Making the harness bar the same size as the rest of the tubing is the safest option. What size is the bar?
Making the harness bar the same size as the rest of the tubing is the safest option. What size is the bar?
1.5x.125 DOM Way oversize per the scca roll bar guidelines require- I think I'm good if it weighs over 2500lbs. I should be in at or near 1500. I ran out of that size tubing, but I have 1.25x.065 4130. I think that should be plenty but I can't find any rules telling me one way or another. Maybe picking up some 1.5x.065 or .090 is the best option.
The smallest things take forever. Alternator mount. Man lining these things up is an exercise in patience. And even after getting it "perfect" I didn't take into account a little flex when it's all cinched down. 
so we will see if this thing starts flinging belts but I think I'm pretty close.
4 weeks! Dang. Got the roll bar welded up and just jumped on 1.25" for the harness bar. It was time for a decision and I made it. I could easily hang the car from the harness bar alone so I'm hoping it passes muster as I can't find any rules one way or another on them.
still waiting on the fiberglass bonnet and some engine parts. I may put the suspension back under it, as I don't think that should affect paint.
Also forgot- I used the second skin audio sound deadener and heat shield. So the underside is "undercoated" and the passenger footwell is sorta heat shielded. I'm adding some dei foil heat shielding as well to the tunnel and passenger footwell.
In reply to Teh E36 M3 :
I am really looking forward to hearing what you think of those products combined with one another for heat and noise management. Really struggling mentally with how to deal with heat and noise and such in the AMC build
I honestly cannot imagine that they make that much of a difference, it I feel like I have to do all I can to reduce heat. I suspect the dei foil/foam stuff will do far more. And if that's still not enough I'll do some stainless on 1/4" standoffs if I have room.
(finally) Got my fiberglass bonnet and engine build parts are trickling in. Working on hinge arrangement to tilt the bonnet forward. I'll glass in some hardwood and run a goofy hinge down to the frame rail. It will be interesting to see if I can make it adjustable enough. Got to figure out how to retain it on the rear as well but I have a couple ideas. Main challenge is keeping the shape, as it wants to sag or stick out, so will need snubbers to hold it out from the body and a good cinch clamp to hold it all together. Just will take some time.
Waiting on shallow sump from raceline in England and the remaining engine parts- pistons, rods, injectors, and ARP hardware. Then, paint and assembly.
First try at the hinges. Seem pretty good but will require some fine tuning. Also need to figure out a permanent solution for spacing up near the windshield. The foam snubbers I made for the rain channel actually seem to work but I'll want something that more permanently does the job. Looking for spring loaded catches for the lower retaining as well.
The bonnet will tilt further forward when it's off the rotisserie stands.
Boring stuff- fiddling with the hood to make it work and get some semblance of decent gaps.
I volunteer at the local high school auto shop and the instructor told the group there were some auto body tools he was getting rid of if we wanted to check them out beforehand. Came out with some neat body hammers. One verified plomb 1421, others unsure of brand or hammer style.
Got the forged crank, forged rods, forged pistons, ported head and cams/valve springs in today. Decided to clean up the motor and give it a coat of high temp paint. I love the look and will just keep it stealthy black. May also keep the engine compartment black. I'll see how it comes together.
Vendors are understandably having a tough time, but man am I fighting to just get straight answers. The engine has a few compromise parts- I wanted to go all ARP hardware and ordered what the vendor said they had in stock. Well three months later they did not have any of them in stock, so I just used stock Mazda main bolts and head studs. They work for the ecoboost so I'm sure they are fine in this application.
What a day. Went to time the cams and crank. So, these motors don't have woodruff keys or other locating devices for timing the cams to the crank. Instead they have these diamond encrusted washers that lock the gears to their respective sprockets and pulleys. The forged crank I replaced the original cast with had a woodruff key machined for the timing gear. Awesome. So that part is good. The low profile valve cover I bought is key for clearing the hood, but doesn't have clearance for the vvt cam gear. No problem, I bought a vernier gear to replace it.
Today I learned that the vernier gear doesn't work with the vvt cam, as obviously the vvt cam is longer and the chain wouldn't line up. So I scratched my head and considered options:
1. Buy a non-vvt intake cam. $300 if I could find one.
2. Find/buy a fixed replacement vvt cam gear that would fit under the valve cover. Hours of search yield nada.
3. Replace valve cover with original and make it work. Ugh.
4. Figure something else out that didn't cost any $.
As the supply chains have been particularly awful for stuff in life that is completely optional, like performance car parts, I decided to have a go with #4.
Dismantled the vvt gear
Cut the outer ring
Cut the ears
Now I've got the 'bolt ring' and the gear. Figured I'd just weld them together Hard no. Didn't even consider that the gear was cast and not steel. Failure and major wtf. Walked around for two hours, took the dog for a walk. One sip of beer and inspiration hits.
Had chain gear mounted on cam. Drilled 3/32 hole through little flange into cam in two different spots. Inserted 3/32 tungsten tig electrode into each and filed clear. So now the cam is pinned to the chain gear, great. Then took cam bolt collar and friction washer and torqued down. The bolt collar will keep the tungsten pins captured. So now all I have to worry about is shearing the tungsten pins. Which I hope doesn't happen. Haha. I don't like how brittle tungsten is for this application, but hoping that there won't be major shock loads and having two pins and friction from the collar will keep all in good order.
Big PITA from something I hadn't considered, and I hope it works. But the valve cover fits over it, engine turns the cams as expected, and we move on to the next thing. I'm sure none of this makes sense.
TL:DR: there was a problem and I sorta fixed it.
Haha just realized I didn't get any pictures of the gear part, and the final product. Dammit.
I'd put proper 3/32" hardened dowels in it instead of the tungsten. Hopefully they're good enough in shear, kinda depends how far out from the centre they are.
Best solution would be getting someone to machine up a new hub for the vernier gear that fits the VVT cam.
+1 on not tungsten.
My knowledge is admittedly very limited, but my Tig tungsten electrodes are brittle, like break with my hands brittle. YRMV.
Exceedingly cool stuff going on here. Stealth black engine rules.
I agree- I'd much rather have steel pins but it was sitting right there, was the right diameter, and I went for it. I'd really prefer a VVT delete gear but those just don't seem to be available. Time will tell.
I assume at some point I will replace the intake cam, but I'd like to see where I'm at with these first.
Teh E36 M3 said:Ok, another small victory. Pedal box constructed, with a few little tweaks for final mounting. It is stiff as hell, which is what I was going for. I didn't manage to make the bias adjuster accessible for a cockpit cable mount, but I'll ponder on that a bit.
@Stampie, you need to copy this for Riggamort. well, at least the brake part, since Rigga is automatic.
Teh E36 M3 said:Having a dilemma - get it painted or run ahead and get it running.
on a job with so much DIY fab, i say get it running and driving, beat on it a little, see where you need to add strength or patch sub-standard welds, etc. after it's solid, blow it apart for proper cosmetics.
Teh E36 M3 said:I'd really prefer a VVT delete gear but those just don't seem to be available.
Agree in principle- but I think I am 1 of 1 people in the world who want or need one. And 2. I don't currently have the requisite skills to use design software. And C. Just grabbing a non vvt intake cam solves this issue, as there are inexpensive off the shelf vernier cam gears that make the problem go away.
God help me if I had a lathe and mill though. I could build a huge assortment of unreliable and questionable parts.
Teh E36 M3 said:I agree- I'd much rather have steel pins but it was sitting right there, was the right diameter, and I went for it. I'd really prefer a VVT delete gear but those just don't seem to be available. Time will tell.
I assume at some point I will replace the intake cam, but I'd like to see where I'm at with these first.
Keeping the tungsten is such an unnecessary risk to the engine. Intake cam stops turning, you can say good bye to, at a minimum 8 valves, at worst case, just drop the engine in a skip.
If you can't drive the cad, take measurements, sketch by hand and no doubt someone here can turn it into something useful (I'd happily do it if I wasn't up to my eyeballs in preparing to move 16,000km while still working...
I would assume the VVT cam is lumpier than nonVVT, I have no doubt you'd find buyers for the delete hub, either others who want to simplify running VVT motors, or people who want a junkyard upgrade cam for non VVT motors...
Have you got a blanking plug for the VVT solenoid?
In reply to Gammaboy :
Yes- they sell the blanking plug for vvt, just not the separate drive gear, as, unless you are using this particular valve cover there are no clearance issues
I'll think through another solution- I could add another couple pins using proper steel to shore up the current plan.
Unrelated update, purchased body paint. It's about to get real!!!
so was that experimentation using the stock vvt cam?
there are performance non-vct cams out there. Esslinger is the first that comes to mind. I was planning to get a set of their vct cams. You can use a 2.3 version of the intake cam in the 2.5 head if you use the 2.3 timing gear and and a vvt delete plug. you'll have to plan around using whatever trigger setup is on that intake cam with your ecu, but I don't think that's a problem.
No this is with stage 2 cams from fab9 tuning. I think they are modified crower cams. I chose them because they show specs and dyno sheets on their website< which no one else seems to want to do. I know many vendors make non vvt cams that will work but finding them in stock and of a similar spec to the exhaust cam. Eventually I'm sure I will bite the bullet and get the race line rld250 cams for about $700 but they include verniers. Well regarded in the caterham community and the running belief is that raceline designed (Kent built) cams are specced in the caterhams. If I were to do it again I'd have gone that route in the beginning.
At this point, I've found some hardened steel dowel pins and will supplement my tungsten pins with a couple of those.
You'll need to log in to post.
