Heater Beater 1776

[W1K1]

you might need a couple days for his Fastback thread
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9723438&highlight=#9723438
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[Alstrup]

Hello. a couple of things:

Brakes.
I assume that since you have 4 lug wheels you are using stock type 68-on front discs and either 30 mm pre 68 rear drums, or 40 mm 68-on rear drums with 17,5 mm brake cylinders.
If you use the pre 68 drums w. 30 mm brake shoes there is not much you can do apart from limiting the fluid supply to the rear.
If you run 68-on drums w. 40 mm brake shoes, you simply have to convert to 19 mm brake cylinders from a 924, - OR, use a 19,5 mm cylinder from the 65-68 model. If you do that you will need a spacer to get the offset right. It isd about the same size as the thickness of the reinforcement inside the backing plate. 3 mm I believe.

Rear end aligninment.
If/when you install a 61-on transmission in a pre 60 beetle you throw the toe completely. It gets way too much toe out. You need to either modify the stock spring plates (a good deal) or swop to 67-& later ones. Even with the newer spring pålates it is often necessary to elongate thew mounting holes another 1/8" to get the rear axle enough forward to get in the green zone with the toe.
Once you get that right the side stepping issues basicly diasappears and the car drives much more straight and steady at higher speeds especially and more predictable in curves.

Bouncing.
Assuming both the front and rear has travel, bouncing is mainly due to insufficient shocks. Can of course also be the suspension bottoming out. but then the shocks should, - to an extent soften it down. Now, shocks and suspension is controversial as much else, and oipnions vary. That said, I am still of the opinion that the red Koni´s are just about the best street shocks that you can buy for decent money. GAZ shocks are also very good, but a little more money.
The reason to why these shocks are so much better than most for street use is the simple fact that they are roughly 15% firmer on the rebound. That little trick makes the car calm down with a tendency to lower itself when you push it though corners or go down a bumpy road.

Front end.
You are correct that the 2" shorter leafs makes the fron end work better, Stock is often too soft. If you have adjusters in the front beam, one trick is to bias the preload so that when riding down the street you are basicly "hanging" on only one set of springs. Then as soon as the weight increases or you go into a curve the suspension will work much more progressively.

Caster.
The general consensus is to leave the caster angle about the factory specs 1,5 - 3 degrees) I do NOT agree with that. In today´s world that is simply not enough. For cars that never see the overside of 70 mph it´ll do, but not much more. For an all round vehicle you need at least 4 degrees to keep good stability at all normal speeds. I usually aim for 5 degrees if I can get it within reason.

Hope this helps.

T
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https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=435993

[Clatter]

Getting the thread caught back up.
Thanks for the input, Torben.
I'm pretty happy with how it all works.
Not everyone thinks a pan swap is a good thing,
But back in the day, it was the ultimate way to get all the good suspension parts into an early car.

The 4-lug setup with 8-spoke Empis (And fake knock-offs as a joke) isn't the best, but finally we have a solution!
A user here 'ErikG' is buying me these wheels as a gift!
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2481890
He's also getting me a whole Wilwood brake set, some narrowed/dropped trailing arms from Old Speed, and some short axles as well!
Thanks, Erik! SO stoked! You the MAN!!



Anyhow,
The $100 transaxle i got from a friend was a bit 'clunky' going into 1st.
Since i had my first-ever rebuild just done, we just had to give it a try.
One thing i didn't catch was the 6-volt case.
Stabbing the motor was a real WTF moment as the motor wouldn't come home.
Took me back to the good ol' days to be clearancing a 6V bellhousing for a 200mm flywheel.

Made the kid help.
A 16-year-old can climb in/out from under a car a lot easier than his fat dad.

Something i did a bit wrong - too much grease in the pilot bearing rollers.
It was starting to come out in there.

A bit of oil left over from I'm not sure what.
Stabbed a new main seal for good measure.
Because the oil was all up in the dowel pins it makes me think the flywheel o-ring was leaking?
It seemed perfect on inspection,
So we'll just re-stab it and hope it was just a case pressure issue.

Crappy China plastic-like "rubber" breather hose from right valve cover split and failed.
Oil all over.. V/C fitting open to tire dirt..
Got some 1/2" hose from the FLAPS and some of those 'better' breather fittings.
Also found an old K-dog base plate that had this breather tube in it.
Dissecting that one to make some hard bends as was suggested.

Oil lines were too close to header pipes.
Some heat-wrap stuff from the FLAPS and a couple zip-ties to keep things clear.

Anyhow,
Powering on thru the BS aftermarket battles...
This car is going to have to actually work right and be reliable to drive long-term.
Can't have it pukng the oil out all over everything;
Needs to stay in the case and lubricate the motor!
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Lingwendil]

Still planning on keeping the kadrons? We have fairly similar builds, and I'm getting ready to put some 40IDF clones on mine in the next couple weekends I love the kadrons but really looking forward to the better tuning you can do on IDF types, along with a smoother lower RPM range.

In my case I've been very happy with my engine, other than just wanting to swap carbs.That counterweighted crank and my weight matching in everything let's it Rev up past 5500 butter smooth and with a very flat torque curve, it's crazy carbs. Stronger than most other engines I've driven, even bigger ones- not that kadrons are bad but I really can't wait to see a more refined carb on it.
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73 super beetle thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=649622 Back on the Road!

Modify your Kadrons for SVDA http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8115884#8115884

Cast iron VJU4BR8 SVDA reference thread- https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

Need replacement filters for original Kadron aircleaners? WIX #42087 is a perfect fit, as is Napa Gold #2087!

[Clatter]

Heh!
Funny you should mention this..

Torben messaged me showing his mods to make the Kadrons more friendly down low.
The idea is to hog out the 'plenum' right under the carb to give it more area.
This was done to the Truehaft manifolds of yore, and is a reason people seek them.
Makes sense when you think about the odd firing order.

Other plans of his include some 1.25 rockers for the intakes only,
And a set of velocity stacks.
But i digress..

First thing was to hog these manifolds out as far as is practical.

Like with any porting exercise, the main thing is to keep all holes the same shape/size;
Hogged out just enough to punch thru the same amount.
Once there it gives me a way of gauging the size/shape going farther.
Finally, i used the 'gasket match' method to take to final size.
Pretty eye-opening how small the inlet is - only ever paid attention to the head end of these.

Trying to make them as large as is practical.
Lot of metal removed.

Yeah, weld would be better than the JB version.
Gave it a shot with some garnet in the cabinet for tooth.

Had to make little 'dams' of tape to keep the JB from just flowing thru.
This will get another pass after setting overnight.
Every Mistake Passes Inspection on the left.
Every Mistake Passes on the right.

A couple corners i cut last time got straightened out.
At the end of these projects I'm always just slamming things together and get done.
First, i replaced the under-pulley tin that was cut to clear the full-flow fitting with one hammered to clear.
That meant the aftermarket rear breast plate had a big gap.

Since i had a factory rear tin here i sectioned it.
You can see the weld scars..
That also meant shaving the heat riser doohickey that's not used anymore.
Now i have a rear tin that seals correctly.
It got a bit of filler and some rattle-can for now.
PITA, but it seals now and looks clean enough.

Hard line scavenged from old filter base breather cut and ready to go in.

So,
Yeah,
Some more fiddly work.
Good fun, though, right?


I'm keeping the Kadrons and doing my best to make them work well.
No matter what induction you run, there's going to be a battle of some kind or other.
While a set of Webers will definitely idle and run down low more gracefully,
There's plugged idle jets and bent throttle shafts and on and on to suss with those as well.
Have a bigger motor with Webers and a header here i pulled out when the kid started driving.
Building around a set of factory heater boxes inflicts diminishing returns at a point.
It makes good sense here to keep the specs in place.
Plenty of 'scope creep' happening already.
Next up is a CDI.

1776, heater boxes, Kadrons - they just seem to go together.
Like fungus and feet..
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Dan Ruddock]

Instead of using epoxy I have found using por15 por patch works much better. It is not attacked by gas over time like epoxy is.

[74 Thing]

Belzona epoxy is supposed to be good for manifolds, but it is hard to find in the USA at a decent price (ebay). Maybe better to weld.

[Lingwendil]

A buddy has patched aluminum intakes before using Alumalloy brazing (?) rod, and it has held up well. One wonders if this could be a good option here too

I like my Kadrons a lot, but I'm ready to try the IDF clones. Besides, the lumpy feel of the idle and off-idle performance with them feels a little too "rat-rod" for me now, maybe the car is just that well sorted now? Am I spoiled with my nice handling super beetle suspension, racing seats, and Momo steering wheel? Has the quality heat output softened me? Have I "seen the light" after five years of doting on my Kadrons?
_________________
73 super beetle thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=649622 Back on the Road!

Modify your Kadrons for SVDA http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8115884#8115884

Cast iron VJU4BR8 SVDA reference thread- https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

Need replacement filters for original Kadron aircleaners? WIX #42087 is a perfect fit, as is Napa Gold #2087!

[74 Thing]

There is this product too:
https://www.muggyweld.com/products/

[Alstrup]

[evanfrucht]

[Clatter]

[Alstrup]

If you made the plenums about the size as the ones in the photo´s I sent to you, it will make a difference. How much is hard to say since I have not tried Kadrons with that cam. I have done a 1776 and a 1914 with a W110 cam. With those I took about 10 mm more out of the divider and that made the idle and low rpm performance reasonably nice and a lot smoother.
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https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=435993

[EVfun]

So if you run Kadrons you want to convert your dual port into a single port? I guess it makes sense. At low throttle openings cylinders 4 and 2 could potentially steal the intake charge out of the runners for 1 and 3.
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[Alstrup]

It is not so much the intake robbing as it is having sufficient plenum to pacify the reversion.
This also why a balance tube makes less positive difference here,because the relief is in the wrong position.

Some day, when the right project turns up and I have the "financial room" to experiment I will do a port to port balance tube test. I have a feeling that that will work well with large duration cams. Granted, at this point the logical thing is just to go dual dual barrel carbs, but it is just as much to see what happens.
A customer of mine has recently done a little testing on my recommendation on a type 3 engine with stock carbs and a little more cam. Hooking the balance tubes up a little different than stock along with adding a 12 mm spacer between the manifold and carb made the idle smooth out, and he claims that the off idle power has improved. During the winter season he will replace the stock 32´s with a set of modified with 34 mm butterflys and larger venturies and see how the engine responds to that. Come spring we will take it back on the chassis dyno to see if, when and where it made a difference.
_________________
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=435993

[Clatter]

FWIW, i just opened up the manifolds as much as i could.
Seems that they will still fall far short of the plenum area on the Truehafts, so more is better?


Here's a (marginal) shot of the new hard breather elbows installed.
A trip around town and they haven't fallen off yet.

After dimpling the under-pulley tin, this flap was scraping the pulley and making a crazy racket!

Couple places where the tin mount holes are wallered out,
these affermarket large-washer screws seem nice.
Until you get sick of having to find a skinny screwdriver for just them..

Motor was still leaking at the main and came back out (again).
Leak wasn't past the main seal like normal, but past the o-ring in the flywheel.

oiled washer tells the story.

Found some old RTV left over from some time in the past WAY up under the o-ring groove.

While this old RTV might have been the cause of the leak,
I'll bet you that it's a symptom of an incorrectly machined o-ring groove.
Bet you, bet you...
Instead of just cleaning it up and finding out,
i got it clean clean and RTV'ed that sucker on.
F taking it out again..! :fist:

-ProTip-
If you're stabbing a motor yourself,
Make it easier to start that first bolt by taping it in place.
Keeps it from pushing in when the motor slides home,
So you save yourself another trip up under the car.

Got one of those Gene Berg pressure plate height adjustment tool/shim kits.

WTF?
Thing makes no sense..
Is it for early ring-type plates or something?
Clutch always worked fine so i stabbed it back in again.

Always happy to learn.
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[dunk]

[AlteWagen]

[Alstrup]

[clonebug]