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

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers guys I hadn't even thought about the plastic expanding when I bought it! Crikey, think brass would've cost the earth for this little trinket

 

Well, now the weather's a bit warmer, I've decided to get all tooled up to make the rest of my CF panels and bits and bobs. Gonna re-make the boot mould having learned from the mistake of last time which should result in a much neater edge to the finished panel.

 

Also going to lay panels up in one hit using core-mat to give the required stiffness rather than trying to ape the ribs which BMW put on the metal panels.

 

So if anybody wants just the outer skin of a boot lid for a track car or whatever, gimme a shout Same goes for the sunroof plug. It's not perfect, but for a track car it'd be fine.

 

Anyway, getting ready to order up all this composite stuff has spurred me onto getting the foam cores for the charge air ready to be laid up.

 

Started off by creating a skirt of parcel tape underneath all the alloy nodes:

 

 

Idea behind this is to prevent any resin seeping under the nodes and dissolving the foam. The cores are all out in the garage drying off a coat of PVA which should hopefully protect the rest of the foam.

 

That done, it was off the the parents' house to get on with the oil distribution system. My experience with Brown leads me to believe that using jubilee clips to hold oil lines on just leads to them leaking. Not badly, but a bit of a weep, and if you over tighten them then the clip's scrap.

 

So, I've made some beefier clips from ali which will hopefully mean I can do them up as tight as necessary and forget all about them

 

 

Thought I had some suitable screws kicking about but they're not quite long enough, but here's the line to the oil dizzy block

 

[Rippthrough 98]

Yeah, bronze (rather than brass) is quite good with aluminium, but normally you use it the other way around - a bronze liner, aluminium cylinder and a chrome/nickel plate on the liner for wear resistance and friction reduction.

That combination will stand some serious heat before trying to sieze, but it'll have a bit of blowby until the piston warms through.

Edited March 8, 2009 by Rippthrough

[M3Evo 0]

Aah that's the kind of setup they use for little model piston engines isn't it? Seem to recall hearing something about plated bronze liners anyway.

 

Thought it might be a nice idea to finish off the gauge pod today, so dragged my sleepy self over to the parents' house, only to discover that we've got every size of hole saw other than a 2" one so the pod's still like this:

 

 

So got on with making little trinkets for the throttle linkage.

 

 

The idea is that I'll capture the screws on that big long flat bar and thread the little bit with a hole in it so it can be adjusted back and forth. Then, the little ball bearing can be glued in and bolted through onto the throttle arm. Nice and simple (for once!)

[Dom9 2]

It's all looking great mate!

 

I think I may start to have a play with some CFRP. I really want to make a new lid for my airbox as it is full of 'junk' from the resonance chambers etc used to quieten down the induction noise. It makes it all look quite restrictive and it seems like a good shape/ size for something to 'start with'. i just need to get some foam and start on a plug...

 

One of these days I am sure Iw ill get round to it!

[M3Evo 0]

Give it a go, it takes next to no time to do!

 

I've been preparing the foam bits for the weekend by painting them with good ol' PVA glue (which cost a shocking £12 from homobase!) I had been using PVA release agent but I wasn't convinced it'd protect the foam.

 

Will take some piccies of the process as I go, but I'm hoping it'd gonna be quite simple to cover the cores. Think there'll need to be a bit of a compromise with the charge air pipes which run near the exhaust as I'm worried about them bursting in to flames. For this reason, I've bought some fire resistant resin, but it's all opaque so these bits'll have to be made of glass rather than carbon.

 

Will probably do the cheating thing of just putting a carbon veneer on the other high temperature pipe, and then the two chambers of the charge cooler can be made properly from CF as they're away from the heat for the most part.

 

Be good to get these bits done as it'll mean I can determine the locations for the actuators, pumps, charge cooler water pipes, oil feeds and returns and all that jazz

[M3Evo 0]

Bit hung over again today so decided to stay at home and write a quick carbon/composites guide

 

I need to finish off the charge cooler and charge air plumbing before I can get on and make brackets for the large turbo, actuators and that kind of thing. Any comments / suggestions welcome!

 

Some time ago, I made the foam cores for the bits I need. Decided to start the guide on something relatively simple in shape, the airbox which will be bonded to the charge cooler cores.

 

So, first, you've to make a polystyrene core. Use polystyrene as it's easily dissolved out of your finished composite using acetone or whatever:

 

 

If you need to build up the thickness of your core as I did, you can use quick setting epoxy glue. Just dot it around the two bits to be joined rather than spreading it as the cured glue is difficult to cut neatly.

 

Having made your core, you need to prevent it being attacked by the resin when you make your composite. You can either use epoxy resin (which is very expensive but doesn't eat into polystyrene) or you can do what I did which is to give the core a good thick coat of PVA glue.

 

 

I gave the core two coats just to be sure, really work the glue into any divets as you don't want the resin seeping in!

 

The brown tape on my core there was used to cover over some gouges in the core. Put your masking on once the PVA has set as the PVA will just run off the tape if you try it the other way round

 

Once your core's ready, you need to decide how you're gonna cover it. In my case, I want it to look nice, but not cost too much. Weight is also a very important concern for this component and it'll be subject to some fairly high pressures so it must be good and strong too. For these reasons, I decided to make it from a combination of woven glass cloth and woven carbon fibre, two plies of each. If you're making a really complex shape, it's probably easier to live with the extra weight of Chopped Strand Matting (CSM) and use that instead.

 

Before you can start cutting up your reinforcements, you need to make a template. There are probably better ways of doing this than using news paper, but it's expendible so it doesn't matter if you get it wrong, and you can add bits onto it with tape if you need

 

It seems logical, given the shape of my core here, to use one large piece of cloth per ply and have the edges overlap, so I've made my template big enough to do just that.

 

 

 

 

Once you're happy with the template, it's time to start cutting out your reinforcements. I cut one out and then make sure it all fits as it should....in principal at least!

 

 

 

You can see how well the cloth drapes over the more complex curves of the core, which the paper just won't do. In the second piccy, we can see that there's too much material to allow us to make the tight turn around the end of the core, so trim the cloth to suit and then update the template so that the remaining plies all fit:

[M3Evo 0]

 

Don't know if you can see, but there's an arrow on the template and a corresponding arrow on the core. If you can mark your reinforcements with something like a little bit of parcel tape or something, it makes it easier to get them round the right way when you're laminating

 

Finally, it's time to start laminating all your cloth onto the core.

 

In my case, there's to be a large opening in the finished piece which makes it nice and easy to hold the core up. I stabbed two large files deep into the core to make it as stable as possible, then clamp the files in a vice. It's probably a good idea to wrap the vice in a bin liner or something to stop resin getting into it, but I forgot!

 

 

Right, now for the sciency bit.....how much resin to use!

 

The resin to reinforcement ratio is determined by two things:

1) weight of the reinforcement

2) type of reinforcement

 

I know that the glass cloth I'm using weigh 390g/sqm, and that I need about a 1:1 resin to fabric ratio. I also know that the first ply will need more resin than subsequent plies as we need to paint a good layer of resin all over the core before we can put the first layer of cloth on, and then we need to paint more resin all over that....more on that in a mo though!

 

If you're using CSM, you need about 2.5:1 resin to reinforcement by weight, so you can see how the weight of a CSM laminate is likely to be much higher than a woven cloth laminate of the same thickness.

 

So, measuring the overall size of the template, at 0.9mx0.7m gives an area of roughly 0.6sqm and a cloth weight of 234g. So for the first ply, we need to mix up about 500g of resin, and about 250g for subsequent plies. The carbon fibre weighs about half as much as glass per sqm, so in theory we'd need half as much resin, but it doesn't hurt to have some spare resin at the ready!

 

So, having carefully read the instructions which came with our resin, we mix up a 500g batch. You need to make sure you've read and properly understood the safety information which came with the resin too! These chemicals have the potential to be very unpleasant, especially the catalyst so make sure your workspace is clear and tidy with no tripping hazards, wear the recommended eye protection, respiratory protection and be sure to wear appropriate gloves! Your safety is your responsibility, not mine!

 

Once the resin is thoroughly mixed as per the instructions, we need to paint the core with it so that there's a layer of resin all over the core. Once that layer of resin is on, you can pick up your first piece of cloth and CAREFULLY position it on the core. If you get it wrong at this stage and you're using woven fabric, trying to take the cloth off will likely as not result in it falling apart. Have a try though as you might be lucky. If it does start coming apart, it's probably best just to try and trim it back and get it all to stick down. Keep a pair of scissors handy for this kind of thing!

 

Once the cloth is positioned, we need to carefully pat in onto the core using our gloved hands. Even though there's an overhang on my component, the surface tension of the resin holds the cloth in place.

 

Once you're happy with the positioning, pick up your resin and start painting it all over the cloth. Firm brush strokes are all you need with woven cloth to get the air out. Work on larger surfaces first and then the smaller details.

 

Once the cloth is properly wetted out, mix up another batch of resin, take another ply and put it on in exactly the same way. Pat it into position and see how it soaks up resin from the ply beneath. Remember that we need less resin this time round!

 

And that's essentially it, keep mixing up batches of resin and adding plies of reinforcement in exactly the same way until you've put all your plies on

 

Carbon fibre goes on in exactly the same way as glass cloth, but it's more difficult to see whether there's air trapped under it so be extra dilligent with your brush when it comes to squeezing the air out.

 

And here's the drying result:

 

 

 

 

Once that's all dried, it'll probably be a but bumpy on the surface as the cloth has that kind of surface to it. So next up we'll look at getting a nice gloss surface which the show going public can all swoon over, but that'll have to wait for another day

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Thats a great guide, and looks like the end product will be amazing too. Would love to have a go at some of this sometime in the future, any suggestions on where to buy these supplies?

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers dude

 

I get all my stuff from East Coast Fibreglass.

 

Used surfboard resin for this too incidentally.

[M3Evo 0]

Made the second most complex of the charge air bits today, the pipe which runs up from the air divertor valve to the inlet of the charge cooler.

 

It's not especially pretty as the fire retardant resin is opaque white, but to keep it looking nice I'll give it a veneer of carbon fibre to the visible surfaces.

 

 

 

I was gonna try and use hose joiners to attach it to the air valve, but it seemed a better option to mould a flange onto the end so it can be drilled and screwed into place.

 

The little pipe is there to allow boost from the small turbo to bypass the air valve

[platty 1]

I do look forward to your Sunday updates

 

Yet again, you've made me feel inferior

 

I like the Carbon guide, I'll be using it for some of my little bits.

 

One question, how do shape polystyrene?

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers dude, very much appreciated

 

Nobody should feel inferior looking at my pics, my camera is very friendly and seems to make everything I do look about ten times better than it does in real life

 

To shape the polystyrene, I used a big carving knife (needed to make some quite deep cuts) for basic shaping, or a craft knife would work just as well and once you've got a basic shape that you're happy with, you put your dust mask on, go out in the garden and sand away with 80grit wet and dry.

 

Do be a bit careful when using the wet'n'dry as it's quite easy to gouge holes in the surface and also it's very easy to sand faaaaaar too much off very quickly indeed. Once you're good at it though, you can make some lovely sweeping curves and the like.

 

** This weekend's update on the previous page for anyone looking **

[M3Evo 0]

And a little bit if post-St Paddies day work, the other pipe complete with flange so it can be bolted to the air valve.

 

This pipe takes air from the large turbo to either the small turbo or the air valve.

 

[M3Evo 0]

Trimmed up the bits of pipe and the two halves of the charge cooler today.

 

Need to think carefully about how to attach the cooler halves to the core. I reckon a CF plate top and bottom to give a good overlap would do it, and then bond onto the alloy side cheeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Definately needs some heat shielding here, but it's got about 25mm clearance, and the same thing happens up at the charge cooler where it runs close to the exhaust turbine housing.

 

 

Need to get on and fit all the junk that goes on the front of the engine so that I can get a better feel for where the actuators should go. Does look at the moment like they can both live at the front of the engine where it's a bit cooler and they're not in the way of the spark plugs!

[sonofsam 5]

 

Too cool for School Alex, great stuff mate

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers Sam

 

Didn't get an awful lot done today, just spent about an hour and a half clocking the little turbo bearing section and then made up an outlet connection for it.

 

The outlet from the compressor is a neat little V-band jobbie so it makes sense to have a V-band attachment for the bypass pipe.

 

 

Just gotta make up the foam core for the bypass pipe which carries air up to the little spigot in the foreground of the piccy here:

 

 

There's a bit of a twist needed in the bypass pipe as I hadn't reckoned on the oil cooler pipes being where they are, but it's no biggie I don't think

[Dom9 2]

Absolute madness - Still loving it!

 

Does it really still all fit under the standard bonnet?

[M3Evo 0]

He hee, I hope it still does

 

Certainly it did when I made the foam core for the big tank that goes over the throttles anyway

[base-1 17]

Looking bloody awesome!

 

Have you got a photo of the ID tags on the turbos? I'm interested to know their exact (original!) applications and can get them looked up

[M3Evo 0]

Aah, keep forgetting to take piccies of the ID tags, will try and remember next week!

 

Bit of a random bitsa update

 

The last bit of charge pipe is pretty much finished save for cleaning the excess resin off the V-band end of it

 

 

 

 

I've started to repair one of the wings in preparation for mould making

 

 

 

Cleared the foam out of the inlet side of the charge cooler.

 

 

Think this really needs a turning vane inside it so help prevent all the air from rushing up to the far end so made another foam buck:

 

 

Couldn't be bothered to PVA it this time as it only has a simple curvature to it, so I glued a sheet of that transparent thin plastic packaging stuff onto it. It's rigid enough to support the curing laminate anyway, and it peels off the back easily too

 

 

So there's the curing turning vane. Once it's cured, I'll peek the buck off and then trim it to suit the inside of the inlet before bonding the vane in. It's just made of woven glass this time incidentally

 

The vane should also help prevent the top and bottom surfaces of the inlet from bowing out under pressure.

 

 

Finally, decided that the airbox side of the cooler really needs to be removable as the whole assembled cooler will be quite unweildy, so to that end I made up a couple of CF sheets with a 90degree bend in them:

 

 

These will be bonded top and bottom to the core and inlet, and have a metal strip bonded to them so that the airbox can be bolted on and is easy to remove

[base-1 17]

Aah, keep forgetting to take piccies of the ID tags, will try and remember next week!

 

 

Fantastical, and I love that pipe!

Edited April 16, 2009 by base-1

[bluesleeper 3]

Loving your work with this! looks like its taking over your life /house which isn't a bad thing!

especially loving the carbon moulding, top class!

keep up the great work mate.

 

Gareth.

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers dudes Not sure my house mates and parents would agree that my taking over of two houses is a good thing.....but whadda they know

 

 

Have spent all my time this weekend making a simple bloody v-band clamp! Couldn't find anywhere which sold them in the right size unfortunately, so here's the end resultL

 

 

 

 

 

It's little steps I know, but all these things need making before I can sort out homes for the actuators and that kind of thing.

 

Also, filled in the spec sheet for my dry sump pump. Spent ages trying to find out on the internet how fast the standard pump is driven relative to crank speed.....and then it suddenly occurred to me that it must be half crank speed as the dizzy drive used to be taken from the same point. How stupid do I feel?!

[M3Evo 0]

Hooray! After a two week wait, we have rockers!

 

They're about twice the weight of the ali ones but the mass is very much concentrated around the central boss so hopefully they shouldn't have a massively different radius of gyration to the standard ones.

 

Can finally get on and build the 'head now

 

 

 

 

Just out of interest, can anyone tell me what you're supposed to coat the MLS head gaskets with?

[Dom9 2]

You posted those pictures last night, so, now it is morning, where are the pictures of the completed head???

 

Chop, chop!!