Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Just got off the phone with swain. Looks like I wont have a turbo for jersey or dover. I do not want to run this setup without coating on it since it is so close to everything. This makes me sad. Looks like I'll just have to drive the wheels off the car anyways. I should still be able to be withing a second or so of Namer without having the power. Oh well.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

Those welds look like crap LOL

But otherwise nice job man. And you're right: as long as they hold good it doesn't matter once you coat that bad boy.

I'm really liking what this thread is turning into. Built vvt motor + efr + big boy tubi hotside = WIN..hopefully...

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Yeah It makes me feel like crap to look at whats his name in europe who made better welds than I did and he was using a stick welder. I did have to go lefty a bunch and had have over an inch of tungsten sticking out of the cup to reach some of the welds.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

I would just set the goal as "don't break anything" Jake is fast.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

If you seriously think that you will be able to be within a second of Jake with a Low Compression N/A Miata I want some of what you are smoking.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Seemed like a reasonable goal. The one local I drove this car on hoosiers with springs that were too soft, no aero, and a weak engine I beat the 3rd place car and driver that was in ssm at the devens tour. She was 3 seconds off on a 60 second course and I'm expecting the pro to be ~30 seconds. So I'm expecting the aero, stiffer spring And ~30 more hp to help a little. If I'm way off the pace I'm way off the pace. There's no hoosiers on the line for me because I know I'll get smoked in the challenge.

Tonight I managed to get the manifold finished. I gave up on the egt bungs when I found I couldnt get the drill press chuck to clear where I wanted to drill and found that drilling this pipe with a hand drill wasnt happening. Of course less than half an inch of bead in the coolant line on the synchrowave blows at school and I wasnt quite sure how to fix it and didnt want to **** it up more so I switched to the dynasty with the broken high frequency so I pretty much had to scratch start. And of course we had zero tungstens and I had to used a piece that was like an inch long. And I dipped it pretty badly and there was not nearly enough to be ground so I'm just going to finish the god damn thing this weekend at my house. As a bonus that lets me weld the v-band on the exhaust end. So I'll end up getting the turbo setup the week before dover and wont have time to install it rather than getting it the week before jersey and not having time to install it. Oh well. Wednesday I plan on sanding and adding another coat of gelcoat to the splitter and installing that this weekend.





I was using 150 amps for this, looks like part of why my other welds look shitty is that I just didnt have enough power.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

You can in NO WAY compare results from a local AutoX to those of a tour. Last year at the Toledo Pro Solo Jake checked out on the field. He beat Carter Thompson by 6th's. Jake's car has 477 gears and is as good a Pro Solo car as their is. I'm all for being optimistic....but you need to be realistic. If you are within 2 seconds for the event you should consider it a Morale victory.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Probably a good point.

Midtenn

iTrader: (15)

I agree with Eric. Go out with a goal not to break anything and make a decent showing and work from there. If you through out goals to be at the top this soon in the game, you're going to get frustrated fast. You have to remember the guys at the top of the heap probably have 5 years into their cars getting everything fined tuned and have years of experience driving at the top. When stopped trying to win and started to set reasonable goals, I was more relaxed and started moving up the ranks.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Well I drove it to do the break in. Really really dont like not being able to tune in VE I need to completely re-do the tune. It runs at mostly 10:1 when on the gas and idles with a bit of a hunt at 13-15. IT HAS SO MUCH POWAH, holy ****. Way more than the old engine, and it makes a dick load of vac at idle, like it almost idles in the lowest load level on the tune, and my boost gauge reads like 27 inches of mercury. Even with the random base map it is so fast (for N/A), I think the VVT is working but I havent had a chance to test it yet because the ******* BEGI ******* coolant ******* spacer is ******* leaking *******. And my custom welded water pump inlet was leaking (twice), but now I think I've finally fixed it (on the third welding attempt). The slim fans from silicon intakes pull soooo much air. Did I mention **** the ******* begi coolant reroute spacer? Also, the carbon clutch is amazing, super easy to drive, feels like a stock clutch. Oh and the stupid stock exhaust broke right after the resonator where it slips on, I thought a tack would hold it, not so much, so I re-welded it with a solid bead with whatever I could reach from under the car (thumb controls on the torch are awesome). The whole turbo setup is done being welded and is now in the mail to swain tech for white lightning coating.

I sucked at taking pictures because I really didnt have time I need to get the ****** done so I can race it. So here is my pimp as **** water pump inlet, before I sealed up all the pin holes.


To do before April 7th
Put the water pump inlet back on
Mount the splitter (got this halfway done this weekend)
Make air dam
Put the radiator back in and fill with coolant
Pray there are no more coolant leaks
Put the center console back in
Put the passenger seat back in
Put the coil pack pins in the correct connectors rather than just stuck on the pins in the coils and electrical taped
Put the wing back on
Tune
Put the good wheels and tires on

PS the clutch has ate super blue in it, because I'm a baller. Thats a lie, it was the only brake fluid in the garage.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Turn the machine on 10 and flat pedal it! WHOOHHH!!

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

pretty much, 125 amps was not really enough to weld this, so I basically had to pre heat the part for a minute with the welder before I could start to make a bead. There is no heat treating in this part any more. I really really really need to wire the garage for 220.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Oh you're not welding on 220.
IMHO it makes a world of difference. You'll probably have more adjustability and you won't have globs.
But hey, thumbs up for making your own manifold

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I know for sure. If you look at the weld I made between the manifold and the turbo flange you can see how much nicer it looks, I did that one at school on 480 3 phase. Even though the syncrhowave broke and the dynasty we have is complete garbage. Like **** a whole bunch of that dynasty, I was welding some aluminum with it for something else and the ****** was impossible to start a second arc until you ground the tungsten again, and the arc stability was junk. I managed to make it work a lot better by changing the balance down from 60 to 50, but it was still a pain to start with the messed of HF, and for some reason lift arc mode will not make an arc at all. Really need to get the leads fixed on the synchrowave.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

I weld with a tig machine(Miller) at work that is older than i am. At school we have dynastys and some new Esab machines.

No excuses.

Also, t welds / corner welds are easier than butt welds. Without a liquid cooled torch makes a big difference too.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Oh I know our synchrowave is older than I am, the dynasty is just broken, its been back to miller 2 or 3 times and it works for a little bit when it gets back then breaks again. I'm sure its because the HF is weird, it doesnt HF start but once its started it seems to HF. When doing Al, the tungsten gets coated with Al oxide like instantly and the arc just pretty much does whatever it wants to. Its very odd, the syncrowave and my diversion dont act like this.

shlammed

iTrader: (8)

150A is way more than you need for that weld.


When I do 1 1/4" shedule 10 I do 60a on the pipe but i dont mash the pedal and use about 100a on the flanges, on the pedal also.


What kind of prep and gas setup are you using to weld this? argon/flow/cup or lens setup...
I used to do the same thing a few years ago.

Matt

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

For most of the manifold I was using 3/32 cerated tungsten with I think a #6 cup, no gas lens, air cooled torch, pure argon 20-30 cfr depending on how much I had to stick the electrode out to reach the weld, prep was stainless wire brush by hand and non-chlorinated brake cleaner, all welds 45* bevel. Pipe is 1.25" sch40 304L. HF start.

The manifold to turbo flange weld was 3/32 thoriated tungsten with I think a #6 cup, no gas lens, water cooled torch, pure argon ~20 cfm, pre was stainless wire brush by hand, acetone, scratch start, broke HF.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

You can set the machine to 150a just don't flat pedal it. I'd go with 110a though, and get it started but come all the way back on it.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Well... I almost raced it yesterday. I packed it in at 10:30 saturday night because it was misfiring something fierce. The car would have been un-raceable, just spin constantly. Looks like I need to build Jason's timing filter circuit, because I was getting timing errors coming out of my ears. And the ******* water pump inlet is still leaking and the BEGI spacer is down to just having the tiniest weep. Moroso sent me the wrong springs for the dzus fasteners for my air dam, they packaged it with springs for 1/8" material rather than 1/4" so I've got to buy 6 springs to finish that up.

To do next weekend
-Fix the dam coolant leaks again
-Finish the air dam
-Make the crank signal filter
-Put the hood back on
-Tune
-Test aero for structural integrity (aka go drive the car at 75 with aero on full downforce and make sure nothing falls off)
-Clean garage and organize everything that needs to go to Jersey


All I want for the jersey weekend at this point is to be able to drive a non leaking non misfiring car onto the trailer Thursday night as soon as I get home from work, eat dinner, pack the truck, and then drive the car back onto the trailer Sunday after lunch when I dont make it into the challenge.

On racing the subaru on RE01Rs yesterday. I was surprised that it actually turned and didnt drive like a fwd car. It was weird to be like, "I'm getting a bit too tail happy, mash the throttle!!!!" That was very backwards feeling. I did manage to not come in last in SSM (ran for season points, the car is ESP legal), beat a corvette on hoosiers. It snowed for two of my runs in the morning. I paxed about 67th of 160 with the ESP pax. Which is about normal for me in a way under prepared car.