Making parts for a Fiat

As a Fiat and Mini aficionado I'm having fun watching this happen!

Love the progress you're making!

I have been working on this. Most of it was wasted as false starts and redesigns.

I'd like to introduce you to the silliest "resonator" out there.  This is what happens when you buy based on measurements.

The reviews for it say it is surprisingly effective. We will see. 

I lost a week to a trip to Sonoma for the Velocity Invitational, where I saw many cool and inspirational things

That blue Brabham was my favorite car of the event for some reason. The Family Huckster is bananas. It moves like a Robotech cartoon.  The Trans Am class might not have been the fastest group out on the track but damn it they were sure the loudest.

Anyway after a lot of hand wringing.  I have decided on an intake and intercooler design and the fabrication has begun

I remoed anything extraneous from a 1.4 Aveo throttle body

And made the flange.

The Aveo unit was chosen for its diminutive size, cable operation plus stepper idle controller and the fact that the E-throttle version will bolt in place should I decide to go DBW.

And the initial plan was to hammerform the plenum so I made a plug.

But that wasn't about to happen with the material I have on hand so it will be fabricated in a more normal manner. 

Update soon

Ok, soo..... intercoolers......

I grabbed every one I had, I borrowed a few, I scoured the spearco catalog and folded up some cardboard dummies. I was unhappy with the fit on all of 14 of them. A 1.8t sidemount was close but ducting to it was an issue. Best case was mounted high over the motor, but I didn't want to open the engine cover and just have intercooler visible.  I am all about function over form but after this much work I wanna show my E36 M3 off!

So I sat and stared at every used intercooler on ebay and fought off my own tendencies and took a leap.

Despite my vehement opposition, I'm going air to water. Happy "I told you so day" to all who celebrate. 

But i am doing it differently than you think. 

This is the water to air exchanger off of a VW 1.4tsi motor. It showed up damaged from ebay so it is just a stunt intercooler for fabrication purposes.  The seller refunded my money and everything 

so i made a plate to hold the OEM gasket

Which went poorly because my power feed decided that a steady feed rate was for suckers and intermittently went full speed on me. I broke 6 end mills and then waited for a new unit to arrive to finish the job

The cheap new Vevor unit is so much smoother than the old Wells Setting from 1984. The bevel gear is helical instead of straight cut so it has really changed the feel of the machine, even when manually operating it.

The plan was to hammer form the plenum but I decided to use the 6061 I had on hand instead of spending $200 on a 1000 series sheet. There is no way T6 6061 1/8" thick will bend the way I wanted it to. 

Those sheets have been sitting in my garage for 14 years! Happy to finally get to use them!

Anyway, the plenum is tacked up

So yeah. I didn't have the space for an intercooler near the back of the car where I could easily blow air over it but a slightly larger intake manifold will fit. Plus I get a tidy and short charge pipe for a clean bay.

A small pump, a sport bike radiator and a small reservoir can be placed wherever I can hide them.

As much as I fought this, I am happy where I am ending up.

Materials for the base flange and runners arrived today. I will start those next week.

OK. Where were we?

Some jerk made this drawing

And then promptly left town for SEMA.

SEMA was an ........ experience. I can't say I liked it. The "car show" was more of a cautionary tale than anything aspirational. I did have dinner with Callum from Retropower and his lovely wife and started setting up my visit there to talk shop management software.

The best things I saw in Vegas were here

which has some genuinely important stuff inside.

like "HOLY SH*T" level stuff like.

and

to this!

yeah. The Punk Rock museum is amazing and bigger than I thought it would be. Go support it if you are ever in Vegas

So when I got back I started turning that drawing into a thing

and made another and made it one

And then I spent a while welding the whole thing up

And then spent a lot of time with die grinders smoothing it out. 

Next step is to connect the flange to the plenum. I don't currently have a 1.75" die for my tubing bender so I am working on an alternative

Awesome work!!

Dang

Wow. 🤯 

The front lower ball joint blocks I made back in July have just been mounted in the Jig plate, taunting me since. About half a dozen times I picked up the DOM and thought about bending up some arms, welding in the threaded bungs and.... I dunno. Perhaps do a similar joint to the top arm to ball joint block piece? I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do. 

So I made this

Which holds an old Wilton Vise

Which mounts to the JD2 Model 32 tubing bender

And this, while a bit fiddly, allows me to bend solid bar stock

So I machined up some 6061 bar stock and annealed it to T3 then into the bender

and into the jig

Initiate smug mode

Tidy.

It appears past Trent uncharacteristically, opened his wallet and bought the nice steel hub upgrades. I do not remember this but every once in a while I just buy stuff

So I now have assembled front suspension assemblies!!

That feels pretty dang good.

Next step is steering arms and dust shields

I had quite a few of these water jet cut years ago

And some are already bent to shape. The dust shields are some I made years back as well. I will hopefully be able to use them and wont find myself remaking them just because

The rear uprights also received a little work in anticipation of the next step, building the rear control arms

I gave it a lot of thought and did not like the idea of setting toe by shimming both the upper and lower arms at the same time. I also wouldn't be able to dial in any anti-squat, so what it seemed I needed was an upper ball joint. 

Those full floating suspension bushings are finally gonna come in handy

To the mill with the uprights

whacked out the center of the upper bushing holders.

then cut M22 threads in them.

Then I made these M22 inserts. Which, when installed hold the ball joint right where I want it

Now I can design the upper arm around this

Anyway, I forget to do updates when I make such tiny steps each day so this is a catching up of the bigger things

You need wheels with a very open pattern so this stuff is not hidden from view! Wow

Beautiful work as always Trent! Where will the front coilover mount? To the ball joint housing?

In reply to Shavarsh :

The slot in the lower ball joint mount is for the pushrod. I will be mounting the coilovers inboard in the frunk.

Almost 50 hours into it and I have an intake manifold!

I even remembered to put a tab on the bottom for a support rod/ Who knows how much this will weigh when it is full of water. It is cantilevered out there quite a ways.

I have however, just decided while looking at these pics that I need to add a threaded boss to hold the cable sheath. I also need to drill and tap the base plate for the IAT sensor, that means I have to have the injectors and fuel rail in place  More work to do

Also I am trying to decide what to put in this area

It is an awfully big blank space that will be front and center in the engine bay.

Still a lot more filing and sanding to do before it is "done"

The rush to get the manifold finished was so that I know where I can relocate the thermostat housing to. 

In answer/question to the blank space, ...BOV? (wait, that's the wrong side of the throttle)

Love the G13B, Love the Fiat, Love the project.

LOVE the Fabrication/skill/attention to detail. 

Carry on.

Are you going to send out the aluminum parts for heat treatment after the welding and bending, or have you found that it's not necessary?

Heat treating aluminum relies on all the pieces and filler rods being a heat treatable alloy. Since all the stuff I am doing is a mix of 6061 and cast (1000 or 3000 series) and welded with either 5356 or 4043 then heat treatment won't really do anything for me.

 

I know that this isn't an Abarth product but perhaps a subtle or abstract scorpion?  Maybe just the stinger?

I love coming back in to this thread for the amazing fabrication and design!  Thank you for the inspiration!

Tossed the head on the block to see how it will all fit. I am not displeased. 

Looks nicer than Abarth would have done. The engine mount looks more Jean Bugatti than Carlo Abarth.

Hell yeah dude

I practically begged the machine shop teacher in college to let a business school student (me) sign up for his classes. This makes me so wish that I actually begged.

Incredible, incredible work. 

Outstanding work here, my punk rock brother!

You should put a mini-gauge of some sort on that blank spot at the end of the manifold...

Boost, Tach, smiles per gallon; something off the wall.

PS- fabulous work! Those control arms qualify as artworks.

You should put a mini-gauge of some sort on that blank spot at the end of the manifold...

Boost, Tach, smiles per gallon; something off the wall.

PS- fabulous work! Those control arms qualify as artworks.

Absolutely amazing work!  Thanks for sharing!  Looking forward to more.