doz
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- Joined
- Jun 9, 2011
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Well it's only taking 8 months but Rosie moved under her own steam tonight with her new engine and box!!!. It's been a mammoth engine and box build. The gearbox was hangin. It jumped out of second, crunched into third and made a noise like a moaning demented zombie. Back lash was to say a little on the large size as well. So my gearbox guru of a mate stripped the box and that's when the fun started. Rosie is a Splitbay made in Brazil but assembled in South Africa. One of the curiousness of this bus is her transmission. She uses reduction boxes but has a full independent suspension set up but instead of using CV joints she has little universal joints. I made the stupid assumption the gearbox internals would be the same as all the rest of the VW air cooled range. How wrong was I. The diff is Splitbay specific which made the main shaft unique as well. So my plan to getting a 1303 diff and shaft went straight in the bin (after I'd done a 300 mile round trip to get a box to). I had two splitty boxes here and we stripped them but still the diff wouldn't fit my weird driveshaft set up. It looked like I was going to have to carve up the rear chassis to get a standard bay set up to fit. Which pee'd me off as I haven't long rebuilt the reduction boxes. However Bears motorsport came to the rescue. We managed to get slightly longer ratios for 3rd and 4th. So armed with a parcel full of gears and other bits we set to rebuilding the box only to find the nose cone had more free play than slack Alice's draws. So a new one was ordered as the bronze bush which held the selector seal was split in 3 places. No wonder it pee'd oil everywhere. As you can see it's been two steps forward and one back with this project and that theme has carried on all the way through this build.Once the tranny was rebuilt I re fitted it with all new polly mounts and tha't how she sat for a few months while I build up the funds again and managed to get some free time from work and family life. Now on to the enjin. There wasn't to much wrong with the lump it seemed to run ok but it was gutless and had a couple of oil leaks. So I stripped it to see what was what. Well it was on it's last legs. All the bearings were quite badly pitted. Cam didn't look to good however end float was ok. So I decided to rebuild but I couldn't leave it alone could I? What was going to be a very mild 1641 build grew slightly. Engine spec is now
1835cc
Big valve heads with a amazing porting job.
Engle 110 cam
Big foot followers.
Dynamic balance of the crank,rods,pistons,flywheel and clutch cover.
High pressure oil pump
Full flow cases
external oil cooler
Deep sump kit
external oil cooler
Oversized ventures and jets on the twin 40 Kadrons.
Eleccy fuel pump
chrome molly head bolts.
1.25 ratio rockers
chrome molly push rods.
Loads of little bits like pulleys and painting of the tinware. New soft bite clutch etc etc.
Of course the build couldn't go to plan. First of the machine shop didn't bore the barrel slots deep enough so the piston skirts wouldn't clear. So I had to strip the engine and get them to do it again. I fek'd up a set of chrome molly push rods by cutting them to long and then fitting the ends and try as I might I couldn't get them back out. So a word of warning when you measure the rod lengths make sure the head is torqued down and not just finger tight
Then we found the valve guides were knackered in the big valve heads I brought second hand. So another trip to the machine shop for new guides. So once back I had to set the compression ratio etc and it's now 8.2 to 1. A little higher but not to mad. So after much faffin about the engine was ready. Have I bored you all to sleep yet? I'd like to say I just bunged it in but everything has been such a ballsache. Carbs didn't like being stood so I brought a little ultrasonic cleaner. The exhaust wouldn't fit with the new tow bar so I had to buy a vintage speed one. What's been a right night mare is nothing has really fitted off the shelf. I not sure if it was just me but when you spend 300 quid on a tow bar it should fit right? Replacement tin ware should at least have the mounting holes in the general right area. It's just been a right pain. Local motor factors even managed to supply me the wrong plugs and I didn't notice (my fault I know) and promptly mashed the electrode in the top of the pistons. I got very lucky there. I was turning it over by hand and noticed. Then the dizzy bearing died when I was trying to start it for the first time. So needed to get a new one. Then the electronic ignition unit died. For no reason. So another one of them. Did I mention two steps forward one back? but I don't care now. She lives and now all I wanna do is drive her!!! Hmmm JK are having a open day this weekend. Sounds like a good jolly to get the running in done.
1835cc
Big valve heads with a amazing porting job.
Engle 110 cam
Big foot followers.
Dynamic balance of the crank,rods,pistons,flywheel and clutch cover.
High pressure oil pump
Full flow cases
external oil cooler
Deep sump kit
external oil cooler
Oversized ventures and jets on the twin 40 Kadrons.
Eleccy fuel pump
chrome molly head bolts.
1.25 ratio rockers
chrome molly push rods.
Loads of little bits like pulleys and painting of the tinware. New soft bite clutch etc etc.
Of course the build couldn't go to plan. First of the machine shop didn't bore the barrel slots deep enough so the piston skirts wouldn't clear. So I had to strip the engine and get them to do it again. I fek'd up a set of chrome molly push rods by cutting them to long and then fitting the ends and try as I might I couldn't get them back out. So a word of warning when you measure the rod lengths make sure the head is torqued down and not just finger tight
Then we found the valve guides were knackered in the big valve heads I brought second hand. So another trip to the machine shop for new guides. So once back I had to set the compression ratio etc and it's now 8.2 to 1. A little higher but not to mad. So after much faffin about the engine was ready. Have I bored you all to sleep yet? I'd like to say I just bunged it in but everything has been such a ballsache. Carbs didn't like being stood so I brought a little ultrasonic cleaner. The exhaust wouldn't fit with the new tow bar so I had to buy a vintage speed one. What's been a right night mare is nothing has really fitted off the shelf. I not sure if it was just me but when you spend 300 quid on a tow bar it should fit right? Replacement tin ware should at least have the mounting holes in the general right area. It's just been a right pain. Local motor factors even managed to supply me the wrong plugs and I didn't notice (my fault I know) and promptly mashed the electrode in the top of the pistons. I got very lucky there. I was turning it over by hand and noticed. Then the dizzy bearing died when I was trying to start it for the first time. So needed to get a new one. Then the electronic ignition unit died. For no reason. So another one of them. Did I mention two steps forward one back? but I don't care now. She lives and now all I wanna do is drive her!!! Hmmm JK are having a open day this weekend. Sounds like a good jolly to get the running in done.
