Super Vee engine builders and chassis gurus

[Scuderia PacNW]

Am restoring a '72 Royale SV and need some sage advice. Who is known as the current very best turnkey builder of these vintage Super Vee engines...the FF Ivey Engines analog...only for these air cooled motors. Also, who is the current most respected chassis guru for these Royale cars? Names, links and/or phone numbers would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you very much for your help.

[reidhazelton]

I know Keith Averill was pretty big with SVs back in the day. Might want to check with him.

[kea]

I will gladly talk to you about your project. I won't have all the answers, but I think I could be of some help.
Call.

[Scuderia PacNW]

Thanks very much, Reid and Keith.

Keith, I will give you a call when we return from this weekend's Historics. Look forward to it.

[S Lathrop]

I believe Bertils still had a shop in the Chicago area. He was the top air cooled engine builder and may be able to give you some help. The last time I talked to him he was doing a few air cooled engines. That was within the last five years.

[Scuderia PacNW]

Thanks for the lead...will try to track them down.

[revtom]

Bertil has sold his shop, and retired. He is happy to share info, if you can get thru to him, which is somewhat hard, as he is enjoying himself at Bonneville, etc! Another long time air-cooled sorce is Fat Performance, in Az., or S. Cal. They have been doing VW off road, etc. and are very competent with these engines. The SuperVee engine pros, switched to waterpumpers in '78, so it has been a long time since the pro shops did much work on the Type-4's Good luck with your car, we need more SV's on the grid! Tom

[Rick Kirchner]

Every couple of years I pick up a copy of HotVWs and a dersert racing rag or two, just to stay up to date with suppliers. Car Custom used to be real big - they're gone, German Auto used to be a big type 4 place - they might be gone, but suppliers come and go every few years. I forgot about FAT. Also CB performance (claude's buggies)

[Doug FST 5]

Dave Carr at Autowerks in NJ has air cooled clients outside of his normal FV and FST customers. You may want to give him a call.

Doug FST 5

[Steve Demeter]

When you need a cam, contact CB.

I had them master the last and what Bertil said was his best grind.

They will make you one from billet at a very reasonable price.

Tell them it is the one they mastered for me about 1990 or so.

I have not had an AC car since 1994, but I know of at least one person who has gotten a cam from them with that grind.

Get Carrillo rods (914-4 1700) for certain. less costly and they last literally forever.

[Scuderia PacNW]

Thanks to Steve, Doug, Rick and Revtom...we have combined your advice...followed up and made some real progress.

[belair]

I have the mentioned cam in my FSV. After I get back from Watkins Glen, I will let you know how it went. I ran it at Mid Ohio a few weeks ago and did not have the valve lash set correctly, so the engine was a bit down on power. The cam has more overlap than any other cam I have come across. You will need to run high rpm, (8,000) and high compression, (11:1 or higher, 13:1?) make use of the cam. Aftermarket rods are a must, and I also suggest steel pushrods. Another t4 engine source is The Type 4 Store in Georgia, I think they also build engines.

Good Luck!

[Steve Demeter]

With that cam, every shift was a t7500 rpm and the power came on with a bang at about 6000. It would snap your neck back. Pulled good down to 5500, so plenty of useful power band.

!3:1 compression is what I ran with that cam and Carillo rods.

[Scuderia PacNW]

Thanks for the continued info Steve. It will be interesting to hear Belair's thoughts after Watkins.

[belair]

Sorry, but I do not have any good news to report about the camshaft as used in my FSV engine. While some other issues may have masked the cam's performance capabilities, I am unimpressed with it as things stand. As I look into the motor over the next few weeks, I will post my findings.

[Steve Demeter]

Belair, e mail me with the isues.

That cam was an absolute monster. But below 5500 it lurched and jerked. above 5500 it pulled strong to 8500.

At 6000 it would snap your head back against the head rest.

I used about 13 to 13.5 compression ratio.

That was the last and according to Bertil the best grind he developed.

Want to try to get you running good.

[belair]

Steve,

I am not sure if it is the cam....or compression..... I am pulling the engine, rechecking compression, and I am going to map the cam against a known good perfoming design, after I have it out.

It may be possible that, since it is a custom grind.....it may be ground wrong. I am sure that it was degreed correctly on install. Just guessing right now what the problem may be. After some work I will post the findings.

Best regards,

Belair / Cliff

[Steve Demeter]

If CB ground it wrong, make them get you a new one.

What symptons was it demonstrating?

IIRC degreeing the cam consisted of lining up the dot on the gear which bolts to the cam only one way with the dot on the helical gear that is keyed to the crank.

I doubt that you would have installed it improperly.

[HayesCages]

Bill and I had FAT rebuild the engine, well rebuild isn't really correct, they built a new one as the only parts worth using were the valve covers, intakes and carbs...
It dyno'd really good and we're both looking forward to getting the chassis back on the road.
I'd recommend Greg to anyone looking for a killer engine combo. He's easy to deal with and wants to make people happy with their products and services.

His Contact info: FAT Performance
1558 N Case
Orange, CA 92867
714.637.7352
They offer a very competitive shipping rate through Old Dominion and it cost us less than $600 to ship a 2.5'x4'x5', 515# crate - BOTH ways. (We sent the whole she-bang: engine, trans, and all ancilaries as pulled from the chassis) That's over 1400 miles each way.
AND... they got the whole thing done in less than two weeks including getting custom pistons from JE, a custom clutch disc made, new case, new heads, new counter weigted crank, H beam rods, etc.

Regarding the cam issue: I did talk to CB and their 'cam guy' said they'd make the cam for us, taking at least 3 weeks, but FAT had their own grind so we went with it. Their grind made 163 lb/ft at 4k peaking at 174 at 5k then 127 at 7k. Hp is secret....

Thanks for all the help with this project, we'll post up-dates periodicly.

Lawrence