A few unusual parts
 

This isn't a build thread per se but I thought I'd document a few of the parts I've made for my DIY turbo.

Here's #1:

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oilman/om0.JPG

That's a chunk of 303 stainless milled on my benchtop toy mill. In retrospect I should have used aluminum because this took forever.

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oilman/om1.JPG

Three of the ports are -4 AN O-ring bosses and one is M10x1.0.

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oilman/om2.JPG

In, out, pressure and temperature. Also a mounting location for a knock sensor. The pressure transducer is accurate to a fraction of a PSI and has a 2ms response time. The temperature and knock sensors are Audi parts I had lying around.

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oilman/om3.JPG

In situ. The tubing is 316 .035" wall. I struggled mightly to flare it with my POS Summit Racing flare tool:

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oilman/omflare3.JPG

After wasting a bunch of ($$) tube I bought a proper tool:

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oilman/omflare2.JPG

That's a Ridgid 377. It works wonderfully.

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oilman/omflare1.JPG

More to come.

Diy <3

Wow! You did some neat stuff!

You're sure the knock sensor will actually do something mounted to a bracket? I always thought their installation directly on the block was pretty critical.

given that the bracket is steel and not aluminum, and assuming he's mounted it very solidly, the insignificant decrease in sensitivity should be easily 'tuned' out.

Kday, that shit is pro. I'm impressed.

You know ,when you are a machininst...everything becomes fair game to be made out of indestrucamanium.Is your mill CNC?I miss being able to Program a mill,there is only so much A CNC lathe is capable of producing,My boss will not allow me to set up the Live tooling on our Mazak...some people just dont get it.
(G)

It's still a rigid mount. There's no free M8 boss on the block anyway. FM does something similar with their knock sensor mount.

It's a manual Harbor Freight mini-mill. Lots of people have made DIY CNC machines out of these though, using e.g. EMC (Linux-based CNC), and if I ever run out of projects that sounds like a fun one to tackle.

I got our FSAE team to get that same Rigid flair tool, it rocks my world.

Kday, I have the HF micromill, and a 7x14 lathe. Knowing the capabilities of those little machines, I'd say that was pretty good work. I know my machines don't like to cut stainless, or even mild steel.

Yeah, thanks. I think with enough time I could have gotten better surface finish everywhere, but it was such slow going I didn't have the patience for aesthetics.

You get me HOT!

Very nice. Do you happen to know what size that nut is that holds the oil filter housing on the block? (edit) Derp it's 29mm.

Nice work with the flares, I have a bad history with ruining those things.

Originally I was going to make a totally new water pump inlet, with a -16 or -20 AN inlet from the radiator, a -10 from the heater core, and -6 ports for both the oil cooler/warmer and the turbo. I'm getting impatient to get the car on the road though so I took a shorter route:

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oil...mpinlet010.JPG

There is just enough meat on the hose barb boss to tap for 1/4 NPT. I wanted to use a -6 ORB instead but I wasn't sure I'd have enough material to make the O-ring seat. I will use a NPT to male -6 and then a -6 tee to both the oil cooler and the turbo hard lines.

Incidentally these spring loaded tap guides are awesome:

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oil...mpinlet001.JPG

Sorry for the crappy pictures, I forgot how the insanely bright LED work light messes with the camera.

Nice, the little block you made is legit as hell. I want to diy like this!

http://www.boost-instruments.com/oil...mpinlet010.JPG

I done that with my turbo build, spun the mixing mani around:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/...a233a5ab35.jpg

Ok, that last one was insufficiently unusual. I'll try harder next time. :)

^not even trying to one-up. Just wanted to show how it looks in it's completed state.

Heh, no worries, I was just kidding.

I'm going to mount the manifold in its normal orientation, at least until my AVO manifold cracks in half and I need to replace it.

Very nice stuff! I know how difficult it can be to machine stuff with a chinese tabletop mill. My dad has a Smithy which I'm sure is more rigid than the HF crap and it still chatters like crazy. Nice job on the hardlines too :)

Tell your boss to get with it! We make these at work in one operation (bar goes in one side, finished part comes out, minus honing & polishing & heattreat) on a live tooling lathe:

Turning Is Optional

http://jesel.com/Images/Followers/Esslinger.jpg
http://www.mmsonline.com/cdn/cms/mac...ng%20tools.jpg

Thanks. The limitations of these machines are sometimes a problem, but more often I'm running into my limitations as an amateur machinist :)

A few new unusual parts:

http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/lines1.jpg

(That coolant line is not nearly as crimped as it looks; I blame the camera phone.)

http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/lines2.jpg

That's a coolant pressure sensor. Hey, why not? There is also a bleed port which should be the highest point in the system if the car is on ramps.

http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/lines3.jpg

Partially visible here is my DIY A/C compressor mount. I couldn't find the stock mount and would have had to buy the tensioner since I am deleting the steering pump. So instead I spent a whole day making a mount. In retrospect this was probably not a good use of time. I need to take a better pic of it...

A few pics of the VR sensor and AC mounts
 

http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm6.jpg
http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm1.jpg
http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm2.jpg
http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm3.jpg
http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm4.jpg
http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm5.jpg
http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm8.jpg
http://www.boost-instruments.com/miata/acm7.jpg

This is the last piece I had to make, now the only excuse for not actually putting this engine in the car is the leaking slave cylinder on my other car...

http://www.boost-instruments.com/cman2.jpg

The strange hose routing is from when I pressure tested it. 40 PSI for a few hours with no leaks. That's AN -20 startlite hose which will run to the radiator. It really is super lightweight.

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...4-1024x704.jpg

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...1-1024x790.jpg

tits.

It may be pornography, but I love that A/C mount. Seems like it'll open up a lot of free space for plumbing relative to having the usual idler pulley.

Here's a particularly unusual part:

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...1/04/idle1.jpg

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...1/04/idle2.jpg

Any guesses what that's for?


Yeah, probably not. I won't keep you in suspense.

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/.../04/valve1.jpg

I had two reasons to turn a perfectly nice acetal cylinder into this odd shaped part. The main reason was I wanted to get rid of the thermostatic idle valve entirely. I've been running with it disconnected and I'm convinced it's screwing with my idle. So as you can see I milled that whole part off and this adapter fits in its place. The reason I didn't just block the thermostatic valve is for packaging. The front facing idle air intake was causing my intake elbow to be further forward than it needs to be otherwise, which in turn was complicating the radiator plumbing. This adapter relocates the idle air inlet to the bottom left of the throttle body.

I'm not sure acetal was the right material to use for this, but it is a heck of a lot easier to machine than aluminum and I didn't have any ABS on hand. The problem with acetal (delrin) is you can't glue it. I'm not sure how the silicone RTV I used to seal it to the idle valve will hold up.


This is the other side of the idle valve:

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/.../04/valve2.jpg

The red circle is the outlet of the PWM idle valve. The blue area is where the thermostatic valve exhausted. Funny that the thermostatic valve area is so much larger. I expect I'll have to crank in more idle air screw to work without it.


This is the only "before" picture I have. Anyone have a shot of the unmolested idle valve for comparison?

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...eccentric1.jpg

Wow, nice everything.

For your oil cooler lines, I saw you used hard line adapters. Did you have to cut off part of the oil cooler hard line bung?

Yeah, I did. They are made of surprisingly thick-walled steel.

This is the reason I needed to move the intake elbow rearward:

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...11/04/rad3.jpg

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...11/04/rad4.jpg

I still need another 1/4" or so to keep it from rubbing.

This is the fitting that goes to the upper radiator port:

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...11/04/rad2.jpg

Part of it goes inside the welded radiator tube for mechanical support. I am not sure if I want to weld this or not. I still wouldn't be able to move it very far forward without precluding any sort of fan on the right side of the radiator.

Why not move the radiator port over a bit? Woops never mind I see you already took the business to the fitting haha.

I am gonna use that port on the oil cooler too but I think I am just gonna put a rubber hose on the bung and then a hosebung-AN -4 adapter.

One question I had regarding that coolant vent port on the front of the motor-- won't the radiator still be higher if you jack the front up? I assume I don't understand something.

Yeah... the port on the front is below the top of the radiator cap. So it's not that useful. I think it helped somewhat when I was filling the coolant from empty. I have used it for pressure testing the coolant system but it is messy. I'd leave it off if I was doing it again.

This is something I haven't seen before:

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...-12-01_483.jpg

I was redoing all of the hard lines anyway and this was actually easier than replacing the stock line from the factory prop valve to the RR caliper. The hard line comes in through an existing plug in the firewall:

http://blog.ultrameta.org/wordpress/...-03-46_990.jpg

I drilled one hole in the trans tunnel where the rearward line goes through.