Watercoold Pics...

Jeff20B · Post by **Jeff20B** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 6:03 pm

Please take some more pics and put them on your webpage so others can see them as well.

That's good to know that the air will flow towards the engine. Now I can concentrate on the rest of it. Thanks!

VWDragon · Post by **VWDragon** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 9:05 pm

I'll do that (hopefully) tomorrow. If not, I'll let you know as soon as I get them on there.

VWDragon · Post by **VWDragon** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 2:17 pm

Got some pics up of the radiator and the redneck air scoop. Hope this will help.
http://www.geocities.com/vwdragon/radiator

Jeff20B · Post by **Jeff20B** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 12:41 am

Oh man, you've made my day! Thank you very much!

From those pics, I can see that you mounted the rad with 90º angle iron pieces of mild steel and bolted it to your bumper/pushbar. I'm going to see if my filler cap is going to fit (it'll be right under the rear window).

Thanks again!

[This message has been edited by Jeff20B (edited 10-22-2002).]

VWDragon · Post by **VWDragon** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 8:53 am

With the filler cap under the rear window, you really won't have to worry about someone messing with it. I get up every morning and make sure there's no "floaties" in mine.

Some of the kids in our neighborhood have idle hands..........

Jeff20B · Post by **Jeff20B** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 7:44 pm

I'd personally be worried about somebody crossing my spark plug wires, but on a rotary, it's almost foolproof to put them back. Especially the way I'm going to do my ignition. Check out my webpage and click the ignition link to see what I'm talking about.

So I removed my 1600 today. It sent a rod or something through the top of the case. It touched the bottom of my Weber progressive manifold but didn't damage it. I got the car with a bad rod which had already hit the top of the case and lifted up a section of it, but the engine still ran on three cylinders (vibrated violenty). I started it up again and WHACK! the engine locked up. Oh well. Even before it locked up it only had one salvageable head. Guess what? The previous owner didn't use any lock washers in the air filter and one of the bolts went down the carb. That's what originally damamged the head and compacted the piston which broke the rod (or something). The previous owner didn't use any common sense when he built this car. It's really sad that so many people are mediocer (sp?). Anyway, the engine was a fresh rebuild only a year or two old and has a KEP stage 1 pressure plate and decently worn DK 200mm disc! That means less stuff to buy when I put another engine in it. That made me feel better!

Ok, I found some 90º mild steel that I might be able to use on the radiator. I also figured out why my pushbar was not going back on its reciever tubes (a little tweaked from bajaing I suppose). I also need to get lots of hardware to redo all the damaged bolts which never had any nylock or lock washers on 'em.

Heh, got a little carried away there. I guess I'm just glad it already had a Kennedy pressure plate!

VWDragon · Post by **VWDragon** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 10:00 pm

Hope you got my email......Had to do some tracking and hunting to get it (your webpage). Hopefully those will give you some other ideas. The one that was mounted on the very back, I personally don't think is a good idea in a baja that's going to go offroad. Mud, muck, and everything else willcome off the top of the car and straight into the radiator and it would be pulling some of the heat from the motor into it also. The other one would take some fab work, but could be done....And that one was on a rotary engine also. I've seen them mounted just about every way possible, from on top of the roof to put in place of the rear package area (talk about heating the cab up). If the radiator has a metal from that is tac welded on, be sure and fab some metal tabs (or something) that will hold it just in case the tac welds break loose.

Sorry Jeff, didn't know I sent you one of your own pics.

Guess I should pay more attention next time.

[This message has been edited by VWDragon (edited 10-22-2002).]

Jeff20B · Post by **Jeff20B** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 11:22 pm

I didn't get the email. Could you send it again?

VWDragon · Post by **VWDragon** » Wed Oct 23, 2002 6:23 am

How2 about I put the one pic on the radiator page of my website? It'll be at the bottom of the page in the right hand corner.

Jeff20B · Post by **Jeff20B** » Wed Oct 23, 2002 7:49 am

Is that how your car used to be? With the radiator in the back? It looks like it was up and out of the way. Did it get hit by rocks and sticks?

VWDragon · Post by **VWDragon** » Wed Oct 23, 2002 8:07 am

Not mine, but all we have around here is rocks, trees, and mud. All of which would not make for good airflow. Don't know where I got that pic at, and if I find it again (the page)I'll get you the link to it.

Jeff20B · Post by **Jeff20B** » Wed Oct 23, 2002 9:08 pm

That would be cool. I fixed the trans strap today. I think it'll be strong enough to hold an extra 40LBS of rotary engine now. Is it really 40? Anyway, I was going to bolt a rotary front cover mount to the two lower pushbar tubes for extra strength. It won't be much as they're small tubes, but more mounting points are better than less.

VWDragon · Post by **VWDragon** » Thu Oct 24, 2002 11:26 pm

More mounting points give you more options on where to mount stuff. If it just weighs 40 punds more, you really don't need a trans strap.....That rabbit that's in mine weighs quite a bit more and I never used a strap. Don't much care for solid mounts now that I have them on...Too much vibrations through the car that I'm not used to.

zenjoe · Post by **zenjoe** » Fri Oct 25, 2002 7:18 am

Jeff20B

Is your car a sadan or a baja? I have a sedan and to make everything solid enough for drag launches, I put in a berg solid intermediate mount (no front mount),solid rear tranny mount, and placed a traction bar on the motor (where the original motor mount was) Before I put the traction bar on, I had major wheel hop problems, now I have tire burning problems!!! All wheel hop is gone. By the way, I have a swing axle car, my buddies irs car has not wheel hop problems without a traction bar.

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For info on stuffing a Mazda Rotary engine in a bug, go to http://www.geocities.com/zenjoe/vw.html

Jeff20B · Post by **Jeff20B** » Sat Oct 26, 2002 12:52 am

A rotary has virtually no vibrations and my friend's rotary baja has solid mounts and doesn't vibrate at all. Sure you can feel the engine running when you touch the roll cage, but it's just like running a brand new hand drill without a load on it (slight vibes, but nothing like a piston engine). The only vibrations his car has are when it's rolling down the street on 32" knobby tires.

I'm hoping I can use the front cover mount for the exhaust too because a rotary needs a little more muffling and it's the best place for a mount because simply mounting it directly to the pushbar probably won't work out too well. But then again, I may just use the pushbar as a muffler mount. It depends on how heavy it is when welded together.

It's a '69 baja. It looks like the car had a decent amount of money spent on it. It was set up pretty well. Not as good as I would have liked it to be, but it should be ok for a beginner like me. My thought is if I break something, I'll just rebuild it stronger next time.

My trans has one of those aftermarket straps that goes around the bellhousing. It was rubbing metal to metal so I added some small pieces of radaitor hose. They squished down really well and ought to last a while. I also replaced several bolts and added lock washers to prevent them vibrating loose.

A link to some pics of my baja: http://www.geocities.com/cd23c/cars.html#mbaja

I could go ahead and take some pics of the rear today if you'd like. It'll take a while to put them on my webpage though, because it's a 35mm film camera. Any requests?