Well, its been a while since I did an update. Plenty has happened for good and for bad.
After all the effort of installing and welding in place the kaefer cup brace - when i put the engine in, the exhaust hits the brace. No time for another plan to be made up otherwise I wouldnt have been able to make the George show. Plenty work involved in this little mod.... will have to find some help with this one.
Engine and gearbox went back in with a bit of effort.
After having done plenty of thought about the stock oil cooler and its method of operation, I decided to remove it from the system altogether. A oil cooler bypass is now installed and the cooling tin has been modified - and some bling added to it. The oil now passes through a thermostat and a thermo-switch so it is fed to the cooler when needed and the fan is only used when needed.
The thermostat fits onto the exit from the oil filter, diverting the hot oil through the cooler and then to the engine or when the oil is cold, sending it from the filter straight back to the engine. My oil temp now sits about 20degC cooler than with the stock oil cooler - and I still feel this is due to the design of the stock system, not its capabilities.
The fan housing which is now looking pretty damn good even if I have to say so myself
The engine bay has been cleaned up a little.
This whole mag, disc brakes and gearbox change and all the other bits I decided to do along the way took me around 3 weeks of pretty hard graft to complete. The aim was always to make it to the George show.... the final date was starting to loom pretty close. Finally on Thursday eve at around 1630 the car was ready to test drive (departure for George show was Friday morning). Test drive went well, so I decided to go visit a friend 30km from where I live. He takes one look at the car, jump in, presses the clutch and the cable snaps. DAMMIT. So we tow the car back to my place.
Next morning, I go buy a new clutch cable and go fetch my trailer which I hired for the show. After some cursing and swearing my buddy and myself manage to get the beetle onto the trailer and all tied down to go to the show.
As soon as we get to the show, we get the car off the trailer and pull out the pedal assembly. One look at the clutch pedal tells us we dont have to worry about the cable, its the pedal hook which broke off.
Some desperate phoning around and I source a replacement pedal assembly, which arrives at the camp site at 2000. Work starts and by 2300 we are test driving and waking up the neighborhood.
This is how she looked while on display in George. Note the badges I have had made up to match the Porsche Replica mags. It was a little bit of a rush job and they dont fit 100% but for now its all good.
Then the drive home.... the trailer decided to demolish one of my drive shaft seals. So once I got back home, the car was pushed off the trailer and into the garage. The next day resulted in me replacing both the drive shaft seals and topping up the gearbox oil.
While the car was lifted up on the one side, I also decided to remove the stock fuel pump and replace it with my Holley blue pump, pressure regulator and 2 new steel fuel filters (standard push on FI filters). This resulted in plenty cursing and swearing, along with all new fuel hoses and the mounting of the (MUCH BIGGER) fuel pump and pressure regulator. Pics of which I dont have at the moment.
. My oil cooler is bigger as well. Might have to do a little body modification as well.
