Not dead yet! I'm in the process of making the final changes and upgrades before I call it done.
New exhaust: Much better routing for better flow. Required some air hammer "massage" in the passenger footwell area. You can't tell from inside the car but I pushed the bottom corner of the tunnel in about an inch or so over an area bigger than my hand.
Old exhaust: Two 90s and required a scallop in the pipe to clear the clutch fork. No bueno.
New butt: Higher. Tighter. Sexier. Tips won't scrape anymore. You can see the fatter tires and the result of higher rated springs in this pic too.
Old butt: Looked perfect with the bumper on but after ditching the bumpers it looked goofy as hell.
Up next: 225 wide Maxxis VR-1s and track seat install.
NOHOME
MegaDork
1/15/21 5:34 a.m.
Good to see that you have embraced the development side of this game. The car looks amazing.
Pete
In reply to NOHOME :
Originally, this summer was supposed to just be a shakedown looking for actual problems and I was not going to go any further with development. Well, there are just some things I cannot abide I guess.
Oh, and yes, I'll be putting on a track map decal for every track it goes to. I'm one of those people.
The other main changes I've made:
Made custom brackets for my track day seat. It's a Procar Sport and it's cheap, and it's a million times more supportive than the stock seat. I just welded on an extra seat belt buckle that I had so I can use the regular 3 point belts and when the seat is in my normal position the buckle is directly under the seat hole. The belt holes on the seat side are large enough to pass the buckle through so it sits on my body and not the seat. It all works well enough for my amateur driving abilities.
I made a new air dam out of some ABS plastic that was left over from the wheel well splash guards I made. Looks a ton better than the rubber wall kick guard it was before. You can also see that the chrome mustache trim is gone and I filled the holes with rubber plugs.
When I get a chance on a nice day I'll clean this dirty thing up and take more pics and vids.
I finally got a date set in late June for some dyno tuning! Other than that everything seems to be in order and functioning well. I ended up shortening the wiper arms and going up to 15" wiper blades and now I need to pull the springs tighter because there just isn't enough force to pull the blade against the glass for a good wipe. Still drive it almost every day, just as I intended when I started.
Hey, if your biggest issue is "need more spring force on the wiper arms" it sounds like this build came together really well. Cool to see this come back to the front page.
https://youtu.be/AyPs_rRj5Xc
Dyno time! Work was done by Jei at Blacktrax in Fremont, CA, the only guy who would tune it after 3 other HPTuners-using shops said no. Runs much better and overall driveability is much better. According to Jei it was being airflow limited to a repeatable 140hp/155tq thereabouts which is lower than it should be. It has an electrical gremlin somewhere that is allowing current to back-feed to the computer under certain circumstances and I believe that there is a mechanical issue with the exhaust cam timing as it set a code P0014 this morning. I'm going to replace the 125,000 mile cam phasers and VVT solenoids just because and see where it gets me. Projects never end...
Love this project, hope to see it in person at some point. Glad to hear its getting daily use
In reply to Shavarsh :
Thanks! Built it specifically to be my daily. If you're in the SF bay area or possibly one of the area race tracks hit me up!
The voltage back-feed issue turned out to be that I needed to add a diode in the HVAC circuits due to the way I had to add relay grounding through the AC button for the clutch and fan because they are not controlled by the computer any more. I fixed the timing issues by replacing the VVT solenoids and cam phasers. Has a bit more pep up top. I ballpark it at around 150HP/155TQ at the wheels and it can get into the 30's MPG while commuting. Not too bad for the restrictive exhaust I built. I'll take it as-is without any more tuning.
I think I'm going to call it quits on thread updates. The only thing left that I was thinking of doing was to add some detachable aero for track days. I may check in from time to time but if anyone has a question or something and would like a response or to see any future pics and such Instagram is probably the easiest @pauln321654.
Here's a quick walkaround video I put together. Thank you all for your interest! It's been a blast but it's time to move on to the next project, whatever the hell that will be...
https://youtu.be/KrU7LaqfONw
In reply to Joe_Mama :
Man this car came out great! I bet it makes a lot of people scratch their heads without the VW badges.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
I only left the hood badge on, that's it. I have 2 types of people who randomly come up to me at the gas station or wherever asking about it; age 55+ guys who mostly know all about old VWs but still aren't sure what year/model it is, and guys who are just like "Cool old car! What is it?". Unfortunately there never seems to be any panty wetting, women just say something like "It's cute.".
NOHOME
MegaDork
7/27/21 6:28 a.m.
In reply to Joe_Mama :
Before you hang up. I would like to know more about the diode need in the AC circuit. Is this just across the relay to prevent the feedback when the relay activates? Any insight would be welcome as I will face the same issue if and when I get around to installing the AC on the Molvo.
Pete
In reply to NOHOME :
The only reason this is happening to begin with is because the ECU is no longer controlling the condenser fan or AC clutch so I ran the ground for those through the blower switch via the AC switch. I haven't actually installed the diode yet but I know that the clutch control/main AC circuit that runs through the pressure/temp switches is allowing the backfeed only if you have the AC and blower going, turn off the blower switch but leave the AC button on, then turn off the ignition. Basically what I believe is happening is that the clutch relay is fed just enough power from the "ac amplifier" attached to the evaporator sensor to activate, and the blower circuit is allowing a reduced voltage from the B+ fuses to feed back to the key-on fuses and cause some weird behavior with the key off. If I put the diode in the circuit, probably near the pressure sensor in the engine compartment because it's easy, it'll stop the issue. If I had realized that this would be a problem earlier I would have put the diode where I tied the grounds for the clutch and fan relays into the AC switch. There may be a better way to wire it to begin with but I don't feel like rewiring anything at the moment.
You did a job well done with this build, soon your hard work will pay off.
In reply to buenavides1 :
Thanks!
