356/912 engine into 4-cam Carrera look

[Nigel Cousins]

Cool video and a great sound, will I be doing 356/912 kits ? well you are the first to ask and never say never, I will dig out all my drawings and sand cast patterns to see what would be involved.

I always have had plans to make a type 4 and a type 1 version, the question is always is there the demand to recover the tooling costs. I was very fortunate that I managed to create a small co-operative of like minded enthusiasts to help develop the inlet manifolds.

On the subject of manifolds, I finished detailing one set of injection manifolds today.



For the spyders or pre A owners who want the early pre Vee drive look, one option is to run dummy distributors in the manifolds and hide the crank fire coil out of the way.



I have been trying to get hold of a 4 cam distributor to 3D scan so to make an accurate body replica that could run an original cap,maybe one day one will show up.

[Nigel Cousins]

While digging around today looking for some parts I found these. When I was first specifying the engine and reading all there is to be read about tuning a 356, I found reference in Duane Spencer's book about upgrading your early 3 piece case oil feed with a late style 912 16mm oil suction pipe. After putting out various failed requests on the Registry to source one. I decided to get some made, not easy as the two radii are very close to each other and cannot be formed on a standard bending machine. Luck was on my side though, Goodridge in Plymouth were making some development pipes for a Formula 1 team, which just so happened to be 16mm aluminium , so they were happy to do a small batch for me as the machine was set up for the pipe size.



I have 6 spare if any body is looking for this small but very important upgrade to the oil system.

[Impi]

Hi Nigel I for one would love to see a type four version. I think the casing lends itself to a four cam look much more readily and the exhaust ports already in the right place. It would be interesting to compare dimensions to those of a four cam. I started building a replica fan housing using the type four fan adapted to a beetle generator a few years back but it never progressed very far It did look cool though. I did also think crank ignition at the time to hide the dizzy. I also thought fuel injection and sourced two old Alfa Solex side draught carbs to use as throttle bodies they look quite convincing turned 90 degrees.
Regards
Armand

[Alloycars]

Nigel. Want to have this setup for my customers who are buying our aluminum Spyder. Please contact me at pmc@alloycars.com and we talk about. Ingo, Alloycars Inc.

[roy mawbey]

Nigel,

This is a great thread. I really like your work, and you are correct pipe bending with radii like that would be so difficult without the correct equipment.

Its nice to know we still have some forward thinking engineers here in the UK. So important for us all as a country. Well done!

Roy

[Nigel Cousins]

Roy thank you for your kind words. Unfortunately I have been knocked off my perch for the last week with a Kidney infection, not fun.
Following the various calls for a type 4 version, I decided that the best place to start is in the virtual world. By creating exact 3d cad images of all the components, I will be able to see how the parts I have developed will bolt on to a type 4 case.

To this effect I have started to create a digital library of each of the components, this will be added to with 3D scans of the 356 and type 4 engine cases over the coming weeks.

[JTR70]

I can see some demand for that conversion Nigel. Nice work!

[Manolin]

Well documented photos. This application would be a welcome addition to those alloy replicas, composite cars, and regular 356 cars looking for a fun alternative. Nigel, can be based versions be as simple to modify in CAD?

[Nigel Cousins]

For the last 2 years I have been working on a gauge and monitoring system for my 4 cam engine project. Whilst designing the injection manifolds I realised that I would need a way to data-log and also monitor what was going on with the engine when in the car.

I would need to monitor oil pressure,oil temperature, ambient temperature, individual cylinder temperature, CHT and EGT all simultaneously in order to prove the cooling system. The option was "gauge fever" on the dash and I didn't want to start drill holes either, but it had to be in the car full time and therefor had to be period looking for a 58 car.

Through another Porsche mad car friend Paul Foreman, I got together with 356 enthusiast Simon Hambly, who is an electronics whizz and we pooled our knowledge and resources and created something to do the job. Not just for the 4 cam project but all classic and modified cars.

GaugePilot's body is based on the Halda Speedpilot a 50's clockwork computer for average speed. It was of period and the right size to get a good size screen into and a whole load of clever electrical components. It has a 32 channel data-logger, can display up to 25 gauges and you can set alarm points to be informed of danger against the key parameters i.e. CHT and oil temp etc . It has hour run meters and component service tracking, plus stopwatches and rally computers for competition use. It can interface with ECU's for aftermarket fuel injection and ignition systems and works 6V and 12 volt positive and negative earth.

I have attached a photo of a unit running 356 styled gauges for that little extra. Now I have the monitoring device sussed, I have no excuse and better get back to getting the engine finished, I've missed my Speedster, but creating this instrument has been good fun and lets hope it catches on. www.gaugepilot.uk

[Jbrooks]

Nigel

I used to run a research laboratory. We used a national instruments data collection that made similar gauges and data indicators for computers. It cost more than a ton of cash. You guys have done a splendid job with this. It is better that the FAX four cam heads, which are in them selves above reproach.

Good on you

John

[JTR70]

That is really cool Nigel! Does the speedometer run by GPS?
Justin

[Nigel Cousins]

Hi Justin

Thank you for your positive feedback, yes the GaugePilot can work on GPS or from a wheel or speedometer cable pulse sensor.

The GPS we use is a GNSS device that connects to American GPS, Russian GLONASS and Chinese BeiDOU satellites simultaneously to give better receiver sensitivity and the ability to work in harsh Rf environments such as canyons and cities.

We have two inputs for speed and distance, this is important for rallying because quite often wheel probes get knocked off this allows the crew to just select an already installed second sensor.