ProVolks Official Shop-Car Build Thread. . .

[aircooledtechguy]

Just finished the initial break-in on the 2316cc engine my son built last summer. Yeah, not a lot of time to do my own thing since last year but I work better under pressure anyway.

I wanted to run it out of the car first in case any issues came up since it's kind of a pain to work on in the car and not the easiest motor to install or remove. So I bolted up a set of type-4 DCNFs and an 009 dizzy and let it rip for 20 minutes. Other than some carb issues everything went well. I can't wait to dump the carbs and dizzy and get that sweet running MS3X & LS2s on there and begin tuning.



You know what I'll be doing this weekend. . .

BTW, the 911 muffler sounds good. It's quieter than my current muffler.

[aircooledtechguy]

At a recent car show, I lifted up the carpet in the rear and noticed a crack in the cargo deck poking out from under the sound mat. Seems as though the constant abuse from my right foot has taken a toll on this area.

After investigation and removal of the sound mat, I discovered a "small crack" had developed that was right along the seam where the air duct is spot welded and some significant flexing of the surrounding area was happening.



So after welding the crack and grinding the welds flat, I cut a 3/32" piece of steel plate that would distribute the load on the right side of the car over a large area spanning both the floor and the air duct. I drilled a couple dozen holes to rosette weld it to the floor and ensure it wasn't just the perimeter holding it all. The plate spans both the floor and the boxed air duct for extra rigidity. I'm much more comfortable now bolting in my race motor that has double the HP of the 2056. . . but I'm still gonna keep a close eye on it.

[aircooledtechguy]

I got good news and bad news. . .

Good news: The new race motor is in and it sounds GOOOOOOOD!!

https://youtu.be/KUBwnmRAI0Y

Bad news: about 1/2 hour after me and my buddy got it stuffed and hooked up, we found out that World of Speed 2015 has been canceled!!

Back to the good news, . . . So I've got a full year to get it dyno tuned and fully broken-in.

[aircooledtechguy]

While I await a set of push rod tube extensions (the cause of the leak), I'm relegated to only short trips around the local area. Still no real tuning opportunities so the tune is rough, but completely driveable. I warmed her up and took my friend for a short jaunt up the street and back so he could feel the new motor compared to the last one.

https://youtu.be/KPTj6_NLhto

[aircooledtechguy]

Just a quick update on the Squarsche after a couple months of driving with the new motor. . .

With the 2.3L that my son Josh built, the power is intoxicating. Since Bonneville was canceled, I have yet to get with Mario and dyno tune it, but just from my tuning, it's running pretty strong.

I tried using mid-grade fuel once. . . It didn't like that at all, but I had to try. The oil pressures at operating temp are 45psi above 3K rpms and around 15-18psi at idle (900rpms).

The head temps are the most dramatic change with the new motor but are not surprising since I gave a lot of thought to cam and CR in the motor planning. Head temps are 75-100F LOWER than with the 2056cc with the stock cam. I'm seeing 200-225F cruising around town(!) and 275F @ 60mph. No matter how I've driven it, I cannot get the heads over 350F!! That is simply awesome for the longevity of the motor. This will enable me to add more timing and thus pull more fuel out as I tune.

Currently mileage is around 20mpg in mixed driving but I flog it. I know it's running overly rich but I've been having O2 sensor issues that make further tuning difficult so I've adopted the "better safe than sorry" approach and would rather keep it richer than too lean.

The power on tap is great. Speed takes much less effort than before. I was recently coming home from Seattle with my wife late at night and was playing around with a Porsche Boxster north of Marysville, WA. We each kept upping the cruising speed as we passed each other. The wuss let-off at 105mph and let me get away,. . . in a wagon! My wife was even laughing at him lifting I think I'm finally getting to her; it only took 25+ years but she likes to go fast. Man that was fun!!

I've swapped out the NGK Iridium plugs with with standard Bosch Supers. I've found that the Iridium plug electrodes just do not hold-up. I'm probably running too hot of a plug and will have to investigate a colder option before I run them again. For now, I'll switch to a tried & true, known-quantity.

Mile of smiles. . .

[MarioVelotta]

From the sound of it and the videos you have posted I can't wait for a ride

The Iridium plugs should be just fine once you get the tune settled. They where built to withstand and run at 14.7:1 (hottest burn) under all loads for emissions.

[Piledriver]

I'm pushing 80K miles on the irridium Pulstars in my square, I'm actually afraid to pull them as they have been in there so long.
I pulled them on oil changes for the first ~30K, but they always looked new.
Probably just a heat range issue.

[MarioVelotta]

I'm pushing 80K miles on the irridium Pulstars in my square, I'm actually afraid to pull them as they have been in there so long.
I pulled them on oil changes for the first ~30K, but they always looked new.
Probably just a heat range issue.

He is running rich, they din't like that. You OTOH run at 20+:1. Which probably doesn't even leave a residue, lol.

[Piledriver]

I'm pushing 80K miles on the irridium Pulstars in my square, I'm actually afraid to pull them as they have been in there so long.
I pulled them on oil changes for the first ~30K, but they always looked new.
Probably just a heat range issue.

He is running rich, they din't like that. You OTOH run at 20+:1. Which probably doesn't even leave a residue, lol.

Running E85 (usually ~E70) it does leave a very light white residue in the tailpipe.

I run 19:1 most places in the target map, my current WB only reads to 20:1, so that limit seems to set the max you can target, even though the ecu could certainly calculate a much higher AFR fuel shot. Hmmmm.

My old JAW read to free air and may be going back in.
Used to run 22:1 at cruise on E10.
(MS firmware itself hits a coded limit at 25.4:1, but i haven't run into it. Yet.)

Does wonders for CHT and EGT at cruise.

[MarioVelotta]

Do you have a stock cam? There are a few guys that just can't get away with a lean cruise.

Are you MS3 or MS2, I can't remember.

[aircooledtechguy]

20:1!! With my plenum based system, I would get misfires around 17.5:1. My WBO2 sensor is giving me big swing from super rich to super lean it will occilate from the 9s to low 20s and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. It will also stick on 21+ for several seconds then it goes off line and flashes 7.4 until I cycle the key. I have another O2 sensor at the shop and may try that and re-calibrate. I've already done several free-air calibrations with this one with no joy.

I'm also wondering if my exhaust has anything to do with it. My O2 sensor is just before it goes into the 911 Banana can. I've been wondering if any back pulsing is giving erroneous readings and causing my wild fluctuations. I still think it's a sensor/controller issue though.

The electrodes on the irridium plugs I had on the 2056cc were gone; and I mean down to the porcelain. I had been running them since first going to MS in 2009. I probably had 80K on that set which was amazing! I had checked them a year or so and they looked fine. I probably put 20K miles on them over the last year before installing the new engine and had planned on running them in the new motor since they had been so nice all that time. I had noticed for the last couple months of driving the 2056cc that it would sometimes knock on full load when the engine was fully warmed-up, so I just backed off the timing a degree or so. When I pulled the motor and went to pull the plugs I was a bit shocked at the condition of the plugs. I'll bet the new gap was around .140". I had originally gapped them at around .035".

[Piledriver]

Cam is Web73, 2L Porsche heads on an otherwise all used parts 1.8, but using tweaked 2L manifolds and a widened Vanagon plenum.
Classic "big head/mild cam" motor, was intended to be temporary but you know how it goes when something works.

It pulled 22:1 reliably, with ms2e or ms3 installs, worked most of the time @23:1, but it won't even pull 18:1 if injection timing is wrong, or with insufficient timing.

For a month or so I was forced to run MS2e again, facilitated by a prototype MS2X adapter, so I popped the MS2 and adapter into my ECU when I needed ...

one pair of injector lines were swapped on that proto MS2X adapter design, and I could barely pull 17:1 AFR with the injector order//timing off.---even tried batch but it was worse.

Same for ethanol % around E50, it hates it and mileage sucks.

[aircooledtechguy]

I think I got the O2 sensor issue ironed out. Turns out that my O2 sensor was AFU. I swapped it out with another one I had and now I have solid readings.

So now I have some tuning to do.

[aircooledtechguy]

If anyone doubts that you can still get good deals on Craigslist and that all sellers & buyers are all flakes, well I'm hear to tell you that they are not. I just scored a really cheap set of used BBS wheels for the Squarsche yesterday. They are mono block magnesium RE-794 fronts 18x9 ET63 and RE-795 18x11 ET76 rears off a 996 wide body.



The rears are too wide for this car at 11" , but the fronts will make excellent rears on this car. I think they weigh in at around 10-12# each. The fronts are perfect. The rears are not legal for racing since they each have one cracked spoke. They would be fine for showing and cruising around town, but no racing. That's why I got them at a steal.

They'll also make great mock-up wheels for the next project I'm cookin'-up. Man, I'm gonna piss-off the purists with the next one!!

[aircooledtechguy]

Over the weekend, I swapped out my O2 sensor with a new one, calibrated everything and my O2 readings are rock solid again and back on line. So when I took a short road trip to Bellevue to get the new wheels, I was able to do some significant tuning on the freeway and get the cruising area leaned out to yield better fuel mileage.

I've still got some work to do and a dyno day with Mario Velotta is definitely in the future, but I think I have it about as close as I can get by myself driving and tuning. I'm now seeing AFRs in the 15-16:1 cruising down the hwy. I added a bit of timing and pulled a bit more fuel out as well. So cruising down the hwy @ 65-75mph, I'm probably seeing MPG around 27-28mpg but my overall MPG in mixed driving is now up to around 24mpg which is mostly what I see in day to day driving. None too soon either since this runs premium fuel only.

I still have some transition areas in the fuel MAP that go a bit too rich (9.5-10.5:1) so I'll have to clean those up as I go. Maybe I'll have my son drive around with me and have him tune like we did with the old MS2 system. As with anything involving a computer; just ask a teenager to do it!!

So still making progress. BTW, is anyone on here going to Mario Velotta's Dubshop.net open house at his new shop on Sunday Nov. 16th from 12pm-4:30pm?? If so, I'll see you there.