Motor mounts are back

I picked up the motor mounts from the powder coater earlier this week. The one that appears to be shorter is for the passenger side. Like I said before the drivers side needs a spacer at the engine in order to use a flat plate. You could also contour the plate on the engine side to get rid of the spacer, but that makes attaching the tube for the cross member more difficult.  Fitment on the passenger side is really close to the starter.  I didn't actually try to pack it in this tight, but it will leave plenty of room for the 3" exhaust.  Fitment on the drivers side is good also with plenty of room for the steering shaft.
To make these I made tracings of the original AAN mount by gluing card stock to them and cutting it with a ball peen hammer.  The same way you would make a custom gasket.  Then just move the patterns to some .250" plate steel and cut them out.  I created the feet with some paper and a compass while watching television.  Transfer the pattern to some .250" plate steel and cut them out.  Next I mounted all the pieces and positioned the motor with an engine hoist.  Using PVC pipe that was close to the size of my tubing I made some mock ups.  Its really fast to work and cheap to start over if it doesn't work out.  After that you just recreate them with your .120" chromoly tube and weld it all together.  It doesn't take any special equipment other than a welder to do this, just some patience.  Now I can drop the motor back in and start the exhaust manifold. 

 

  

 

Fund Raiser Alert!!!

Okay this may seem weird, but just to the right of this post at the top of the sidebar is a link to a photo contest that I entered. That great picture of Nina that you can see was taken by my wife Jenn. Top prize in the contest is 1000 dollars! That will buy a few more pieces for this project. So if you would, click the link and vote for us. BTW you can vote once a day until 5PM central US time on the 1st of March. Thanks!

Oil Pan Finished

The oil pan is back from the powder coater.  I have to say that I am pleased with the outcome.  Hopefully my baffles will be adequate to combat starvation at high g loads.  If need be I may add a Accusump system, but I will give it a go without one first.  No sense in adding unnecessary parts.  I sloped it slightly from front to back to aid in drain back.  The bottom of the front portion is within .500" of the front cross member  The bottom of the sump doesn't hang down more than .500" below the front cross member.  The donor pan was from a 3b motor and the rest was fabbed from .070" sheet stock  The bottom portion is made from 13 individual pieces of material. The whole pan was assembled and then welded inside and out.  The outside was then ground down for a nicer finish.  So check out the pics.  I don't have measurements on this part.  I just fabbed as I went along but basically tried to maximize the volume of the pan an ended up with a shape that resembles the Porsche unit.  I guess those guys did their homework.  Sump capacity is right at seven quarts, on par with the Porsche pan.  If you add in the remote filter and cooler system I will probably be pushing 9 quart system capacity I would guess.

 

  

  

 

Clutch problems

I have been researching clutch options lately.  I really want to set the car up with a twin disk unit, but it looks like the flywheel will have to be custom machined.  That equates to some serious dollars for a chunk of steel.  It just baffles me that I can't find someone that makes a flywheel for this application.  If I decide to go with the twin disk unit it will most likely be a Quarter Master 7.25" unit.  On the other hand I could use a Fidanza aluminum flywheel and something like a Southbend clutch.  If someone knows where to get a flywheel for the minidisk, please drop me a line.  I know that there are plenty of lower budget alternatives to make it work, but I'm looking for a fast revving engine to get the turbo spooled up as quickly as possible.  Sure I'm going to sacrifice some drive-ability with either setup, but this isn't a DD car either.  I'll keep searching and post the results. 

Tial parts arrive

I wanted to show off the awesome parts that arrived this week courtesy of my new friend John O'Connell at the Turbo Center in St.Louis.  Seems that they are a full service turbo shop located in my home state. They can rebuild, balance, and fab up parts for your turbo system.  I wouldn't have known about them at all, but luckily when I called Tial looking for a distributor they gave me their phone number.  If your looking for competitive pricing in the Midwest and great service give them a call at (314) 481-3778.  I was really surprised by the packaging.  I'm not sure what I expected, but I was impressed.  The parts are really nice looking also, hopefully they perform just as well.  BTW the wastegate is the newer Tial MV-S and the BOV is the Tial Q.  Here are a few pics.

 

  

  

 

 
Now I need to return to the shop and finish the oil pan today.

Oil pump pickup tube

The pickup tube is complete.  I ended up using parts from two pickup assemblies and some new tubing also.  I didn't want to have so many joints in it, but I don't have a bender for this size of tubing.  When you make this take your time and make sure that it follows the windage tray closely so it doesn't hit the shallow pan.  I didn't care for the amount of tube that extended past the point for the braces so I added in a piece of strap to protect the assembly from vibration.  Hopefully this design is adequate because if it breaks the motor isn't going to be happy with me.  I'll finish the oil pan this week and post some pictures.  By then the rest of my parts for the turbo manifold should be here and I can get started on that.  Here are a couple of pics of the pickup tube.

 

 

Exhaust manifold flange

Well I had every intention of making my own manifold flange from some bar stock to save some money and also to get one in mild steel.  However I am running out of time to get this project wrapped before the autocross season starts and just happened to notice that EFI Express is now carrying one in mild steel.  So I ordered one from them at the end of last week.  This thing is nice!  If you need one in mild steel this is the only place I know of to get it.  If your tastes are stainless, then 034 Motorsports can hook you up.  Here are two pics I snapped for you guys.

 

I almost have the oil pan finished up I just need to wrap up the pick up tube assembly before I weld the back of the pan into place.  I'll drop it off at the powder coater as soon as it is finished.  Also on the way are some Tial products and the t3 flange.