[project] Nothing To Do With 205's, But Behold!

[Rippthrough 98]

I think I owe you a pint!

Milled a former out of some T45 block yesterday, shaped it the same as a brake flaring tool for a proper double flare, got myself some 2.5" ally forming tube and put it under the press and bang, one lovely trumpet.

 

Ok, it's not shiny, but it's smooth, and nothing some wet and dry and autosol wouldn't solve. Have to make another former for my 38mm trumpets on my TB's now.

 

Uber cheap trumpets

[M3Evo 0]

He he, works quite well doesn't it!

 

Quite pleased with today's efforts!

 

Got the other two mounting points for the charge cooler welded on and in the case of the long one, braced up:

 

 

And made a little mod to the exhaust valve assembly so that it fits back together properly.

 

It actually feels like I'm getting somewhere now that I've got some bolt-togetherable components which aren't all trying to occupy the same space

 

 

 

 

 

[M3Evo 0]

Been in Dublin over the weekend with work so I took today off to get some stuff done on the car

 

Got the materials to make the new inlet manifold last week (thanks as ever to Mike at NogginEnd for his friendly and efficient service!) so I set-to with the machines today:

 

This is the new one-piece head plate after drilling and fettling to clear the thermostat housing:

 

 

 

After cutting the basis of one port:

 

 

And having decided the first one was right, cutting the res:

 

 

 

This is the plate which the throttles bolt to. I tried cutting the big holes for the air to pass through in it but it took bloody ages as the hole-saw kept clogging up........so my ol' man's going to finish the job at work for me

 

 

 

And the last thing I had time to do which is a set of translators (well the start of them anyway). The idea is that I make a set of gradually tapering translators which go from 48mm at the throttle to 38mm at the head which matches the port. The manifold at the head is easy as you can buy ali tube of the right internal diameter, but the translators need machining out of solid.......yawn!

 

[M3Evo 0]

Mmmmmmm, they smell of poo for some reason

 

[welshpug 1,657]

what kind of power+torque is expected from this beast when completed? I spent an hour or so on youtube earlier looking at what would come up under "E30 turbo".......

[M3Evo 0]

I'm hoping for around 450bhp and over 400lbft, but I'm also hoping for mountainous low end shove too.

 

He heeee, got some Pauter forged steel rods on the way now too, and a nice Tilton twin plate clutch

[M3Evo 0]

Little bit of progress today on the new inlet manifold, Dad cut the big round holes in the top plate there for me so they're done except for the oil breather, and finished machining the translators too which I'm quite chuffed about. Just gotta cut the remainder of the runners from the tube I've got and I'm away!

 

 

 

Time to break out TIGgy the TIG welder again Hope I don't run out of gas!

[M3Evo 0]

Had quite a productive day today

 

Fettled all the inlet flange ports to match the head nicely and set about welding the various parts together.

 

Started out with the translators:

 

 

 

 

Which took most of the morning, then cut the remainder of the runners and machined the welds back to let the bolts which hold the throttles on fit neatly:

 

 

 

And finally before I ran out of enthusiasm for the day, tacked the runners in place, aligned them using the throttle flange and then ran about an inch of weld around each runner just to stop them getting knocked out of place during the week:

 

 

 

Should get the manifold finished off next week with any luck. Gotta make up some injector bosses and weld them on, and think I'm going to make a set of 90degree bosses so that I can use a modified fuel rail as an idle air rail

[Sandy 191]

Looking good

 

I presume you don't cook in there any more ?!

[TT205 42]

Scuse my ignorance but what does this superb piece of engineering do - is it just for a great degree of adjustment when tuning? - how do the translators/runners seal?

[M3Evo 0]

The translators are going to be welded to the runners eventually, I just cut a step in them to make it easier to locate them during fabrication

 

There's no real science gone into it's design, just a case of "that fits so it must be about right" (which of course it isn't.......but it does fit!)

[M3Evo 0]

Today's update I'm pretty chuffed with! Got the inlet manifold done except for the breather and injector/idle air bosses. Will probably weld the odd bit on here and there for the linkage and throttle stops etc.

 

So here it is, in all it's glory

 

 

 

 

Moved the autobox dipstick a little bit to let the mani in, much happier now I know it fits properly!

 

 

 

 

So the next thing is to get on with the other side of the charge cooler. Have fitted the new manifold to the head to help with fabbing that up:

 

 

 

 

And for good measure, bolted a set of the throttles on

 

 

 

 

Now do we think it'll be OK to widen the plenum as it moves away from the core so that all the inlet runners are parallel to each other?

 

Bit undecided on that one as yet, might be limited by space in the end I guess.

 

Also want to incorporate a water trap in the plenum just incase the core bursts!

[M3Evo 0]

Woo hoo, more spanglyness! Here's the lovely new clutch: Just gotta wait for the flywheel to arrive and then measure the thickness of the driven plates I'll be needing

 

[M3Evo 0]

Made a wee bit more progress today, albeit very slowly.

 

Made some bearing holders and pressed the little needle rollers into them:

 

 

 

Had a bit of a trial fit:

 

 

 

And before getting bored for the day, started on the linkage arms:

 

[M3Evo 0]

Been a bit of a slow weekend progress wise. Was going to try and finish off the charge cooler so I fitted the cooler and throttles in the car so I could have a play with the runners. There really is a deceptive amount of free space under the E30's bonnet as it doesn't come anywhere near the cooler, even at the front!

 

 

 

I'd thought I could use 135degree 48mm Samco hoses for the runners. Turns out I was quite wrong and that I need more like 180 degree bends so that put paid to the idea of completing the cooler this week

 

So anyway, thoughts turned to something I hadn't been looking forward to but needed to get done before completing the cooler which is the trumpets.

 

I bought a lump of 3"dia mild steel to turn down as a former:

 

 

 

Then cut 6 lengths of 2"dia ali tube, lubed them up with some EP80, put each one over the former in turn and gave them a squeeeeeeeeeze:

 

 

 

Which gives these lovely trumpets which I can weld into the cooleras outlets from the plenum into the Samco runners

 

 

 

Really pleased with how they've come out, although it was SOOOOOO boring making the former!

[Rippthrough 98]

Really pleased with how they've come out, although it was SOOOOOO boring making the former!

 

 

Should have said, could have borrowed mine, it double flares them too

[M3Evo 0]

Double flares them?! Sounds comlicated!

 

Here's a few pics of the latest progressions

 

Throttle link arms:

 

Some throttles:

 

An air balance rail I made so that I can have a proper IACV, get a decent stable signal to the MAP sensor and a reasonably steady vacuum to the servo

 

The little bits which the air rail plugs into:

 

 

Some injector bosses:

 

A nice light flywheel and twin plate clutch:

[M3Evo 0]

A super strong gearbox (with a stupidly low first gear!)

 

 

And the outer and inner sheets of the charge cooler plenum:

 

 

 

[mickie 3]

that manifold looks amazing, nice work

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers dude, looks a bit less good in the metal though

 

Feel like I've taken a medium sized step forward today, have finally welded the inlet trumpets in place and tacked the two halves of the charge cooler plenum together

 

Here's some pre-heating going on:

 

 

 

Welding on the little bit at the end:

 

 

 

All the trumpets in place:

 

 

 

 

The idle air boss (it's on a big plate because I made the walls of idle air boss Mk1 too bloody thin and it just burned away! Quickest way to remove the bloody thing was to use a hole saw and plate over the damage )

 

 

 

Couple of upstands to help prevent the plenum expanding under boost where it meets the core and also to make it easier to stick the inner and outer sheets together:

 

 

 

And finally, the plates tacked together

 

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2008 by M3Evo

[M3Evo 0]

Bit of a mixed bag today.

 

Finally finished this off

 

 

 

And made a little progress on the charge cooler.

 

Welded on a boss for the air temp sensor. Put this down by cylinder 6 as I reckon that'll be where the hottest air's to be found.

 

 

 

 

Made up three little pylons to stop the plates seperating (need at least another 3 of them but I've run out of suitable material)

 

 

 

Then bunged the whole lot under the bonnet to make sure it'd shut. Took a little bit of fettling but the bonnet closes without fouling now

 

 

 

 

[tom_m 0]

wow...

 

in awe of your skills sir!

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers dude, looks crap in the metal though!

 

Been on a mate's stag do in Dublin this weekend so haven't had a chance to get much done, but decided to have a pop at positioning the large wastegate today.

 

It's going to have to go down by cyl 6 and I've had to lop the corner off the battery tray to get it in, but that should give plenty of room for a 3" down pipe, a 2" WG pipe and the bypass plumbing from the outlet of the small turbine.

 

Going to route gas to the WG along this pipe. The plan is to cut the pipe down the middle where it meets the manifold and have it take gas from the collector.

 

 

 

Just gotta go out and see how short to make the stub coming off the WG now so I can weld these bits together.

 

[kyepan 291]

clicky though its a bit late thought you might find this info on bends in the intake system interesting, incase you've not decided on some of the pipe runs yet.

 

by the way, your welding and metal fab is looking very pretty, engineering meets art.

 

Cheers

 

J

Edited April 30, 2008 by kyepan

[taylorspug 7]

Have fun with that twin plate clutch. Ive got an AP twin plate and lightened flywheel on my E30 and its very all or nothing, i basically had to resort to giving it at least 3k to get it moving. Should make for some interesting pull aways from traffic lights...!

 

All looks superb anyway, the amount of fabrication and engineering is brilliant. Im also in shock that the bonnet closes after looking at how much the plenum protrudes from the bay.