Aftermath of the MOTB 2015

[lastmanx]

I saw photo of your buggy plowing in sand, and wondered about sand. your new post explains what I feared. running without inspection front plate is a bad decision on or off. it still amazes me when people go in sand without proper preparation. all this info is not new. its time to get real when driving in beach sand. a 3 inch body lift with taller tires eliminates plowing. a sand sealed motor eliminates sand in motor. this stuff is in the book how to prep dunebuggies. I know if your buggy is already built a 3 inch lift requires a good bit of work. a press in crank sand seal was available, a stage 2 sand filter for carb will keep sand out. under side of distributer has breather vents that take in sand. it is easily fixed with a homemade foam filter. with proper off road tires you can ride easily on top of sand rather than in ruts. granted packed ruts give easier traction. I mean no ill will. its true when I built my buggy I intended it for beach sand driving, and prepared it accordingly. for 20 years I've listened to people comment on my foam distributer filter as a fix for a oil leaking distributor fix, it was not. the difference between a street buggy and off road buggy is usually just ground clearance and proper sand filter protection. my offroad buggy works great on the street with no further modification than reinflating tires. I have always told newbies building buggies to install a skid plate, because someday they will venture offroad; weather across vacant lot or lawn. i knew a guy who back in 60's-70's said he would rebuild his motor every year due to sand damage, he had no idea about sand protection.he added the fun of beach driving was worth the yearly rebuild and thought it was normal. it is not normal. also understand beach sand is salted sand and corrosive. wind blown ocean mist and spray are like liquid acid and should be avoided. i have 30,000 miles on my sand sealed engine about 10% miles in beach sand. still runs like new, and will always be beach driven on vacation. i hope all works out for you ,and others reading this get informed and not discouraged from oversand driving. keep smiling.

[rzeller]

I saw photo of your buggy plowing in sand, and wondered about sand. your new post explains what I feared. running without inspection front plate is a bad decision on or off. it still amazes me when people go in sand without proper preparation. all this info is not new. its time to get real when driving in beach sand. a 3 inch body lift with taller tires eliminates plowing. a sand sealed motor eliminates sand in motor. this stuff is in the book how to prep dunebuggies. I know if your buggy is already built a 3 inch lift requires a good bit of work. a press in crank sand seal was available, a stage 2 sand filter for carb will keep sand out. under side of distributer has breather vents that take in sand. it is easily fixed with a homemade foam filter. with proper off road tires you can ride easily on top of sand rather than in ruts. granted packed ruts give easier traction. I mean no ill will. its true when I built my buggy I intended it for beach sand driving, and prepared it accordingly. for 20 years I've listened to people comment on my foam distributer filter as a fix for a oil leaking distributor fix, it was not. the difference between a street buggy and off road buggy is usually just ground clearance and proper sand filter protection. my offroad buggy works great on the street with no further modification than reinflating tires. I have always told newbies building buggies to install a skid plate, because someday they will venture offroad; weather across vacant lot or lawn. i knew a guy who back in 60's-70's said he would rebuild his motor every year due to sand damage, he had no idea about sand protection.he added the fun of beach driving was worth the yearly rebuild and thought it was normal. it is not normal. also understand beach sand is salted sand and corrosive. wind blown ocean mist and spray are like liquid acid and should be avoided. i have 30,000 miles on my sand sealed engine about 10% miles in beach sand. still runs like new, and will always be beach driven on vacation. i hope all works out for you ,and others reading this get informed and not discouraged from oversand driving. keep smiling.

Interesting information. Thanks for sharing. Just to fill in the backstory: I live in a coastal area and am very familiar with all that means. We have constant issues with corrosion due to not only sand but the actual salt in the air all the time - you don't have to be on the beach for salt to have an effect. As for my buggy, it's a street buggy that only sees the beach once a year at the MOTB event. The missing inspection plate was supposed to be replaced during my recent refurb. Just got overlooked. The front end is lowered intentionally for a more aggressive street look - it's not a "beach buggy". I should have raised the adjusters before going on the beach. My bad. The beach we drive on during the event is usually flat packed. My picture with Bruce was a new experience driving over the dunes to egress the beach. The ruts were pretty deep. My motor has a sand-sealed crank. I run a vintage-looking skid plate and pre-filters over my air filters. Bottom line, I am willing to spend a few weeks cleaning the surface sand off of every metal surface on the buggy after MOTB. Cost of admission. Just so happened this year I had the misfortune (actually cool photo op) of plowing sand. Since I knew at the time I had to remove the gas tank after the event, it really wasn't a big deal to me to get a little messy. Plus, and as this thread was documenting, I also knew I had an issue with my motor and expected to have to remove that too - another cleaning opportunity.

I appreciate your input and it is useful for those that don't have sand experience or deal with salty sand/air on a daily basis. I'm sure it will be helpful. Thanks.

[rzeller]

Back to the pressure issue: I spoke with my trusted local motor and VW expert Steve, Dr. Zarkov, and the original motor builder. The prevailing thoughts were that my high pressure was/could be caused by a few things: remote oil pump with 30mm gear (which was confirmed by the builder), front (near the bell housing) oil relief spring being too heavy duty/stiff (confirmed by the builder), and the rear oil relief spring being too stiff and the plug being for a high pressure valve (confirmed by the builder).

My options: 1) remove the remote pump and try to find another with a 28mm gear - seems this doesn't exist. 2) replace the external pump with a stock pump - I really don't want to do that. 3) inspect/verify the springs in the front and rear relief valves and replace with stock springs and put stock plugs in the valve.

I started with #3 and confirmed the springs were heavy duty in both valves and the plug in the rear was a heavy duty plug. We replaced the springs and the plug and fired it up.

Pre-change my cold idle was 80-85lbs. Immediately after the change my cold idle was 56lbs. All measured on the same gauge I used first for consistency. I was pretty happy with the results. Since we were pulling the motor and the dune buggy was apart (no hood/no gas tank) I didn't bother to run it up hotter. I think that will do the trick. It will be a few months before my tank is re-worked by Zarkov and my engine tins get a face lift so no real world testing until then.

Gauge and measurement post change of springs and plug


The rear plug and spring. Looking L-R. Screw to remove the spring and plug; heavy duty plug and spring that was in it; replacement/stock plug that we put back in - I didn't show the stock spring


The heavy duty spring that was in the front valve. We replaced it with a stock spring and re-used the plug

[Tom-Kathleen]

Sometimes stock is all you need. LOL Those number look much better. Tom

[lastmanx]

its good to hear your motor is alright. a few weeks to clean buggy after sand use well keep smiling

[rzeller]

Progress has been terrific on my gas tank repair and modification. If interested there are a lot of pictures and descriptions on the work in this thread: http://manxclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... 1&start=60

Here's a teaser picture (thanks Dr. Zarkov):