More tubes

I just got more 4130 tubes for the chassis, these will be the floor. RLR bach half is also on the way so there's still a slight chance the chassis is welded before summer.

Something new

This is going to be a long project but here's the beginning. A heap of cro-mo tubes from Ron Lummus Racing. Still a lot of tubes are in the making but this is a good start. The purpose is to build a real street leagal pan chassis for the car and not a tube frame that can only be trailered to different places. There's no schedule for this project but I really hope the tubes are all welded during the winter.

In car video from SCC

Janne posted me in car video form SCC. Thanks!
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3YAZyk_POsl-haS-s-N3nPSxCYJcz7MG7R_TXqohKqY?feat=email

Scandinavian Cal-Look Classic 2012

Thanks to Kalle and Laune family wagon I was able to attend SCC for the first time. At the first run the clutch was slipping through 3rd and 4th gear and I though that was it. On the second run it felt much better and finally on the third run I improved my best time to 11,23 @ 191,49km/h with 1.575 60ft. With better 60ft and faster shifting there is still room for improvement, now the car bogged a little at start even when I had 7200 rpm at launch. Really sticky track but no broken axles this time. 11.23 was also enough to win fastest NA/ street tyre class. Not a bad trip at all!

That's it for this year, I keep on driving the car on the street for a while and then start planning improvements for taking me into 10's.

Boxer Speed Day 2012

Boxer Speed Day at Alastaro was great and the track was very good. I improved my personal best to 11.47 @ 189km/h with really bad start, 1,67 60ft and shifting like grandma, so there must be more to it. Just need more practice. Still popped a little wheelie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRGTRafStGE&feature=bf_prev&list=UU4pxLF244kKoK6TfDwwz-Uw

Car is now ready and packed for SCC.

Bugrun Classic 2012

I can say no bad things about Tierp Arena. It sure is one of the best drag strips at the moment and it was well prepared for this weekend. There were lots of fast cars at the strip and you could have had as many runs as you liked. I didn't.

I managed only one run before breaking a driveshaft but everything was worth the trip. Suspension was working very well at least based on only one run. And a small wheelie is always nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpcZjlTyadQ&list=UUfH-ddOiIzbRGj-Ad9RUq2Q&index=2&feature=plcp

I borrowed scales from Mika to weight the car. I had no idea how much it would actually weight and here's the results. 884kg with the driver and rear wheels 271kg each. Quite heavy but 61/39 weight distribution is not as bad as I thought. The car is now ready for Bug Run Classic at Tierp Arena. I'm really looking forward to run the car on well prepared track.

Hyvinkää NNC Street Slide

After VW Open I noticed that all exhaust valves were seized and k- liners were pulled out from valve guides. I pulled the heads off, took them to Jussi from Kuplapaja and after 5 days I got heads back with new exhaust valves and k-liners. Great service from Jussi and Harri!

I managed to get the car ready few days before NNC Street Slide event and as I knew there were at least 4 other VW's going I decided to go there as well. What a great day it turned out to be. The first run was 12.131 @ 187,30km/h with 1.97 60ft so I knew the power was there. I was hitting the rev limiter 7800rpm just before the finish line but did not want to rev the engine higher as there was no traction at all and I was not chasing top speed anyway. In the eliminators I managed 11.94 @ 188.58km/h and the limiter hit 50m before finish so next time I'll raise it and try to go over 190km/h. And with better traction and better 60ft times I'm sure low 11's are possible.

Congratulations also for Tomi, Anders and Matti for PB's at Hyvinkää!

VW Open

I managed to get the car ready for VW Open. I got there on friday and did some testing on an empty air field. After a while I blew an oil hose. Took me whole evening to fix that but I got it done. On saturday I managed to get two good runs. Burnouts were better than ever. But the time slip was showing that I was having some problems, got 12.38 / 175km/h and 12.30 / 171km/h. There is no way that 250whp could end up with such low trap speeds.

Datalogger, what a great help in monitoring engine under run, did show that the engine was running extremely rich, lambda was 0.68 - 0.72. I took engine lid off for the third run just to check if the engine is not getting enough air. Something happend at 2nd to 3rd shift, 2nd got stuck and I got no data at all. Now I have to take the gearbox out to see where the problem is. Anyway, I have a good feeling when all the small problems get sorted out I can make good runs with the car.

Thanks for the photos Jaakko and good luck fixing the engine, Heebah.

Quick video

I got the engine tested at the dyno again, new header gave 20 hp more. Not bad. 185kw @ wheels and 199kw @ flywheel in street trim, through muffler and fan belt on.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54830931@N04/7221340236/in/photostream

Last post on the header. It's all welded up and fit is perfect. It took us (or mainly Manne) countless hours to do it, so I really do owe you big time Manne. Thanks!

 

Exhaust mock up. I get total on 13cm ground clearance from the lowest point and that is under the block. Header is not hanging disturbingly low and with one muffler and such a long exhaust the sound is quite OK. It's not quiet but I hope the neighbours won't get too pissed with it.



I decided to route exhaust tip out from the apron cut out as I had no time to weld and get it painted. That will do it for now.



The header is finally all tacked up and waiting for final welding. Should be finished this week so I might be able to drive the car on VW Open on May 19.

Trial fitting

we decided to trial fit the header before going any further with the welds. Only minor adjustments were needed to get all lined up. Looks good so far.

And pipe work continues...

Things are getting along nicely. Manne has been welding the pipes and cyl 1 and 2 are now ready to be tested on the engine. Amazing welds, just wish I could do the same.

Begun cutting the bends and pipes for the header. Slow process but it's getting there.

Easier and much more precise cuts than with an angle grinder.

Cyl no 2 tubes ready

Header plans

Manne sent me first cad pics of the header. Looks like it can be done using standard bends. All the pipes are same length and size and hopefully there will be enough ground clearance. Lowest point is 15cm from the ground.

Cylinder no. 1 still needs work but otherwise this is the plan.

I installed screws to keep crankshaft oil seal in it's place. I've never blown a seal before but last summer it blew off three times and replacing it is quite a job. I'm also improving breathing a lot and probably it alone will prevent the seal moving but I can never be sure.

Simple fix and I hope it works.

Dash is on

I'm not very fond of electrics and that's why I didn't insall the dash earlier. I finally got myself to do it and it was fairly simple, only 7 wires to be connected as I'm getting all the data from ECU. For the ECU I need to install road speed sensor, clutch shaft rpm sensor, oil and fuel pressure sensors and that's about it for now. However, the dash looks OK and I can configure it as I like.

New display

Santa brought me a new dash display. Now I can get rid of all the extra gauges and warning lights, they are all in one display. I also got interface cable for Tatech ECU so I get all the info form there. No need for extra sensors. Tatech has now been upgraded to Pro in order to get internal datalogger and loads of extra channels for logging, five different maps behind a switch and more options I will ever need. For the datalogger I'm getting rpm info from engine, clutch shaft and at least one wheel, oil temp, lambda, advance, injection time, oil and fuel pressure, etc. Probably too much information but it can be useful sometimes.

Race Technology Dash2 was the only display that had Tatech interface cable ready.