Back in beige

[jamie]

You just have to make sure you bring enough to get out again. The Europa has a fuel tank of 80 litres, uses between 16 and 20 litres per hour in a cruise of 125kts / 140mph. We left from Scotland with full fuel, went to Northern Ireland for the day, then up to North Uist for the night, then back to Scotland, and still had about quarter of a tank left

[Darren65]

I think Chris Jury might have to sort himself a plane if he wants to maintain his position as coolest guy on DDK!

Awesome!

[sladey]

That is a beautiful little plane and landing it on a beach is like something from Out of Africa. Did you have to check the tides before setting off to make sure there was enough beach?

[jury]

I think Chris Jury might have to sort himself a plane if he wants to maintain his position as coolest guy on DDK!

Awesome!

Cool ? Don't know about that, its +35 here today.....but don't worry, I've got it covered.....

.....just picked up this little beauty











O'wait.......now I see




Great stuff Jaime, very nice

[mycar]

Mmmm, that has a certain allure.

[jamie]

That is a beautiful little plane and landing it on a beach is like something from Out of Africa. Did you have to check the tides before setting off to make sure there was enough beach?

Yep, although the beach is very very flat, so once the tide goes out (and comes in again) very quickly. We were there at spring tide, so had to drag it up into the dunes to keep it out of the water.

[jamie]

I think Chris Jury might have to sort himself a plane if he wants to maintain his position as coolest guy on DDK!

I'll never out-cool Chris. Flying is an inherently nerdy pursuit (but I like it).

[jamie]

General synopsis, from Engine Dude, of the machining work carried out:

After some discussions with Maher about whether it was possible, Dude decided he wanted 40mm inlet valves. Ordinarily this is no problem in a 912, but the grotty headwork that had been done in the past (dressing out damage to the head following the ingestion of something sharp and metallic) made it a bit touch-and-go.

Dude was hungry for big valve, though, so big valve was going to happen. The old inlet valve seats were removed and the chambers enlarged:



New valve seats were then machined in CA104 bronze alloy, a four-angle cut to help flow. CA104 is the second-best material for valve seats after Beryllium Copper, but unlike Beryllium Copper, the dust produced when machining it doesn't give you lung cancer.



This, I think, is a standard stainless VW Type 4 valve with some work to blend the stem to the head. Maher and Dude settled on using off-the-shelf parts to keep cost to a minimum. Most of the cost of this part of the project went on machining time.



The exhaust valves were checked and reused, but with fresh cut heads and multi angle valve seats too.

New valve guides were fitted for inlet and exhaust. Maher made some modifications where they protrude into the ports in order to improve flow whilst maintaining valve stem support.

This graph represents the amount of joy a well-flowing engine will bring to your life:

[Midlifecrisis]

Didn't understand a word of that Jamie, but I like the graph......

[jamie]

Engine case together!



Ports being matched for EVEN MORE FLOW!



CSP oil pump cover with pressure relief valve means my engine can use a remote, modern, high-filtration oil filter instead of the big, ugly oil pot / crappy filter that the engine was originally built with. Also gives more oil flow, which makes Dude happy because Dude Loves Flow.



This also makes Dude happy - it's an oil cooler bracket from a Beetle. In standard form, the 912 engine has the oil cooler sitting inside the fan shroud. Air passes through it, slowing down and warming up, on the way to cylinders 3 and 4. Not great. By using this bracket, it allows us to fit a VW oil cooler - out of the shroud, in a separate dog house to the rear - and means there's an uninterrupted flow of clean, cool flow of air to cylinders 3 & 4. Dude Loves Flow.

Other benefits of this plan include the Beetle fans shroud being physically larger and more powerful, balanced fans being available (we'll be doing this) and new VW oil coolers costing 50 quid, as opposed to $500 for the Porsche part. We won't be re-using the old cooler due to the potential for crap to be lodged inside. The down-side of this big plan is that a Beetle fan housing has to be fitted to the 912 tinware, but that's Dude's problem, and apparently it isn't really a problem.



I've saved these for last - they're exhaust stubs from my friend Hayden at Wevo. Hayden gave me these when he was over in the UK a while back. As an exhaust wasn't exactly a pressing issue at the time, I said thank you to him, put the unopened bag on the shelf in my office, and forgot about them. When Dude started talking about exhausts, I remembered them again, and brought them over to his workshop, bag still unopened, so he could check them out.



I hadn't opened the bag because exhaust stubs. Exhaust stubs. They all look the same.

If you've ever seen on of his shifter kits, you'll already know Hayden doesn't do anything that looks 'just the same' as anything else. He takes a product idea and tests it and refines it till there's nowhere left to go, and you can't find a similar product which is even half as good, from anyone else. And hence these beautifully smooth, hefty, solid pieces of milled art.

Dude gazed at them from every angle like he'd just spent the morning hitting the chronic with B-Real, and declared them the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen (with exception of that time he ported an intake so perfectly that it ingested light, upon which the first three months of 1985 were combusted and lost forever). Who knew an exhaust stub could be such an evocative thing?



He is so protective of them that he is keeping them in his shoes until they are ready for use.

[Midlifecrisis]

Really enjoyed reading that Jamie. Didn't understand a word - but hopefully one day I will.

[jamie]

Cheers Jos. Your car is looking lovely, by they way. Nice bumper bits.

[Bruce M]

Type 4 cooler or type 1?

[jamie]

Upright, so far I have assumed Type 1. What you thinking?

[Ian Donkin]

Mr Lipman, Sir, you are from a different planet!