Pictures of Diesel Power Project X "the Beetle"

[COMP461]

This is the project from begaining to present

the car as we recieved it

nice 100,000 mile Beetle ran great , setting beside the dragster

I showed up at Steve Glovers shop in Fort Worth Texas

I put it on the Dyno , and it was in need of a little power

up on the rack it went , what a shame to make a hot rod out of a good running car

the Germans sure use a lot of nuts and screws to hold it together

the scrap pile was getting bigger

we got in the built transaxle with a 4.25 gear from VWtransaxle
along with VR6 Axles

We got in the metal clutch from Valair , it was needed to hold back the power levels we expected , and use of slicks

the head went off to get a compitition port job

http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa147/GREG560/?action=view¤t=DSCN1343.flv

 

[COMP461]

cool rods from Kerma, and a little piston work plus total seal rings

Greg also built a great intake

we installed the RPM data logger

we made it Hod Rod Magazine’s Drag Week 2009 , the only TDI in the diesel class, as the competition was tough We started the project 6 weeks before Drag Week, and received the parts the week before the race, a lot of late nights

Hot Rod Magazines Drag week is a grueling test of a street machine 5 race tracks 1500 miles and no support. We had to carry everything we could anticipate needing. Tools slicks SynDiesel fuel , and luggage for a Teenage girl for a week

our sister project Duramax Powed Mustang won the class, but we were there

Here is a video of my niece making her first pass down a drag strip
She had to do her high school work on the trip, and along the way we taught her to Drag race

 

[COMP461]

Here is the article that she wrote for the magazine , can’t waite to see it published , it was already in her home town news paper

Two years of driving, one clutch lesson and never having been out of the south, I was stoked for “Hot Rod’s Drag Week”. This wasn’t a simple vacation for me, but rather a highly anticipated race trip, and a chance to live firsthand the passion that has driven my uncle for a life time.

It is the start of my senior year of high school and my teachers were not too thrilled that I would miss so much class work, being in AP classes and all. So, in addition to a multitude of other duty’s during drag week , I won the award to take a few friendly text books with me. They made nice pillows when packed into the beetle bug among the tools and racing slicks.


Being my first time at Drag Week and only my 3rd time at a race track, my uncle had taken me to races in past years, the people I met were some of the most helpful people around. It was almost like I never left my home in Texas Especially since it rained on us as we packed the car and trailer at My Uncle Greg’s house in Texas and poured all along the way as we drove to the first race in Indiana

We pulled in - with little time left - for day one of check in. It seemed as if people swarmed the trailer to help us unload the little Beetle at the track.

We rushed the bug to the tech line, with less than a minute to spare. This would have been a disaster had we been any later…No party then….

Thus started my week, along with everyone else that got the privilege to participate. Yet for me, my week pattern was; drive to the track, unpack the car, clean it, watch it be tuned and raced, re-pack the car and head to the next track on the route and get to the hotel, wake up and do it all again the next morning.

But it wasn’t bad, for I do enjoy new scenery and all of the corn. The areas we drove to were such beautiful places, even if most of it was on back roads.

I have always wanted to see the Amish people, at least once in my life and I got to, watching them share the road with the little bug in their horse drawn buggy’s, along with corn. Lots and lots and lots of corn.
Not to mention I was surrounded by lots of cute guys that like cars. Learned way more than I care to know, but hey,… it may come in handy. One never knows.

So, in one week, I became the paper keeper upper, expert packer, money bag holder and tool fetcher. I say I did pretty good for a novice Drag racer…LOL


It wasn’t till the last day that I was able to actually get my very first pass down the drag strip. Now,… just add to my list: racing addict. This was the day we actually got to our destination - way before the track was even open.
After all that, I think I found a new passion and will need to subscribe to Hot Rod Magazine for updates….Connie Hogue

 

[dieselpower04]

Sweet! What is syndiesel?

 

[aja8888]

Sweet! What is syndiesel?

Google is your friend:

http://www.syndiesel.com/

 

[dieselpower04]

Google is your friend:

http://www.syndiesel.com/

Yeah I saw it in his sig after I wrote that. I wonder if it is legit? I am a chemist, I could order some and analyze it in my lab

 

[COMP461]

2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup TV Schedule
Watch documentary episodes of the 2009 Jetta TDI Cup featuring Syndiesel as the Official fuel sponsor

SynDiesel ® synthetically produced diesel fuels are designed for high performance requirements of clean diesel engines. SynDiesel is committed to providing the best possible clean diesel products.
Synthetic diesel is made from a gas-to-liquids technology that creates liquid hydrocarbons from synthetic gas which can be made from a variety of fossil fuels and environmental fuels. The major attributes of synthetically produced diesel fuels are:

• Little or no sulfur compounds
• High Cetane (60 cetane number vs 40 for regular diesel fuel)
• Higher btu value than regular diesel fuel
• High level of Stability (lasts a long time)
• Pleasant odor
• Higher flash point
• Clear water white color

 

[COMP461]

After drag week we turned our attention to Land Speed Racing , starting first with the Texas Mile.

This is a one mile standing start speed event , we changed 5th gear to the .685 gear , with a custom .528 gear still in heat treat

Once again I let my Niece Connie drive.
the record at Bonneville for 2 liter diesel is 129.22. this was the mark to beat , except at Bonneville they had 3 miles flying to do it , and we has a standing mile

we loaded enough Nitrous and Syndiesel on the Trailer

My Niece getting her licensing runs out of the way. 131 , then 132

t

he data log looked really good motor pulled to the 6000 rpm line on every pass, I was proud of her hitting gears

Here is the result of to 10 times to big of a nozzle , we were in a hurry to get the last run in an attempt to get a 150 mph pass. We were confident the car had the power. But if you’re not breaking parts you’re not breaking records but we did get a piston

[/font]

 

[Farfromovin]

Which nozzles did you have? That's hole #2 right?

 

[diesel-dave]

wow looks like fun, nice read for a change

 

[COMP461]

Which nozzles did you have? That's hole #2 right?

The nozzle was a big race nozzle from one of my land speed Cummins projects. the neat part about Snow Water methanol is that in the correct amount it make big power, its real forgiving, but the nozzle size was 10 times the flow number I wanted.

I was working with the Data logger and Nitrous progressive system on the NX Duramax diesel Mustang, and didn’t pay close attention when my crew member ask if it was the right one ,I forgot the big nozzles were in the tune box and nodded yes .
The aero numbers suggest that at 132 mph it takes 235 hp average, the 147 mph GPS number at ¾ mile , would if it didn’t gain another mile per hour would suggest a average hp of 295 .

 

[Farfromovin]

The nozzle was a big race nozzle from one of my land speed Cummins projects. the neat part about Snow Water methanol is that in the correct amount it make big power, its real forgiving, but the nozzle size was 10 times the flow number I wanted.

I was working with the Data logger and Nitrous progressive system on the NX Duramax diesel Mustang, and didn’t pay close attention when my crew member ask if it was the right one ,I forgot the big nozzles were in the tune box and nodded yes .
The aero numbers suggest that at 132 mph it takes 235 hp average, the 147 mph GPS number at ¾ mile , would if it didn’t gain another mile per hour would suggest a average hp of 295 .

Oh, ok. So that was from excessive amounts of w/m. Running 50/50? Why w/m AND NOS at the same time?

 

[COMP461]

I was running some of the Snow boost juice, its great in the right amount, I’ve seen over a 100 hp on a Cummins. It works great with NX if you use it right.
The motor pulled really had on that pass, the G meter showed .15 at half track, it was .03 better then the pass before .
My guess was that the engine went in to detonated , the valve was burned half away , and the valve seat was burned through .
This happened in one revolution , because after the valve went , there was no compression to make the ignition

 

[shizzler]

Thanks for sharing, very interesting.

So, your piston bowl edge looks fairly melted, but the damage mainly appears to be from a dropped valve, no? I highly doubt your failure occured in "just" one revolution. If you say it was half burned away, this would take some time, it wouldn't just spontaneously disappear. Exhaust gas temperatures in the manifold would be high enough to auto-ignite whatever unburnt diesel made it partway out of the cylinder anyway. Did you have EGT thermocouples for each cylinder, or just one in front of the turbine inlet? I think individual cylinder EGT would have caught this before such massive failure... though the outcome would be the same anyway (full tear-down required). What do you mean it went into detonation? There's no combustion until injection of fuel.... at which point it combusts (nearly) instantaneously.

Did the melt down ruin your turbo, too? (of course you need to go bigger anyway )

So you hit ~147 at the 3/4 mile mark? Seriously? That's fast; and quick! Aero on the beetle is so bad that you could probably find 5mph from simple tweaks.....

Anyway, before the haters on this site find your thread here, congrats on your achievements and thanks for trying something new in the TDI world. Just try not to boast about having the fastest or most powerful TDI evAR... haha.

 

[COMP461]

The valve was intact with the exception of the burned away part. I don’t have egt’s on every cylinder, but the data logger could, there was just no time to get it all done in time. I usually run a probe on every cylinder, the stock piston was not the fault, but it would not take a tuning mistake like a forged coated piston would have, for at least a little longer

The detonation was from too much alcohol. the fuel load was there when critical temp occurred . A diesel making big power with a lot of fuel has fuel load in before the critical initiation point occurs where the temp and pressure combine. I have been lucky enough to be on a dyno where we have pizeio cylinder pressure sensors, and the fuel injector is delivering fuel before the ignition pressure spike happens.

A diesel can detonate, but it’s under a rare situation of extreme pressure, when the mixture goes lean under max load at high rpms .

The group I race with has a lot of past experience with top fuel engines, and the damage is very similar when a diesel goes over the edge.
The piston thermal barrier layer is broken and the surface of the piston see the heat , getting almost to the plasma state , before it vaporizes . The valve starts getting piston material on it. The material does not allow a complete seal allowing combustion leakage, , likening to a blow torch and then poof it flashes . Once the valve seat seal is no longer viable on the cylinder the in question, there is no way to make pressure, to make the intense heat of combustion. The fuel is still being injected , but the heat is nowhere near as a intense .

I am going to work on a little more aerodynamics, but until we get above 150 it’s not really as bad as it seams.
Our Diesel mustang has really surprised me, as window molding blows off at 200.

I can see 165 to 170 at Bonneville when it’s all over. The motor is really solid, the rod bearings did not show and problems, as did the mains. I went back with ARP main studs this time, and the main bearing bore was still round. I think that 400 hp for a land speed deal is very possible. Paul promised me a lot bigger turbo , a 44 mm is on the way , and the engine wiring harness is almost done to put the engine on the engine dyno soon .

 

[shizzler]

Ok that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation(s).

Last thing I'll say on aero: The stock new beetle has a Cd of 0.38, pretty horrible for a small car. This is primarily due to the rounded shape of the rear creating excessive airflow separation. If you believe Ernie Rogers' test methods, his rear spoiler was able to drop the Cd to 0.28.
http://www.max-mpg.com/html/tech/main.htm

Lets say he actually reduced it only from 0.38 to 0.30. And now a quick check of the HP required to overcome aerodynamic drag at 150 mph, as can be calculated here:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/tool-aero-rolling-resistance.php

For approximate dimensions to represent the beetle.
Stock Cd = 0.38, aero HP @ 150mph = 169
New Cd = 0.30, aero HP @ 150mph = 133

In other words with improved aerodynamics, at 150 mph you will be putting 33 more HP into acceleration, and not lost to displacing air! Basically at anything over 100mph aero is robbing a huge amount of power from your poor little beetle. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an additional 5-8 mph in the standing mile from aerodynamic tweaks alone.

 

[TDIMeister]

The power required for 150 MPH seems to be underestimated. Aero drag power alone is easy to calculate:

0.5* air density * drag coefficient * frontal area * velocity³.

Assuming ambient conditions, 0.38 Cd and a frontal area of 2.2 square metres, the aerodynamic power is almost 150 kW (200 HP). You need to have much more than this in reserve in order to accelerated to this speed.

 

[COMP461]

The density altitude during that event was between 200 feet and 900 feet in the heat of the day
The air was good 200 being almost a standard day.

I do nt think that a Turbo diesel needs near the air to run as a normal aspirated engine. I can run almost the same mph in Denver as Houston, but it takes a longer to spool. I do believe that that is if you have enough turbocharger, cylinder head, and cam program

Nitrous will offset the density altitude on engine power as well

Now to the effects on density altitude on aerodynamics. I know that in Denver, we have to run a lot more wing for down force than at sea level.

Steve is assembling my engine this week, and maybe he can show you more of the goodies going in to this new build. I really think that is land speed racing the power is offset by the ability to maintain the power for 30 to 90 seconds. I think that 200 hp per liter is achievable, but that it’s not reliable to last with full rpm , boost , and nitrous for the amount of time . [/font]

I am working on water flow in the engine , and mapping out water flow around the cylinder barrels and exhaust ports


[Charlie has a new 12 mm pump with a lot of modifications inside coming, and the injectors are getting tweaked. The new turbo is huge, just huge, Thanks Paul and Charlie.




Here are the new piston, they are not for sale to anyone for any price , this is a R&D program for a major piston manufactory. The compression is more than most would like , but my cam is like no other in the VW world, the lift is .575 and the intake stays open for a very long time , but has almost no over lap

 

[Farfromovin]

Got pics/specs of this turbo?

 

[COMP461]

not goint to show them, you can talk to Charile or Paul . I just build and race them, its 44 mm is all I will reveal

 

[Farfromovin]

not goint to show them, you can talk to Charile or Paul . I just build and race them, its 44 mm is all I will reveal

But you showed every other product on your build? I guess I just don't understand the secrecy

 

[COMP461]

I wished I could , but I was asked not to show them, until Paul decides to show them to the public, its looks itty bitty compared to the turbo’s I am used to.

We have taken over 125 grams out of the rotating assembly, this little engine is going to rev a little faster.

I have some dual valve springs and titanium retainers for the head now, and I hope the new billet lifters are done in time , I wanted a new lifter to better work with the high lift cam,
[FONT='Book Antiqua','serif'] [/FONT]

 

[shizzler]

The power required for 150 MPH seems to be underestimated.... frontal area of 2.2 square metres

Heh, yeah I didn't know the frontal area of a beetle so it was probably way too small. I'm sure the ecomodder calculator has their (basic) formulas right. Only trying to point out how huge of an impact drag coefficient has on power to top speed ratio.


So when will you be back on the dyno, Greg?

 

[COMP461]

The new Dyno at Keeter Performance Engineering KPERACING.com is in the ground last week, and the new engine dyno is on the way. Charlie from Kerma is making plans to come down and spend a few days on the engine dyno looking for the 200 hp per liter I need to achieve the goals of Project X Diesel “ The Beetle “

I believe that the little beetle will run 11 second ¼ miles before we are done, I’m looking at a automatic transmission possibility, to make that happen. I believe that 150 plus mph in the mile is a reality, and I think that at Bonneville the 2 liter record of 129 is in big trouble. I think that 175 to 190 mph

 

[COMP461]

Ok that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation(s).

Last thing I'll say on aero: The stock new beetle has a Cd of 0.38, pretty horrible for a small car. This is primarily due to the rounded shape of the rear creating excessive airflow separation. If you believe Ernie Rogers' test methods, his rear spoiler was able to drop the Cd to 0.28.
http://www.max-mpg.com/html/tech/main.htm

Lets say he actually reduced it only from 0.38 to 0.30. And now a quick check of the HP required to overcome aerodynamic drag at 150 mph, as can be calculated here:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/tool-aero-rolling-resistance.php

For approximate dimensions to represent the beetle.
Stock Cd = 0.38, aero HP @ 150mph = 169
New Cd = 0.30, aero HP @ 150mph = 133

In other words with improved aerodynamics, at 150 mph you will be putting 33 more HP into acceleration, and not lost to displacing air! Basically at anything over 100mph aero is robbing a huge amount of power from your poor little beetle. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an additional 5-8 mph in the standing mile from aerodynamic tweaks alone.

remember that there is accelaration involved in mile racing , but your thoughts look close

 

[rackaracka]

01M Slushbox?

The new Dyno at Keeter Performance Engineering KPERACING.com is in the ground last week, and the new engine dyno is on the way. Charlie from Kerma is making plans to come down and spend a few days on the engine dyno looking for the 200 hp per liter I need to achieve the goals of Project X Diesel “ The Beetle “

I believe that the little beetle will run 11 second ¼ miles before we are done, I’m looking at a automatic transmission possibility, to make that happen. I believe that 150 plus mph in the mile is a reality, and I think that at Bonneville the 2 liter record of 129 is in big trouble. I think that 175 to 190 mph

Automatic Transmission? There are many members of this site that would be intrigued by an overbuilt, bulletproof automatic for these engines. Most are afraid that they wont get over 100k on a stock trans with a stock engine tune, let alone chipping or adding nozzles or bigger turbos. Please keep us informed and good luck! Thanks for exposing VW TDI's to your sport!

 

[COMP461]

the problems is if you get enough turbo to make real power , then when you shift , the turbo stall, will break the shaft .

I talked to Tye at I IPT Performance Transmissions he was sure he could make one stay together up to 300 hp, can't wait to see if it will .

 

[Left Coast Resident]

<SNIPITY, SNIP, SNIP>I talked to Tye at IPT Performance Transmissions he was sure he could make one stay together up to 300 hp, can't wait to see if it will .

That's pretty funny -- in fact, REALLY FUNNY -- since the company doesn't has a 100% reputation for quality, knowledge, or customer service. Try surfing http://forums.nasioc.com/forums and putting IPT into the advanced search box for thread titles.

 

[COMP461]

You really don’t believing forum chatter do you . do you have first hand evperance with them, otherwise its just hearsay . I don't know if they can do it, if they can't Ill find a way to make it happen.

If a THM200R4 that came behind a Buick GN will hold 1000 hp built, while not lasting until the warranty is out, in stock form, then this transmission will hold up.
The biggest problem is in the TDI or the diesel world for that matter, everyone wants to lug the motor down in peak torque, this is what breaks things Rev it up get away from torque and up in to the HP , Hp is the real measure of power . put a final drive ratio in that dosent lug it , and let it eat

 

[Left Coast Resident]

You really don’t believing forum chatter do you . <SNIP>

Like I said, this is funny, REALLY FUNNY . . .

The worst part about this is the customer service runaround and pointing the blame at everyone else that was given to several of those forum members -- that speaks volumes and volumes -- and not in a positive sense, either.

No matter what I buy, from who and through whatever forum or source I found them on, I don't deal with anyone who doesn't dish up first class customer service and/or tries to flagrantly bullsh1t me about anything mechanical.

I actually encourage YOU to deal with them, as your posts have been in a class by themselves, and -- dare I say it -- have kept me VERY amused since the day you landed here and anounced that you had the fastest TDI on the planet. Whether they treat you right or not, I'm going to be hanging on YOUR every word, and living your transmission exploits vicariously to the fullest extent I can -- without having an out-of-body experience -- from a couple of states of the union away.

And I can say sincerely that I wish you the best of luck. I don't care how it works out, just as long as you keep the story coming . . .