Here are some old piccies of my 2332cc engine - I have never really done 'shiny' some of the parts have changed since these pictures, but the breather system is basically the same.

Rocker cover take off


Jaz 1 quart breather catch tank


Additional small filter on the oil filler


The third connection in the middle of the catch tank was for the Berg 5 gearbox breather connection - I no longer have the Berg 5, the 'Kafer Cup' brace, or the wheelie bars, and various parts of the engine are currently located in Harrow, Leeds and the Isle of Harris. The engine was taken apart after I sheared all 8 dowels off the crank around 8 years ago and has yet to be put back together again .

To my knowledge, this setup never had any leaks or sprayed any oil in several years of racing.

My tired type IV 2.0l engine however, did successfully spray the track with oil mist from a small oil filter just above the normal oil filler area (no tinware or cooling on this occasion), I even have in car footage somewhere, of the camera being covered with oil from this run.

Quote from: Flags on April 30, 2015, 10:15:05 PM
A CB tower with 1 (top) outlet to atmosphere through a flap valve to stop sucking when on overrun works for me.

If an engine is breathing really heavy I'd look to solve the cause not the effect.

The problem here will be a high revving engine in a case originally designed for a 1100cc engine that would never see above 4K rpm.

Performance engines generate loads of internal pressure due to the crank spinning at high rpms, the pistons flying back and forth, piston blow by, etc, etc.

You need some method of reducing this pressure or it will suck in the valve cover gaskets (low pressure in the head as a result of high pressure else where) or oil leaks due to high pressure forcing oil out of the case.

There is a good article covering this topic on the Shoptalk Forums explaining what VW/Porsche did over the years to combat the issue on stock engines, and what you can do to address the issue on a performance engine.

Then that should be fine - I just looked at the pretty picture and skipped the 'blurb' 

That will work fine as a catch tank

I would suggest all breather lines ultimately dumping to the catch tank, ideally you need a breather somewhere to vent the system or it will still all be pressurised, you can have all your breather lines go to a vented breather box which in turn drains to the catch tank.

The last thing you want is for your breather to spray oil all over your engine/the track - been there done that, became very unpopular very fast as they had to shut down the lane to clean it after my run 

Ideally you need to run the rocker breather pipes to some form of 'puke' tank.

If you intend to drag race, then there is a requirement for this to be able to hold at least litre of liquid.

I use and used to sell these: Jaz 1 Quart Breather this acts as both a breather and catch tank in one and can be modified for multiple connections, despite only being fitted with a single connection.

The best 'stock' box for drag racing is a GT gearbox, but these days those are as rare as hens teeth.

The things you need to know are the gearbox internals, your rear tyre diameter and the power band of your cam (min and max rpm at which it makes power).

Looking at your buggy I will assume about a 27" diameter rear tyre.
Based on your 1776 engine, I will assume an Engle W110 cam with a max rpm of 5500 and max HP of about 70, these are the figures I will use for the various calculations.

A stock 1200/1300 gearbox has the following gears:
4.375 Ring and Pinion, then 3.777, 2.058, 1.261, 0.889 (1st to 4th)

Assuming a gear change at 5500 you will be shifting at 26, 49, and 80mph with a theoretical top speed of 114mph

a 1500 box changes the R&P to 4.125 giving shift points of 28, 52 and 85mph and a top speed of 120mph

a GT box changes the R&P to 3.875 giving shift points of 30, 55 and 90mph and a top speed of 128mph

a 1600 box changes GT 4th gear to 0.931 giving shift points of 30, 55 and 90mph and a top speed of 120mph

The top speed is theoretical since it is unlikely you will reach 5500rpm in 4th gear without a very long run up (several miles).

In reality when using a stock gearbox on the drag strip, 4th gear is a waste of time, you will drop too many revs shifting from 3rd to 4th (5500 to around 4000) and you will have run out of tarmac by the time you bring them back up, so just keep your foot down in 3rd.

As such you are optimistically looking at a 1/4 mile speed of between 80 and 90mph depending on your gearbox and how well you have driven.

Based on a guessed weight of 1600lbs (730kgs) and 70HP at the flywheel you would be looking at an ET of about 17-18s for the 1/4 mile.

The first thing you will break will be either the differential or the ring and pinion.

The 3.875 R&P is the strongest one there is for a type 1 box, anything else is weaker.

A stock gearbox only has 2 spider gears in the differential, a super diff has 4.

Dropping the clutch at 3000rpm will place huge load on the gearbox, eventually something gives.

Pete at Cogbox built all of my various drag racing gearboxes, I cannot recommend him highly enough, he will custom build whatever you want, but his services are not cheap (I still broke all of mine several times)

Rancho boxes are more of an off the shelf item that sit between a stock box and a custom one.

Remember "drag racing costs money - how fast can you afford to go?"

Quote from: Hunter on May 15, 2014, 08:56:04 AM
These guys seem to be well used..

http://www.kennedyenginc.com/Pages/default.aspx

H

I used to be their only UK distributor before I largely stopped selling parts

soak them with penetrating oil/WD40 for a decent period of time, then either a large breaker bar plus extension or a decent air impact gun.

Typically, I have found them slightly easier to remove than seized castle nuts on the rear axles.

I fitted Porsche 911 electric seats to my Karmann Cabriolet (now sold), these were pretty simple to wire up - just 2 wires and had integrated seat belts.

OK, the seats were not fully electric, the motors only moved the seat front and rear up/down, the rest was still all manual, very comfortable seats though.

Pertronix, Compufire, etc, modules are all pretty much of a muchness, all do the job of replacing condensers that wear out and points need adjusting, wear out and are prone to pitting at higher voltages.

A few details on windings for various canister coils:

Primary  Secondary Windings  Input Output
Ohms     KOhms      Ratio        Volts  KVolts
3.0         9.83          80:1        12     24        Bosch Black (factory fitted by VW)
3.4         7.79          80:1        12     24        Bosch Blue
3.0                                         12     28        Flamethrower (28010)
3.0                                         12     40        Flamethrower (40501, 40511, 40611)
0.6                                         12     45        Flamethrower II (45001, 45011, 45111)
0.7         4.5            100:1      12     45        MSD Blaster 2 (8202)
0.7         4.5            100:1      12     45        MSD Blaster 3 (8223)

Standard Ignition systems are Inductive Discharge where 12V is supplied to the primary windings, this generates a magnetic field, and when the points open this field collapses, which in turn creates about 200-300V on the primary windings. The secondary windings then multiply this by the windings ratio to give the output voltage. The input/output voltage levels will degrade over time as the coil wears out and also with slow field collapse (points).

The Pertronix/Compufire module is simply replacing the points/condenser with better/more accurate electronics, but still performing the same function.

The main issue with a standard inductive ignition system, is that at higher RPMs, there is a drop off in voltage output as there is less time available for the primary collapse and the secondary to fully charge before it is expected to fire again, this leads to a reduction in efficiency and performance at higher engine RPMs.

This is where Capacitive Discharge systems come in, these have an inbuilt transformer that charges capacitors (very fast) with 200-300V and when they stop charging, the capacitor discharges to the coil. Coils with low input resistance (less than 1 Ohm) are intended for use with Capacitive Discharge ignition systems, though many can also be used with non CDI systems as well if used with a ballast resistor.

CDI systems also tend to generate multiple sparks below 3K RPM to guarantee a full burn of the air/fuel mixture, but only a single spark above 3K RPM as there is insufficient time to generate the additional sparks.

To give you an idea of the difference in the spark quality of an inductive "stock" ignition compared to a capacitive ignition - the stock ignition will generate a thin blue spark that just about jumps the small gap on the spark plug, conversely I have turned over an engine fitted with a CDI system and had fat white sparks jump from the distributor to the fan shroud (HT leads to the plugs had been removed). CDI systems allow the use of much bigger spark gaps and are less likely to be "blown out" in forced induction systems where Turbo or Super chargers are used.

As a final note of caution, never connect any 12V items to a coil that is being used with a CDI system as it will be fried by the 200V input voltage supplied to the coil.

Quote from: Manxdavid on May 26, 2014, 03:15:27 PM

Quote from: apmaman on May 25, 2014, 10:10:29 PMany reason why the dished are better?

Dished pistons were for low compresion engines, generally Type 2s so they could run on crappy 2** petrol.

What cc's your engine at the moment?

Just about every aircooled VW engine is capable of running on 2* fuel, it is simply a matter of adjusting the timing, they were designed to run on the worst fuel available in Nazi Germany. The original Type 1 engine design specification was to be capable of transporting 2 adults and 3 children at 62mph, whilst using averaging no less than 39mpg. I am however not disagreeing with the low compression part. All of the aircooled engines that followed were simply variations on a theme that slowly produced greater levels of horsepower largely through increases in engine displacement.

Low compression engines may be more preferable for use as generators as low compression leads to longer life, lower heat output, lower cost of construction and greater reliability, at the cost of performance and efficiency. A higher compression engine  with the same parts will also have a tendency towards pre-ignition/engine 'knock"/"pinging" due to an undesirable burn pattern caused by excessive heat, this is often counteracted to a degree (pun intended) by changing the timing.

If you were using Aeroquip style blue/red fittings with stainless over-braided hose, then I am really surprised they leaked, the hose has around 20,000psi burst pressure and the fittings are rated for similar levels, I don't believe any of mine have ever leaked.

If however you were using standard oil hose with a stainless cosmetic sleeve that is held together with Jubilee clips, then sure, I have known these leak.

I mounted my Oil filter bracket up by the rear light on the left rear of the buggy, the thermostat and oil cooler sit above the gearbox mounted to the underside of the rear seat. The cooler also has a fan that is thermostatically operated, all connected together with -10AN Aeroquip hose and fittings.

The filter is a System One unit that can be dismantled and the filter cleaned with an air line, not cheap, but you never have to buy another oil filter again.

A plea for help....

I appreciate that it is getting a bit late, but does anyone in the Harrow/London area have a suitable tow car I could make use of to tow my buggy to the show on Sunday?

Attempting to hire a suitable vehicle is proving somewhat expensive @ £200+ and then provide your own insurance.

Ironically my next door neighbour has a Range Rover with a tow bar on his drive, however it is not currently taxed or insured!

I am happy to pay for fuel, entry fee, drinks, food, etc.

Please contact me via PM if you are able to help so as not to de-rail the thread.

Quote from: Buggybaggy on March 10, 2014, 07:17:18 PM
Great news. 
But why not drive it up?........it's not as far a Buxton

Because the chances of it actually passing an MOT between now and then are a little on the slim side - I am not even sure if I will have the engine running by then - I still have to cut holes in the fan shroud for the HT cables and find where I hid the regulator for the 911 fan if I want the engine to actually work.

If I A-Frame it up there, Tax, Insurance, MOT, etc are all things I don't need to worry about (it's a trailer officer) not that they would find it's real number plate on their computerised system anyway - it has been off the road for too long.

As a rough rule of thumb, you can use the current carrying capacities as used by electricians to determine the correct cable size for a given current requirement (this is then qualified by a few other factors such as voltage drop, grouping, insulation, etc to give a more accurate figure and potentially go up a size, but these figures will do as a guide).

1mm2 - 11A
1.5mm2 - 14.5A
2.5mm2 - 20A
4mm2 - 26A
6mm2 - 34A
10mm2 - 46A
16mm2 - 61A
25mm2 - 80A
35mm2 - 99A

This is for PVC coated cables, silicon coated cables can handle higher currents - as used in Radio controlled models.