Thought I'd post a couple pics...

[Chip Birks]

I'll try to talk to Nimmo tomorrow and get an answer about the air speed ( I think that is what he called it LOL)-- the RLR is just to show another way of running the piping -- I will have the TB after the turbo -- but like I said Just throwing a bunch of chit at the celling and seeing what sticks LOL

That thing that you guys keep calling an air speed sensor is actually an idle valve.  It is there to keep the idle up when there are sudden changes to the running conditions of the motor.  Such as turning on an a/c compressor, or putting an automatic into gear.  They can also be used as a warm up idle valve.  I have a similar part on mine.  Looks different, but same function.  I love it.

[martin]

Right, that makes sense. I had one on mine from a Golf and used it for a warm up idle valve. My valve is a little too small to increase idle speed much, and it needs to be larger. Which one did you end up using? Of course on a race motor this would not be needed.

[Chip Birks]

I use one off of a Jetta.  Mid 90's.  I'm pretty sure that the Baron had an Idle valve installed at one point, its nice to know after a hard boosting high RPM run you can clutch in, and coast, and the motor will idle happily, allowing the turbo to cool like it needs too.

[martin]

Here are some shots of the pushrods installed with tubes, and rockers and lash caps.





I'm really happy with the detail that Steve is putting into this engine.
It's amazing how much work is involved to assemble one properly.
This shot shows how nice and tightly the pushrod tube fits into the head for clearance.

Rolled ribs on ss pushrod tube look nice.

No coil bind, and everything goes together solidly.
There is absolutely no change in clearance at the intake valve, when the lifter is putting full pressure at the exhaust valve.

[fixer44]

Looks like a great job and a lot of attention to detail, I wouldn't have used RTV on those push rod tubes, you may end up with lots of chunks of it passing through your oil, you can see it all over that one push rod, I was always taught RTV only went one place, on the case sealing nuts, where it couldn't get into the oil. Do a lot of you guys do this? Understand it is a running argument to install them (push rod tube seals) lightly oiled, dry or with a sealant, mine are leak free with a light coat of oil and stainless tubes. Whats the consensus here on cal-look?

[JVance]

That looks like synthetic grease, not RTV.

[fixer44]

Jvance, thanks, I see the red grease on the valve tips but he orange looks like RTV to me, could be the photos, If I am wrong I humbly apologize, I am here to sponge up info.

[JVance]

It probably is the photos...take a look at the pushrod cup in the far left; the substance appears to have the same tint as that surrounding the pushrod tube seals:



In any case, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that it is not RTV.

[martin]

Haha, ya just looks like it. Steve uses the red grease everywhere for assembly. He gave me a tube of it, and swears by it. It is synthetic grease made to use on factory assembly lines that are under extreme conditions, like hot water flowing over parts, etc. It sticks like glue almost, and is very tacky on your fingers very hard to get off. I used it on a problem wheel bearing (drivers front with speedo cable) that was wearing due to crap and water getting in and so far so good, and even the wheel turned slowly by hand after using it because of the tackiness/viscosity.

[fixer44]

Martin, excellent, apologize for thinking it was RTV.

[martin]

RTV should be used carefully. I have put too much on those PR tube seals in the past myself and had the seal squeeze out of position, probably because the tube didn't fit nice like shown in these pics. One trick for engine assembly he used, was to not put on the case hardware around the outside until after the case seam sealant was cured. He first tightened the big six case nuts after putting the two halves together, let the case sealant cure, then the outside hardware went on.

[martin]

Here a short vid showing just how nice this longblock turned out, with the springs having enough power to turn the crank on their own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfRvsEbKzng

[kaferChris]

What are you running for piston-rings and clearances?

[martin]

I've got the AA ss pistons/cylinders from cip1 which came with Grants rings.
The cylinders were honed to .005" clearance by Gord Bush Performance http://gordbushperformance.com/about.htm
They said that the cylinders were all wonky from the factory and needed the honing to run properly.
I got the Total Seal second rings from cip1 installed and now the cylinders will hold a vacuum with zero leak down.
One cool touch is that Steve had some uber expensive Porsche tapered piston pins which he used on this build.
They are super light and made of unobtainium of some sort, and replaced the stocks ones.
They fit tighter and are made to a closer tolerance than the VW oem parts.

[martin]

The cylinder tin had to be lengthened the same 11mm as the cylinder shims, here's a shot of that:

Here's a "new" throttle body from a water cooled VW that will be welded to the turbo intake.
Notice how it has the bug style throttle cable end. This should work perfect and line up with the stock hole in the shroud.
Previously with the draw thru throttle body setup, I had to use a morse cable for throttle.

[germansupplyscott]

Here's a "new" throttle body from a water cooled VW that will be welded to the turbo intake.

that throttle body is from a fuel injected baywindow bus, fyi.

[martin]

Thanks Scott, that explains the throttle cable end. The TB will get a few mods before finishing, like the IAC valve for high idle, etc.

[martin]

I've got some pics to show where the cyl. head temp sensor mounts (thanks Scott!).
Steve made a step nut that has a groove for the sensor to sit in.
The second nut clamps down on it with a little pressure, but can be tightened further without crushing the sensor.
A hole was made in the tin and grommet added so that the sensor could be replaced without taking the tin off.



Next is the bus tb getting the mods for the intake setup using a stock throttle cable hopefully.
Note that in this small space below the turbo needs to be the tb along with a bo valve and sensors.
The plan is to weld the tb to the center Y section and clamp the top of the tb to the turbo using a wiggins clamp.
Here are some shots of the mock up stage. The Y section has not been welded together yet.



In this shot you can see the lowbugget header and turbo, the header needed to be widened about 3/4" to fit the larger engine.
Also Steve's work with the injector bosses added to the CB endcastings.
Each boss had to be aligned to properly spray fuel into each port in the endcasting, according to him.

[fiatdude]

my heart is starting to come together

You guys wanted to see how the pistons looked in final form after .040 had been milled off

[martin]

Looks very nice! Can you post a pic of the head chamber you have? I'd like to see the piston to chamber setup you have.

[fiatdude]

I'll take one today -- -- I don't know if I want to go by the engine builders shop though -- when I left yesterday he was cussing the spiral locks on the pistons we are being forced to use LOL

[ALB]

Harold- Pretty cool. Looks like it's going to be wicked!

[fiatdude]

The pictures are over here

http://www.cal-look.com/forum/index.php/topic,31031.msg331760.html

[martin]

The intake is coming together now with the curved Y pipe and throttle body being welded to the turbo intake.
The idea is change my previous draw thru to a blow thru by mounting the TB under the turbo in AJ's original kit (I had draw through EFI before).
The throttle cable is going to be in the original location with this setup.
Since there is no room for a throttle position sensor, other ways of sensing a low speed stab of the throttle will be used (MAP sensor, gas pedal sensor, etc.).
The TB is a machined down VW part and will connect with the Wiggins clamp to the intake. We're going to try going without a blow off valve.

[tyroneshoelaces]

Here's an idea: take a single port head, cut it in half along the top of the combustion chamber and whittle it down to a barrel shim with a fin. Turns out the alloy is just not solid enough to handle the pressure and it moved around in the lathe.

This shows the final result: a set of cromoly spacers with thin cooling fins cut into them.

I'm glad to see the videos and hear some mores success stories on other motors because I was starting to get pretty sketchy on this build after looking at the machine work. Cutting up a head to make a simple spacer that could have been made out of flat stock seems like a hard way to go about it. I think I would silver braze those shims to the bottome of the cylinders, but that's just me.

That rotary looks fast and that bus sounds killer!!!

Great camera work and great job detailing this build.

[martin]

Thanks! It's easy to take these shots with any point and shoot camera. Just set it to macro and get some light on the parts. That last shot showing the al barrel spacer shows how nicely those cheap 10mm crmo head studs fit in the factory case inserts (tapped larger). There was no stretch with these studs when torquing the heads.

[martin]

The welding is done on the intake now. The new section of pipe had to have a peanut shape to fit properly on the end castings. Nice thing with the wiggins clamp is that the center section can be removed without complete disassembly.

[martin]

These pics show what Steve did to fit the shroud to widen it to fit the wider cylinder tin. Work on it is still in progress and the black paint is just to show where the shape is at to look closest to factory, and it will be smoothed out using all metal. The shot from underneath the shroud shows where the extra cooling air comes from after separating the spot welds. We're thinking that by blocking the heater box air vents, more fan cooling would come out of the shroud to cool the heads. It seems to make sense. If you use heater boxes and have them closed, some air is bypassed out and is wasted. A manual shut off for the heater vents might work.

[martin]

Next is to get the intake in its final position with the header and turbo. Since the AJ Sims header is meant for a stock width engine, a section had to be added to widen it (#2 pipe under the pulley). By tweaking the pipes to #4 and #2 and using the thick bolts to center the turbo on the downpipe, Steve got the intake to sit nice and square to the shroud and intakes. Header should go on ok without gaskets. The TB is now moved slightly away from the alternator. In the front shot you can see how nicely the end castings transition to the round center section.

[martin]

Since there is no room for the TPS with the alternator in the way, a hole was milled into the alt and stand. The TPS fits nicely into the hole so not much cooling air will be lost. A billet alt clamp needs to be made.

[Chip Birks]

Very creative, looks like things are coming along nicely. When is she gonna fire?

[martin]

Well, I'm hoping the throttle body is the last of the custom mods. A BOV still needs to be added, alt clamp, .... like to hear it run before the snow flies.

[martin]

As simple as the result looks, Steve said the amount of work to figure out the throttle shaft with return spring, throttle position sensor, with the stock throttle cable location, including the original idle screw in the TB, was unbelievable. For example, the butterfly is now reversed from what it was originally, so the edge had to be re-profiled to fit and seal when it closed. The TPS is a BMW part bought new as it is a modern slim version that will work the best. Because of the tight space, the clamp connector used for it normally will need to be trimmed away, and it will use a set screw for securing instead.

[martin]

All the welding is done and it's on to final assembly.
The fan/alt assembly fits with the TB/TPS. Turns out there is some room around the TPS where the alt is clearanced, but this will help cool the alt as the air goes thru it.

Steve used a M10 bolt into the alt body from under the stand to hold it instead of the clamp (which won't work with the TPS in the way).

All the tin fits snug, and here you can see the bent over edge of the cyl tin to make up for the wider engine.

The Y pipe has a rolled edge to fit the hose properly. That was a problem in my previous engine as the hoses tended to move around after clamping.

If you look at the throttle body lever in relation to the stock throttle cable tube, you can see that the hole for the wiring stand off is in a better spot. The morse cable from the AJ Sims kit will be shorted and used to go thru the shroud and connect to the TB.

[martin]

I've got some shots of the final assembly of the intakes and injectors going on. These are new style Bosch injectors with the better spray pattern and are larger (20#) than the previous ones so the pump can be set at a more reasonable pressure with this setup.
Grinding was done inside to smooth out the welded joint at the end of the end castings with a long die grinder bit. Tin needed to be clearanced where the end castings fit against the cylinder tin so they can drop into place.



You can see four weld-in nuts which is what the factory used for the tin. These trick oem parts (not a fastener store item) will be used to replace the ones at the outer edges of the cylinder tin which have been trimmed shorter to fit properly in the engine bay.

The turbo/throttle body assembly is read to install.

The welded Berg fan rubbed on the shroud (the previous fan didn't) so instead of adding more shims to space the fan out on the collar, Steve made a custom shim to go under the collar. This way the fan nut will go on properly with its full threads. Also see in this shot the powder coated complete thermostat and linkage setup which operates smoothly just like a stock engine should.


The last details of any project seem to take the most time. One of the oil pump studs pulled when torqued and now the oil pump has to come off again and reinstalled, and a heli-coil put in for that stud. Not sure why this happened now (delay).
As for other studs, when I did the Berg trick of using the large stock head stud nuts and thick washers on this engine originally I had backed out some of the case studs to get the needed length. Steve noticed this and replaced the studs with slightly longer ones to get full holding power.