Murphy is my Copilot

As the smooth voice says on TV, "Previously, our fearless Dirty Duck Racing team purchased a new (used) 2.0 liter motor and delivered it to the workshop for implanting into the Magic Rabbit."

Now we start the transformation of the 1995 2.0 liter engine into a hybrid. Not the kind of electric/gas hybrid of those annoying Prius cars! No, this is a hybrid of two motors, the 2.0 liter 1995 engine and the 1.8 liter 1983 engine. That's right, combine two motors that are 12 years apart. Amazingly it can be done, and rather easily. Thanks to the internet all the info to marry to two engines is laid out for us. Just goes to show you, 12 years of development of the VW motor from 1983 to 1995 and it is still basically the same! And used by VW and Audi's, the name of the game in automotive industry, design it, use it for ever and put it in every vehicle you can think of for as long as you can! All equals profits, but I am going astray here!

Back to the garage, 1995 2.0 liter block to marry up with 1991 1.8 liter head. So what goes in between, a head gasket. So, it obvious, you use a head gasket from a 1991 16 valve (we have 8 valves) motor! Again thank you internet and the VW forums that told us all these kind of details and more to come. With the 1995 block on the engine stand, the 1991 head gasket and the 1983 head from Car #3, we have the basic engine together!

The next step is to put on the peripheral parts, first is the aluminum oil pan taken off of our original race engine. Here is Paul, Nash and myself finishing up the oil pan installation. And yes, the engine is upside down. Everyone looks happy, well not sure about me! I think Murphy is lurking behind me somewhere.

We also purchased some parts to improve the handling of our Magic Rabbit. First to be installed are rear wheel camber plates or shims. These plates are tapered so that when you install them with the thick side at the bottom it will make the rear wheels splay outwards a little bit. And I mean little, 1/2 of a degree. Here is a picture of one shim plate being held by a mysterious black hand, must be The Stig! Love those red brake drums!

And here is a picture with the plate installed, thicker side at the bottom. Now when we drive the Magic Rabbit into the corner, our rear tires will have more rubber in contact with the road as the forces push the outside tires to roll in and offset that 1/2 degree of negative camber. Got it? The expected result is more contact, more grip, fast corner speed, faster exit speed, and higher straight away speeds. Wow, who knew that 1/2 degree would make us so fast!!

OK, it that is so good for the rear, lets do it on the front too! Great, so we also got new front camber adjustment bolts. The stock bolt will allow 1 1/2 degree negative camber and the new bolt will allow 3 degrees of negative camber! 100% increase, just imagine the amount of new speed this will create! And being an good engineer, I know that the front and back camber increases must be multiplicative, right! Here is the picture of the old and new camber bolts, new on the right. If nothing else, they are shiny and clean! That alone should make us faster.

OK, suspension modifications done. In the meantime, our most helpful Lemons competitor from Chim Chim Racing team, Powered by Bacon race VW Rabbit, Jeff Moss (who also lives in the Santa Cruz mountains) stopped by to offer up a used exhaust header for us to use on the new hybrid 2.0/1.8 motor. While he was there he had too comments, first our car is too clean (we like it that way, but may cause the BS Judges to think we have too good of stuff in this car). Second comment was, take that vent tray out of there you will have loads more room to work. Brilliant! Loved that idea, so pull out the angle grinder, put on a cutting wheel and lets destroy some stuff!! I love this kind of work. Look at these picture, how good is this! Sparks flying, hot metal ripping off, new found workspace!

This picture I am making the first cut to remove the vent tray. This tray in the street car kept the nice clean fresh air on the back side away from hot, smelly air from the motor on the front side. We are RACERS, we want to smell that hot, burnt, oily exhaust right in our face!! Get rid of that tray! OK, not really, we faithfully plug up every hole between the engine bay and drivers area just so that engine fumes and heat don't get to us. But it sounded good!

Photo op supreme, sparks coming right at you!! Photog Rye put himself in harms way to get this shot.

Can't get enough of sparks, it's like fire! Close up picture of final touch up of the cut metal edges so we don't slice open our hands against the ragged edge. Safety third.

The new power plant is ready to be installed, here is the motor on the engine hoist just as its being lifted off the floor into the engine bay.

Here I am guiding the engine up and into place on four engine mounts. Up very slowly to get it into place.

Couldn't be done without a professional lift operator. Look at that concentration, glasses down to the end of his nose, eyes riveted to every move! A deft touch of his right hand on the control rod and his left hand over the hydraulic ram so he can feel every movement! A true professional, atta-boy Paul.

Engine in place, OK now lets put in the exhaust header. Here is Rye about to install our 4 into 1 header, same header as used on out old motor. With a smile on his face, full of confidence, he slides the header onto the motor.

Now, check the blog title, Murphy is my Copilot, here is his first appearance. I knew he was lurking, now he strikes. The exhaust header doesn't fit. Hits the steering system. A little more technical poop. In order to increase the engine size from 1.8 to 2.0 liters the pistons travel higher and therefore the 2.0 liter block is taller by about 3/4". That is enough to cause the exhaust header to not clear. Murphy, strike 1.

Now take out the 4 into 1 header and lets try the old 4-2-1 header that Jeff Moss and his Powered by Bacon team brought us. We put that header on and it just fits, by 1/16". That 1/16" clearance improves to 3/8" when we press the engine up against the limits of the motor mounts. But now we don't have a transition piece of the exhaust from the 4-2-1 header to our existing tail pipe. But we figure we can handle that problem later.

After the engine is in the car I hook up all the electrical wires, fill with water and oil, hook up the fuel system. Oh yeah, I take the throttle body off of car #2, 1985 GTI, it is bigger and will give us more air and fuel, bigger bang! Get everything ready so we can start this bad boy up, get the wheels on and do some test laps around the Redwood Estates Grand Prix circuit!!

Another piece of the 2.0/1.8 hybrid puzzle is blocking off an opening in the 2.0 block that is no longer need in a race engine, something to do about emissions control and crankcase blow-by. We all figure this issue is over rated, so just block it off. Well, we didn't figure, the experts on the internet told us again what to do. Buy a nice shiny new billet aluminum plate from Techtonics Tunning, OK, bought, delivered to my door and installed in three days. I love on-line shopping. Here is that beauty installed.

Now, that is the end of our pictures. Again, I refer you back to the title. Murphy strikes again and things get very dark. Therefore no pictures!!

But first, one last little ray of brightness, first thing Saturday morning I drive down the hill into San Jose to Classic Muffle Shop to meet Andy. Andy is a one man muffler shop who I found on the internet with all 5 star Yelp ratings. I take the two headers and the transition pipe to Andy and he tells me in his broken Asian english, "No Probrum". And he was right! Bing, bang, boom, he cuts, welds and flares the pipes and makes a perfect solution to our exhaust transition. How much? $25, I leave with a smile, the world is great, the sun is shining. I tell Andy I will be back with any muffle work I every need, thanks. Back up the him and the sun starts to dim, I think I see Murphy hiding behind the redwood tree as I drive up.

It is Saturday, Paul and Rye are with me, everything is ready. The moment is near, we have everything ready for the first start. We decide to run the motor over without any spark plugs to give the oil pump and chance to prime everything with oil and get oil pressure up. So while we are turning the motor over we decide to also do a compression check. All set, cylinder #1, hit it. The starter motor spins (well not at first as we had and issue with a ground cable, not an issue just not attached...Murphy getting closer). OK try again, hit the start button, motor spins, pistons up and down, watch the compression guage, wait, wait for it, wait....WHAT, 20 psi? HOW CAN THAT BE??? 20 psi, I can blow more than that! Murphy has struck again, strike 2!!

And test for cylinder #2 only reads 60 psi, what has happened? Cylinders #3 and #4 are 150, normal.

In shock we all sit back and start questioning, how can this be. Paul starts, we bought a Lemon of a 2.0 liter engine from Lou! Nice start! Rye and I both hear something funny as we recheck the compression of 1 and 2. I say it is either the head or the gasket. So we have everything questioned, block, gasket and head. In other words, everything we have!

Our first attempt at solving is to take the head off, assuming there must be a break in the head gasket between #1 and #2 cylinders, obvious. Head off, gasket is perfect! Murphy just chuckles.

OK, Paul keeps hammering that the Livingston boys bought a Lemon of a block (well that is the name of this whole affair, so what's the problem?). We both say no way, Lou (the seller) even gave us a written 30 day warranty on the receipt. We argue it must be the head. Paul counters, "How can that be, you tested the head and had 135 psi in every cylinder?" True statement. The arguments and theories continue. We send Rye upstairs to locate a new head gasket, he finds one in stock at Kragen's. That is Kragen's on Story Road, the east side of San Jose, open until midnight. Gasket put in the on-hold basket for us. Oh great, east side San Jose at night, in the middle of a storm. That worst part of town, will have to keep the motor running and heaven's sake, don't make eye contact with ANYONE!! Murphy's grin is getting larger.

Rye has to leave to go to a party with Kristin in San Francisco, leaving Paul and I to continue pondering our problems. We take a break and figure a large dose of Seagram's gin and Johnny Walker scotch will solve the problem. We even call in the experts, Ted Blake is called into conference. Ted tells us, three things make compression, cylinders, gasket and valves. Same logic; if cylinders-bad motor from Lou, if gasket-trip to the bad lands of East San Jose required, if head-some how the compression readings were wrong when checking Car #3. The discussion goes round and round. Finally we agree (enough booze and we can agree on anything) on another test.

Lets take the head off of our Car #1 engine, we know that is good, albeit a little tired. Put that head on the 2.0 liter block, with the same gasket (ie, no way did we want to go to East San Jose at night!!) and see if we have compression. That will confirm if there is a problem with the Car#3 head. We agree and head to bed. Is that Murphy in the darkness?

Sunday, pull off Car #3 head, unbolt Car #1 head from old block and install on 2.0 liter block. After lightly torquing the head down to the block we do a slow turning of the engine with a ratchet handle and the compression testing in cylinder #1. As it turns we hold our breath, I can hear Murphy in my ear, but then he goes poof, as I feel compression against the handle. We have compression!! Test cylinder #2, its good too. Turn with the starter we get 120 to 130 psi in all four cylinders. Success!

So it turns out that somehow, yet to be determined, the intake valves on the Car #3 head went bad while waiting to be installed. Many, many theories exist, but who cares now. We have a working engine and Murphy is now gone from sight!

Everything back together, lets fire it up for real. OK, everyone clear, contact. Engine turns and turns and turns, a little sputter (or was that Murphy sputtering again?). Hmmm, check spark-good, check fuel supply-good, must be timing. So with a number of turns and Paul twisting the distributor, the prime mover finally fires!!!! Rough at first, another turn of distributor and things are running fine. And then........screeeeeeech.....the most annoying high, high pitched sound starts up. What is it, crankshaft bearing, camshaft bearing, idler pulley bearing...our minds race and Murphy is laughing out loud!! We fiddle and test, maybe the belts are squealing? Nope. It is so loud and annoying, seems to be coming from the throttle body, but what could possibly squeal in there. Keep looking, a hour latter (Murphy is yawning) we decide to take the throttle body off. Sure enough, some old gasket matter on the throttle body created a space so the new gasket was acting like a reed in a clarinet, only an extremely high pitched one! You learn a new one every time you do an engine. Old gasket gone along with Murphy again!

Fired up again, squeal is gone, everything sounds good and normal. Can you believe it!? Let it run, engine comes up to temp, fans come on, things work as expected! Horray, that deserves a toast. More gin and scotch and Paul and I toast our final success. Things look good again, a few more items to complete and we are ready.

The Dirty Duck Racing team members are now heading off in different directions. Rye and Kristin are with the boys and Kristin's family in Oregon for Thanksgiving. Paul and Nancy down to Carmel with their family. Son Ted is staying in Ketchum, ID to face the cold on Thanksgiving. Forecast is for below zero temps. Stay warm Tedders, keep those racing muscles loose! Nancy and her mom will be joining me at DDR headquarters for a quiet and restful Thanksgiving. I look forward to that.

Also, the entire team and our entire fan base is thinking of Darrell today as his planned surgery took place this morning. Hoping all is well and maybe we will see you at Buttonwillow to cheer us on. Get well Darrell and take care of yourself.

That's all for now. Excuse me if I rambled on too long, but it has been another fun adventure with Murphy as my copilot as we prepare the Magic Rabbit.

Getting Ready for the Next Race

It is now November. The SF Giants have won the World Series (now that was about as amazing as the Magic Rabbit finishing the first race!). Rye and I have experienced and survived Burning Man! Paul and Nancy have lounged on the beaches of Hawaii. Tedders is knocking them dead at Scott USA in Ketcham, ID, and Darrell is busy camping with his new camping friend. That is all behind us and now the Dirty Duck Racing team is gathering back together again to prepare for Arse-Freeze at Buttonwillow.

So much to do and so little time. First on our list of tasks was to get two new tires so that we have two spare tires in case we get a flat during the race. I ordered two tires, exactly the same as our current 4 racing tires. And Paul sand blasted and painted two "snowflake" rims. Below is the pic of our "sticker" tires for race day! They look fantastic!!

Just love the red background. I think Paul will have to paint all our rims red! Oh, for our fans, "sticker" tires means that the tires are so new they still have the paper stickers on them, not that they are sticky. Just brand new tires for race day. We will mount these two "stickers" on the front on race day, since we are a front wheel drive car. Have our newest tires in the front.

Next thing being addressed is our "prime mover", our engine. The engine currently in the race car is tired. When we raced at Thunderhill we all felt the engine max out, it would only go so far before running out of steam. That was perfect for our first time out, nobody got into too much trouble (Paul, you get a bye on your first bump, this time). The tired engine also kept us from stressing other parts of the car, besides the driver! But everyone agreed we needed more power. We want to PASS people!!

So our plan was the take the engine out of car#3. Oh yes, forgot to tell you. Right after our first race we got two more GTI's One for free and one for very little money, designated Car#2 and Car#3. That is what you get when an engineer (me) picks the names. Anyway, Car#3 is an identical to the race car (Car#1 by default). So planned to transplant the engine from #3 into the race car. Got the car into the garage and pulled the engine. Rye cleaned it up, ready for the swap. And then it happened!

Too much time cruising Craigslist. On Monday found a posting for 1985 Golf engine, transmission and front suspension. A few emails and determined that the engine is the desirable 2.0L ABA engine. This was in our long term plans, but the price was right. Gotta jump on it now. Rye met me yesterday and we drove into the Hayward Hills, very near Cal State Hayward campus (now called California State University East Bay, I liked the old name!) to find Lou Correa at his home. Lou does custom hot rods, primarily doing "chop" jobs on 50's sedans. So another car guy.

Once we find Lou's home, here is what we find in the dirt of his backyard:

Here is Lou pointing out the finer points of the "prime mover" that used to be in his daughter's 1995 Golf.
The history of how this engine, transmission and front suspension ends up sitting in the backyard is interesting. The 1995 Golf that it used to belong to had a mishap. Lou and his wife have a cabin in the Sierras, little town of Miwok, out of Sonora. Seems that his daughter's car had a sudden failure of it's parking brake, or maybe someone knocked it out of gear, the actual cause is unknown. The fact is the little Golf started rolling free down a steep hill outside the cabin, then left and road and found it way into a number of trees! No one hurt but the car was totalled.

The Golf was towed back to Hayward and Lou has parted the car out. This is all that was left. Car had 98,000 miles on it and Lou would give a 30 day warranty that the engine is fine. After Rye and I checked it out, we agreed the engine looks good and the price was very good. Now, Rye and I had to dismantle the assembly enough to free the engine from everything else. We didn't need or want the transmission or front suspension. About an hour later, here we are, engine is free. Thanks to Lou, I had some overalls to put over my work clothes. They even fit me! Here is a pic of the engine ready to load out, Lou saying his last goodbye to the "prime mover"!

OK, now we need receipt and transfer the cash. Receipt in my hand, cash in Lou's hand, handshake to seal the deal! 2.0L power plant is now ours.

Loaded up in Rye's trailer, ready to head back to Los Gatos. Spent last night taking all the bits and pieces off of the engine. In real fact, all we need is the engine block, the bottom part. Will use the head off of the race engine and all the other pieces from the current motor too! Supposed to increase horsepower up to 115hp. Our tired race engine was probably producing no more than 75-80hp.

Besides the engine, we are doing some mods to the suspension to get more negative camber, should help us in the corners. Also have a new tachometer I got on ebay which has memory and a shift light. Boy now we are talking real racing stuff!

There are rumors out there that our fan base is ballooning. We didn't think that we would have any fans at the Buttonwillow race on December 4 and 5, but the enormous talent of the Dirty Duck Racing Team and the spectacle of the Magic Rabbit apparently is drawing crowds from places like Carmel, Huntington Beach and Davis!! The DDR team welcomes our growing fan base and look forward to entertaining the Lufts and the Boltons in Buttonwillow. As the race name implies, it might be freezing, so bring your coats!

But don't fear, the Drivers Lounge, aka Bounder RV, will be there and available to all to escape the elements if needed. Yes its true, the Bounder broke down on the way back from Burning Man (failed water pump) but after being towed to Reno, all is fixed and ready to go!

Oh, and for the multitudes of our fans, the 2011 schedule has been published. Great news, two races at Infineon (always known to the team as Sears Point!), back again to Thunderhill and Buttonwillow, but also a race at Fernley, Nevada (one of Paul's favorite places). Go to the 24 Hours of Lemons website www.24hoursoflemons.com to see the schedule and the dates.

OK, that's it for today. More posts as our preparations for Arse-Freeze continue.