Project Supracharger

I have recycling the rear flange off the rusty old mid-pipe and sculpted a piece of 4mm angle iron along the bell-housing casting to make the manifold support bracket and fitted the new pipe without thermal wrapping.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

Very neat, and a good bit of fabrication.

Very neat, and a good bit of fabrication.

 

Cheers, maybe I should have it gold plated.

 

It was an awkward thing to make yet has turned out well, it fits in neatly and is easily on and offable.

 

The leg of the manifold is now securely located, exactly where it 'wants' to be.

 

I haven't disturbed the wrap on the manifold because that would be the death of it, nevertheless, it's 'stainless' flange and the 'stainless' wire on the EGT sensor are both rusting so the 'stainless' pipe must be too.

 

I'll get longer stainless bolts for the mid-pipe flanges and fit on them sacrificial aluminium anodes, which'll give Mr Rusty somewhere else roundabouts to go.

Edited March 29, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

Good news is; the belts turned up today and can come off the list at last.

 

The Engineer has today again promised the PAS wheel will be refaced tomorrow. I hope he means it this time.

 

 

Not so good news; the Government has sneaked in another tax.

 

International parcel contents used to be VAT exempt up to $50, which was the value declared on the packet, but this has been 'secretly' changed to £15 and whilst the Revenue has you over this new barrel, the Post Office rips you a new one!

 

Edited March 30, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

I only realised this the other day, I had a de-cat pipe turn up with the cost stated as £15

The Engineer let me down again yesterday with the refaced PAS pulley and again today.

 

Without this component I'm running out of 'things' to play with, so began tinkering with HHO components but my mind has wandered off towards bonnet bulging and I have found some correct grade aluminium to play with.

 

I have arrived at the conclusion that vents letting in water onto polished aluminium castings would be a constant wind-up, so will be bulging without a vent.

 

If further cold air is required, I will fit another vent in the front bumper over the plate, there it will let more air through the charge-cooler pre-rads.

 

Keeping the polished aluminium things dry will require less maintenance to stay shiny and bright.

 

Will be like an M3's big brother without vents.

 

Edited March 31, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

The adjustable spring-loaded tensioner is functioning perfectly. 10/10

 

I have changed the wonky modified PAS wheel for a nearly straight one, the floating bearing in the support bracket has a gentle growl when running,yet it rotates freely enough by hand. 6/10

 

Swapped the idler pulley but it hasn't cured the chatter? Fail

 

That's a job back on the list before it came off.

 

Edited April 2, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

Keep at this dude, whereas it is too much for most of us to even consider doing ourselves, it is cool to see and I have to respect the time, effort, skill and knowledge that has gone into this.

Thank you, I'm getting there, one job at a time.

 

I have been accumulating 'things' and geared-up ready to knock a few jobs off the list as soon as I can get access to the workshop on a fine day.

I was all geared up to blitz a few jobs off the list this weekend but the Bank Holiday weather has stopped play.

 

Pacifying my supercharger itch, I have ordered a few more needed things and reduced the red text on the list.

 

The supercharger quick-change pulley system came with a 3.8" and I have had a 4.2" made, yet decided to get another @ 4.0" and have 3 to play with.

 

 

4.20" s/p x 6.78" c/p - engine 6,800rpm - supercharger 10,977rpm - 13.5 psi (0.93 bar) - compression static 10:1 dynamic 16.95:1 - 711 cfm (20,147 lpm)

 

4.00” s/p x 6.78" c/p - engine 6,800rpm - supercharger 11,526rpm - 15.3 psi (1.05 bar) - compression static 10:1 dynamic 17.90:1 - 747 cfm (21,152 lpm)

 

3.80” s/p x 6.78" c/p - engine 6,800rpm - supercharger 12,132rpm - 16.9 psi (1.15 bar) - compression static 10:1 dynamic 18.80:1 - 786 cfm (22,257 lpm)

Edited April 9, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

In-between a couple of the hailstorms today, I managed to fit the longer stainless bolts and the sacrificial anodes recycled from charge-cooler leg off-cuts.

 

Mounted on the extra thread after the lock-nut, one each side of both mid-pipe flanges, I am curious to see how they fare.

 

 

Edited April 16, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

Keeping the cat's installed?

The first cat came out when the Autobahn88 manifold went in.

The second cat came out when the 3" mid-pipe went in.

A 3" competition cat was welded into the front of the HKS Silent Power 'cat-back' exhaust system, I then later discovered that GE engines don't need a cat to pass the MOT emission test, so I have knocked the insides out and it's now just an empty case.

There are no cats in the system, it just looks like there is, which might keep someone official, 'happy'.

With the water/meth and HHO, emissions will be noticeably lower, there is a section at the bottom of 'my garage' waiting for the findings.

 

I am all stocked up with 'things' ready to get steamed into the final jobs, but tide of circumstance is against me.

 

From here on, progress must mostly be in sequence and the next thing to do is final-fit the PAS pulley support, but I'm still waiting on the Engineer. Yet even if I had these things, the weather is too bad to get any work done and bending over to work on the car engine is also out of the equation because an old 'war wound' in my back has mysteriously returned to haunt me and I have a touch of man-flu too. So what with one thing and another, due to circumstances beyond my control the project has ground to a natural pause. I am keeping an eye on both the weather and which days I can gain access to the workshop, but it looks to be May before I can get at it.

 

When the sun comes out and the tide turns, as long as cows are not laying down in the field, it should only need a few days of enthusiastic tinkering.

Edited April 26, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

Formed from an off-cut of the 0.5mm aluminium I used to make the air-box, with a waft of paint and attached with 4 panel rivets.

 

The bottom glove box is now HHO display and controls, another little job off the list.

 

Edited April 25, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

I thought sacrificial anodes needed an immersion electrolyte to work properly, which is why they are great on ships hulls, but lousy on cars?

Sacrificial anodes are used on overland steel pipelines and now on trial under my Supra on it's exhaust pipeline.

 

I have done as much as can be to protect the manifold from stress and corrosion, it's no hardship to have them there and I'm curious to see how they go.

Edited May 7, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

If you are found dead, stuffed in a suitcase, we'll assume they work and exhaust manufacturers worldwide have got together a bounty on you

It nearly stopped raining for a while today, allowing an opportunity to fabricate the HHO mountings.

 

Together, the dimensions of the twin-generators are similar to the stock battery only, slightly broader, slightly lower and slightly shorter.

 

Evenly supported on a 3mm aluminium plate inside the OE tray and located with a modified OE battery bracket.

 

The final-fit will include neoprene-foam @ top and bottom, yet I declare the job, jobbed enough to come off the list.

 

Together these produce HHO @ 6 lpm, in the future I could build a 'battery-size' generator good for 12 lpm.

 

Edited May 10, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

Today it almost stopped raining again, for a while and I had access to the workshop.

 

I am still waiting on the Engineer to do that little job on the PAS support part even though I have been politely 'encouraging' him for six weeks now!

Three weeks ago I accepted an offer from someone to polish off the polishing on the modified rocker-cover and that's not done yet either!

So between them they have ground the supercharging to a halt again.

 

Yet there are plenty of other jobs to be done and I have 'things' in stock to play with, so I fitted the C.W. suspension and replaced the top wishbones with new.

 

All the bolts came out shiny like new and it was a pleasant change to simply fit things that someone else had made.

 

The rear spring-seats are on the lower of the two settings and the car is sitting around 1cm lower than the 80k stock OE N/A suspension.

The front spring-seats are on the middle of the three settings and the car is sitting around 1cm higher than the 80k stock OE N/A suspension.

Top lip of wheel to arch front 12cm, rear 9cm, 18" wheels on 40 profile tyres.

I have sat on the front which makes barely a nodger of difference, which means the added weight of the charger will only make a gnats nodger.

 

A question for Chris. Do I raise the back, lower the front or leave it be?

 

Edited May 10, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

E-mail me a side on photo. The suspension kinematics are much better at stock or very little lower than stock ride height. Depends if you want the fur coat, no knickers "look" or decent handling and ride. The stock suspension has awful camber recovery when lowered = bald inner tyre edges, tramlining and dodgy rear end grip, especially in the wet.

Decent handling and ride please, will the above photo do?

This afternoon it was almost not raining again, so I have levelled up the legs and fitted the new discs and pads.

 

U.K. calipers, DBA 5k discs front, 4k rear, C.W. pads, Do-luck lines, C.W. suspension, TRD anti-roll bars, new top wishbones and tweaked-up the sub-frame mounting-bolts.

 

That's the handling and stopping sorted, now I just need to get the going finished.

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2012 by David P (see edit history)

After seven weeks of waiting, I have given the Engineers ear a good bending and yesterday I stood over him for a whole 2 minutes whilst he machined a 45° taper onto the nose of a PAS pulley.

 

He then placed the adaptor in the chuck to machine a matching divot, only to find that it had been made on the wonk.

 

Another adaptor, straight this time, will have to be made and for reasons that only an Engineer can know, I must now wait until the end of the week.

You need to buy yourself a small lathe mate

I have access to a big lathe and made the first few attempts myself, only to learn that I couldn't reverse the adaptor in the chuck and machine both ends to run true.

 

Wanting to get on, I gave the job to a 'professional' and explained these details, yet apparently he couldn't do it either.