2.3 L into 1971 VW single cab

[itlives]

Hey guys, I actually drove the truck to work two days this week! It has a BAD vibration from about 2500 rpm up. My friend, fastmc, said his conversion did the same thing. His flywheel was out of balance. So, I separated the engine from the tranny and took the flywheel off. I didn't have to break open the water system, that was a great thing!
So, after the Memorial weekend, I'll take the flywheel down to the same machine shop that align bored the block and polished the crank. I hope that's all that's wrong!
Did I mention it has lots of power. It does! Can't wait until it's all right!
Here's some more pics-

Here's the simple exhaust my muffler guy put together

I like spaghetti but not in my truck

This is more like it-(I moved the battery to the other side)

 

[Mark_88]

Awesome! Hope the balance helps...

If you saw the spaghetti under my hood you'd probably feel better about what yours looked like... Might get mine cleaned up this summer...PsychoPete sent me a new front wire harness with a good clip on it...just haven't been able to tear into it yet...

 

[itlives]

Thanks Mark, yeah, I never did tie up the wires from my first engine. It looks so much better!
The original harness only has about 4 wires to the engine. I added a brake controller and a few other do-dads which cluttered up the bay.
Speaking of adding- yesterday, I added a dash light that comes on when the radiator fans come on. It's amazing at how much time a little thing like can eat up!

After all said and done it took about 4 hours. Looks good now and I'll be able to monitor my cooling more closely. Cooling is my biggest worry in this set-up.

 

[Mark_88]

Thanks Mark, yeah, I never did tie up the wires from my first engine. It looks so much better!
The original harness only has about 4 wires to the engine. I added a brake controller and a few other do-dads which cluttered up the bay.
Speaking of adding- yesterday, I added a dash light that comes on when the radiator fans come on. It's amazing at how much time a little thing like can eat up!

After all said and done it took about 4 hours. Looks good now and I'll be able to monitor my cooling more closely. Cooling is my biggest worry in this set-up.

Yes, cooling is critical...more cracked heads from over heating than from over revving for sure...good idea with the light...wish I'd had one on my Tempo...the electric fan crapped out on mine a few times due to the relay going south..so I've shunned the electric fan idea...till now...lol

 

[itlives]

Well, I got my flywheel back and on. Didn't help (sad face).
I can drive it if I keep the rpm's down. I have to fix my Alfa's u-joints and then take the engine apart. I'm going to make sure the crank is perfect. I'm going to make sure the rods are balanced.
I know it will be worth it when I'm done - I'll be glad when I'm done!
I did put in the dash light that comes on when the radiator fans come on. It works great.

Has anyone else ever had problems of this sort (the engine vibration)?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I'm not sure what you've done and don't have time to re-read. Do you have the correct balancer, flex plate.[edit; I just noticed in your previous post and its a ....flywheel?]..whatever it's called on the back end of the motor? Also the balancer on the front can sometimes rotate/slip out of phase.

Richard

 

[itlives]

Hey Richard, yeah I took the flywheeel out and had it balanced already.

Good news though, I just left my brothers' shop and he said I have a collapsed motor mount the torque side. He said that would make a lot of racket in my tin-can. He also siad the engine sounded and felt good to him.
So, I'm going to change the motor mount(s) before I do anything else. I'm pretty glad about it this morning!

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Good news.

Richard

 

[itlives]

Update- I got the new motor mount on and still had the vibration- it did help some, though. Since I'm confident it's just because I drive a tin can, I'm not worrried about it. It's just bothersome.
Also, yesterday I took out the two 11" fans I had on the radiator and put in a Jegs 16" fans that boasts 2100 CFM. I'm hoping it will help cooling. It's not running hot, but too close for me to put a camper behind it and sit in stop and go traffic .
It seems to have worked better this morning. I really need some uninterrupted miles to see if the rad will cool without the fans.
That's where I am!

 

[Insanejughead]

I can't believe I didn't see this thread until just now. I'm now a fan of everything you've done to it!


Btw, AFAIK, turbocharged motors didn't come in the '87 mustang, but they did come in the '86. It was known as the SVO. Do you happen to have the computer for it? That could help figure out what the engine came out of.


Btw, I'm loving the valve cover! What part of Arkansas do you visit frequently? I would be willing to make a trip to wherever that is just so I can see your creation.

 

[cody93]

i heard arkansas! id like to see your ride also

 

[itlives]

Well guys, I'm still trying to solve my cooling issues. It's taking a little more work than I thought it would!
I decided to put a box in the front under the bumper to pipe more air into the rad. I think it's helping but I still can't go down the road without the fans coming on. I've got some pics here. I could use some input if anyone has any ideas.
I was looking at a sand rail yesterday and really liked his set-up. I need to take some pics of his and put them up here.
Basically, I need to make sure no air can circulate anywhere but in or out. That means I may have to lower another inch. I only have about 9" of ground clearance now and hate to lose anymore.
Here's what I did -
This is just something I got from Home Depot

I attached the 3" flex hose

Kind of hard to make out but it's where the hose goes into the rad box

As a side note, I'm sure I will not a problem when it cools down here. It's around 100 degrees here in Louisiana. But, I need it to work right!!!

 

[Mark_88]

Well, how about heat sinks like they use on computer processors? Or, and this is my best idea...lol...add a couple of hoses to the heater core output and place it somewhere that it will get ventilation...

I lost count of the number of times I've used the heater core to draw heat off the engine and cool it down when overheating in the summer...but it gets pretty warm inside the cab when I do that...I'm sure there is a formula floating around somewhere that says how much heat is drawn off by many little rads as opposed to one big rad...maybe even mount ten heater cores in serial fashion as opposed to using one main rad...

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I used an a/c heat exchanger with the heater hoses on my race truck to beat an over-heating problem. No fan, just ran long lines and mounted it out back in cool air.

Richard

 

[itlives]

Hey guys, good news! I went back over to an Australian VW site where they do a lot of conversions. It took a while to find the thread, but I found the one I was looking for.
It's funny how you miss a little thing and everything else goes haywire.
I'll include a picture, but all it was was I didn't block ALL the air holes in my rad box. That, and I put an air dam all the way across the box.
You have to make sure NO air can re-circulate back into the box.
I took it out today and as long as I was moving the temp stayed about 195. I have a 180 thermostat in it so I know there's room for improvement, but the fans didn't come on until I got stopped at a light.
If you look at the radiator, you can see it doesn't cover the louvers all the way (it's got rounded edges). I just stuffed some foam between the box an the rad.

Also, you see the box is larger than the radiator? I had in mind I could put a larger one in if needed. I have all that part blocked off with sheet metal. But I was thinking it just makes more room hot air to hide. Thoughts on that?
Double also- I'm thinking of wrapping my headers with that header wrap stuff. What do you guys think of that stuff? I put on my VW engine headers and it worked great. I've read that it makes headers wear out a lot faster than normal.The reason I want to do it are the water pipes are fairly close to the headers. That's got to not be good! In this pic, you can just see the end of the header on the right and the water pipes on the left.

Here you can see the water pipe and the exhaust

Here you can see where the exhaust goes. The water pipe is underneath the white sheet metal