Most liked posts in thread: Build thread as of 6.23.14 (turbo eventual twincharge build. CNC, tig welded, etc )

well this post should pretty much write itself with the images,

plus, who here reads my text anyways? :lol: jk.

did this with a hole saw, drill bit, and hand files.
(then welded it on)


(bpv attachment)

BPV mounted (new o-ring seat shown :grin



O-ring receptacle on the intake tube tac'd in place (fitment check)
This piece was fun to make,
ended up screwing two 2x2's down to a piece of plywood to hold the sides of the ~1.75" tubing that makes this receptacle , then another on the nose to keep it from moving forward, and then tapered a fourth piece so that I could stick it inside the back of the tube, screw it down, and it clamped it to the base.

Then took a 3" hole saw and cut, took off exactly what i needed and left the proper radius to mount to the tube.

Then took a single layer of 120 grit sand paper, wrapped it around a spare piece of 3" tube, and used that to finish profile the piece to size




test fit 2



welded it together and cut out the inisde with another hole saw






mounted inlet tube.


final section of tubing welded onto intercooler


rtv applied and everything mocked up in place!


bpv in its little cubby hole





now I should note, I am still having a few small problems with sealing the ends.
o-rings are not seating correctly on the laminova cores possibly due to an alignment issue.

Worse comes to worse I have to re-make those end plates (annoying) and move the seats from theoretical position to a measured position .

Not sure if the tubes warped slightly during welding or what happened, frankly it doesn't matter as I am leaking a solid vacuum out in ~ 1.5 minutes (so it seals pretty well, but is not perfect. Not sure yet if it would leak water, but if it did it will be at such a small rate that it would not matter much :lol: perfectionist inside me still wants it fixed though. )

 

@blimey
how far is it from holly springs to tryon ish area?

I am only ~ 15 minutes from tryon/columbus NC and only 30 min from saluda (maybe)

happy to help anyway I can, PM me if interested.


anywho, UPDATE!

SHE STARTS!! woohoo!

cooling system not done, and I need to swap out the 15psi spring in the wastegate for ~6psi so that the boost controller can handle things from 6-18psi.

[ame=http://youtu.be/WXNEX3xuHDo]mini r53 turbo first start teaser - YouTube[/ame]

 

this evenings tasks: fix the exhaust.

So I made a booboo: when I was welding up the last part of the downpipe (connecting it to the main exhaust), apparently I forgot to hold it in place where it would clear the swaybar as it moves.

ruh roh!

but thankfully this was easily fixed without having to cut through any swaintech coating! phew!

Ended up just taking 1" out of the main run of pipe between the resonator and the front exhaust hangar.




inch removed and tac'd in place.


Test fit revealed that my measurements were accurate and everything lines up! (sorry, no pics. Hard to fit anything other than me and wrenches under the car)
Finish welded (i guess I forgot to take a pic) and she is now back in the car and everything is happy!

how this worked:

Doing this allowed the downpipe to swing upwards, pulling it away from the swaybar, and re-connect to the exhaust. (hooray for having 3 joints that can move! (v-bands) but in swinging "up" it moved the rear end of the down-pipe up and back. Now I did not have to rotate it far, only a few degrees. This moved it up about an inch, and back about an inch.

Good thing is my flex section was a bit back, so it only had to move by a few degrees as well to pull the end back down so that it could mate up with the exhaust.

Time will tell if this causes issues, but I am running with it for now :lol:
(something tells me it may.. I have issues with flex sections, although they are infinitely better than donuts imho.) :lol:


And onwards!!


so, I also need a coolant overflow tank... seeing as the stock one is

A: ugly, and
B: I have no where to put it.


So I am opting for a smaller one, in a not very logical location, but I will just heat shield the crap out of it.

Right over the downpipe!

Figured it cant be too bad when the OE one was over the header :lol:



Not finished yet, but that is all I had done for this evening. Had an after-hours meeting, then home, got a small snack, and the exhaust just took a while to take measurements, cut, tac, test fit, take it back off, clean, purge, weld, put it back on and bolt everything up to make sure nothing hits.


Anywho,

onward to this!

so I started with flat sheet as usual. Traced the pattern of the bend on the new rear heat shield / engine bay trim I made, and then cut out the plate. Measured the back side length, cut another piece and then clamped it in my vice and bent it by hand.

Welded the two together and this is how it started out today (did those things last evening)

(ignore the two pegs, those were not there when I started)



anywho, from there I used my calipers to measure out and scratch the aluminum for where I wanted the bolts to go to hold this thing on.

I marked the holes, used an automatic center punch to mark them, and then drilled small-ish pilot holes.

From here I took the piece, clamped it in the car where I wanted it, and then transfer punched the center of those holes I was drilling into the engine bay trim (so that the holes will be concentric and I don't have to have a lot of slop + washers)

I drilled out the punched spots in the engine trim to 6.5mm (for bolt clearance)


Then I used a step bit to drill out the pilot holes in the WIP resevoir to 0.5".

I cut two small lengths of 1/2" aluminum rod, lined them up over the holes, tac'd them from the back side (see image of piece in vice above) , and then I filled in the hole I drilled from the other side, welding the "pegs" to the sheet.
I welded over on purpose, and then filed the outside back flat.

Re-marked the centers of where the holes were (using the dimensions I used to mark them originally)
And drilled 5mm holes ~1" deep (I know, I like to switch units. :lol


Then I removed the blue, filled the holes with aluminum cutting fluid and tapped the holes for M6-1.0




test fit 1:



test fit 2:


Everything lined up nicely!


Rest of the evening was just cutting out the metal for the front two sides
and bending it in my vice





chamfering the front corner, and then welding it up




as she currently sits






it is about half the volume of the original unit unfortunately, but I am tinkering with the idea of extending the bottom down.. not sure yet, which is partly why i did not finish it this evening.

Need time to reflect and decide.
:lol:

Hope you enjoyed!

 

no walk through this evening, just some final shots.
Did a little bit of welding, but then my upper back muscles started cramping so I called it quits while I was ahead.


Anywho,
I needed a manifold for water distribution to the intercooler and turbo. Turbo has -10 AN lines (yes! -10! ) and the intercooler takes 2x-8 inlets, while the pump outlet is 3/4 barb. fun.
I have not put the barb on yet, need to go turn that, but, While looking for a place to mount this manifold, I had the great idea (in my mind at least) of just welding it straight to the inlet tube to the intake manifold! Should be cool water anywho, and it is post intercooler, so worst it could do is take a fraction of a degree off of my inlet temps (lol!)

And if I am honest, I got a bit lucky with the fitting clearance when it was all said and done. haha!

fyi: my aluminum welds look a lot better recently because I switched to a 2% lanth and started just putting a small flat on the tip instead of using pure tungsten and letting it ball.


cut it close:





welds and more welds

 

bunch of random boring stuff this weekend, and a few neat things thrown in the mix.

Most of it was plumbing work for the coolant system and torquing everything I took off the car back down (from valve cover to subframe, etc)

I also finally got around to putting an 8-pin connector on the vipec expansion harness



Wiring is one of my least favorite things (easy, boring) but at least it makes things nice and simple to use



Also got in my EGT gauge

So I marked, drilled, and tapped a hole directly into the turbine housing for that
(no money or room for individual cylinder EGT)




went ahead and put a 10.5psi spring set into the wastegate (for starters while I get it running, will get bumped up to an 18psi setup soon enough.




also got the fittings welded on for the a2w setup, and all the o-rings seat well inside of the water path, no leaks!

 

thanks Scottin Bend!


Here is a little more action for everyone


nothing to see here! nothing at all.
Please, keep moving along!


(placement of bellmouth close, but not exactly where it will be final)
(yes I am making an air filter box that will be welded to that piece of artwork)
(yes my hood scoop is now the main air intake)
(no you cannot have it)

 

micro / boring ish update.

Finished the radiator plumbing! now just to finish off the intercooler plumbing this evening

needed a few fittings I did not have though, and I had some bar stock... so I decided just to make what I needed!
(let me know if these do not show up)


all of the individual pieces turned out. Needed a reducing T adapter from the heater core, and needed weld-fittings for the radiator overflow tank to hook to the lines.

"t" roughly assembled (recessed lip on the T fitting lines everything up nicely)




welded!


Probably one of the nicer T fittings you will ever see. haha!

finished off the overflow tank, welded on the fittings and ran the lines.

Probably will have to add a heat shield to this.. kinda close to the hot stuff. (shouldn't melt, just worried about radiant heat xfer )






That is all from yesterday!
(also got all of the lower radiator hoses run and tied together. only took 3 trips to advance and digging around the back to find hoses that would work and run where I needed them to! haha! )

 

time for the weekend update:
I was a good and forgot to refill my argon cylinder, so no welding (and believe me, I kicked myself a few times)

but I had plenty of other things to do


New compressor housing came in over the weekend,


So as per my usual self, I started drilling and cutting into it

This one is surge ported as well.

drilled a hole and tapped it for boost reference for the boost controller





The green stuff is aluminum cutting fluid.
Without it the threads would not have come out so nicely in this soft casting (half would probably be missing)


Then I cut off the outlet, leaving enough of a stub for getting my welding torch in.
Ported the inside out to the right size, then I polished the inside (and outside) of a tight radius cast bend, cut a little bit of leg length off of it, chamfered the two ends, and it is ready for welding! (this is where i realized I was out of argon )





So since I couldnt work on that,

I decided to work on mocking up intake plumbing!
After all the new bell core is in, pipe is in, tubing is in, I have the vanjen and wiggins joints still (new set of wiggins ferrules came in for that clamp)
and I have 3d printed mock-up transitions while the local shop bends them out of sheet metal for me!
(i do not have a bender that can do the complex geometry and thickness of material for the transitions)


So, I re-worked the turbo inlet pipe


Tucks around everything nicely and allows for OE hookups for the coolant system and clears the radiator fan.

another shot




since I could not weld on the compressor housing I mocked it up and put it on the car



And skipping several steps,

Plumbing is roughed in!




Still need to finish cutting the little end bits for the intercooler,

And I have hidden one pipe section as it is going to be for something super nifty.

But I have to test out some pneumatics to see if it works first before I show it off.

All I have to say is I am also making this, it has to do with it, and it is gonna be purdy



As well as a regulator, one way valve, and a return spring and a butterfly valve...

Fun fun


Hope the weekend is going well for everyone!

 

changed out the spring in the piston and now it works flawlessly.
Now i just need to mount it and finish up the intake plumbing.

for now, just a few more pictures.

welded up compressor housing



and a general plumbing shot.




hopefully the transitions in and out of the intercooler will be done tomorrow so I can pick them up and finish of the main part of the intake plumbing tomorrow.

 

was wearing them!

Dusted off my shirt and a bunch that had accumulated fell down the inisde of the glove.. fml.

(leather work gloves)

This time around I wore latex ones and rubber-banded the ends close to the skin and overlapped layers! haha!

 

Prepare for Boost!!!

well somewhat...


So,

How do we successfully mount piping to the throttle body if it will be seeing boost pressure?

Well, the typical way would be to use a sylicone coupling and worm-clamp the ever living crap out of it. no?

Well in what way is my build typical :haha: !


So, I started by machining of that pesky retaining lip that was interfering with my design feng shui !




Then I machined out this nifty little adapter that I designed last night.



This is designed to rest over the inlet to the throttle and incorporate a square o-ring seal that will mate with the very top edge of the throttle body inlet.
This way as it gets bolted down it will compress the o-ring and create a seal!

O-ring seat lip is machined so that when not bolted, the bottom of the adapter will be .01" from fully seating (allows the o-ring to compress .010" for sealing)



revearse side with o-ring



The top of this adapter is also 2.5" OD with an .065" wall.

This will allow for easy welding to tubing or to a vanjen joint.

seated in place! (but not bolted down)


Working on the throttle body mounting flange now, then I need to go home and start cutting up the new R53 intake manifold I got from a junk yard in atlanta.




few more images for the evening
assembled sealing mechanism.


cut the flange off, filed it smooth, and cleaned the donor intake manifold

(cleaned for welding prep)


okay, so i mocked the manifold and new flange up, clocked, marked, and then welded the flange on



pardon the mess in the background. lots of stuff going on.




Then, if you scroll up a tad, you will notice that the old intake manifold that i cut the flange off of was not exactly what we would describe as round.

In fact, that profile would make a rather atrocious wheel.

but!

I decided to see if I could smooth things out, and it came out quite well

opcorn:


Welded the inside to add some metal and bridge the two profiles (a PITA considering the torch does not really fit in the opening for welding this)




Then i took a dremmel with a flapp disk and some aluminum cutting fluid to help lubricate the chips and extend the life of the disk a little bit and went to town on the weld bead at first and then smoothing the transition till I got it where i liked

(made a small mess)




cleaned up a tad




did a little touch up filing on the edge so as to allow for the use of the OE intercooler mount




and an ultra potato quality photo of the throttle assembly all bolted on!


(phones camera is great, but things get weird when it is back-lit :lol

 

well, it works!
All that is left is to make the mount, trim the actuating bar, tap it as needed for threads etc, and make the bit that will attach to the stock BPV!

but lets be honest, you all just want pictures... you WHORES! (jk.. )

parts needed / I made.
all this started as raw material from mcmaster car (lip seal, o-ring, and rod bearing aside) and round metal bar stock.



assembled piston


this was made by turning down the shaft from .375 to .3125 for a 0.245" section. then drilling a .201" diameter hole in the center of the shaft and tapping it for 1/4 -20 threads.

I then took a 0.515" thick piece (rough cut) of 1.625" OD aluminum bar stock and turned it down to 1.483" OD and faced it to 0.499"

I drilled a 0.25" diameter hole through the middle and then used a 0.3125" Diameter end mill to touch off and "drill" 0.25" deep into that same hole.

I then flipped the piece and used a 0.375" mill to put a 0.125" deep hole in that side.

I then faced the second side to have the profiles for the o-ring seat and top hat.

Then I made a jig in the mill, centered the piece, and told it to drill the bolt holes.

The turned shaft went into the 0.3125x.25" deep hole and was pulled into a press fit by using a low profile 1/4-20 bolt.

Makes sure everything is nice and concentric.

where the shaft is pressed in




just tight enough!
There is only about a .004" compression on the O-ring in the cylinder bore and the o-ring groove height is 1.30" (.005" taller than the o-ring)
This allows the o-ring to switch profiled ever so slightly and fill the cavity when it is compressed, but does not let it move too much which causes sticking.






I did some figuring when I was ordering stuff for this, and the spring rate is about 0.5lbs too low and it needs more pre-load compression.
(it was a 7.8 lb 0.625" long spring for a 0.5" throw, so only 0.125" of pre-load)
So i have ordered a new spring that will be here tomorrow and should work well.

Current spring fully actuates at 5-6"hg, new one will just begin to actuate at 5-6" and be fully open by 10"
(8.4lb 1" long spring giving 0.5" of pre-load or 4.2lbs of spring pressure at rest)