not really a Spring upgrade since it is fall now but it is in the same year.......

Installed an intercooler to see if I could get my intake temps lower than just with my WI.

I have just tested it once but it looks promising.....

Here is a little video at 23 lbs. boost and winding the speedo left of straight down. Air temps reached a high of 117 degrees which is about 30 degrees cooler than without the intercooler.


Link

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[oprn]

Due to where you placed the intercooler you may be getting very little air flow through it and with the testing I have done on my buggy it will be hot air coming up through it from below.

[clonebug]

This was only a test just like the rest of my EFI and turbo setup.
I realized it wasn't ideal but I have less than $100 into it so the gains are still worth it.
I'm going to try a fan and also tape some thread on the back like the airfoil guys do and record with my video camera.
I will then be able to make improvements in due time...

Even with the small gain I notice a good amount of power increase.
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[oprn]

I just had the missus drive down the highway, I rode in the back seat with a temperature probe and reached back. I could easily feel the shape of the airflow all around the back and the hot spots were very evident just with my hand. The temp probe just confirmed what I felt and put a number to it.

Directly behind is pretty warm, dead air and you will be surprised how high up it goes!

I can't really think of a place back there where you will get cool moving air to take advantage of an air to air intercooler. Fans would move it through but it will still be preheated. Unless you could tuck it up under the right side and catch the air flow out of the wheel well.

[clonebug]

At the amount of boost I'm running any drop is a good thing.

Without any cooling my IAT's would be over 265* F.

Combining the 3.0 gph water/alcohol injection at full boost and the intercooler results gives me a very substantial drop in IAT's.

I'm happy with my results but I will strive to improve them........
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[clonebug]

I got a little bored this weekend so I whipped up a couple test pieces for my intercooler.

I built a scoop out of a Post Office shipping box I had laying around...

I then added a few yarn strips so I can video the air movement around the intercooler.

I installed my little video camera on the rollbar and if the weather cooperates tomorrow I'll take it to work and record the results.

I'm hoping the cardboard lasts long enough for a test to work and back.......as long as it doesn't rain.......

If the results are positive I'll get a piece of aluminum and bend that up to fit.

I have a 7" fan coming and I'll install that on the bottom to pull air through also.
Ambient intake temps for the win!!!!!!
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[oprn]

Good show!

Want my prediction or should we wait and see?

I might be wrong...

Interesting stuff!!