tattooed_pariah's neverending project :P - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

**tattooed_pariah** · July 1st, 2006, 01:29 PM

hello everyone,

thought i'd do the whole intro thing, feel free to point and laugh :P

first off, no one has ever complained to me, or pointed it out, but i know i have a bad habit of posting long messages, so i apologize in advance :P

VW history: my first car i bought for $500 from my personal savings when i was 16, it was a 1973 super that i tried to restore mostly original, but i love personalizing things, so i handmade door and quarter panels with a vinyl called "hippo flame" was a deep red that had a marble type look with some black mixed into it. everything in the car was black, chrome, and skull related :P long story short, in three years, i spent 8 grand (parents fronted me money and kept a ledger with how much i owe them) only to watch it burn one night because i was too young and stupid to carry a fire extinguisher and 911 dispatch gave the fire deptartment bad directions..

fast forward 3 cars later and i'm back in a vintage vw, a 1972 standard beetle, that the previous owner threw the "'37 ford Wunderbug" fiberglass kit on:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...kze/effigy.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...kze/Effigy.jpg

i got "Effigy" in 2003, and so far all i've done is put in a 1776cc motor with dual 44 idf webers, folded down the back seat to make room for two 15" subs, and a small high end (soundwise, not price) speaker box, and spent a lot of money with misc issues.

i want to rat rod it, except i don't want to cut the roof off, MAYBE chop it a little, but not fully.

first and foremost( mostly due to the expected price and ease of work) i wannt get a foot an a half or two foot piece of steel or aluminum, have on end with internal threads and one with external so i can make my shifter sit right about the middle of the windshield, i've always loved the look of huge exagerated shifters. then i wanted find a way to affix a small (6 or 7 inch tall) pin up girl as the shift knob. (my theme for this one is going to be flames and pin ups)

after that, i think i'll work on removing front fenders and cleaning up that whole area. then get the 4 inch wider rear fiberglass fenders with the early ford style tail lights. raise the back end about 2 or 3 inches so it has that nice wedge shape. french the doors (proper term? shaved handles is the one i'm used to but my brother calls em frenched, he's got a 1950 plymouth that he just started working on, previous did a TON of the work already though..) and make em suicide style. and yea, who knows what else. i like to daydream about working on my car and doing all sorts of crap, then i realize that i'm living on a military paycheck, which isn't much in case you don't know, and so i'm just happy if i can afford to pay my bills and keep gas in the tank.

but yea, now that i've written a small novel and not said a whole lot, i do believe i hear alcohol being drank in the room next door, so as any good servicemember :P i'm gonna go celebrate the weekend of the fourth with my barracks mates and proceed with the alcohol :D

-pariah

“I never trust a fighting man who doesnt smoke or drink.” Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr.

**tattooed_pariah** · September 8th, 2006, 09:52 PM

well, due to lack of funds, i haven't done much of anything except change my oil, and try to change my fuel lines... i say try because whoever changed em last, connected the rubber at the bottom of the tank to the metal line INSIDE the channel, so i haven't taken the time ot take my shifter out yet to try and find it..

just thought i'd post to let you all know i'm still alive :P

car is about to be parked for about 7 months while I go on a deployment though, so i'm sure there will be a tune up update within the next year..

**tattooed_pariah** · March 20th, 2007, 06:02 PM

Well, it's almost a year since my last update. a whole lot of nothing has happened. currently i'm on that deployment i was talking about in the last post. We've been out to sea for exactly three months as of yesterday with no port visits.
but on a happier note and one that is actually ON topic :P i've been talking with some folks from VR, one of them even lives very close to my hometown and the present location of my baby.
I knew before I left for deployment that I would be coming home with some extra cash due to the tax-free zone and the lack of ports to spend it in so i decided early that I wanted to have some work done.
After talking with someone (don't know if they want me advertising their help or not, haha, not sure if he already has people knockin on his door to help them and don't know if he wants more...) I'm going to be using a design of VR's Tinbeater, and extending the front beam out a bit, putting disc brakes on all the way around and getting my clutch working properly and maybe even a freeway flier. I'm absolutely stoked! haha, i keep finding myself almost giggling and smiling a lot walking down P-ways (passage-ways, or hallways for you non-navy types :P) just thinking of cruising around in it. I wish more than anything I wasn't having my car built for me, but that I was there helping him work, but I want to be able to drive it after this 8, 9, 10, however the hell long this cruise is gonna last, month deployment is up.
Just wanted to update this since they finally switched the internet back on. I'd forgotten what it was like to have dial up.... lol
alright, it's 6am here though, my shift is just about over. hope everyone is doing well!

**tattooed_pariah** · April 9th, 2007, 05:34 PM

ARGH!! I finally have money to devote to my car, and I'm not even in the same damb country.. I'm sooo stoked about getting home though. Right now for sure I want Tinbeater's extension, I want a 10" one but I'm not sure if it will work with my front end so I may have to settle for an 8". and his new beam looks friggin awesome so I want one of them, plus of course i need the headlights and all that jazz because I want to dump my front fenders.
I'm also thinking now that I have cash now is a good time to get my shifter since I never did that.
And while browsing the "too lazy to search" thread I found something else I think would be awesome to have... a bench seat! so I'm gonna have to look into making one of them.

**tattooed_pariah** · July 12th, 2007, 05:00 AM

Well, I'm about 74% through my deployment and I cannot wait to be home! mostly cause i'm tired of the ship and her crew, but also largely because Rob is going to begin working on my car soon!!! W00t!!!! :D
I'm so stoked about that! so goodbye front fenders! goodbye old wheels/tires! goodbye drum brakes! hello tinbeater extension! hey there disc brakes! how's it going freeway flier transmission?! what's up new wheels/tires?!
haha, sorry, so i'm a little giddy about all this.. :P
basically, Rob's going to remove my front fenders, throw in a 10 inch extension, swap my drums for discs, swap out my tranny, and install 15x5's up front and 15x8's in the rear. I cannot wait to get home and see my baby! This makes the last 7 months of hell worth it!

A big shout out to the BAVRG! Thanks again Rob, You're giving this crazy Sailor a reason to not flip out and beat his superiors daily! haha :P

**tattooed_pariah** · September 5th, 2007, 01:03 PM

I mae a stop by the BAVRG yesterday, Rob and Cobey are now just about done witht he steering, the front brakes are looking good, and the extender and beam are in place. Already it's looking great, course, i do kinda have a biased opinion I guess... :P
I took a couple of pics, but haven't gotten them from the camera yet, i'll post them eventually..
All in all though, these guys are doing awesome work! I can't wait to see more :D

**tattooed_pariah** · September 19th, 2007, 11:02 PM

IT CAME HOME TONIGHT!!!! :D :D :D
That's right, Rob and Cobey did a shit ton of awesome work, and I got to screw things up a few times ;)
Naw, it looks awesome! even my parents like it! haha
now i just gotta replace my steering box because it's just about dead, and then move on to whatever the next project may be..
Rob an Cobey, you guys rawk! It was awesome meeting/hanging out/working with you guys! I'll post new pics as soon as I take them.. for now there's some scattered throughout other threads if any of you care enough to want to see it.. :P

**tattooed_pariah** · October 13th, 2007, 06:25 PM

Today I spent some time at the Auto Hobby Shop on base.. went there with the intentions of changing all four shocks...

Lately I've been in the habit of checking the three header to muffler bolts every couple of days, because as you will see in the pics below, the muffler is currently rubbing on one of the brakes.. well, last time i checked em was a couple of days ago.. i throw my car on the lift and hoist her up to find that I had ONE loose bolt holding my muffler on... haha, thank god it didn't drop, not because i'm concerned for it's safety, but i can imagine the havok it might have wreaked on the tire, the heater box, the fender and any cars behind me...

I'll be replacing the header and muffler soon so i just scavenged a couple of 1/2 inch nuts and bolts and threw them in there for now..

all the shocks came off easily enough, and the brand new KYB GR-2 rears went on easy... as for the fronts.... Rob, I gotta say I feel sorry for Tiffany if everything you give out is two or three inches short...

hahaha, i'm starting to wonder if my car is generic or something and not a real VW lol.

I pulled off the old shocks, attached the top to the shock tower, and there was about between 4 and 6 inches from the hole in the bottom of the shock to the bolt it needs to connect to.. I figured, "maybe the beam is just pulling away or gravity is doing something or whatever.." so i drop the car back down and with it sitting on the ground with no shock support, it was still at least 2 inches shy of being able to connect.. the GR-2's Rob gave me, when fully extended, are the same height as my old shocks are when they are fully compressed...

Can't talk too much shit though, Rob was kind enough to give me new shocks, i do appreciate it and everything else you an Cobey did man!

anywho, on to the pictures...

I didn't take as many as I should have, but here it is just before I started working..

here's the passenger side rear shock in place..

if you look carefully you can see the rub mark on the exhaust tubing.. more pics of that below..

first though.. heck out the difference new shocks make..

i can actually fit my fingers between my tire and fenders now!!

back to that rub marking...

when it was on the ground, with the old shocks, the muffler was actually getting shoved under the brake mount there, which is what i think is making it rattle loose so often, it just keeps scraping..
but that rub mark isn't nearly as bad as what it did to the poor heater box...

ouch! doesn't affect much though since there's no accordion tube hooking the passenger side to the inside of the car..

and here's the back of my brake..

i was bored and had photo shop open so i squared the ares it's been scraping.. and before anyone get's concerned and writes me, i did move the brake line away from it so it's no longer scraping that at least..

that's about it for now though, when I get the extra cash, i'll be buying a new header and dual glass pack street exhaust

haha, i'm gonna be "that" guy with the noisy ass car :D

**tattooed_pariah** · March 27th, 2008, 05:17 PM

So it's been a LOOONG time since I've touched this thread...

Since my last update, I installed the header/dual glasspack setup, it didn't fit right, caused the passenger side head to crack and now I have zero compression in #2. also my valves are fully seated on that side and can no longer be adjusted.I'm about to go on another deployment though so when I get back I'll tear the motor apart and fix it. for now, I FINALLY got it out of the parking lot at work and into my garage at home where she'll wait for me while I'm deployed..

sorry for the sideways pic and huge images... for some reason i can't adjust the size in this editor and the sideways one is rightways up in my photobucket account...

**tattooed_pariah** · May 18th, 2008, 06:16 PM

Well, Here I am in the middle of the Pacific Ocean again..
If i have everything figured out right... by just setting aside $400 a month, i shold have a little over $2000 when I get home. which should be MORE than enough to tear apart my engine, replace any and all bad parts, and put it all back together. hell, i might even have enough to buy myself a newbie welder, so i can get started on some cutting

anywho, just thought i'd throw in an update here...

**tattooed_pariah** · December 6th, 2008, 02:44 PM

Holy hell, it's been a looong long time since i've posted an update here...

I finaly got clearance from the Roomies to bug bomb the garage, so I went and bought a pack of Hot Shot brand "kill any and every fucking thing that breaths" bug foggers designed to do 5000 square feet per can. I decided that might not be strong enough :P and set off two in our small garage.. so yesterday was teh day of Armageddon for the spiders that have taken up residence in my car..

Today, I did a quick sweep up of bodies ( I think I counted about 4 or 5 widows curled up in death on the ground, probably still more stuck in various places in the car.. :( ) and then got to work on some simple things.

I started off by draining the oil out, then got to work trying to remove my decklid to make the next few months easier. I say try because whoever installed the wiring harness last put this heavy duty shrink tubing stuff with some kind of glue on the connecters to the license plate light, so it was too thick to fit through the gap in the sheetmetal on the decklid. I spent about 15 minutes trying to cut the shirnk tubing off before giving up, labeling the wires and cutting the whole deal off.

Then I looked into hammering the hinge pins out so when I put the lid back on, it would still be properly aligned and I could use those trailer things to make the lid easily removable. Yea, I couldn't get a good angle on the pins, so I wound up unbolting it.

Next up I disconnected the wires on the alternator, then took a few photos of the wires on the coil and the thing beneath the dizzy, and pulled them all free. Then took the breather tube thing off of the carbs and pulled it as well as the oil breather hoses out of the engine compartment.

I didn't get a lot of work done, but it was awesome to be back in a garage working on my baby.

Last week I also ordered the following things from ACN:

New Magnesium 1600cc engine case (1300/1500/1600cc) (Upright Engines)
optional Drill and Tap for Full Flow, AND all Oil Galleys
optional Clearance for Stroke
optional Bore for 94mm Piston Sets

HIGH PERFORMANCE Dual port heads for type 1 based engines, 85.5-94mm bores (94mm Bore Size) (Level 7 - Wheelie King)
optional Fully Weld & Port Intakes
optional Venturi Cut Valve Job

Aluminum Intake Manifolds, Dual 2bbl Carbs (IDF/DRLA for BIG T-1 Heads)

And now, after the welder I bought, maintenence work on the Craparo, and those parts, I've blown through 5K and need to save up to buy a new crank, cam, pistons and cylinders, rods, etc. etc.etc.

I'm thinking about getting the extra stock heads I have bored out for the 1776 and seeing if that is the only damage, if it is then I can drive Effigy around while I build her a new motor, if there's more damage, I'll probably part out the motor, or try and sell it as a short block since i'll be canabalizing a lot of things from it for the new motor (carbs, alternator, coil, dizzy...)

anywho, on to the PICS!!

Here she is waiting to be worked on..

:P

ahhh yea, drain that oil baby :P

Two of the nasties that I found dead underneath her..

My brand new Millermatic 180 with Autoset

Now I just have to figure out where to plug it in, our washer/dryer is inside the house so we don't have a 220V in the garage, and since I'm only renting I don't want to piss off the landlord by installing one myself..

anyway, i'm off to relax before i get tortured by going to see a bad movie tonight with the woman..

**tattooed_pariah** · December 8th, 2008, 11:47 PM

still no work being done, kinda on hold at the moment, I want to yank my carbs off and get prepped for engine removal, but i don't have any containers for anything right now and don't want to just put my carbs/manifolds on the ground somewhere..

anywho, i did go and buy the Engle 130 cam for $40, it looks clean and relatively new, maybe run a couple of times, but nothing too bad..

I think I might wind up buying a 120, since everything i've read points to the 130 being a drag cam and not really good for daily street use, but we'll see...

**tattooed_pariah** · January 24th, 2009, 02:47 PM

W00t! with all the parts/tools buying I've been doing lately, I FINALLY got off my ass and got some more work done..

A couple of weeks ago, I yanked the passenger rear wheel and opened the access plate and removed the pass side carb. I was stuck because The car is parked with the driver's side about a foot from a wall so I couldn't get a jack over to remove the driver side wheel and open it's access port to get the other carb so I kinda gave up until I could buy some dollies and get them under the car..

Well, yesterday I got a motorcycle jack in the mail from my parents (dad got one for xmas but already had one so I got it

) and I used it (admittedly in the WRONG way) to lift up the car high enough to put the dollies under (my jack leaves me about 2 inches too low for the dollies). and Now all four wheels have four castors under them, but since they're all facing different directions right now, it still doesn't want to move.

But that's ok! I did manage to disconnect everything attached to the case; oil lines, fuel line, electrical, etc.

removed the tin by the pulley and reached from above to remove the only nut still holding my glasspacks on, then scratched the shit out of my arm reaching around from the engine compartment and yanked the driver's side carb.

and removed the fan should/alt.

Only mishap I had was I forgot to plug the fuel line when I disconnected it so there was a puddle of gas and both me and my Pistol Pete shirt wound up soaked in it from me trying tp shove a golf tee into the line and retighten the worm screw clamp...

but put some spill crap (kitty litter with a fancy name..) down and now i'm going to let it soak everything up over night, then sweep it up tomorrow and hopefully drop the block onto the motorcycle jack

I always forget how GREAT it feels to work on your car again.. man i miss that thing..

anyway, I know this is useless without pics, but didn't think to take any until i was cleaning up, but here they are:

**tattooed_pariah** · January 26th, 2009, 11:27 AM

Well, the ex flaked on us meeting and exchaging shit today, so I decided to yank the bad head off my engine. I'm so glad I didn't try to fire it up again..

From what I can see, #1 cylinder was burning oil and broke apart between the valves. Both the piston head and cylinder walls are covered in tiny tiny pieces of metal that are stuck in place, god only knows if any/how much worked it's way into the case..

#2 cylinder (the one that had no compression) looks like it was burning clean, but there are marks on the piston from a valve hitting it. I've floated valves before and having a piston with a hole in it and a busted valve head knocking around the cylinder are no fun..

Anywho, useless without pics I know, so here they are:

Piston faces:

#2 piston:

#1 piston:

Head:

#2 head

#1 head

so yea, Hopefully it's not too bad, but who knows. I was hoping to rebuild the 1776cc so I can drive my baby again while I'm building the 2276cc, but that may not be possible :(

**tattooed_pariah** · January 28th, 2009, 07:29 PM

Well, tonight I yanked the drivers side head off. It took some WD-40 to loosen up the bolts on the upper head studs, but I eventually got it..

Before I get to that though, After I left the garage last time, I was looking at the pics and saw the hole by the spark plug, so I took a pic of that tonight...

yea, that's definitely NOT GOOD!

anywho.. so i got the drivers head off tonight.
(more of a reminder to myself later, but I wound up wiping the pushrods on both sides clean with a blue shop towel, then writing a number on a piece of duct tape and wrapping that around it, they are labelled 1-4 from rear most pushrod to foremost.) like i said, i don't think you guys care about that, but in case I forget which one is number 1 during reassembly, i can check here..

I'm using a busted washing machine as a work bench right now, and when I spun the engine around so I could get to this head, the first thing I noticed was this..

The rest of the cylinders all look rusty, but that one looks like a LOT of oil was dropping on it. coincidentally, that cylinder is directly below the doghouse oil cooler, does that mean I blew a gasket or something? maybe this is the a source of all the oil buildup in my engine compartment?

when I finally got the head off ( all the pushrod tuubes were totally sealed and stuck to both case and head, I had to fuck them up to get them to seperate..) I saw this:

looks to me like I've been mildy floating valves as one cylinder on the other side also had cresent moons hammered into the piston head..

and here's a shot of the head's side of the story:

Current plan is to get my spare set of stock heads machined to match these ones, buy some new piston's and cylinders, new pushrod tubes, maybe new valve springs (might just run the old ones) and slap it all back together and see if she fires.

I'm praying that no particles from the passenger head got past the piston to where they can block oil galleys. I didn't see anything on the magnet on my drain plug, or in the oil when I drained it, but who knows right?

That all being said, I'm hoping to have the 1776cc up and running again in less than a month!!!

Aside from machine work and replacement parts, I'll also need some J-tubes and either a new exhaust, or I'm going to take ym current exhaust and the heads to a muffler shop up the street and see if they can do anything to make my dual glasspacks fit the stock heads.

I still need P&C, crank, possibly a cam, cam gear, seals and whatnot, and a few misc parts for the 2776cc, but right now, I REALLY REALLY REALLY want my baby back. Nothing is really terribly wrong with my life right now, but I would just feel so much better if I could be back with my girl..

**tattooed_pariah** · February 8th, 2009, 05:37 PM

Alright, well this weekend I made some more big steps towards getting my 1776cc running again :D

Unfortunately there will be no pictures as photobucket doesn't seem like to Ubuntu Linux and I still don't have my Windows XP Pro 64-bit running again yet..

but yea, so last week (wednesday or tuesday or something, i forget..) I orderd a piston ring compressor, and Deluxe Starter kit (the bench test thing) from ACN so that should all arrive sometime this week I hope. I'd also like to see my heads sometime soon, but they have a lot of machine work to be done and I don't know how backed up John is right now..

Saturday I went to harbor freight and bought some 90 degree needle nose pliers for piston pin snap ring removal, a "Cen-tech" 8" dial caliper, and a set of inner diameter measuring things (look like T-bars but the "T" portions are spring loaded, so you push them in, lock them in place, insert into cylindrical object, unlock them, relock them and measure..)

Used the new measuring things to double check the machine work I had done on my heads last weekend. It appears that the new cylinders will fit fine in both case and heads :D

Then I got to work removing the old P&Cs... that was a pain in the ass. but I managed to do it with only breaking 3 fins.. gotta love a rubber mallet and a screwdriver :P I'm also shocked to say that I had Mahle pistons before! I did not know that, i thought they were cheap knock off parts or something, but they are labeled as Mahles.

and my con-rods are vw 5.5" 90.311B i think. correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't A's short stroke, and B's are long stroke, making this motor a stroker?

Anywho, I've now got all four old pistons and cylinders off, everything turns over very nicely, no scrapes or hesitation anywhere in the rotation so I'm confident that this motor will be no problem running again

I did tweak the shit out of the cylinder shims that were on their though, so i'll be using my new dial indicator to measure them and buy some new ones. The guy at the shop I got the machine work at said my current compression ratio is about 9:1 and he recommended I put on thicker shims to bring it down, but I always run premium gas and it ran fine for about 6 years before my exhaust choice fucked it up, so rather than change the shim size, lower the compression ratio and worry that my pushrods need to be replaced too, i'm just going to put it back together as close to how it was as I can.

**tattooed_pariah** · February 12th, 2009, 06:12 AM

Still no pics, 1) because the photo bucket pic uploader doesn't like linux, and 2) cause I'm at work and so can't even go into photobucket..

But I got a KICK ASS decal from Maxv16, very nice work, it's just my username here in a font I found on the net, but it's a couple inches tall and about 19 inches long and currently affixed to the bottom rear corner of my driver's door. It looks really friggin cool though.

Aside from that, I've been gathering a few more parts, Got some new cylinder shims, a flywheel lock, piston ring compressor, and J-tubes, black silicone, some B-12 cleaner, and a couple other misc things.

I think tonight I'm going to try and get the new piston's and cylinder on and maybe torque down the heads too.

With any luck, I'll have it startable by the weekend, and it'll be back in the car and driveable by next weekend.

**tattooed_pariah** · February 12th, 2009, 06:03 PM

A handful of pics from the previous couple of posts:

They say "90.311B" on them, is that good or bad or stock?

Is there supposed to be this much blackness on the internal side of the piston?

I love that it all looks so clean and brand new inside, I don't know shit about engine rebuilding, but i imagine that has to be a good sign :D

**tattooed_pariah** · March 4th, 2009, 10:58 PM

Well it's been almost a month since I updated this and a lot has happened.
I am trying to upload pics but the java in Ubuntu is retarded so photobucket won't work for me, and it appears the members gallery uses java as well cause it's not working here either..

Anyway, I've got the motor all back together again, compression seems good in all cylinders, I don't have a compression guage, but when turning the motor over by hand you can feel it during the compression phase and hear the air coming out during exhaust, so hopefully it truly is ready..

Tomorrow I plan on putting it back in the car and seeing if she fires up. Going to have to charge the battery though, I think i killed it troubleshooting my lights..

but yeah, hopefully i'll be driving it by tomorrow night, albeit illegally since my lights are all fucked up right now, but if i only drive during daytime I'm golden :P haha

**tattooed_pariah** · March 14th, 2009, 06:27 PM

Well, Josh (desertevo) stopped by today and pointed out some obvious things I had looked over and helped me out with my wiring.

We both believe that my carbs are in need of a rebuild, on top of that, my idiot self has never maintained my oil breather box, so the foam "filter" inside is full of oil which is probably going back into the carbs and getting into the engine that way.

With the wiring, it appears that I'm the lucky SOB who managed to get a hold of a faulty trailer light converter. Everything is wired properly, but I still don't have turn signals, although now at least the front signals don't light up when I hit my brakes

I've got some rebuild kits on order for the carbs, hopefully they show up next week so I can get it running for next weekend.

**tattooed_pariah** · April 10th, 2009, 02:03 PM

Well, after much searching with no luck, I finally got the pieces I need to McGyver a fuel shut off valve.

The brass coupler nut and barbed fitting were threaded CLOSE to but not exactly like the threaded end on the valve, so I decided I'd permamently seal them both with JB Weld

First thing, that extra filter had to go, I couldn't find a threaded pipe at Home Depot that I felt that filter wouldn't obstruct and besides the stock filter will immediately follow this contraption so it should be alright..

loosely assembled it so that when I put the JB Weld on I wouldn't have to worry too much about getting some INSIDE the device..

Goop that shit on there and now I just gotta give it "5 to 6" hours for it to harden up and overnight for it to be used..

Next I gotta find a 5/16 barb fitting, home depot had 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 but no 5/16.

I think I found a place online that might have it though, in the meantime I'll just leave an extra filter in the engine compartment to make that switch for me.

**tattooed_pariah** · April 11th, 2009, 01:58 PM

Well, today the Craparo went to the shop, made it most of the way there before dying, but it was downhill to their parking lot so i just coasted into a spot.

Fucking thing won't start now, so instead of getting a $35 oil change with inspection. I'm doing a $131 oil change with inspection PLUS diagnostic to find out why it won't start.

I'm supposed to go out with some broad tonight so I kinda need a running car, so I decided to redo the fuel lines on the bug.

Also in the pics, you can see the fire damage, turns out my earlier assesment of no visible signs of a fire was incorrect, it just took a couple of days for them to surface..
Here's the pics:

Old line

New contraption.

In place.

Nice and easily accessible with a beam extender :P

New hoses going to/from the pump as well

After finishing that up and letting it sit for about 30 minutes to air out the garage and let the spilled gas dry, I rolled it out onto the driveway (that way if it did catch again, the garage wouldn't catch too.. ) and tried starting her.

I guess my starter in the bug is dead too cause it doesn't even click out the pinion gear when you turn the key.

Now I have two cars with dead starters, friggin great.

Once I finish paying off getting the Craparo running, I guess i'll have to yank the starter and get it replaced too.
oh well, at least my fuel lines should be good now.

**tattooed_pariah** · April 27th, 2009, 06:35 PM

Well, I finally pried myself out of bed and way from the Challenger long enough to spend some time with my baby today..

put the rear on jack stands so I could roll the creeper under her. touched the pos and neg terminals on the starter solenoid with a screwdriver, it sparked but still no pinion gear clicking. so I disconnected the battery, took pics of the way the wires are plugged in, and yanked the starter.

Brought it down to Napa for a bench test and low and behold, I was right, starter is completely shot.

Hopefully, once I get a replacement, I can make the appointment again to have the exhaust flanges welded in and then I can drive her again. But fornow, I'm not spending much money as I want to make sure I don't miss any payments.

Did some quick pricing on line though and it looks like the average price for a high torque starter is about $200, hopefully I can pick one of those up sometime next month..

**tattooed_pariah** · May 27th, 2010, 05:03 PM

How is it that I seem to only update this thread once a year? oh yea, deployments.. haha

Anyway, I'm on another deployment now, In Iraq until November. but just before I left I did manage to get Effigy back on the road.. She probably shouldn't have been, but she was nad she dealt with it well.

Right now, my timing is off, the carbs are out of tune and they aren't sync'ed... but she ran the 15-20 miles to and from work for 5 days so I got all I asked of her..

When I get back I'll be moving as I'm getting new orders, but I hope to have her running properly asap.

not much else has changed for what's currently installed.

On the 2276 front, my current pile of parts consists of:

AS41 case,
82mm crank
lightened, 8 dowelled 200mm flywheel
dual thrust cam bearings
race main bearings
1.5 qt wide sump
48mm IDF spanish webers
Steve Tims stage 2 heads
26mm schadeck oil pump
and misc build kits (nuts and bolts and gaskets)

current plans for purchase sometime within the next 10 years:

L&N Engineering Pistons and Cylinders
Pauter roller rockers
Udo Beck lifters and cam
dual tapered chromoly push rods
i'm debating between L&N conrods, or Pauter...

after I get those, I should have enough to build the shortblock, and then I can canabalize the long block pieces from the 1776 at least long enough to throw it on a test bench and tune it :D

so maybe another $2,800 to $3,500? it's getting close!

If i get the orders I'm hoping for, I'll be moving up to Riverside for a couple of years, so maybe I'll see if Steve Tims and crew can throw it on their dyno and tune it for me :)

anyway, yeah, won't be doing much this summer but talking shit in the forums :P

**tattooed_pariah** · January 2nd, 2011, 06:55 AM

yay! an update... still no work being done though..

Getting situated in Riverside, lost one of my glasspacks in my last week in San Diego, so I have to buy a new exhaust now.. thinking of just getting a damn stinger to bolt onto the 3-bolt flange for the time being.. I HATE how those things friggin sound, but they're cheap and easy..

I also want to pull the engine back out and tear it back down to a short block.. see if I put it together wrong the last time.

While re-organizing my toolbox, I found what I believe to be a tiny split washer from one of my carbs, if it is, that would explain why I can't get them tuned/synced..

so yeah, new plans are rebuild the engine again, rebuild my carbs, try and test the dizzy/electronic ignition module, remove gas tank, install DBug frame brace, put it all back and see if it fires..

will try and update as I do things.