Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi Blitz thanks haven't heard from or seen you in a while. The last time I saw you was at the SA coin I think.

Excellent thread Wentzel, very interesting what you have done over the years with this project and great pics

Thanks Jolas

I have missed a few small things but can't remember everything and tried to summarize it. It is pretty up to date by now but I plan to add another few things and maybe some general pictures.

Maybe I can add to this topic a bit.

Wentzel asked me to post a video of his bug a while back. I havent bothered to search for it, but I am sures its on the forum somewhere.
Anyway, it is probably more at home in this thread anyway.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FL7kAJFdqk

Awsome stuff!!


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Well done


72 - Freddie Booysen
72 Bay - unnamed WIP
72 D/C - Blue abomination!
74 Beetle - BEE

Thanks for adding Tony I almost forgot about that. It was about 2 years ago I think.

That is a video from pull away to 3rd gear, couldn't get to fourth.

Over the last few years I have been collecting parts to build a new engine. This will be an upgrade for the current 1776.

The first items I got was a set of CB Performance 044 heads with work done to them by Tony Z, Titanium retainers and 42/38mm valves if I remember correctly. I bought a 2.1 WBX engine that I am converting to air-cooled by removing the water jackets fitting 94mm pistons that would give me a 2109cc engine using the WBX crank with 76mm stroke. I bought a set of CB Performance con-rods to be sure they will be strong enough. So far I have two sets of 94mm pistons one New Mahle and one used set of Wiseco's. The cam will be a Engle W120 with Engle lifters, Manton push rods and the 1.25:1 ratio rockers I have on my 1776cc.

A lot of the new parts was bought from CB Performance with the help of Tony Z. Thanks Tony!!

I still need new bigger fuel injectors, Fuel pump and have to decide on which Turbo to use. Sort out the clutch if I use the 2.1 WBX flywheel etc. The whole exhaust and inlet will be re-done to locate the turbo and inter-cooler underneath next to the gearbox.

My target for this engine is 300-350Hp with 400-500N torque but only time will tell what it will do.

Dont forget about the grooves....
and then explain what they are

I didn't say anything about the grooves because I can't remember all the details. But I will try to explain.

The grooves are "Somender Singh" grooves named after the person that developed it. Basically it is a cylinder head modification (Grooves) cut into the head creating turbulence in the direction of the spark plug. He claims that the knock resistance is improved and also the idle quality and driving on high load at low rpm's. The idea is that the fuel mixture is improved by the turbulence and a cleaner more complete burn results.

Tony and I discussed it when he was doing my heads and I asked him to add grooves to my heads to try it out. Unfortunately we didn't have a definite guide on size depth etc of the grooves so I asked Tony to use his discretion and give it a go. According to what I read with Turbo use you can boost a few more psi before getting into detonation.

For more info have a look at http://somender-singh.com/

My understanding of the grooves is that they are cut into the quench zone creating an alternative path for the gasses to go when the piston nears TDC. The gasses then go into the groove and create a high speed jet which is aimed directly at the spark plug. This jet increases the turbulence inside the chamber and near the plug and thus promotes a better burn pattern inside the chamber.
to be honest, I can definitely see this working.
And possibly this is the first set of heads in SA with Singh grooves???

Thanks Tony that makes sense to me I guess we will see if and how well it works when the engine is running.

For the heads I wanted tonget them ceramic coated in chambers, ports and also the valves. Not sure if I should do it or leave it even though I am sure there are gains and protection of the parts when doing it.

Awesome write-up! It's a technical goldfield.

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Thanks Eben

I thought I will add a bit on my tuning setup, maybe someone can use the information.

When upgrading to the Spitronics Management system I found that it can safe data to the laptop in real time reading the timing, Injector open time, temps and more. But what was very usefull to me was that it has a narrow band Lambda sensor input from cars that may need this. I had the LM-1 wideband O2 sensor and it also had an programmable output that could be configured to give an output similar to narrowband O2 or any other voltage within limits of O2 sensors.

I re-programmed the LM-1 to give me a wideband "linear" output but within the voltages of a narrow band sensor. Connecting this to the Spitronics input I could do data-logging and save the results in a file on a laptop. Then building a spreadsheet to read the raw data and colour code it to clearly show problem areas with fueling, temp, timing etc. Looking at the spreadsheet I can locate a specific load/Rpm point and tune it to suite my needs, then take another drive, record a new data-log and see if there is an improvement. Using this method I tuned the car myself and could get it to a point where I am quite happy with the Fuel mixture and timing. You can also add or remove fuel and timing according to manifold pressure(Boost or vacuum), temperature and have safety functions like limiting RPM and boost.

The problem with this much tuneability is that you don't always know what the engine wants or needs. It has been a learning curve, I changed my timing table and advance curve a few times while playing around to see what the engine likes. For fueling I set targets from what I could learn on the web and forums according to what air-cooled VW engines are happy with.

Hi Wentzel, may i ask where you baught your LM-1, was it locally, can only find the LM-2 overseas but if i can find one in SA would be great. Awsome wright up! Love it


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