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<br />Yea I'm going to try. We'll see how that goes. I'll see if they're really as good as they're supposed to be.

 

There's been a distinct lack of pictures in this thread for the past few pages, so here:

As tacked for assembly and fitting on the car.


Added tacks so each joint had at least 3-4 to help keep it from moving as it got fully welded.


Taped and plugged for filling with argon.


One bead down, a bunch to go!


Not my best, but also not my worst welds. This is a mild to stainless joint, welded with 309L filler.


And the "midpipe" fully welded. You can see my back purge plug setup in the foreground. It's a 3" pipe plug with the tightening bolt drilled through the center and the argon hose slid over the end (with the first few threads ground off to help the hose seal).


Drilling the bolt.


I still need to weld the muffler section up and then we'll have to figure out where to put the v-band between the two sections.

 

Huh, that's cool. This is because the shield gas doesn't get to the back of the weld, I assume? Does it make for a smoother internal finish?

--Ian

 

Yep, it's not really necessary for the mild joints, but the stainless will have pretty bad contamination and "sugaring" on the back of the weld if it isn't shielded with inert gas.

 

Because it's thin metal? What do you do if it's an open piece and you can't seal it up and fill with argon? Just grind off the ugliness?

--Ian

 

If you have enough amperage to get "liquid" metal on the back side you'll have sugaring with stainless if it's not back purged no matter the thickness. In this case because its thin, even with the welder turned really low, the penetration of the weld will definitely go all the way through.

With a funny shaped part you can build a "cup" with clay or aluminum tape around the back of the weld, as argon is heavier than air and will displace everything in the cup. If that's not possible you can put a paste(solarflux) around the inside of the weld joint and it will help, but it's not quite as good.

Here's a quick video I took of my method of ensuring the exhuast was fully purged. Because the argon is heavier than air, I stood the exhaust on end with the drilled plug on the bottom and filled it until the lighter wouldn't light anymore. I then plugged the open end and kept a small flow of argon going to ensure whatever leaked out the gaps as I was welding would be replaced.

Fun with argon:

Link incase my youtube tags don't work as I'm on my phone and I can't easily check: https://youtu.be/7I16hHqa6pI

 

He's been teasing me with pics, this is the first I've seen of the overall. Amazing work as always!

I love how my resonator is the size of some of the ricer cars mufflers

Thank you sir! We got a little existential there for a bit. Pics, and work, are glorious.

I was thinking about this the other day... didn't come up with a solution The clearances are so bloody tight back there I don't know what will work. The middle of the 180° would be perfect but I suspect that'll be a nightmare due to how we sectioned that radius, and then we can't weld the tube to the corner of the muffler.

 

We could just not section it at first? It'll be a bit hard to get in/out but not undoable I think.

 

I'm down if you are down. If we screw it up badly enough we can always replace it. Do you have another 4" radius 180° in your box o' parts? I'm happy to buy another one if we need it or replace yours if we use it.

Unfortunately that 4" radius 180° CRMB carries is the tightest one I can find. Not sure if tighter would actually help us at this point?

 

I don't think anyone makes a tighter than 4" radius for a 3" 180° bend. I have searched long and far for one with no success. I am honestly waiting on CRMB to make more of them in aluminized steel so I can order a **** ton.

 

I didn't even know they made the 4"R out of aluminized, I've never seen them list it. They have a 4.5"R listed in aluminized but the lack of 4"R was one of the reasons I went with straight mild.

Plus I care about Gesso's lungs

 

They have been out of stock on the aluminized ones for a while. I picked up some around the Jan/Feb time frame and have not seen any since. They keep telling me they are going to be making more soon, but I have not seen them come up on the site yet. I have so many extra 4.5" ones because I ordered a ton of them on accident not realizing they had the 2 different sizes at first.

 

For that, some people use SOLAR FLUX

EDIT: Oops, Gesso already mentioned that.

 

I do have at least one spare 4"R 180 that you're welcome to if we need it. I suspect a 3" R 180 would be pretty much perfect, but I've never seen one...

 

Yep! We used that stuff on the inside of inconel flame holders for F-15's. Did a decent job(good enough for the T.O.) and a hell of a lot easier than trying to make a "cup" to back purge with.

 

Ok, so here is the plan:

• Once the ID1ks get here, install the injectors, MS3, Racing Beat exhaust (gotta save dem cats) ignition and fuel system stuff on the stock motor. Tune for idle and fuel. Troubleshoot as needed.
  
• Finish assembling built motor. I think I'm down to oil pan, cam & crank seals and timing stuff.
  
• Finish turbo plumbing stuff on the engine stand while I can actually get to everything.
  
• Install build motor with N/A hardware, no turbo. Tune as needed for fuel, etc and break in built motor.
  
• Install turbo and exhaust on built motor.

This weekends plan is to get the TSE rad installed and possibly maybe the RB header, depending on how my ankle cooperates. I also need to continue sorting through the stuff in the garage and selling off what I'm not using.

I've got solutions for all the stuff I'm worried about and I've finally got all the parts I need to get the job done. Now its time to work through things and make it happen. I'm getting closer, and I am excite.

 

Im starting to wonder if maybe the advice we have been giving out regarding burping the coolant system with a reroute might be a bit flawed. With the coolant outlet at the back of the head, and usually lower than the top of the rad anyway, it traps a metric shitload of air in the front of the head. When i do my modified front neck i may try to figure out how to incorporate a manual bleed in to the system. I know Honda has been doing this for a while, I seem to remember the B18 had something like this, possibly near the throttle body? Its been a while. Anyway, i figure it cant hurt anything.

Time to go flush my coolant system another eleventybillon times.

 

Would it help to elevate one end of the car, or find an extremely steep hill, and use that to purge the system in 2 stages; nose down first to clear out the block/head, then nose up to move it on to the radiator?

 

I've had pretty good luck with burping the system on level ground with the reroute. Had to do it a few times too as it took a few iterations to seal the remote thermostat housing.

 

^yup. Seems to me that its best to do it on level ground with an elevated container.