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I almost fell to the temptation of getting out the sawsall at 3 am Sunday morning while tired and frustrated. I made myself stop and go to bed, a very smart decision. After more looking at what is hitting today I was able to trim away a portion of the inner hood and then get the hood to close with a slight bulge of the hood that could someday be a trend to allow more cooling air in and be a sign to those who know that underneath lurks a monster 2.8L type 4 engine LOL. Kidding aside, It was a relief to discover that I will be able to get this long awaited engine running so I can drive this little beast soon. I hope to have the car on the road by weeks end. I need to tidy the wiring up and get the engine compartment sealed separating the top side from the bottom which as we know is so important to keep our air cooled engines running cool. I also want to get the oil pressure , oil temp and head temp gauges hooked up. I am currently waiting for a new electronic distributor to arrive. The one on the engine now is an old points distributor. The new distributor should arrive no later than Wednesday. I went to buy a Pertronix kit but was told they are out of stock and back ordered with a 3-4 week min. lead time. They did have the complete Pertronix Flame thrower dist. in stock so I bought that.

Type 4 2.8 L monster engine installedl 1Type 4 2.8 L monster engine installedl hood bulge 1

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I appreciate your concerns but I am going to risk the cracking. I feel it is an acceptable risk to take all things considered. Fiberglass can be repaired and this is far from being a show car. I may have been able to alleviate the bowing by placing spacers under the hinge bases but unfortunately the bases appear to be permanently attached to the Fiberglass. I am going to run it as is to get the engine tested and tuned. On the good side the engine is rigidly mounted and won't be rocking or moving exacerbating the cracking threat. I did need to cut away a portion of the inside lip of the hood opening to make clearance for the top of the oil cooler. I saved the pc. that was cut out for future option of replace and fiberglass repair.

Thanks to all for their interest and encouragement on this journey. It has been fun. I really hope this thing runs like I think it will. If so, it will be a ton of fun. I should have a test drive tomorrow or Thursday. I will keep you all posted.

I hadn't mentioned the update kits that I had installed on the 44 Weber carbs. We were on the fence about moving up to 48 IDF carbs and decided to use the CB Performance Update kit on the 44 Weber carbs I have. The kits remove the auxiliary and main venturi with one larger (38mm) venturi and add a special horizontal spray bar. This allows more air and fuel to flow through the carbs without losing drivability. The kits had been out of stock and came back in stock just a week ago. I had a kit direct shipped to the engine builder. Mark at CB asked me when I was ordering what engine I was using the kits on. I told him a 2.8L type 4 build and he said that this is exactly what they designed this kit to go on. Here is the link the the CB Performance page.  https://www.cbperformance.com/product-p/6457.htm

I spent some time tonight getting the engine wired up , headers installed and dropped in the new Pertronix Flame thrower distributor. I fired the engine up for the first time. At this point I don't have provision for a muffler and this thing is loud and sounds mean. If the engine runs half as mean as it sounds then it will be scary fast. I may have created a true monster. If all goes well I hope to take a short drive tomorrow. Next I need to figure out something to quiet this down some. The video my engine builder sent doesn't represent how extremely loud the engine is. The sound it makes when rev'ed is nothing short of amazing.

type 4 header 2type 4 header 1

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I am not ignoring the air scoop comments. I had thought the same and may go that direction when I get that far. I am placing that in the fine tuning stage of the project. I have it where the car can be driven so for now that isn't crucial.

I always knew the exhaust system that came with the engine was not going to fit. I saved the A-1 sidewinder muffler and dual exit tail pipe from the header I had on the type 1 engine and thought I could make it work with some fabrication but know now that the header takes up all the space the the tail pipe would have gone. I still may be able to use the A-1 muffler with a single down turn pipe. Once I have the car drivable I will take it down to my buddy who owns a muffler shop. He is a great guy and has worked on my custom jobs for over 25 years.  I can also buy one of the small mufflers A-1 offers to go on the end of the header and use a down turn pipe, I have some room in the wheel well for this.

Heck no Stan, absolutely no offense taken. I hope my reply was not taken wrong either. Far as the Suby engine, it is on hold for now, I have a feeling the Type 4 has found a home in the Puma for awhile. I will know for sure once I get her on the road but I think the power is going to be intoxicating and make the NA Suby engine seem tame. I can also see now that the Subaru conversion would take some major chopping as well. The engine compartment of the Puma isn't anywhere near as large as the Speedster and it tapers down as you go toward the rear. So talk about chopping the car up, the frunk would be cut up for the radiator and the rear would be a challenge to say the least. Not saying it will never happen but for now the monster Type 4 has a home. Check with me next week and that may change. I don't mind any comments and now have learned the personality of the forum and enjoy the back and forth.

@Jimmy V. posted:

Respectfully, If we all thought like that the hot rod and custom scene born after WWII going forward would never have started. You can choose not to chop up your car, I can do as I please with mine. Anything I do to the Puma can be reversed with some Fiberglass matting and resin. To each his own taste, I say.

I was going to say in my post last night that if it were me, I'd remove to engine cover and either make a copy with scoops or have a boat place do it. And keep the original cover as is for when you put the Subie in it (if you end up doing that.)

Personally, I think having the scoop would make it distinctive to reflect the distinctive nature of the motor.  

Last edited by dlearl476
@Jimmy V. posted:

I spent some time tonight getting the engine wired up , headers installed and dropped in the new Pertronix Flame thrower distributor. I fired the engine up for the first time. At this point I don't have provision for a muffler and this thing is loud and sounds mean. If the engine runs half as mean as it sounds then it will be scary fast. I may have created a true monster. If all goes well I hope to take a short drive tomorrow. Next I need to figure out something to quiet this down some. The video my engine builder sent doesn't represent how extremely loud the engine is. The sound it makes when rev'ed is nothing short of amazing.

type 4 header 2type 4 header 1

@Jimmy V. What car is the motor installed in?

I have been getting all the small details of the engine install lined out. The engine compartment is completely sealed all the way around the engine front and across the back. Zero hot air from under the engine will get recycled into the cooling fan or carb throats. All fresh clean cool air going into the cooling fan and into the carbs as the engine was designed by VW/Porsche. In my experience this makes all the difference between a hot running engine and an engine that runs the correct temp. (You don't want the engine to run too cool either).

I took the Puma for a few test runs last night and today. When I got brave enough and trusted the car today I opened the carbs past half throttle... the engine is all that and a large bag of chips. It gave me the kick in the pants neck snapping acceleration I was looking for and I was no where near full throttle. The engine is amazing and will (measured with my seat of the pants feel) kick my Suby Speedster's ass when it comes to acceleration. This is what I was hoping for, mission accomplished in this area. I am going to have a muffler shop retrofit the chrome A-1 in and out muffler I have left over from my 2276 side winder header. I pushed this muffler onto the header collector and it does the job to quiet the engine and still sound mean. I will make an appointment tomorrow to have the muffler installed. The car will be much more user friendly. The sound and pull this engine has is really amazing as it should be. I was adding up the bills on this engine and I could have bought 2 - Ford 347 turnkey roller engines with aluminum heads and 465HP for what this engine has cost. It may not be practical but boy is it fun. I had three people wave and yell cool car on my short drives. People seem to like the Puma.

type 4 engine compartment 2type 4 engine compartment 1

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Last edited by Jimmy V.

I have an appt. tomorrow morning with a muffler shop to install the A-1 muffler that I saved from the sidewinder header I had on the 2276 Type 1 engine. I held the muffler on the end of the type 4's header and it really quieted the beast down. I am hoping the shop has the talent to attach the muffler in a way it can be easily removed to access the rockers on the passenger side head.

I have also ordered a synclink throttle cable set up to replace the cross bar linkage.  I don't like the way cross bar is setup and I feel the carbs will never be fully in sync using it. Anyone have experience with the synclink?

Type 4 with synclink

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The synchlink uses a compound cable, like the brake cable on a bicycle (there's an inner cable and a rigid outer metal housing).

The only motion that matters is the inner cable relative to the outer housing. The two ends of the housing can move relative to each other and it doesn't affect how much motion is transferred by the cable.

Despite the photo above, the cable between the two sides doesn't need to be in a perfectly straight line. Kinda like a Bowden tube works.

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The cables should not get hot enough to make a noticeable difference and they would all expand the same amount. The system looks like it will really work well. I guess I will find out. It has to be better than what I have now. The carb bell crank arm on the drivers side has a 1.5" long rod coming off the linkage at 90 degrees to make the reach. It is what is needed to have synchronized carb opening but it is flimsy and doesn't work well.

@Jimmy V. posted:

I am curious, Why would that keep engine builders from buying the kits?

It's just a guess. But I got the impression that Pete's a dude making these in his spare time. I'm not sure he could or wants to build them in the kind of quantities that builders like Pat would need.

Also, there's the cost of them-- not a lot of people want to give that much for a linkage (although I think they are worth every penny).

Last edited by Stan Galat

"It's just a guess. But I got the impression that Pete's a dude making these in his spare time. I'm not sure he could or wants to build them in the kind of quantities that builders like Pat would need."

Reminds me of Mike Kitteridge, the founder of Yankee Candle.  He built his business up with a couple of friends and eventually sold it for $500 Million.  After that, he had a wonderful collection of antique and pedigree cars and no candle production worries.  Alas, he died in 2019, but before that I had toured his collection.  "Wow" best suits it.

https://www.meshnewengland.com...2/the-candle-man-can

Last edited by Gordon Nichols
@edsnova posted:

So glad you got underway on that carb linkage. I saw that extender bit and was about to ask about it.

It seems to be a type4/DTM shroud issue. Lenny's linkage(DTM/type4) had the extensions both on the carb base and on the throttle levers. The spacers move the bar backward, to avoid interference with the shroud.

I don't like the way it looks but it seems to work.

CB Performance supplies one spacer to fix the offset on type1 linkages as well.

I know it would be near impossible to install and adjust, but is it possible to install the linkage reversed? That's how mine is on my Spyder, but I'm lucky enough to have a 911 shroud that actually isn't in the way.

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I believe the synclink doesn't work with a stock shroud with the heater air outlets. If so, this is disappointing.



I've heard this, but I think you might make it work. I've got the stock shroud with heater tubes, and it looks like this on the passenger side (a little tighter than driver's side):

SynchLinkClearance

The tubes are flexible and can be 'munched' a little without hurting heat flow much. I guess it also depends on which oil filler tube you have. The old stock VW filler (shown here) does get in the way some, but you could use something more compact, I guess.

I also have a small tube from the breather box connected to the oil filler, which doesn't help either. But it's important to remember that the cable to the synchlink doesn't need to feed straight in and can be deflected a little, too.

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I spent a couple of hours at a local shop that does muffler work this morning. They were good enough to take on my custom job, not all shops want this type of work. The tech had a real challenge but in the end I am happy with the results. He was able to use an A-1 (In & out the same side) high flow muffler that I had. It is actually perfect for the space I have left with the BAS header being so close to the rear valence. I needed the muffler to be installed so it can be easily removed to access the valve cover. The tech was able to accomplish this and have the tailpipe exit through the original cutout in the body. I  plan to remove the muffler and grind the welds some and clean off the rattle can silver paint to expose the natural stainless finish. Not a bad job for what we had to work with. The muffler sounds great, it is actually quiet until the carbs open up then it has a deep rich roar. I am just glad to be able to drive the car and to start getting the carbs jetted. I drove it 15 miles up to my business which is all secondary highway . The car is very close to being tuned in. I need to play with the timing to see what amount of advance the engine likes best. Upon arrival the engine was only warm to the touch on the top side and the oil temp only warmed up to 66 degrees Celcius (about 151 F) which is ok in my book. It is a cloudy 55 here today. So the DTM is doing its job (Maybe too good). Having the engine sealed well keeping only fresh cool air going into the fan and carbs makes all the difference. More to come as I drive it.

Type 4 2.8L Puma custom A-1 Muffler install 2Type 4 2.8L Puma custom A-1 Muffler install 3

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