This is what you get.

If I have to drill out your gas cap key core. A faucet knob adds about 30 hp to a carbed cbr!

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New Torque Package For the Flute

Valve cover with cam tower hold downs and a 15 tooth sprocket. I was originally running 18/48 (2.66:1) so a 15/48 (3.2:1) will put me way up in the rpms for typical road speeds. A good torquer off the line.

5th gear @ 65mph = ~5k rpm. 

Downshift to 4th and it jumps right into the stout portion of the power band.

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Engine Swap Is Complete!!!!!!!

Its alive!!!!! Again!

Rock Flute now has a 90 hp heart that can rev to the moon.... after some tuning.

I tightened up the head bolts a bit, set the tappet clearance, adjusted the cam chain, swapped all the covers, and also found out that my cam tower bolts are pulling out! jeeeze!

Thankfully John has a valve cover that has cam tower hold downs installed. this was an old trick for monstrous cams of the early 70s that added bungs to the valve cover and used bolts to press down onto the cam towers. Few cams if any really need this because lift doesn't help these engines much. As long as the ramp on the cam isn't incredibly dramatic, the forces on the towers aren't really increased that much from an stock. The heavy duty valve springs do however add force.  I think the threads on my cam tower bolt holes were stripped a bit already... Its not too bad, but I can't get the torque applied to a few.

A wee bit more work and Ill take it for a spin.

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Dune buggy progress

... A lot

rear subframe with adjustable kafer bar

rear access hatch and electrical supports

1992 camaro steering column shortened installed and a variable length intermediate shaft was made up of various junkyard items

the dash molding has begun and includes an angled gauge pod

the hood is finished and clearanced for the fuel tank.

headlights are mounted through the hood so they tilt out of the way

wheel adapters are finished

audi rear middle two point seat belts will be used all around. I've had a tough time junk diving for these things since they're only in 96-01 Audis and there's only one per car. they are very compact and simple to mount. auto locking when retracted.

I have also purchased some summit racing sport seats (which all need mods to not damage themselves and work properly) and rostra heaters instead of fighting with the nasty fiberglass buckets that came with the car. a nice sale on the seats made the decision a lot easier. the seats however seem to be get what you pay for. The lever that tilts the seat forward for rear seat access doesn't work because the cable is too loose and the scree that holds the cable onto the hook tears the seat when used. I found this out and had to call and get another set delivered. they were the same way but not damaged yet. I immediately flipped the screw to the other side and shortened the cable for the lever. They're nice seats for the price but you have to be willing to do some work I guess.

I wish I would have been aware of the very forward position of the shifter prior to painting up the chassis. its a long reach and at this pointing just going to angle the stick back a bit. I hate doing it that way but later on I might cut the tunnel and move the shifter back 4-6 inches.

I have learned along the way that pretty much nothing can be based on the fiberglass body because its not at all symmetric and most likely  warped from sitting over the years. its going to take some love to get it all settled right with the frame.

I have started pulling wire and getting everything ready for finishing. the engine is installed and the rear suspension all buttoned up.

Since im using a single carb setup with long runners, I have to do something about carb freezing. VW had heat risers from the exhaust, but I wanted to try setting different. Ill toss up a separate post about this.

When installing the engine I found out that it had never met this transmission before, because the flywheel is for a 12 volt and the transmission is out of a 6 volt. The 12 volt bellhousing had a little more clearance for a larger flywheel so I had to grind away at a few spots to make everything fit. Very easy mod.

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Engine Swapping

Firstly, it feels great to get back to bikes. Its been a while working on the car and I miss the simplicity of the two wheeled genre.

Im working on adding 30 hp to Rock Flute by transplanting the engine from Bat Vagina (the long bike).  Ever since I put the flute together I've wanted my hotrod engine in it and I plan on getting it finished for the 2012 WHCM.  At last years meet I had just gotten the bike on the road and the clutch was nearly gone.  I wasn't able to push the bike at all through the twisties down there. at the end of the meet I could barely take off from a full stop. 

This year with 50% more power and a strong clutch, this bike will be a blast. 

I was going to repaint the engine aluminum but I think it might look nice with the black and polished fins.

Overall a pretty straight forward swap with a pile of tuning.

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T-minus 24 Hours

Here we are Saturday morning after some sleep.  It's coming together well enough, but until I manage to start and ride it I won't know if I rebuilt the trans correctly.

Last Minute Prep

It'll be a year since the vw bike ran this Sunday.  It's also a big brit/euro bike show near my house.  If I can't ride it there I fail completely.  Here she is at 8:06 pm Friday night.  Gonna be a long weekend...