5th may 2006
New Carb Hat
Below are a couple of pics of my new carb hat. It is better than the one supplied from ProCharger as it splits the air into two giving a more even airflow into the throttle body.
Until I fitted the rear clip back on I did not know if it would fit under the cover or not. It fits just!
engine News!
I visited the machinist yesterday as there was a problem found when balancing the engine. The flywheel was found to be out of balance by 40g. Which may not sound much but the balancing is only carried out at 500rpm. This 40g at 6000rpm would become more than 9 stone. The flywheel problem was tracked down to the fact there was 15thou movement from side to side. This was caused by a poor fit onto the back of the crank. The flywheel is going to be machined to accept a sleeve with the correct internal diamater.
Chargecooler
I've just about finished the CAD drawings for the chargecooler and pre-rad so I shall be sending them of to Pace Products next week.
Induction pipes
I am currently working on the lengths and angles for the induction pipes. The pressure pipes will all be of 3" in diameter with silicone hose joining pieces.
other news!
I have bought an AFR (AIR Fuel Ratio) gauge for the dash so I can monitor the engine running conditions. It has it's own wideband O2 sensor. So I will have one in each exhaust manifold. The other one is provided by the Holley ECU. The AFR gauge has a record function and will show min and max ratios. The last thing I want is lean conditions with a supercharged engine.
10th may 2006
Good news!
The good news is that I should have the engine block and balanced parts back next week. That is if the flywheel modification is carried out on time. The exhaust manifolds are ready for collection, now that they have been ceramically coated.
Bad News!
The bad news is that my order to Summit Racing in the States is not going to arrive until the first week in June due to the back order on the cylinder heads studs. They messed up as their system was showing in stock. So it looks like it will be towards the end of June before I get to start the new engine.
other stuff
After carrying out many fuel calculations I have decided to go with the 50lbs/hr injectors that I have, as opposed to the 65lbs/hr ones that I also have. This means I won't need to fit the aux. injector driver unit as the ECU can drive the 50s direct. The 50s are high impedance injectors and the 65s low impedance. Spoke to ProCharger last night in the States and they think I need a much smaller pulley to get the 10-12psi boost that I am looking for. I will stick with the one I have to run the engine in and to find out what level of boost I am getting with the 4.75 inch one that I have. I'll order a new pulley based on the boost level I find with 4.75 inch one.
I will be remaking the bulkhead panel this weekend in stainless steel as my ally welding is not up to the standard I need. But my stainless welding is.
CAD drawings of the chargecooler, pre-rad and header tank were sent to Pace Products this morning for approval.
Windscreen surround has been fettled and is waiting to be sprayed. It will be ready soon.
13th may 2006
I collected the exhaust manifolds this morning. They have been coated internally with a satin black and a polished ceramic chrome finish externally. Here is a pic of them.
Good news!
I have a big thank you to say to Declan at Real Steel who has ordered a set of ARP head studs direct from ARP themselves. I have cancelled the order of these from Summit Racing who could not get them sooner. The balancing of the flywheel has continued today. The engine block and balanced parts should be ready by next Friday (fingers crossed). I should hopefully pick up everything the week after. Pace Products have looked at my CAD drawings for the chargecooler which they say is fine and will contact me next week with a quote.
20th may 2006
Very busy this weekend on the car. Here is a quick update on how things are.
The engine block with its balanced parts is ready for collection. I will be collecting it next Friday. The quote came in from Pace Products, the order has been placed and should be completed by the first week in June. I had a parts delivery in from the US yesterday. Not too many parts needed to complete now.
I will start to assemble the engine next weekend. Hopefully I will get the heads on so I can check the length of pushrods needed. These can only be checked for length this way when building such a bespoke engine. I've been working on the heads this week. The exhaust ports have been polished to allow the exiting gasses to move as freely as possible. The inlet manifold will also be port matched as near as possible to the inlet ports on the head.
30th may 2006
I picked up the engine block and the balanced parts as planed on Friday.
Here is a pic of the parts being balanced.
So from left to right is the supercharger pulley, vibration damper, crank and flywheel. The crank has bobweights attached to it to simulate the weight of the pistons. Some material was added to the crank to balance it. The flywheel and clutch cover needed a very small amount removing.
In the next pic the pistons have been sized and ready for assembly.
In the pic below two pistons and conrods are now in position, six to go.
In the pic below the short motor is now complete and I've masked off and painted the block.
In the pic below the cam has been installed along with the timing gear. The cam timing has been set. It has a hex adjust system which can be set to any postion within plus or minus 6 degrees
In the pic below the head studs have been fitted on both sides and one head is sitting in place. The new head dowels have been fitted which were a very tight fit into the block. The heads would not sit down over the head dowels so I had to remove a small amount of material from the dowel holes in the head to get them to sit down without binding.
The exhaust ports in the heads are now getting there final polishing and the heads have now been deburred ready for assembly. Tomorrow evening I hope to assemble the heads. Hopefully I will have the heads fitted by Thursday. I am having the inlet manifold welded which I will tell you about next update.
Cheers for now!