Introducing Mr Brightside's Midlands Makeover............

[magoo]

Ah right, I thought early bays all had this tar board installed. Maybe I'll go with the holed board and hope for the best!

 

[Mr Brightside]

I have been looking through a few photos from Christmas 2013 & found this one that made me smile.

There was a pair of ducks that were using the Bodinnick ferry to cross the river at Fowey, waited patiently on the quayside then hopped (well waddled) onboard, whilst trying to persuade the other passengers to give them an in-crossing meal !!

They got to the other side & waddled off

 

[Mr Brightside]

Hello all, Time for a quick update.

The original Twingle Port* engine was still pulling strong, but had the very occasional small puff of smoke at start up when it had been stood for a while & the standard crank shaft oil seal weep, but nothing major. I wanted something a little more powerful, but not crazy & defintily still aircooled.

So out with the old :



& in with the new :





Its one of the VW Heritage/SSP All new 1776 engines Here

Weight: 73.3778 kg Autolinea Aluminium Race-Case with 10mm Chrome-Moly head studs
Engle 110 camshaft
Forged Counterweighted 69mm Crankshaft
Forged 4340 Chro-Moly 5.4'' I-Beam con-rods
Mahle 90.5mm Forged Pistons & Cylinders
Dual Thrust Cam Bearings
Steel backed Centre main bearing
SSP Big valve heads with 40 x 35.5mm stainless valves & 12mm Long-reach Spark Plugs
Uprated single valve springs & chrome moly valve spring retainers
Case drilled & tapped for full flow oil filtration/cooling
Uprated Oil Pressure relief springs
Scat Bolt up rocker shafts & Swivel ball adjusters
Scat Heavy Duty Chrome moly pushrods
Scat Stainless Steel Rocker covers
Schadek 30mm oil pump
Cool tin under cylinders
Lightened & 8-dowelled 12V 200mm Forged Flywheel
Fully dynamically balanced
8.5:1 compression ratio

I bought a set of the re-furbed 40DRLA's from Alfa 1750's store on E Bay, a set of K&N's Pertronix Billet Distributor & coil & a very nice & effective Gene Berg throttle linkage & Oil breather & Huco fuel pump. I also bought a new Vintage Speed Sportflow exhaust to reduce cruising rpm, this was then connected to a new Rancho Freeway Flyer gearbox with a new Sachs clutch assembly

Looking nice & shiny before it was run up to break in the cam




The engine went in easy enough, but would not run well at all, lumpy, horrible, popping & farting. was better after being setup by Autotronix, but occassionally would limp onto 3 cyclnders, it turns out the new Pertronix coil had an intermittent fault, back to a trusty Bosch Blue & all is good.

We are now 2,000 miles & 2 oil changes later, its just been on the rolling road & gives out a healthy 101 BHP with 102 ft/lbs or torque & an even more welcome 28.5 mpg.

The gearbox gives such a relaxed drive, sits happily at a GPS read 70mph, looking forward to using it much more now.

Thanks to Alex at Heritage for the advice & patience

 

[Mr Brightside]

As it sits now, just need to tidy up the air hoses & some of the wiring & give it a clean.

 

[68_early_bay]

Nice work 8)

 

[martin.sim]

Sweet, I'm very envious


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Why didn't I buy my bus years ago !?

 

[gninnam]

100+ Bhp sounds like plenty and looks sweet to :mrgreen:

 

[Haveacamper]

Looks very nice mate!

I do have to ask though, at that price for the engine, you could have got a porsche lump for that. More work to fit, but more BHP for the $$...even if you went for a smaller porsche engine. I dare say that you considered it and wanted to look stock.

Nath

p.s. bus looks sweet as always

 

[Supertramp]

Wow. That looks amazing. Might have to start thinking about upgrading mine :lol:

 

[Foz]

Looks superb Graham, and a perfect upgrade to an already gorgeous bus. Well done fella.

 

[Lordain Volley]

Graham,
Looking superb. I am in two minds about either upgrading my standard box or buying a freeway flyer. Was the transaction from the States smooth? It would be good to hear your thoughts on it.

G.

 

[Mr Brightside]

Looks very nice mate!

I do have to ask though, at that price for the engine, you could have got a porsche lump for that. More work to fit, but more BHP for the $$...even if you went for a smaller porsche engine. I dare say that you considered it and wanted to look stock.

Nath

p.s. bus looks sweet as always

Thanks Nath.

I did look at different engines & came to the conclusion that with the time I have available to work on the bus, stock (or very close) was the only way to go for me. This engine sat on a pallet for more months than I wanted due to work commitments.

Glad I did it now though, it drives so much better

 

[Mr Brightside]

Looks superb Graham, and a perfect upgrade to an already gorgeous bus. Well done fella.

Thanks Foz

 

[Mr Brightside]

Graham,
Looking superb. I am in two minds about either upgrading my standard box or buying a freeway flyer. Was the transaction from the States smooth? It would be good to hear your thoughts on it.

G.

I bought mine from Heritage as part of a deal complete with the engine, I would suggest speaking to Alex.

 

[Mr Brightside]

Fantastic day down at Sennen Cove, met up with some friends & their children, water conditions too calm for any serious fun in the water, but great for the children.

Seems to be a lot less Bays around this year so far though.

 

[Marriedblonde]

feeling very envious

 

[Mr Brightside]

feeling very envious

You will be finished soon & it will be worth the blood sweat & tears

 

[Mr Brightside]

The journey home at the end of a great 2 weeks is always less enjoyable than the trip down, the weather has been really good, especially the first week of August. The traffic on the A30/M5 was the usual crawl in places, but we kept moving, the new 1776 Heritage engine performed faultlessly, we covered over 1600 miles during the trip & averaged 25mpg total. The trip down was 29.3 & 27.5 on the way back, but we had much more on the roof rack.

Loaded up on the way home, back to work on Monday

 

[martin.sim]

Took me almost 8hrs today to do that route back


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Why didn't I buy my bus years ago !?

 

[gninnam]

Jealous - but happy for you :mrgreen: