Tom's UVA fugitive, Tom runs a 14s quarter mile :)

[johnthesparky]

Was about to go to work one morning and had a strong smell of petrol,
Checked the Fug and it was dripping from hose between the tank and the pump





As soon as I touched it, it got worse . So had to fix that, then spent the rest of the day smelling of super unleaded!

Plan was to swap all the fuel lines to Teflon lined lines anyway over the winter as it spends quite a while sitting. But these lines are only a couple of years old, so thought they’d last a bit longer than that


Swapped the slot mags back onto the Fug, and welded up the mudguard stay that was our only issue at the Gathering, no photos so you’ll just have to trust me

Then took the Fug to Classic Stony on Sunday, also forgot to take a photo! But found someone else had

[zeberdee]

Have you found a good supplier for the teflon fuel hose ?

I need to re do all mine when I finally get it put back together .

[johnthesparky]

Aug 30, 2021 20:35:40 GMT zeberdee said:

Have you found a good supplier for the teflon fuel hose ?

I need to re do all mine when I finally get it put back together .

Spoke to Earls a while back, we only need 5 bits of hose;

Tank to pump (about 8”)
Pump to filter (about 6”)
Filter to a Tee piece (about 12”)
And from the Tee to each carb (maybe 24” each)

So not a lot of hose, but it’s going to be expensive from them! So will probably look around. There is Goodrich stuff on eBay so maybe that (?)

[mk2cossie]

Is the Cohline stuff from Merlin Motorsport any good?
Thats meant to be safe for ethanol, and isn't huge money

[zeberdee]

I’m a way off needing it , but it’s something i’ll need too look into .

I’d rather use something that’s recommended by someone that’s used it as it could end up a costly mistake , in more ways than one , if I choose the wrong stuff .

[turbogeek]

Aug 30, 2021 21:01:36 GMT mk2cossie said:

Is the Cohline stuff from Merlin Motorsport any good?
Thats meant to be safe for ethanol, and isn't huge money

The Cohline 2240 certainly seems it - I've used it on a couple of fuel injected vehicles (car and bike) with no issues after a few years. Car being used daily, bike quite sporadically.

[mungo]

I used this on my bus:
www.advancedfluidsolutions.co.uk/32mm-id-18-100-bio-fuel-hose-diesel--petrol-22400209-2012-p.asp
expensive but reassuring.

[jamesd1972]

Aug 30, 2021 21:01:36 GMT mk2cossie said:

Is the Cohline stuff from Merlin Motorsport any good?
Thats meant to be safe for ethanol, and isn't huge money

That’s what we have used on the LR with the screw and bolt slide type clamps (not jubilees) and all fine so far. Some bits are 6 years in service some more recently swapped.

Like Merlin a lot as you know it’s genuine and prices competitive.

James

[johnthesparky]

Not a lot happening with the Fug, we’ve been busy with the Corsa (which I’ll update elsewhere) and parting out a Lupo Sport.

The sport has been picked clean now



So we’ve stashed a load of bits and also put the Fug away for the winter



Which meant that the drive was nearly clear again….. I’ve been keeping a look out for a cheap lupo, as a weird compromise between a beetle (that Tom would like) and something new and incredibly safe (which Lucy would prefer) And this popped up….. unfortunately I’ve got a hankering for an oak green mk2 golf. But I keep watching them (along with many other cars) slowly disappearing into the fiscal sunset.
You may notice this isn’t an oak green Mk2 but if you squint and get offered one of these at a cheap enough price it’s almost the same









It’s a ‘99 1.4s, so it’s a 16v 75hp one. And from other peoples research we found out that it’s actually cheaper to insure than a 1ltr (I guess because all the youngsters went for the 1ltrs, and these were driven by giffers or something) it’s pretty straight, isn’t too rusty (there is some bubbling in the roof channels that needs looking at), came with a fairly big stack of old paperwork and had the cats fitted! This is important because if it is a dog then the cats will weigh in for more than I paid… so if Tom doesn’t keep his head down, it’ll go over the bridge


Plan for next year, as long as Tom works hard towards his GCSEs is to sort him an MSA licence once he’s 16, and then he can do some drag racing. Santa Pod is only 30 miles away so pretty accessible. Because of the issues with the Fug and the tubing etc, he’s not going to be able to use that, wouldn’t be a problem if it had a roof and windows etc… so since this does we’ll play with this for a bit instead.

There’s a few things that need doing, the exhaust is blowing, so it’ll probably get a cheap eBay system put on. last MOT the brakes were an advisory, but there’s an invoice for new discs and pads the year before, so it might just need using a bit. Mot runs out in November so I may sort the exhaust and get an MOT, or possibly just park it up and sort it after Tom’s GCSEs

But critically it came with about half a tank of fuel, so today we used it to go to the National Finals at the Pod, here is it’s almost first fill up shot, except… no fuel!



I appreciate it’s not really retro, it’s pre 2000 so I guess it’s fine, but though it’s 6 months older than the Corsa, the Corsa is an older design getting towards the end of its production run whereas this was a fresh and new design in the late 90s



But I’ll update anything we do on here and see where it goes

[johnthesparky]

Not a lot has happened to the Fug since September last year!

Not got it out of the shed because GCSEs, but Tom has prom at the end of June and I’m taking it to Santa Pod for Drag Days on 10th, so we dug it out at the weekend, pumped the tyres up and checked it over in readiness for an MOT today… which it passed



Of course that’s why it rained, but managed to get there and back without getting too wet, and stroppy carbs and all terrains always make you smile!

Did have some plans for drag days, was going to change a few bits and try and run a 13, but it’s been dropped from a 2 day event to a single day so just going to take it along and have some fun, because even though it’s now a single day it’s still racing

[grizz]

Excellent.


Well done on the MOT.


Green Goblin looks brilliant, and Iove the seats

[DarrenW]

See you (and it) there!

[Mercdan68]

Great news on the mot
And was good to see Tom his pal and you at RR weekender
Always good to have a chat👍

[johnthesparky]

Took the Fug to Santa Pod for drag day,

Got a first run in and think one of the floats stuck, it ran ok down the strip but didn’t run cleanly as I shut off at the gantry.

Nursed it back to the pits and fuel was pouring out from the n/s carb.
Disconnected the fuel pipe and stripped it down to investigate, there was a bit of detritus inside the float chamber and a jet seemed blocked so it got a ghetto rebuild and ran again, Steve (with the blue baja) was driving and it wasn’t happy… this time as it was running out of fuel. So put some fuel in and it ran ok for him

Bit later on I lined it up against Tom in Harold and got a run in (I won! But that’s not really a surprise)

We did discuss Tom having a go, and nothing to stop him, but he’s racing in a few weeks in Harold so decided to concentrate on driving the Lupo for now, the plan is to book a RWYB after the end of season and we can all go up and play.

















Didn’t occur to us at the time but after chatting afterwards realised we should have checked for fuel in the oil. Checked the oil after and it’s contaminated
So got a new filter and some beetlejuice oil from classic oils at Bicester Heritage and will change that this weekend.
It’s only driven a couple of miles since the fuel problem, so hopefully it’ll be fine..

[grizz]

Loving it.

[427za]

It did show how well your carb butterflies are sealing, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much fuel sitting on them like that before!

It was a good day even with the strong headwind slowing everyone but, my god, that was some serious pod-face when I got home!!

[johnthesparky]

Since last post we’ve done some things,

Tom went to his Prom in the Fug, typically it decided to rain just about the time we left. But he was happy anyway

We went to a local beer festival/car show with some other local VWDRC friends. The aircooled were a caged ‘65 samba with type 4 motor, a 1776 baja and the Fug



We’ve been having a clear out. We sold the 1300 we built right at the start of this thread, lots of memories attached to that engine but sitting in a shed isn’t doing it any good, and it gives us some funds for other stuff



Sold the ICTs seperately, and refitted the solex and got it running on the stand and it sold within the week.

We then bought some bits for the Fug. Carb rebuild kits and some new filters.





Steve with the baja rebuilt the carbs for us, and we also fitted next size up main jets (went up to 165s)

Reason for rejetting was because we fitted an old janky merged system and stinger to see if we could get a bit more power from it.

It made 100hp on the dyno, but went flat at 5k, the system we had fitted is lovely and absolutely fine on the road but always had a suspicion that was the reason it ran out of puff

To fit the stinger we had to cut some of the engine cradle about, but we got it on





We also swapped the dizzy from the 009 to a pertronix billet one at the same time too. The 009 sometimes has a bit of hesitancy when accelerating hard, it’s well documented as one of the downsides of them. The pertronix is also a centrifugal advance unit but can be adjusted with different springs on the bob weights. So is now set so we have full advance by about 3k

We then set it up, we had an air leak as there was no gasket at the merge but it did give us some good pops and flames







We took it up the road and it felt stronger and more urgent, so we were happy… plan was to run it at VW Action

[johnthesparky]

So VW Action came around, and with a bit of running around we took Toms Lupo over on Thursday evening, and then a-framed the Fug over to Santa Pod on the Friday

Got set up ready for RWYB on Saturday morning



I ran the Fug down into the pairing lanes on Saturday morning, did a burnout, pulled into stage and as the lights changed it bogged and cut out, so I was pushed back



Pushed it back to the pits, luckily it’s pretty light, but some idiot fitted a stinger which is a pain when you try to push it
Found out the fuel pump wasn’t running, checked and the pump was fine so it was wiring.
Bodged the wiring using a lighting feed and took it back down again.. this time it cut out whilst waiting to burnout. Pump was running but in the excitement had been connected the wrong way round swapped it round and it blew a fuse
So again it left via the gate of shame



Pushed it back again and decided having done all this work, I was definately getting a run in!
One of the problems is, that over the years we’ve modified the wiring for LED lights, and had to fit extra relays. Also fitted the wireless switches on the wheel… so the wiring is a bit of a muddle, it was on the list of things that need sorting, but whilst it worked wasn’t that high!

So easiest way to fix it was to strip it back to the essentials, so I needed an ignition feed to the fuel pump, another for the coil and a wire from neg coil for the rev counter, and a starter motor switched feed
Pulled a load of wiring out, got it running and reconnected the monster tach I’d also fitted



At which point the monster tach seemed to thing it was for a 2 cylinder.
We think the pertronix is causing it issues..

But I took it out and drove it blind..

And ran a 14.15

[img src="https://img.retro-rides.org/i/v/johnthesparky/



Came back and pulled the belt, went out again and ran a 13.7. Really happy with that.
Previous best was a 14.2 without the belt, so these mods have gained us 1/2 a second!

[johnthesparky]

The monster tach was over reading revs, we think the pertronix gives multiple sparks which confuse the tach, checked the calibration (that the blue and brown wires were cut/not cut) and we were over reading instead of under reading. The quick fix was to wind the shift light point up to 10k as it’s a 10k tach, but this is still no good as it’s still making power beyond the shift light

Steve went out next for a run, but when the light came on, he did what he’s been doing all season in the baja and shifted and so got into 4th on his run, so ran a 14.58

He ran against Tom in the lupo





Myself and Steve had only signed on for racing on the Saturday, and it was nearly time for the track to close, so with having to let it cool he didn’t get another chance.

So we parked it up, refitted the belt and left it.

[johnthesparky]

Over night I realised I could reconnect the acewell Speedo and set as a tacho (instead of speed as we had it configured) which would at least give a bit of a clue

So did that early, and then when the lanes opened it was Toms turn!





We’ve been building this for a bit over 6 years and other than pootling around a farmyard or track he’s not actual experienced it from the driving seat. He knows its quick as he’s sat next to me, but it’s a different experience actually driving, and it’s totally different to the lupo!











Tom did 5 runs, and we agreed if he’d been close then we’d pull the belt off. But his best run was a 14.56 and leaving the belt on gave much better cooling, so he could get more runs

It’s hard to get a good run, it tends to either bog if you don’t put enough revs in or it’ll just spin through 1st. So for is first time driving it he did really well













No apology for lots of similar looking photos, he’s waited long enough to do this

And the conclusion is he loves driving it like this, which is a real shame, as so do I… and we’ve only built one