What could be more on-topic than the tools we use?

DRO? Showoff! :)

DRO functionality is so cheap and accurate these days. I was looking in an old Metrology book at the vernier calipers used to get finer resolution back in the day. . . I suppose after much practice (an apprentcieship worth) one got used to it. These days things like digital dial indicators are so cheap and take all the guesswork out of following the clock needle around and around-- AND you can zero the off-side one so you can dial in the cam timing perfectly side-to side!

Keep the good stuff coming. . . a worthy interlude.

Hello mate!...yes, you're right, the DRO's - even the so-called "budget" one I'll get, are so functional, a lot slimmer than they used to be and good value for money, it's almost rude not to, apart from slightly spoiling the old-skool classic look of the lathe. But that's irrelevant detail, it's there to do a job not look pretty ;)

Ah, I don't think you can substitute digital aids for sound base knowledge; like basic arithmetic we teach our kids, you could argue there's no point since every gadget/device they touch can do all this for them, but unless you understand the fundamentals of how it all works, and piece those individual components together, then you can never truly be confident in what you're doing.

Just finished restoring a massive vice I was given (for a drink) the other week....god knows how old it is, but it's from a local steel fabrication company that went bust a few years ago. Lovely old thing, nicely painted, degreased and ready for mounting on a floor mounted pedestal that I'll fabricate. No bench that I have is man enough to hold it! (I'll save everyone the pictures - its just a vice, haha). I feel like that bloke in Vegas on that tv show. Quite rewarding and cathartic!

Quick update time:

DRO plan didn't work out; I went up to the company that sells a variety of systems but the gauge that would fit on the back of the cross-slide would have covered the access slots that you need to get to, to alter the top-slide angle (eg for chamfering). No elegant way around it, and frankly, they're bloody ugly things to have bolted to a traditional looking lathe, so for once, didn't spend any money.

However....

The 1ph > 3ph digital inverter I bought to power the lathe, it turned out, wasn't *really* what I was after. The device I bought would allow frequency changes and connection to a remote "pendant" for start/stop/speed control, but it needs to connect directly to the 3ph motor, ie., not in front of all the control systems like the apron fwd/rev lever, the emergency cut-off mushroom switch, etc. Wasn't too happy with this, as I wanted to retain the original functionality of the switchgear, I've got a full gearbox for speed control along with dual speed motor, plus the hassle of re-wiring.

Time for Plan B. Spoke again to Drives Direct, who also do a 5hp capable "plug and play" unit that does exactly what I'm after, a pure 3ph supply that the lathe connects into, no additional rewiring, and the original switchgear is retained (it can cope with the back EMF)...but, it's more than 2x the price. Except it isn't, because I also needed a SINE generator and RFI filter, due to age of the motor (>30yrs old). This prevents me transmitting, ruining my neighbour TV watching. So, a complete system was what was needed, all custom built into a rather nice EMC shielded cabinet, along with dual 16A 3ph 3+Gnd sockets to supply both the lathe and the pillar drill.

I was due to be in the locality to the guys supplying the kit on a business trip, so I arranged to return the previous unit by hand, and despite not expecting the new system to be ready in time, the guys worked until midnight the night before, so that I could collect it the following evening. A very pleasant surprise, not often the case these days!

Anyway, here it is; you know you've spent too much when there's more than a smattering of big yellow labels. It's very weighty, so 2 handed job but it's getting installed tomorrow (er, later today, as it's now 4.00am) --->

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Apologies again - completely off topic for an engine build thread - hopefully I'll get back onto that very shortly. I must finish this project first though, otherwise it'll be yet another unfinished job.

Cool! The shielding box is a nice touch.

Do you think they still drive around looking for unlicensed TV sets?

:D I'm not sure....last year we finally had the switchover from traditional analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting...still uses the same aerial but hooked up to a DVB box (unless you're a satellite household)...don't know whether that means the man-in-a-van can drive around and catch the unlicensed in the same way as before - I'm sure it's all just a matter of a dB batch run to filter those who've not paid, then go hunting for them....

Finally!...some progress on the engine. It's been a VERY busy few months - I resigned from my job on Monday, so am currently on "gardening leave" before starting another in January. Had lots of interesting diversions this last few months as well, including researching and buying a new track toy and then handing back my company car on Tues and having to replace that (which was last weekends project). So, now that is out of the way, plenty of time to get more stuff done on the Porsche.

Ok, so in between my last proper engine update and the updates I've written about the lathe/workshop/3-ph supply, etc, I also was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, and successfully negotiated a swap of my aftermarket Turbo S rear wing for a genuine 3.3 Turbo rubber lipped wing. I'd been casually hunting and enquiring about one since I bought the car, in my attempt to return the car to it's stock look. My pal Brian was instrumental in me swapping mine for one on his mates car. Very happy, as it was more or less mint condition apart from some light paint blistering on the centre section. The colour was completely wrong (burgundy metallic, can't remember official name) so it needed a complete strip and respray anyway, but nothing cracked or snapped. The rubber lip itself is also mint, no cracking, pulled studs, divots or anything like that.

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A strip down of the innards (how many fixings?!?) and we're ready for the transformation. My pal Shaun the painter did the honours with the centre section, as well as re-painting the deck itself, which looked a little 2nd hand from some abrasion of the aftermarket wing. He's done an absolutely cracking job, very pleased.

I dropped all the wing fixings over to my plating shop a week ago, along with another box of non wing fixings, plus all the ally piping, oil catch tank and various brackets to be black anodized. I also asked them to re-colour the blue anodized pipe fittings - you may remember - I don't "do" blue on this engine, it has to be a little more discrete and match the rest of it.

Very surprised to find that when I just happened to drop in yesterday to add a few more bits to the list, that the gold passivated items were complete. All the aluminium items are also now polished and ready to be blacked.

All the remaining items to be powder coated are also now in the hands of Windridges, where Dale and the guys I'm sure will do another fine job. Included in this batch are some of the new wing pieces, but two of the bigger items here are:

• the rear tinware, which has needed a fair amount of reworking to accomodate the GT35 and it's pipework
• the dry sump oil tank

This tank has taken AGES to get stripped; used the last few dribbles of Nitromors that I had (white in colour) which did a good job on a small section. Bought another tin (now green in colour, and far smellier) and it barely touched it. I'm guessing that the Health & Safety Executive have had their way and insisted on less methanol content :rolleyes:

So, a day spent with the angle grinder with wire brush attachment....and lots of elbow grease to get in the nooks and crannies. Even though the coating shop are very good, there's no way I want grit anywhere near this item, nor incineration for fear of distortion or damage to the brazed pipework. So, after all that, it's spotless and all we're going to do is degrease it and then powder coat in 30% satin black.

Last night, whilst on flood alert (as was most of the east coast of the UK....tidal surges after midnight), I got some of the plated items refitted. Finding it very strange (and hard work) trying to remember what-goes-where, how I designed a particular part to fit, and so on. Hoping it'll come back to me!

Today I had another productive morning with Simon from Si-Leck, the chap making the engine wiring loom for me. It's been exactly a year since he came over, made a mock loom and then did his CAD drawings for me to view. So, I went over to his place today to recommence this part of the project - very useful it was too. Simon has made subtle changes to how he manufactures the looms, which will be to my benefit, as well as us covering off every sensor, and having a rethink as to whether we could route it better, save a split in the harness, and so on. Net result was that we have made some significant improvements, which Simon is in the process of re-drawing over the weekend.

We're now (hopefully) going to be using a couple of MIL bulkhead connectors (as used on Apache's...) to interface cabin loom to engine bay. Also, we're going to have an auxiliary loom in case we want to add more sensor inputs in future, as well as a separate loom for the small water pump which I'm using to cool the turbo and WG's. Two really neat Deutsch 5-way connectors (they really are tiny) are going to hook up both EGT feeds and the boost control solenoid. These will be bulkhead mounted onto the sensor bracket....which was over at the plating shop....!! Thankfully I caught them just in time, collected it and will rework this weekend.

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All wiring is going to be uber-thin Raychem, along with their really flexible heatshrink and nuke-proof (almost) heatshrink joints/elbows. Hoping we can get this built around the Christmas period ready to be installed onto the engine before lifting the engine up into the chassis.

Steadily thinking of a few more jobs to add to the "immediate" list, one of which is that I'm hoping to have the use of an industrial hot pressure wash system, so that I can give the underside of the car and the suspension items a good old clean. Don't want to be doing this once engine/box are back in, but it will make life easier when moving onto the suspension and chassis work in a few months.

Rocket electrics. . . befitting a rocket!

Nice to have you back. I know the feeling. . . a three year project turns into an eight-year restoration. . . . what was it McQueen said? Racing is life, everything else is just waiting?

Anyway glad to hear from you and we're looking forward to more photos when you can!

Welcome back, mate!
Those tiny Deutsch connectors are sexy cool.
Sounds like you're in the home stretch now! :-)

Hi John, yes, you're not wrong, but I feel I've got the mojo back now.

Bought a whiteboard over the weekend to list out all the jobs left to do; far better than relying on memory, and then haphazardly going at jobs as-and-when they occur to me - the trouble is, the list is loooong!

Sensor bracket is now modified for the above Deutsch bulkhead fitting. Dropped it back, and unexpectedly was given the first "sample" part from the black anodizing batch. The guys were a little concerned that the welding rod used to fab the intercooler pipes may not be "plating friendly". As it happens, I reckon it's come out rather nicely --->

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Also had to drop off (the inevitable) one part that I overlooked for powder coating - all the other stuff has now been incinerated and/or cleaned ready for coating; hoping that this may be ready fairly soon. If I can get the plating and coating work back before Xmas, then I think we can make some serious progress.

So...holding formation at the moment - appreciate there's not much interesting stuff going on for you guys to read, lots of work in progress - stick with it!

Heeey! Hello mate, you snuck a cheeky post in there while I was writing the ^^ post!

Yup, hoping to be on top of most of the stuff now - next major task, I think, is going to be to decide what to do with both the fuel and oil lines.

Oil lines - keep the OEM stuff where possible, or bite the bullet and buy new OEM hoses, or make some custom ones up using parts from Think Auto (my usual supplier). Swaying towards the latter option here.

Fuel lines - don't feel particularly comfortable using the existing front>rear pipes as they're now 20yrs old. Could make some new lines using PTFE rigid bore hosing, or I may have the option to get some new "stock" lines that are made by Porsches OE manufacturer (but not via Porsche)...hmmm...need to crawl under the car and give it some thought.

I can't remember now what material Porsche used for the 964 fuel lines. Was it different from the 930's/3.2's/SC's? If so, is it likely to be something that has a 20yr lifespan (like rubber), or is this stuff good for a long while yet?

Getting a lot of the jobs done today. Most satisfying so far is the start of the wing rebuild. Can't finish it just yet, as there's some parts with the powder coating company, but to give you an idea, got the ribber lip in place, lined up and tightened, along with replacing the foam strips on the underside to prevent the grilles from abrading...a lot nicer with freshly replated fixings:

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Also rebuilt the oil thermostat unit, new cover on the front, thermostat opening temp was checked last year when I stripped it:

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Starter motor - which was functioning perfectly - has now been given a make-over. Removed the solenoid, gave it a good clean and a regrease. Easier to get the angle grinder wire brush on it with the solenoid out of the way. It did look so manky that I was toying with the idea of just buying a new Bosch unit, but as it came up so well, I'll save that £250/300 for something else!

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Some other jobs that are now done:

• Installed cam chain cover blanking plugs (now black anodized)
• Turbo oil pump fittings now installed
• Grilles for the rear wing wire brushed, etch primered and satin black painted
• Air Con pump cleaned - just needs the clutch/pulley respraying
• Stand off spacer for sensor bracket now anodized and installed with rubber cotton-reel

...trouble is, I seem to be a whole box of parts missing :eek: God knows where they've gone whilst I've been doing the workshop build project. Hmm, I'm sure the answer will come to me over a beer. And a chilli...

BTW - Has anyone else noticed that Photobucket now sucks?

Uploading pics taken on the iPhone now renders a low resolution version (e.g. the pic of the burgundy wing further up this page)....anyway, am now switching to Flickr to see if its a better hosting option. Interested to hear if anyone else has noticed this (or knows how to fix Photobucket....I know you can change upload settings if transferring from a PC/Mac, but doesn't seem to be the same setting for the iPhone app)

Okay, missing parts box now found - under my nose with other rubbish on top of it. Thanks God, loads of goodies in there that I wouldn't have wanted to try and remember/replace.

Another productive day, lots of odds-and-sods jobs now wrapped up. Got a little further with the rear wing; applying the edging tape to the grilles - did one, doing the second this evening. The one that's done looks great in situ.

Biggest job today was one I've been putting off for a while, and that's replacing the soft rubber bush in the tail of the gearbox. In the last order I put into Chris @ Turbokraft, I got him to ship one of their very nice CNC'd replacements. If memory serves, it's very similar to the 964RS item, mostly solid with a polyurethane type centre spigot:

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Removal of the old one was "great" fun - used my tried and tested method of cutting the inner rubber out, then gently sawing the outer steel cage in 2 places (from the inside, out) to remove a section. Then gently tap the outer cage, thus folding it on on itself. Could've heated the outer tail housing with butane gas torch - if I had some gas! - wishing I had gone and got some after smacking my screwdriver holding hand with the hammer. Twice. Cue the blue cloud.....

Anyway, it's now out:

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...the edges cleaned up and lightly dressed, quick polish of the inner face and we're ready for installing the new TK item. This is an interference fit, by the looks of it, so the new bush is currently in the freezer. Tomorrow I'll get some butane to heat the tail section. There are 8 bolts in the kit; 4 for the permanent bolting-up of the 2 halves, and 4 for (what I think) using as draw bolts...longer than needed but used to align the 4 bolt holes (2 on each half, offset by 90deg to each other. Nice) whilst installing.

Also quickly offered up the single black anodized I/C pipe I've got back, just to see what it looks like....very pleased, has that slight looks of OEM about it....

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More progress to come this evening...time to refuel...

Forgot to mention above, but in tandem with the uprated gearbox tail housing bush, I also ordered one of FD Motorsports "Golden Rod" shift rods; it arrived very promptly ages ago (in fact, I can sense that Mark will very soon be chasing me for my original item...), it just needs installing. Maybe another job for tomorrow....

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As you can see, it has the solid UJ at one end, thus very similar to an 964RS item. But a fair bit cheaper. And gold.

If you have a look at robt964 thread 964 refurb on rennlist he replaces his fuel lines with a braided hose looks a good solution about page 12 on the thread

Great, thanks, will Google that in the morning ;)

What a great thread! Thanks again. I got in contact with Rob through the night w.r.t. his hoses, very helpfully he replied by return, as did Chris @ TK; think I'm going to hoist the car up and assess - so long as the original lines look ok, and the rubber ends can be changed by the guys at Think Auto, then this should work out a fair bit cheaper.

Another pretty productive day....

The gearbox tail section bush was installed with the help of my Brother and a bottle of butane gas. Anything that's an interference fit that involves freezing and heating always fills me with dread - one shot at getting it right or a world of pain trying to fix it.

It put up a little opposition, but it's in with all bolt hols aligned perfectly. Unfortunately, my OCD is in overdrive, as the logo isn't quite straight...the sheer panic when you take the plunge and put a frozen item into the hot casing! I'm not about to try and rotate it. Sorry Chris.

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All my Mikalor "Supra" clamps arrived today; got the chimney breather pipe back in place, fixed to my custom bracket and spacer on the intake. A little OTT to use Supra clamps on this part, but hey, not a lot more expensive than good quality stainless jubilee clamps, and I really don't want anything letting-go at a later date -->

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I also got the phonecall to say that my anodizing is finished. A quick dash down the road to collect these parts -->

Turbo oil drain tank
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Intercooler outlet > eGas throttle body
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Sensor bracket
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I got quite a bit further this evening, building the sensors back onto the bracket, hooking them up to their respective feed hoses, and also re-attaching the hoses and BOV to the IC pipework (pics to follow tomorrow). Looking forward to getting the IC back onto the engine (and finally binning that HUGE box that's taking up half my office!)

No prob`s Rob is doing a cracking job refurbing the whole car ! there`s been some epic 964 threads this year, yours included

Gaz

You're too kind!....trouble is, mine isn't a "this year" project, it's been going on since mid 2011!! :D To the point where everyone's given up asking when it's going to be finished, lol.

Progress this last few days has seen the final bolting down of the intake system, the IC mounting hardware and fitting the sensors (the MAF and Baro are fixed using some temporary scabby cap heads until I get some suitable BZP's)


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Decided I didn't want the P-Clips mounted in direct contact with the black anodising, so a quick bit of turning to make 3 x spacers (God I love having a lathe on hand!). This also overcomes a concern where the oil and boost pressure hoses *may* have abraded against the corner of the IC bracket.

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Have also finished the AC pump; a lick of paint to the pulleys and clutch assembly -->
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Wasn't going to do the clutch, as it didn't seem too bad, but then did look shabby compared to the freshly painted main pulley. Some careful masking-off of the riveted arms, the rivets and the centre bolt to preserve the plated finish, and I have to say, I'm rather pleased with how it looks, atop the AC mount and bolted down.

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The rear wing is almost finished - for the time being. The plastic inner section with the IC gasket is temporarily fitted just to get it out of the way, but it'll need reworking (opening out) to feed air to the far bigger TK intercooler. Very pleased with how this has come out, with replated fasteners and the use of Raceglaze to bring the plastics back up to factory look....just need to mount it to the deck lid and stick the Turbo badge back on.

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(Bean bags make great work benches ;) )


This evenings job will be to:

1. Test fit the IC, make sure that nothing's changed (no reason why it should have), but unfortunately it can't stay on there as I need to retain access to the amal valve that now lives on what was the ignition coil mount on the cooling fan housing. The amal valve is going to be fitted with that very nice Deutsch connector (see above) on Monday or Tuesday, then it can be bulkhead fitting and mounted onto the sensor bracket.

2. Turn the engine upside down and fit the header gaskets, bolt down the manifolds (I can't remember why I didn't do this some time ago - perhaps it was just the constant fitting/removal to do the WG fabrication work?), and then I can bolt on the turbo, fit the new oil drain tank and hook one up to the other, with the lines I made last year.

Tomorrow, it's time to fit the correct wastegate springs and get them bolted on for the final time, then I can refit my water cooling hoses.

A few more engine specific jobs still to do after that, which I need to get the powder coated items back for (e.g., rear tinware). Then it's time to turn my attention to the chassis; fitting pumps, ignition amps, water lines, water pump and radiator, re-installing the oil cooler, etc.

Evening folks, lots of activity this few days, but mostly driving around buying and collecting parts, then bolting up for the final time some of the items already pictured, tightening of the wastegate feed lines/T's, etc.

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So, one of the items on the "to do" list above was to check alignment of the IC pipes. Sods-law, and despite best efforts when welding everything up last year, the rear cold charge pipe is ever-so-slightly out of alignment with the output of the IC - only about 1.5mm L>R, but it's enough to make getting the collar for the quick release clamp on and off, an absolute pig of a job. Even with full access to the engine on the stand, it was almost impossible to slide it over both halves, so doing this in-situ in the engine bay would be virtually impossible. Spent some time fettling to get this better, and am now almost there - but not quite. Have to say, am kicking myself on this - we tacked all the pipes in place whilst they were connected, but with all the O-rings in place to give that accurate alignment, tacking is about as much as you want to do, to avoid driving too much heat into everything and melting the rings. If I can't get it any better, then I may have to resort to chopping the pipe near the BOV and using silicon hosing to allow the removal/refitting of the IC. Really don't want to do this, as in my mind, this is a compromise aesthetically, but we'll see....

Exhaust headers are now gasketed and bolted on for the final time. The turbo can be now be bolted on (ran out of steam at 2.30am!). The hot charge pipe from turbo>IC was aligned and clamped into place with new Mikalor clamps.

The plated oil drain connector for the turbo is also now in place:

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The oil catch tank itself is bolted in and ready to be hooked up:

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The boost control solenoid is also now re-terminated with its Deutsch connector - the first bit of Raychem is now on the engine! This is now riveted in place using countersunk rivets to give a clean appearance on the sensor bracket. Even this required some guerilla engineering; the nose of the pop rivet gun was too big to get in to where the rivets affix, so time to quickly turn up a small spacer. Another instance where having the lathe in the workshop has paid dividends.

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Some good news this morning - a call into the guys doing the powdercoating, and they were putting my tinware and oil tank through the process during the day. Final day before their Christmas shutdown, so was very keen to get over there this afternoon and collect everything. Another superb job, has come up just like new and good for at least another 20yrs.

Oil cooler radiator mounting hardware, rigid oil pipe, bumper support brackets, rear wing mount, engine bay strip (fixes just above the full width rear reflector) and some of the rear engine tinware assembly....

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...talking of which:

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The underside of this is going to be lined with heat reflective cloth; having seen what damage the heat had done to the previous piece of tin, and the fabrication work that went into the customisation of this one for the GT35R, I'm not in a hurry to replace it!

Dry sump oil tank:

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All items of course need to be un-taped, and despite the guys not incinerating or blasting the tank to remove any previous coatings, I'm still going to give it another flush through, to ensure nothing has got in there since the last wash.

Moving on....steadily....

I also managed to get around to finalising another shopping list of sundry items from my local OPC, including finally getting around to ordering a new fuel damper for the 4/5/6 injection rail...but also on there are just the odds-and-sods items like clips, bolts, rubber mounting bobbins (none of the eBay ones seem to quite measure up dimensionally), oil tank sender gasket, new fuel tank sieve/fllter and new oil cooler ballast resistor. Am retaining the stock control of this fan, I don't think there's any point in over complicating it by handing over control to the new ECU.

Am always shocked by how a very modest list of consumables and non-descript, boring parts, can still generate a bill of a few hundred quid!

Some news on the ECU; MBE have just made some significant changes to the 9A9 ECU that I'm using; mostly software but also some important HW changes to the input feeds, insomuch that they're now using completely isolated ground circuits for the wheel speed sensors, and the ability to intelligently detect any noise on these feeds and do some self determination (as well as reporting on this). So, being as this is absolutely what I need to handle the hp I hope we're going to be pushing out, it's an upgrade I'm pursuing. Because of the input feed changes it of course needs a new physical unit, so that's back with SBD awaiting a swap over.

Went over to see Simon @ Si-Leck, the wiring guy, who was in the process of getting a couple of urgent looms made before the w/e, then hopefully it's onto mine. Really looking forward to getting this (really high quality work), and pinned in place on the engine before re-installing.

Ok, belated Merry Christmas folks, and a few updates....

Rear wing and engine lid is now finished....much masking tape used in the name of getting the new Turbo badge aligned.

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I'm absolutely chuffed with how this has eventually come out - worth every penny, mile travelled and week waiting for parts.

All internals and the powder coated bracing piece bolted in - the only exception is that the plastic intercooler duct will have to be removed at some point, for modification to seal up against the new TurboKraft intercooler. If I can find out which material this is, my idea is to open up the aperture, then plastic weld on the ducting. Kind of reversing what the original IC had, where the ducting was fixed to the IC itself, which of course I can't do with the new IC...so, if it can be designed, made and then fixed to the wing, that should achieve the same thing.

I remember way back in the mid 90's when I worked for Xerox and environmental legislation was brought in w.r.t. recycling of plastics, every plastic part had to be stamped detailing what it was made from....I think these parts precede all that, and so I can't see any identifying marks....its flexibility makes it feel more like a polythene based material rather than ABS...

** If anyone knows this material, please shout **

A little Xmas present to myself a few days ago - went up to my favourite machinery supplier near London, and apart from finding myself rubbing shoulders and exchanging pleasantries with a very famous knighted actor (...who has a Top Gear track corner named after him...), I picked up an X/Y table for my pillar drill. It can't replace a proper vertical mill, of course, but it does allow me to do some light milling jobs that aren't perhaps dimensionally critical, a little easier than bench fitting by hand. New, very much "midrange" quality, but more than adequate for those "get you out of trouble" jobs.

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On the other hand, what I also picked up was a complete set of Burnerd collets and associated T1-3 chuck for the lathe. Probably as old as the hills, in its original metal box (needs a lick of paint, but somehow quite charming the way it is), but these things are beautifully engineered and more flexible to use than the traditional collet, where you have to have one for every size and rely on overtightening to accommodate any under or oversized material:

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Wastegates....
 

This afternoons efforts have been on getting the wastegates rebuilt with the correct springs, then mounted on the headers.

I'm not going to lay claim to this being my idea - I stumbled upon it on one of the Honda forums (I think), but it's a very simple tip - like all good ideas, it's the simple and most obvious ones that are the best! Removes the need for a second pair of hands....

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Using a plastic faced cramp to prevent the loss of fingers...eyes....temper....and to clamp up the WG before undoing the 6x perimeter bolts, then brace yourself while using the release mechanism to slowly allow the top cap to open. This allows access to all 6 bolts, which a bench vice wouldn't.

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The Tial MV-R wastegates I have, shipped with 3x springs;

• Black 0.4bar
• Red 0.3bar
• Green 0.2bar

So, 0.9bar total...not sure if this was how Tial ship them or this is how Chris built them before shipping to me, but as I want to be able to wind the boost down to less than 0.9bar, I removed the green spring from each to get me down to 0.7bar. I also read somewhere that it's not recommended to run more than double the boost of the installed spring ratings; 1.4bar is more than I'll be running, so I *think* this should be good...but on the day of mapping, I will be taking the extra springs I have (white, yellow and blue, for each WG) with me to swap out on the day should the need arise.

Another tip, close down the lid to within a few mm, then if needed use the elbow of a 1mm allen key to gently persuade any edges of the diaphragm back in place. Wasn't necessary for me, but apparently quite a common gotcha.

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So, they're now back on the manifolds, just need aligning before final tightening. Hoping to get the turbo bolted down permanently tonight, with the aux oil pump hose connected to the drain tank, along with the drain hose from the turbo, etc.

Sods law, I'm going to need to adjust the rear tinware, goddamn it. The Mikalor clamps on the hot feed pipe from turbo > IC are just too big (or rather, their bolts are) to accommodate, without taking a corner out of the tinware. Bloody annoying, given how much time it took to make this piece in the first place. Par for the course when making one-off parts I guess.

Just a quick update to keep folk up to speed with where I'm at; not a lot of progress on this engine recently, as I've been focussing my efforts on a) the new job, and b) my Westfield engine, in readiness for getting it advertised and sold (a Vauxhall/GM 2.0litre XE "Redtop"....c.265-270hp...if anyone knows somebody wanting a very high spec unit, pls do let me know!)

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However, yesterday the UK's dismal weather finally gave us a break so it was time to get the car out and prepare the floor lift and get the car hoisted....

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...so that I could finally remove the old gear linkage rod and replace it with the new "Golden Rod" from FD Motorsports. This should put a smile on Marks face, I know he's been patiently waiting for a number of core exchange units to be sent back to him!

Far from being the hardest job one could do on this car, it is however a total PITA, not helped by the design of my vehicle lift [luxury gripe mode=on]....the central spine of the lift sits smack-bang underneath the tunnel, so trying to do 3 things at once:

• holding back the giant rubber boot
• hold the rod at the right angle
• then try and put the combination of plain and spring washers on the gear lever shaft
• THEN try and get the E-clip on, which in itself is fiddly because it sits above the L-R actuator of the linkage
• ...all whilst trying to post myself through the struts of the lift!

Anyway, after using a cable tie to compress and rid myself of the rubber boot, some patience and a cuppa saw the job done. Only a small job, but in the end, quite satisfying.

Interesting doing a side-by-side comparison.

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One point to note is that although there is a disc on the new Golden Rod that's welded perpendicular to the rod at the UJ end, the diameter is significantly smaller than the stock unit, meaning that the rubber gator that would usually locate onto this, now doesn't. Not too worried, as all this is enclosed with the tunnel cover on the underside, but a little perplexing.

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The old knuckle joint was really worn; out of curiosity I measured >1mm of lateral play but to be honest, it actually *feels* far sloppier, more like 2-3mm, so I'm very much looking forward to feeling what the new linkage feels like - rifle bolt precise, I imagine (hope).

Next job this evening will be getting the front fuel pump off, the in-tank filter changed and some cleaning up done. I want to do a very thorough inspection of the fuel lines; despite me saying all along that they're going to be replaced with -6AN PTFE hoses, surprisingly they do look in excellent condition - something that a lot of the UK guys aren't so fortunate with, due to our weather (and I guess to some extent the salty winter roads). If they can remain in place then great, I'll just swap out the rubber hoses that couple everything up.

The bushing is oval from the factory, not worn.

When the joint is welded to the rod, how do you adjust the linkage?
To be honest I haven't seen a shift rod like the left one, whats transmission?

The bushing's oval from factory? Why on earth would they make it that wobbly? Oh well, live and learn.

The transmission is stock 964 Turbo, a G50/52 with slipper diff. The adjustment, or lack of, is the same on both rods; the OE unit has no adjustment either, just a bushed sleeve receptacle that mounts to the underside of the gear shifter at one end, then a knuckle joint the other, which slips onto the selector shaft at the gearbox end, then clamped tight via an M6 bolt.

The only difference between the OE and the FDM rod, is that the FDM has a solid UJ not that sloppy rubber bushed item (they use the stock rod as a core unit, cut off the ally/rubber knuckle then weld on a solid UJ). Nothing that couldn't be achieved as a DIY project really, if you had welding gear to hand and could get the orientation and longitudinal position of the UJ correct...not rocket science but I've got enough "sub-projects" to get on with.

Car
Engine
Parts
Engine
Car

Yep, that is about the right progression of photos to know you are on track! Can you see the light at the end of the tunnel? (at certain points in my own engine odyssey I thought it was the train!)

RIP Westfield. That motor looks fast just sitting on the stand. Would look even faster in a vintage LBC, anybody have an MGA MKII that needs a heart transplant? :)

Haha, mid-morning tea break mate? ;)

Not sure I can see the light to be honest John; but I have managed to relax into it a little, so not beating myself up too bad at the moment!

Yes, it certainly is a stonking engine, the pickup was mighty, often mistaken for a big capacity bike, and frankly, a little OTT for road use in something as light as the Westfield....but, I tell you what, I'm seriously tempted to keep hold of the Vauxhall engine for another project some time down the line....eg., buying a Series 1 Elise (or Exige) and doing a transplant...trouble is, a lot of the S1's that originally had the rubbish K-Series engines have now been transplanted already with the Honda or Audi lumps, so there's not really such thing as a cheap project car these days (especially with a lot of the cars being sold to new homes over in mainland Europe). Wouldn't want to transplant the Toyota unit in my S2 Exige either, as it's a 1 of 50 "Cup 240", so quite rare and worthy of remaining untouched. Almost. ;) We'll see....toe in the water and see if it sells. Want the space back!

The next batch of plating has now been finished, so quickly popped down the road at lunchtime to collect....only small stuff (pump brackets, fuel filter bracket, fuel dampener bracket, and some odds-and-ends bolts).

Fuel filter/accumulator bracket before --->

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And after a little modification --->

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And the rest of the parts, not much to really see apart from it all looking nice and shiny--->

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Front pump now out....can't believe how much fuel was still left in the tank despite me running it as dry as I dared before taking the car off the road. All fuel kindly donated to my pal for his concrete mixer/chainsaw/etc....patiently waiting for the phonecall where he swears at me for giving him fuel that's about as volatile as orange juice, haha :D

So, time to order some new rubber joining hoses, and get cleaning.

I just popped over to SBD's site and was shocked to see they have the Duratec motor in their westfields producing 300 HP! It is a long British tradition of absurdly high specific output from naturally aspirated motors. Like FVD territory. What did yours dyno?

I see also why MBE. . . of which there will be a significant amount discussed on this thread in the near future, without a doubt!

My VX engine was overbored to 2.1 (ie stage 3 overbore, so still within motorsport regs), and used the SBD "252hp" build recipe....252 being a conservative and repeatable output on the stock 1998cc capacity; Steves estimation at the time was that this was probably delivering upwards of 265hp both because of the capacity increase and what he'd seen before on other engines with the same capacity, poss as much as 270fwhp. It certainly felt that strong in the car, having previously run a 209hp engine for 5-6yrs in the same car.

Yep, Steve does some cracking engineering on their chosen engines; their Hayabusa engines are pushing crazy hp for their capacity and physical size - at one point they were running supercharged examples in their OMS single seater, just bonkers - too much really, which is why they went back to N/A. The Duratecs are excellent engines, kind of the next generation on from the Vauxhall XE that I have. Strangely, the Vauxhall engines that succeeded the 2.0 XE weren't really up to much in terms of tuneabilty, except for the 1600cc variant...the 2.0 was pants, designed for emissions. It's also very interesting seeing "their latest project", which is all a bit hush-hush at the moment ;)

In terms of MBE - to be honest, I don't have any direct experience with any other vendor, so can't *really* argue one against the other; I know that a lot of the Japanese car contingent are very happy with Syvecs, of course there's MoTeC as well and Chris @ TurboKraft being a strong advocate for AEM; using MBE was really a forgone conclusion based on my experience and the fact that Steve is part of their extended development team, and knows it inside out and backwards. They also do a lot of military work, so I'd like to think a lot of the design considerations and practises that those guys require, also make it into the commercial range (in terms of durability).

I am really looking forward to the results with MBE. I think using the e-throttle is a cool idea, it also eliminates an idle motor, and you can create a driver-adjustable traction control program that scales back throttle with wheel spin.

You haven't started working in the Garden now have you? I look forward to the whistle of boost.

What are u asking for the vauxhall

Yep, it should be good Chris - hoping to spend some time over the Easter break picking up where I left off a few weeks ago. Still waiting for the guy who's going to be doing the wiring loom to get back to me - had other stuff to be getting on with in the meantime, so not been too concerned about chasing him, but we're now almost ready to rock'n'roll again.

Haha, well......no, I've not got started with that project yet, been crazy busy at work this last few weeks, in Spain for a week where I got to chatting with our President/CEO, another Porsche fan ;) (Hi Jim!), then a week on one of our Bootcamp courses (which was truly excellent), then another week studying for Pt2 of my RH-CSA certification, so lots of stuff that's far more important to focus on, but with a few long bank-holiday weekends, it's time to get going again.....and to use the Lotus now the weather's here!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...-S756657-8.jpg

I managed to get a whole day of good weather and free time a few weeks ago, where the car was rolled out and uber-cleaned at the back-end....20yrs of grime and grease cleaned off - will post some pics later, but looking far better.

Am going to have to spend some time re-painting the inner arches though (back and front). A previous owner has had them resprayed with a black protective coating, and of course they should be body coloured, so have bought a Shutz gun and some cans of over-paintable stonechip paint, which I'll apply and get my mate to then paint with Horizon blue.

Hi, well as luck would have it, I sold the engine and the sequential gearbox a fortnight ago, to a guy rebuilding a Mk1 Escort. Thanks for the enquiry though.

Hmm all that Schutz adds weight. . . which can impact your power-to-weight ratio. . . fortunately you have done something about the power component of that equation. . . .:)

That Lotus looks like it will bite you if you get too close. Must be a blast to drive!

Looking forward to photos!

Respect
 

Sir, just read your thread from soup to nuts over the past couple of days. Nothing short of epic; seems like the kind of work that would be needed to create a vehicle to go to the moon and back. Fantastic amount of thinking and doing involved, and great use of "latest tech" along with lovely old nuts and bolts stuff, such as your lathe. Interesting, too, what you have learned about each of the vendors. Thanks for all the time and effort you've given us to share/explain/educate. One thing I'd like to ask is, what is the difference between the waste gate(s) and the blow off valve on your engine? Kind regards, John