Rusty bucket into Solo toy, Some highlights of my budget autocross build from rust to rocket Options

[Han Solo]

Gawd, that was a tough thread to get through at times, but well worth it. To make what you did out of that rusty tub you started with, it's pretty cool. The car even looks kind of bad ass in a raw way. Thank you for your dedication to document this build and good luck on it in the future.

Bravo.

Thanks Larmo. We may take it to one more event at the end of the month. Then it will be in the garage till next season. That will give me time to evaluate my welding for stress and if all looks good - I'll continue performance improvements. I'll also over-spray the exterior POR 15 after doing a bit of body work. This car will never be pretty but the least I can do is make it durable and pleasing to the eye (from 20' or so).

[J P Stein]

>I'm going to add 75 lbs. to each front corner and see where that lands.<

If that is not the worst idea I've ever heard, it has gotta be close.
Suspension tuning will take care of the perceived weight problem....I say perceived because because 914s are NOT a 50/50 car.

I carried less weight on the front than that.... with a 6 cyl in back and a boat load of tubing to stiffen the chassis.
It came in at 1726 wet. You should be able to make aleast 100 lbs less than that.
Corner balance is WAAAAY over rated. It is useful to correct any gross errors in construction only, IMO. BTDT, it had no effect on times.
Overall weight is another issue.

[Han Solo]

>I'm going to add 75 lbs. to each front corner and see where that lands.<

If that is not the worst idea I've ever heard, it has gotta be close.
Suspension tuning will take care of the perceived weight problem....I say perceived because because 914s are NOT a 50/50 car.

I carried less weight on the front than that.... with a 6 cyl in back and a boat load of tubing to stiffen the chassis.
It came in at 1726 wet. You should be able to make aleast 100 lbs less than that.
Corner balance is WAAAAY over rated. It is useful to correct any gross errors in construction only, IMO. BTDT, it had no effect on times.
Overall weight is another issue.

Yikes, you don't mince words JP.

In my following post, we re-weighed on the alignment rack, added 120 lbs. on the passenger floor board, with me in the drivers seat, we were REALLY close to class weight for the displacement/valves. It was mostly an exercise in getting a base figure moving forward. I'm not sure this car will see any SCCA Championship Tour events in the near future anyway. That's when it will get weighed for tech/impound, not at regional events.

You also bring up a good point on the roll cage. I do plan on a simple cage (much like the Tangerine kit). That will certainly add weight and then there's other undetermined performance goodies. So it's a fluid situation for the near term.

It certainly felt good last Sunday which was my VERY FIRST autocross in a 914. I pushed it harder each run trying to find the limit of grip (Hoosier scrubs with 30+ runs) and was able to make it over-steer in corner entry. Some mild under-steer in corner exit but manageable. Until I can get my driver inputs smoother, I probably won't adjust front shocks. Also, site surface was less than optimum. Two weeks from now (if the weather is good) the new NCM site will be a superb event to continue evaluation.

[J P Stein]

Old guys don't waste time being PC.

Adding weight to make class is acceptable in my book.
Which class, may I ask?

I did add about 60-80 lbs of tubing to stiffen the car. There is an immediate pay back...it transforms the car. The suspension does the work it's made for rather than have the chassis try to do it. The car responded to changes for good or ill. The best mod I ever made...I shoulda done it sooner.

I also added balast to make class (XP) but only 50 odd lbs. It came out for non-national SCCA events. I would suggest leaving a bit of room to your minimum weight as the scales a tour event are kinda iffy....I figure +/- 10-15 lbs. We filled the tank with gas in the lanes before our last run at one event to insure making it....that is cutting it too close.

If you do a roll bar, I would also suggest having some that know their welding do that work......that is more tactful than I normally get. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Having a car that over-rotates is better than a push for AX....... my preference.

Our venues were mostly asphalt & rougher than a cob. Relatively soft suspension still works on butt smooth concrete ...waving at the crowd with he inside front tire is fun.

[Han Solo]

Old guys don't waste time being PC.

Adding weight to make class is acceptable in my book.
Which class, may I ask?

D Prepared JP. Small displacement 4-cylinder, one bore over maximum. Otherwise pretty liberal on mods.

[J P Stein]

Han Solo meets the Miata Mafia.
We here in the PNW have 3 charter members......one of em' won DP at the Nationals this year....all have placed on the Nats podium over the years.
They all are hella quick.
We never beat them when I owned the 914.
Good luck.

[Han Solo]

Han Solo meets the Miata Mafia.
We here in the PNW have 3 charter members......one of em' won DP at the Nationals this year....all have placed on the Nats podium over the years.
They all are hella quick.
We never beat them when I owned the 914.
Good luck.

Yea, I was watching them at Nationals this year. I was working Safety Steward during their run group. Unbelievably fast crowd. I'll need that good luck if this car even gets to that level.

[Han Solo]

We ran the 914 at a new course last Sunday. The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green KY has a decent parking lot near the road course. My thoughts on the site are mixed but the car performed well. My wife rode shot gun our 1st and 2nd runs. Then we went solo 3rd & 4th. My co-driver was two tenths behind my best run. I'm still having some issues with idle fluctuation that I suspect are cause by the linkage. It was a really warm day so engine temps were fairly high when idling in grid. With two drivers there wasn't much time to shut it down for cooling however.

Now the car is done for the season and I'm going to start preping for paint and body work. I think I will get a fiberglass bumper for appearance. This winter will not be near as intense as last and I'm thankful for that. I'll post when some progress is made on the body work but don't expect it to be text book by any stretch of the imagination (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

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NCM autocross 1

NCM autocross 2

[Han Solo]

We had a set back today. I've been plumbing the fuel system, body work and painting for several weeks now. Today I finished the fuel system and flushed the lines with the new pump into a catch can. After putting the lines back on the Webers, I turned on the pump and noted 6 PSI on the fuel pressure gauge post the FPR. I went ahead and started the engine in preparation to dial the FPR down. As soon as I started the engine, it rev'ed up (maybe 3000 rpm, probably due to the increased fuel pressure) and within a few seconds it just stopped, suddenly. There was no loud noise or indication of failure. When I tried to start again, the starter is just clicking. The solenoid is engaging but the motor isn't turning over. Suspecting the worst, I got under the car and tried to turn the motor over by hand, the crank isn't moving either way. I pulled the spark plugs and still can't get the crank to move. To eliminate a seized starter, I pulled it off and still no dice.

I can't figure out why there would be a major problem with the car just sitting for a month and a half. During my fuel delivery project, everything on the motor was buttoned up. Intakes and carbs stayed on. Exhaust stayed on. Crap (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

So I finished the day putting the car back on the hillbilly lift, preparing to drop the engine and transmission. Next step will be to pull the tranny off and try to hand crank. The only other external device I can think of would be the distributor. Suggestions encouraged and appreciated.

[wndsrfr]

Yikes....sudden seizure is mighty scary. Really hard to figure a likely culprit since it did start and run for a few seconds, but likely lube failure and you've toasted a bearing somehow, or possibly crank failure. It's really tempting to try to get it to start again as a denial mechanism, but my advice is simply to tear it down. That way you won't create more collateral damage. That's the beauty of the Type 4....zero fear about ripping it apart & putting it back together again. Keep us posted!
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[FourBlades]

Good luck with your engine!

I have really enjoyed your thread. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

John

[J P Stein]

Drain the oil, there may e a bunch of gas in the sump.

[Han Solo]

Dropped the engine. Pulled the transmission. Crank is still locked.

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[ThePaintedMan]

Bummer man. My thoughts were definitely hydro-lock given the fuel pressure issue. Can you see inside the spark plug holes?

Hope it's nothing too bad.

[Han Solo]

So I got the heads off today and there's nothing that unusual to report. Hydraulic lifters look good. Push rods fine. The valves are all fine. I noted that it appears Brothers welded the valve seats on by the springs to prevent the seats dropping. They also have shims under the rocker assembly probably due to the chromolly push rods. When I got the jugs off #3 and #4 have some wear that's just noticeable. A section about 3/4" wide going down one side of the cylinder wall. I can just feel it with my finger tip but those pistons (as well as #1 & #2) slid out easily once the seal on the jug let loose. All the rings look like new and as well as the piston tops. There's some carbon build up but it doesn't look excessive to me. The crank is still frozen so now I'm down to splitting the case to find out if it's crank shaft or cam shaft. I'm watching the Jake Raby type 4 video and that's most helpful.

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[yeahmag]

Looks like it will turn over with the heads off... Are the chambers as wet as they look?

[Han Solo]

Looks like it will turn over with the heads off... Are the chambers as wet as they look?

They were pretty wet but I sprayed quite a bit of WD40 in the cylinder in a vane attempt to free things up. And the crank is still locked up with the cylinders off (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[yeahmag]

Ah... It's more obvious from my desktop that you spun the entire motor around. Didn't make that out from my phone. Sounds like a bit of main bearing welding may have been done then...

[wndsrfr]

The outside of the case is 'way too clean.....just sayin'.....

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[Han Solo]

I had some emails with Brothers VW machine shop and they're offering to rebuild for what I think is a fairly good deal (I'm not going to disclose those terms as they may be preferential). Shipping from my location would total about $500 both ways. They did ask that I reassemble the engine to long block for shipping but I'm not sure I can get the jugs back on the pistons with the crank frozen. So I'm 50/50 on what to do at this moment. They also asked if I had marked the lifters prior to removal as those were set for each cam lobe. That's something that wasn't mentioned in the Raby video. Anyone heard of that before?