AquaMutt build thread...

[Safety Guy]

I'll probably approximate the collage type of look of this picture, but in a different manner. Maybe I'll have starfish, maybe a shark! Or maybe she'll be playing with a toy Festiva, or perhaps holding a pair of shoes and wondering what they're for!

Maybe layers of green and blue for the ocean, too.

Second grader fingerpainting would be cool.

Karl

[FestYboy]

i'm thinking combine those 2 ideas with your proposed style and you've got something (keeping it more "adult" in the presentation as far as the style goes, not the presentation or subject)

[Safety Guy]

Hmmm, Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" combined with a new wave mermaid. I'll take those into consideration Arty.

In the meantime, I finally got my first two 13" Estrellas and Falken 175/60s on the car, for a very brief time to see how they do:





After trying to mount them myself and finding them way too hard to put on, I took them to Wal-Mart and had them mount and balance them. Then I put them on and went on a little test drive. Went up to around 75mph with no problems. Since they're right at stock diameter I'm doing around 2500 rpm at 65mph. I'll test them with my GPS sometime this week to see what it says. Then I did some twisty bits, where I could really tell the difference between them and those tall cheap 175/70 junkyard tires I've been driving on. No comparison! Very grippy! Oh yeah.

Acceleration-wise, I can tell they do a bit better as well. Not as much difference as the handling though. These 60 series are where its at!

I brought out my bathroom scale and compared weights of the cheap 175/70s on my VW rims vs. the Estrellas and Falkens. The newer set runs about 3 pounds less per wheel. I was hoping for a bigger difference, but my bathroom scale is probably not the best way to measure this. (Someday I'll have something better.)

I went on a second trip to Wal-Mart after I had a heck of a time removing the two 175/70 'yard all seasons from the VW rims so I could mount my new General Altimax snows in the same size. I got one on after way too much work, grunting, cussing, and perhaps straining my right shoulder! I then decided to let Wal-Mart do the other mounting, and then balance both of them. In the car:



On the car:



I'm a bit disappointed that my tire changer setup does not seem quite up to doing some new tires, but it has already paid for itself and it will continue to do so I'm sure. I'll be running the front Estrellas and Falken 60s for the next few days. We're just getting more rain, according to the news, and next weekend should be clear. That's when I'll probably do my other two General snows and be ready for winter.

Karl

[eurotiva]

Looking good.

[Safety Guy]

Thanks Greg. When the snow really hits I'll do a review of how these Generals do. They're staying on the VW rims until they wear down. Dedicated snow set. I'll probably run them till mid-March. Depends on the weather, of course.

Come spring I'll do my other two Estrellas with the Falkens for all four 60 series corners. Too bad we can't get what I think is the perfect performance 13" tire: 185/55s! Oh well.

Also in the spring I'll probably paint my four Honda VX wheels and select a lightweight skinny tire for max MPGs. Probably 155/70s or 165/65s. I'll use them on longer trips and/or for a dedicated MPG build. I'd love to roll a combined wheel/tire of around 23 pounds each corner!

VW rims (15#) with junkyard 175/70-13s were 31 pounds.

Estrellas (12.5#) with Falkens were 28 pounds.

Honda VX (9.5#) plus ? for ??


One more note on my Estrellas:

I am using plastic hub rings. One went on fine, but the other began cracking upon installation. I didn't quite have it centered and it caught. I used a screwdriver and hammer to coax it into place and it seems to do okay. Next time I'll be more careful. I might also spend more money on a set of metal hub rings like I had made for my VW rims.

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Update for Scitzz in a moment...

To continue the previous post, I didn't have much winter, so I can't really say how good the General Altimax Arctics were. They did have quite the squirmy sidewalls and/or tread though, but I got used to driving that way.

Then when I changed to my Falken 175/60-13s, WOW! Nice handling. I just measured the tire tread the other day. Since around April when I put them on, the fronts have worn about 1mm very evenly, while the rear tires are still at a newish 8mm depth (8mm is what I measured one of my unused Falkens at).

I'm also running one of my rear Estrellas without any hub ring and everything is fine. The black paint seems to be holding up quite well, too.

And now some pics for Scitzz, as he's doing a B6 swap soon...

This pic shows how I did my brake booster. I used a larger diameter piece of steel brake line (5/16" I think) to splice the booster hose together to reach the B6 intake:



Note both zip ties visible in the above pic.

The other side, cone filter removed. Note where the brake booster line went. There is still an open vac point, too. On an ATX this would accommodate your single vac line to the transaxle:



The whole thing is held in place with two zip ties, one wrapped around the throttle bracket on the intake. Look at the piece of old black rubber under the VAF. That is a piece of cut up radiator hose for cushioning, again held in place with a zip tie. Construction certainly befitting a MUTT!

Finally, a close up of the slightly modded throttle bracket:



As I recall, I either drilled a new hole or simply elongated one or both to move the bracket back to tighten the throttle cable. Since that wasn't enough, I also moved the throttle cable adjustment a bit, too. (I still should tighten it further, BTW, but it is tighter than the one I did in my ATX car.) Note zip tie around bracket, holding everything in place, more or less.

Karl

[scitzz]

Update for Scitzz in a moment...

And now some pics for Scitzz, as he's doing a B6 swap soon...


Karl

Thanks Karl, you rock!

As an aside, remind me to tell you about the Leatherman Charge Ti I picled up used on Ebay for $61 that has S30v steel for the cutting blade sometime soon!

[Safety Guy]

S30V!

I have some of that on Spydies. Some Natives, I think, and the P'Kal.

I carry Waved Delicas though. Cheap and "to the POINT." He he.

Karl

[jawbraeka]

[QUOTE=Safety Guy;366419]Yep, htchbck, I found out how rotted those bushings were when I took Aqua apart! Also, the rear transaxle mount was way soft compared to the new one I bought.

Back to the story!:

Aqua is what Ford called "surf blue." I think she will look nice with Mutt's dark blue accents, body repair and artistic flourishes. Just like old Muttstiva.

My first job was to repair the old corroding hard lines under the car. I figured take everything off and do all at once. Like this!:



hey safety guy,

i just had a few questions and this is the most ideal way to ask..

with the fueltank, is that inside the car our outside the car?

[Safety Guy]

Hey Jaw,

Aqua's fuel tank is removed in that picture. It goes in the ribbed area that looks dark green, to the left of the spare tire well. Looks like I have the fuel pump cover re-attached to the floor.

Does that answer your question?

(I just saw this!)

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Update time!

Aqua's B6 has developed more headgasket issues, plus there are the issues with the bottom end, which I think got a bit messed up a while back when I think it didn't get the oil it needed. I already replaced the headgasket originally, and then replaced it again within 2 years (IIRC). I can't seem to do a good job on headgaskets!

Plus, I want to take this B6 all the way apart and rebuild it. That way I can see what's wrong as well.

I just bought another B6 to swap right in with no other changes. It's from Texas and has fewer than 75K miles on it. I probably paid a bit too much ($670 shipped), but I wanted to do this soon and it seemed like a decent investment. Here it is as I got it from the shipper:



Here are some better pics:





I've had this HF load leveler for a long time, but this is the first time I've put it to use. It made mounting the engine on the stand much easier!:



And here is the heat shield just taken off:



I removed one front bracket (PS?) and the shield, but I don't have my spark plug wrench around so I haven't taken out the plugs and put a wrench on the crank bolt to move it. Maybe tomorrow.

Everything just came off really easily. No significant rust at all! Nothing frozen or hard to loosen up. Wow. This is how it should be!

I should have more by this weekend. I'll take a few more pictures.

Karl

I've been a bit sick so I can't do much right now. Let's just say I need to stay close to the restroom.

I hope to be better by the weekend.

[jawbraeka]

If it's a straight swap.. Nothing to change
I'd gun for an afternoon startup.

Sent from the depths of hell.

[Gomez]

"New to you" engines always make fun times. Post lots of pics. WE LIKE PICS!!!!

[zoom zoom]

So clean.. Thats really not a bad price (imo) for an engine thats in really good shape...like that one. You'll have about that much buying and doing seal replacements on any other good engine, with more miles most likely.. Good deal man! Hope it works for many many miles!

You doing a new clutch too? What kind you gonn go with this time? Ive got a valeo in mine and it started slipping in high rpm slower speeds.

[Safety Guy]

I won't need a new clutch, as the AZ one I installed with the first B6 is doing fine. I'll try to remember to get a picture of it.

Now look at this:



On the far left freeze plug there is a seal saying something like "warranty void if missing." I've never seen one of these and I doubt it's stock. Could this engine be a rebuild?

Everything looks nice so far. I removed the plugs and they looked fine. Tan-ish and healthy looking. I turned the crank and everything felt and sounded good.

Then I took the timing covers off and it was the same.

One more pic of my work area:



Now I'm thinking I'll just do the crank and rear main seals and the water pump. I'll drain anything left out of the oil pan and if it ain't too dirty looking, and the valvetrain looks clean, I won't take the pan off. Tomorrow it gets prepped and I think I have most of the Festiva coolant parts and pipes to speed up the swap.

This engine seems very sweet!!

Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks,

Karl