76er Swallowtail build

[Oneofthegreats]

I haven't been on here very much lately, but if you read on, you'll know why.

Well, I've finally got a little spare time to give some of you an update on some Nat's progress & just progress in general.

This car was for sale last year with no taker's for a virtually rust free 76 swallow tail. Then it was parted out & left as a bare rolling shell.

The build has taken me 6 full weekend's so far & one full week next week.

It's basically everything has been rebuilt, upgraded, customized to make the mk1 a nice everydayer again with some most of the part's from my crashed GTI.

Starting off making new fuel pipes for the K-Jet. These were an absolute pain in the arse to make one & then make a matching one. Also had some "AN" fitting welded onto the end's for some nice Earl's fitting's & braided hoses.









Had to remove the steering rack to fit them & also rebuilt, regreased & readjusted the rack while it was out.

Then onto the fitting the Mk2 16V booster & master cyl. & making some new brake line's which hug & hide the pipes. This took a fair while too, to match them all up.
I fitted the proportioning valve's under the front carpet & soundproofing to clean up the master cyl.
I also fitted an electric brake light switch on the brake pedal for a more reliable setup.









Then made up a nice engine wiring harness to hide as much of the wiring as I possibly could.



Removed the GTI oil cooler assembly & refitted the standard housing with my ever trusty Diesel oil filter. Worked for over 10 year's & never gave me a problem.
also diesel's have a finer filter element & can also hold over 1/2 litre more. With the increased surface area, it's act's like an oil cooler, but not as good.

[Oneofthegreats]

Refitted the engine & exhaust & made up a bunch of bracket's to fit the K-Jet gear eg. Fitted the accumulator in the correct spot.

Refitted the short shift gear linkage assembly & gear lever & also made a few mod's to make the shifter throw a fair bit shorter. It now take's roughly 4" to go from 1st - 2nd!

Managed to find an old Gates return style radiator cap which turn's your standard non expansion tank radiator into one with an expansion tank!



Refitted the front wiring harness after making a few improvement's to the headlight/high beam system & cleaning up the wiring that didn't need to be there.
Rerouted the wiper motor wiring inside the plenum chamber out of sight.
Made up new battery lead's too!

Converted the heater box assembly over to 79 spec as well as the steering column & pedal assembly.

Fitted up the a dash wiring harness out of my old beater 79 GLD & the dash, as it is in mint condition, along with some part's from another mk1 brother with another mother.
Swapped over all the door & hatch lock's to match the ignition.
Started on swapping over the interior, which still has to be finished off, along with the front bolt thru style 1/4 glass window's.



All the wiring is in & everything work's as it should "for a mk1"

Early dash car's take note: No dash sag. Why, It's the early style "clip in" heater box's which cause this to the dashboard. The clip's weaken under the dashboard's weight & sag's as it's the heater box that hold's up the middle section of the dash.
With the later "bolt in" style heater box's, the heater box can take the dashboard's weight & not sag.







All the brake's have been swapped over to GTI, with rear disc's, braided lines etc.
The KW V3's are also under there with the 28mm rear hollow sway bar. I'm not fitting the front bar, as it's too noisey on the street.
Also fitted up the front upper & lower stress bar's.

The fuel tank has been replaced with a internally rust free Diesel tank which is getting harder & harder to find. I tried repairing one I've got here with some tank sealer & it went pear shaped. I can safely say that I took to it with a 1.6L 8V head I had lying around. It's now flat!!

All the braided fuel hoses were fitted today, filled the tank with some 98 & it finally came back to life after being silent for 6 month! Very good to hear it again.

[Oneofthegreats]

Also tracked down the original 1976 number plates from new & had a new pair made up by Vic Roads.





I've got a bigger cam coming along with some new part's, which will be fitted as soon as I get it.

It's not finished yet & still has a bit off work & a few suprises to do before the Nat's.
After the Nat's it's going to friend to have some thing's tidied up. Also converting it to a nicely modded fully manualized auto with a stall to match the cam.
I'm starting on this once I get back.

This Mk1 may look good in the pic's, but it's now show car & it never will be. It has rust bubble's here & there with scratch's all over. It's 32 year's old & the make over is over 10 year's old. This also sat outside for most of it's life.

It's not perfect.

Just a clean everydayer with nice running gear.

[Oneofthegreats]

Well when I got home from work tonight, this was waiting for me in my room.

Ordered it last Thursday & it's here today. Not bad.





They even threw in a very nice catalogue.

TT = absolute legend's.

Will fit it this weekend & reset the CO% next week.

[Oneofthegreats]

110.7° Lobe centre.

It's not the LC that gives you your rough idle. LC give's you your power band.

A tighter the lobe centre ie. 106° the narrower the power band eg. 4200-7600rpm.
This type of cam will also have a huge amount of duration & will definately require alot of compression due to the increase on valve overlap.

A wider LC ie. 110° has less over lap & normally less duration & is commonly used in a production engine due to it's broad power band. eg. 2200-6000rpm

It's the overlap & duration @ .050" which give's you a cranky idle on a flat tappet cam.
Roller cam's are a little different. You can have a large advertised duration & because the lift acceleration rate is increased 10 fold due to having a roller, the cam can open quickly for much longer & thus the duration @ .050" is low.

There's alot more to it with cam's than just number's. But the number's give you an idea of when the inlet & exhaust are opening & closing in relation to the piston's postion & for how long.

[Oneofthegreats]

Well I fitted a pair of new front wheel bearing today & also had time to fit the cam.

Dialled it in, set the ignition timing & idle at approx. 950rpm. Just need to set the CO% next week.

I can safely say that 95% of you would be more than happy with how it idle's. It is fairly lumpy, which I like.

But I wouldn't mind some more lump for a streeter. I should have gone the 288!

Now the exhaust is holding it back, as the pressure wave at the tail pipe is pretty high!
I think a 2.5 full system is the order of the day, but not a priority.

I don't know about manifold vacuum yet, as I haven't measured it. I will probably do that tomorrow.

The Autotech 270 doesn't compare at all & isn't rough at all, in which they state.

Just to give you an idea, this is the largest hyd. cam you can fit to an unmodified cyl. head with .449" (11.4mm) lift which is exactly the same as the Autotech 270. The lifter bore to cam lobe clearance is less than 6 thou cold!

Once warmed up, the clearance is still fine.
If I had the head off, I would of clearanced this & fitted the largest hyd. TT make which is the 288 Advertised duration, .460"(11.64mm) Lift, 245°/244° @ .050", 110° Lobe Centers.

But Crane do one bigger again at 292° advertised, 12.19mm lift, with over 260° @ .050", which is too way too much for an every dayer.

I'll let you know how it goes once I'm driving it.

[Oneofthegreats]

Fair crack of the whip chief. Christ!!!

Cheer's for coming down too & dropping off the brake part's. I think you just wanted to see it's progress & hear it.

After you left, I turned the work whick up.

Almost there!!!!

Felt real good to sit behind the wheel again. It even felt funny.

RWC, Reg, CO% mixture tune & wheel alignment on Tuesday/Wednesday the latest.

[Oneofthegreats]

Well it's all RWC, Reg & drivable.

All the nice little surprises are on. You will be surprised.

Wheel alignment tomorrow morning, then onto the cleaning side of thing's & tidying up the little thing's.

Also had to drive it Hopper's Crossing today. Felt real good. Very nice power delivery & is way more revvier than the Autotech 270.
This will make power easily all the way from 3800 - 7000rpm.
It's also getting more & more lumpy. Should see the look's you get at traffic light's. It's actually starting to sound like a extend port 13B!

Also spotted a Grey Mk5 R32 on the way home.
Reg. believe it or not was R32R32!!!!!!!

[Oneofthegreats]

Well the car's all done.

Car's pressure cleaned underneath, wheel's are spotless & so is everything else.

All loaded up.

Just made it too!!!

Just finished painting the wiper arm's & refitting them 25 min's ago!!!!

Car look's very good. I actually like it more than the GTI!!! It really is that much better. Also the shell is tighter than the GTI. Must be Ozzie steel.

People were slowing down out the front to have a look at it.

[Oneofthegreats]

I was very pleased with the response the car recieved not only from the watercooled crew, but also from alot of passer's by who wanted a chat about it.

I got home just fine thanks Preen. It did blow a heater tap once I got home & also started to leak oil from the rear main & other places.

Pic's stolen from Dom.

Absolutely awesome pic's & I thank you very much for them.