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:



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



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



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.



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



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



That's a Ridgid 377. It works wonderfully.



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 **** 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:



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:



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!

 

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

 

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