Project car T34 Karmann Ghia a.k.a Rustbucket

[80 Vert]

I had these big plans to do all this work on this thing over the holidays but none of it has really come to much, one thing though is that having it on the hoist has made life a 1000x easier.
Anyway a few bits and pieces here and there gets me a little further ahead at least, started on a scoop of some sort today to direct some air in to the intercooler under the car. Making the pieces from cardboard which I'll then trace on to aluminium.

Also couldn't resist taking the front end apart again to re index the torsion bars for another 20mm drop but unfortunately that meant the front was sitting on the bump stops so I took them off and cut them down giving me some travel back.
Annoyingly the fuel gauge didn't work so that wasted another 1/2 day, found the sender to be faulty....
the great thing about this old junk is that you can actually take stuff apart and repair it, as was the case with the sender.
Corrosion between the housing and copper element stopped it working however upon testing it the gauge would either read nothing or completely full.
Bit more fault finding done a bad ground on the back of the gauge was problem 2, now have the 6V gauge working on 12V lets see how long that lasts.

[80 Vert]

Been a while since the last update and have had my fair share of issues to deal with, once all of the items I wanted to do over the holidays were completed the time came to actually drive it and considering its running a stock standard 1.8T ecu it actually runs and drives really well.
I was really surprised how well it drives and feels, not a lot of noise and seems pretty effortless. I don't think I'm making any boost for some reason but that's not a bad thing while the engine is bedding in.
A couple of trips down a very quiet road near work all seemed fine..................until the 3 mile mark..............a huge cloud of smoke coming back to work.
Cut a long story short it blew a hose clean off the oil cooler loosing around 5L of oil in an instant, oil over absolutely everything underneath. I've never had such an epic mess to clean up.
5 hours on the hoist degreasing and washing everything down, amazing where oil goes when sprayed under pressure!!
But why?
Fundamental mistake on my part, running an external filter and oil cooler both of these see unregulated oil pressure direct from the pump meaning it could be as high as 300psi pressure maybe more.
Normally you fit a pump cover with a relief valve but being a type 3 engine I don't have room, after looking at other options I settled on a Jaycee oil filter mount with a bypass valve built in which has a hose back to the sump.
Above 80psi it will send oil back to the sump doing the same job as the pump cover.
Very lucky that I'm running a deep sump as otherwise I think the engine would have been toast, with this deep sump I'm running more than double the original oil capacity.

Few weeks of waiting for parts to arrive yesterday I pulled the sump to drill and tap for the return line, changed the rubber hoses to the cooler for ss braided ones (probably not necessary but I'm not taking any more chances)
Ran the new hoses and buttoned everything up, primed oil pressure and all seems fine so far.
Hopefully this is it for a while and can now just concentrate on tuning the thing, this has by far been the most stubborn car ever as it seems it just doesn't want to be finished.

[badhabit]

"I was really surprised how well it drives and feels, not a lot of noise and seems pretty effortless."

that's just how a type 3 drives john! I've been telling people for years!  

[the phantom]

[wilco]

Looks like it's stuck...

[gti vr6]

Looks like it's stuck...

air cooled v-dubs don't get stuck that easily.

[80 Vert]

Realised I never updated the oil pressure situation, after ordering a new filter mount with a built in pressure relief valve which has a line plumbed back to the sump seems to have worked wonders for the old girl.
Also had new braided oil lines made to the oil cooler so those should be trouble free as well from now on, started out driving very short distances around work gradually venturing a bit further, I have a whopping 52km on it now still on the stock 1.8T map which runs good enough.
I have reached a decision on tuning though which is going to be Eurodyne and that will happen over the next few months.
There's no major panic as it starts and runs good enough to break the motor in, seems to make some boost and gets along pretty well.
Fan on the oil cooler used to come on pretty quick but even that seems to have sorted itself out and by all accounts the motor temps seem fine as such but the proof will be longer trips I guess.
Only a few months to tune before winter at which time I'll pull all the glass and start putting right some of the stuff annoying me.

[the phantom]

looking sweet

[Fizz]

mmm... so nice 

[virus-zn]

That pic does not do this car justice... the attention to detail and craftsmanship, especially in the engine bay is phenomenal...
 

[badhabit]

i think you need to borrow my 1200 beetle "race car" HA! and i think you'd go WOW my ghia is quick!?!
you've been driving to many modern cars! 

[coons]

First time on here in a while. Car looks epic John - nice one