Bub: the Buggered Up Beetle

I really don;t know how to process this news, so I'll do it by sharing my pain and upset .... Bub went on fire during his first road test with the fully rebuilt engine. I got the engine back on Monday and fitted it straight away. Today, I got busy getting work out the way and got the engine plumbed and wired in. All sorted and ship shape - nice.  Ignition on, pumped the loud pedal 5 times and turned the key ... fired up beautifully and after a minute or 2 ticked over really smoothly. Brilliant. Left it to warm up then out for a wee drive - exactly what I expected ... really quick off the mark, really smooth through the gears, instant pickup, almost no throttle hesitation (a problem before). For sure the handling was evil but with some weight in the front to hold the nose on the road and the gear loaded in the back it would be epic. So ... off for a longer run and after 25 miles it was just getting better (as I got used to it) and on the A77 heading home with the wind behind m

It's been a while, a long while since I Budated or even looked at the damn thing in earnest. Actually that's not quite true, Bub has been sat in my carport looking forlorn and unloved while my Veteran Car (1912 Alldays & Onions) sat on the ramp being sorted after a breakdown. Now, however, the engine is back from the builder and is only lacking a few parts before it can be fired up and test driven and run in. Here's the video (words below for the literate) So, what went wrong? Short answer - the engine blew up, long answer ... read on When developing an engine and making it run as best it can you need 20/20 hindsight as well as all the knowledge that all the 'experts' have. Clearly I have neither! What I had was a pile of parts, a bolt on Supercharger Kit that was nothing of the sort and about one third of an idea of how to put them all together. I'm going to cover the bits that led to the broken engine ... Parts 1300cc engine in very good co