Cheers guys that will be next on the list. My company has gone on short time hours which does mean I get to spend more time on the build but less money for parts like the compressor wheel and turbine Im after.
Looks great, Stephen.. Did you blast the cam pulleys before painting? Mine have been in storage, but when I pulled them last week they've oxidised
Great work i like how your doing this all yourself at your garage , liked the test rig also , we do pressure testing at work with our power washer haha
Yeah I did, I have access to one at work which saved using a wire brush and taking twice the time :lol:
Another update. Unfortunatly my company has been put on short time hours so not much spare cash to plough into this engine build. Therefore I have decided to concentrate on the cheaper and more finicky jobs of the build to make it look pretty. First I managed to pick up a second hand non res milltek which I fitted in a few hours, sounds epic and should go well when I put the meg engine in, as Ill be using milltek down pipe and sports cat so it should make fabricating the exhaust connection a bit easier. Managed also to give a quick detail of the car before PFC, great turnout this year and the weather was hot and sunny which was a bonus too. All in all a fun day with plenty of tasty motors. I hope mine will be a bit more of a headd turner next year when its boosted. Speaking of cheap things to do on the engine I decided to strip the alternator and check for functionality. Ill also paint this the same gun metal grey colour the rocker cover is sprayed in. This will look great, as the alternator is normally left bear aluminium due to how much of a pain in the arse it is to paint safely without damaging it. Plans for next update is finish alternator and machine out the turbo housing for the 20T wheel that is due to arrive this week. Also picked up some brand new 630cc injectors for £90 today which is a bit of a bonus.
Some little updates: First and the most exciting thing is the 20T compressor wheel has arrived and it was certainly worth the wait. Beautiful piece of engineering. The 20T wheel is around 10mm larger on the inducer and exducer over the standard 14T wheel in a meganes turbo. should make for good gains and perform better than any hrbid turbos currently on the market, a true bolt on option. In the next few weeks ill hopefully machine the compressor housing to suit, making the custom tooling will be the tricky part tbh. My injectors also arrived, tried to mock them up to my fuel rail and there was some slight fitment issues. These injectors don't go as far inside the fuel rail as the standard ones did, so the rail mounts had to be spaced out backwards and the holes opened up. Not perfect but I really cant be bothered to make up new rail brackets. To keep me occupied in the week I carried on with the alternator. First checked the bridge rectifier was working. This is done by checking that the diodes operate at the correct threshold voltage att 0.5V. Luckily they had survived this alternators hard life so dont need to be replaced. I took the casings to work and sand blasted them followed by a lick of paint, they look brand new now and match my engine now. The coil windings were cleaned up and installed back in the casings. Next week Ill concentrate on the iron core of the alternator and give the spindle a clean up on the lathe with some emery cloth. Some pictures as usual.
By a new rotor. It is whell worth it. Theese valeos are known for failure of the rotor winding in means that the winding gets loose from the rotor and is free to move inside (to rotate). A new one from Valeo costs ~ 60gbp
Lovely mate! What turbine wheel/shaft you going for? 11 blade? That's a combo i want to try. Although the 19t would probably be big enough already but yeah, why not try the 20t
UPDATE: With the alternator stripped I cleaned up the copper bushings on the lathe by taking a slight with a facing off tool, this got the bushings square, as they had got very concave from the contact with the brushes. With the surface flat the brushes will make a far better contact. Bearings should arrive this week so I can change them and also give the iron core a coat of hammer blow paint to protect it from corrosion. Now onto the turbo, this week I managed to get the turbo CHRA machined to the new 20T wheel. I first set it in a four jaw chuck (This lets you accurately centre the component as the jaws are adjusted independently, this is needed as a turbo is fairly high tolerance), then using a DTI gauge to check it was centered within 0.01mm in the x and y axis. I measured the CHRA original size and then measuring the old compressor wheel, the size of the wheel was 52mm inducer and 53mm on the CHRA, giving me 1mm clearance. Therefore when modifying the CHRA Ill give a 1mm clearance too, so with the 58mm diameter on the new wheel, this gives me a diameter to machine the CHRA to 59mm. Using a boring bar I machined out the CHRA to the worked out diameter, didn't need to use coolant as cast iron is self lubricating due to its high graphite content. Now finally using a 45 degree chamfer tool I cut a 1 x 45 degree chamfer, to match the new 20T wheel. The new wheel fits nicely now as you can see from the photos. Thanks
UPDATE: A fair bit has happened since my last post, Ill start with the bit most people wont be interested in, the alternator. I first gave the iron core a coat of anti corrosion paint to tidy it up really as i cant be dealing with rusty parts on my build. I then took the rectifier module and pulley wheel and gave them a blast with the sand blaster to remove all the crud and corrosion, I followed this by painting them the same metallic blue that the cam pulleys were painted in, to make the alternator look a little less boring turned out rather well i think.just needs re assembling now and the bearings to be replaced. To make the rocker cover look that little bit better, i had all the bolts zinc plated which makes them almost chrome looking. This should also protect the bolts from rust, which would look rubbish, especially with all the work that's gone into this project. Over the last few weeks one of my side lights had blown and it was time to replace, a job that I had been putting off as I dont have the smallest of hands I therefore made the decision to change them to bright white LED bulbs and at the same time change all the indicators to Osram Diadem. I must say this has really modernized the front end. These LED's are so bright! makes my projector headlights kind of pointless now Right onto the most anticipated bit and how my turbo is going. This week I received the 9 blade HL turbine wheel from ARD tuning again, lovely bit of kit and really well made, cant recommend this company enough for td04 parts. This turbine is slightly larger than the L wheel and should make for better spooling. In order to accurately measure the rotating contour on the compressor and turbine wheel I used a method known as shadow graphing. This is done by projecting the objects profile onto a piece of paper and then tracing the outline. I setup a basic jig with my phone light, compressor wheel mounted in a drill and the a piece of card as the back drop. two points were marked on the piece on the card at 94mm apart (2 x the diameter of the inducer) this gave me a reference point to line the shadow up with to give me a shadow double the size of the actual compressor wheel. The lights were turned off and the drill was turned on, the outline was then traced. Using a radius gauge to curve was determined to be a 20mm radius, but remember this is a 1:2 scale, so the actual radius I have to make a tool to is 10mm. Proper engineering that Thanks for reading.
Great updates mate! So much attention to detail! wonder how the turbo companies do reprofiling, cnc? Can't imagine them having a tool for every compressor/turbine wheel out there pretty clever solution btw!
I managed tonight to machine a practice turbo housing. I secured a 80mm dia alumium bar in the four jaw chuck and then bored out a hole to 47.7mm, this allowed me 0.7mm clearance. I also grinded up a 10mm radius tool and cut the contour into the edge of the hole. With a bit of light sanding and polishing its pretty much perfect, this gives me much more confidence in machining the actual turbo compressor housing. some changes have to be made to radius tool to get it cutting more efficiently. But anyway pretty successful evening! Thanks!
Nice one mate! Think you'll experience less surge then the Volvo boys tbh. they have more exhaust energy but the engines breath worse, also the 9 blade exhaust wheel will help due to spooling a little slower!
UPDATE: Havent had much time to update this thread so here goes. First of as MOT time approaches my rear discs desperately needed replacing, did this over the weekend, gave the callipers a good clean as well. slight problem with the handbrake now though, Im sure it just needs adjusting, no problem to do. the brand new discs make the rear end look so much better, old ones were beyond rusty. Now onto the engine build, the turbo has again taken a back seat at the moment while the CHRA is out for balancing. I did in the meanwhile purchase another throttle body as the old one was damaged. This was cleaned thoroughly with degreaser and then shot blasted, using the same paint as the rest of the engine is painted, I gave a few coats with 3 coats of lacquer. The pivot points of the throttle body was then oiled with ZX1. The top cap of the throttle body was painted metallic blue, this matches in with the AN fittings nicely. I was looking at the oil filler cap and thought it needed brightening up a bit and to make it more individual to the car. On the oil cap there is three grooves, I therefore created a french flag with this. Using an airbrush and thin masking tape I filled in this slots with the colours of the french flag. The oil cap was then given 3 coats of lacquer. Im really pleased with this and itb was pretty much free, a win win then Next time Ill hopefully should have the CHRA back from balancing and have the compressor housing machined at last Pics as usual:
This is absolute porn. Surely this is going to be the best looking engine every to be put into clio? Or megane for that matter
Ha ha thanks pal. Hopefully that's the plan, an engine that looks good but will be capable of big power.
UPDATE: Not any photos this time Im afraid but thought Id keep this updated none the less. The engine build has taken a back foot in the past month. Im still mastering getting the turbo housing machined, small tweaks to the tool were made. In the mean while Ive been sorting out my nans garage which has a lot of wood working machines in and odds and ends, once it is sorted however it will be the ideal place to transplant the engine into my clio, there is a pit and everything. Im nearly there and should be sorted soon. Next month Ill order all the bits for to finish my engine, pistons, clutch etc. Differing from many peoples Meg'd clios, I will be using my clio box simply because I love how short it is and it will improve acceleration. The problem is however, many of us know that the box is made of cheese and has problems even at a clio's low torque levels, when you add 200 ft ib it could cause problems. Ive got a donour box in the meanwhile and will be stripping it down to the bear running gear, this will then be sent out for cryogenic freezing and shot peening to improve strength and reduce fatique stress by up to 40%. The box will then be sent out to be rebuilt with the newer style synchros and to fit a quaife atb diff. Running this box will also mean I can use the CAE short shifter, looks a great bit of kit!
Hopefully, I've read a lot of articles on how to build a strong reliable gearbox and it seems these are the two methods used mainly.
My mate runs his 197 box on his converted clio, it's a fun combination but he's on his 2nd now. It'll be good to see how you get on with you modifications to the box and how successful they are
I think its luck of the draw really with these boxes, would be interesting to do something different, should have better ratios for track as well.
Yeah his new box is coping ok at the minute, he's running 250 hybrid and 630cc's He drives hard although he is treating it with a little more sympathy haha, yeah on track the ratios would be ideal 5th and 6th have much more urge
Id be running a 20T tdo4hl so may push over 300 ft ib. I find rev matching also helps the preserve the synchros also.
Never even heard about it till now! Quite interesting. I'm loving your build though! Good machining skills!
UPDATE: Bit of a more interesting update this time with pictures On thursday I made a 4 hour trip to pick up a gearbox that needed a rebuild because of crunching in 3rd gear. The plan is to strip and rebuild this box with all new synchros, bearings and seals along with cryogenically freezing followed by shot peening all the shafts and gears. The synchros in 3rd and 4th will be replaced with updated iron ones (I think they are iron or steel) these will also be just cryogenically frozen to improve strength. On friday I began about setting out to strip the box down to base compoenents and shafts etc, was relatively simple, had one hiccup that the shafts became stuck in the wrong half of the box, with a chat with Mr @foxspeed it turned out they just needed a little tap to free them. Over the weekend I have removed various bearings and discovered a huge input shaft bearing failure, which could also be another week spot in these engines? Anyway I'm off to Greece for a week so wont be abe to make any progress (I wish the engine would fit in mt suitcase ) anyway some more pictures and I hope to have this box completely stripped and ready for treatment and re assembly by beginning of next month. There will also be more progress on the engine due to a massive parts order happening when i get back off holiday, then the car will come off the road in november ready for its transformation, cant wait! Oops Thanks guys.
PDATE: Not to much progress as Ive been on holiday and had callipers to do. I have managed to completely strip the output shaft of the gearbox, this was done by using a bearing puller/splitter to remove the end tapered roller bearings, with these off I took the shaft to work and used the 20 ton press to press the gears off of the shaft, it was then disassembled and laid out in order and then thoroughly cleaned with solvent degreasers. The input shaft is proving a bit more of an arse to disassemble, there is a nut on one end that is screwed onto the shaft to hold the bearings on, problem is that its bloody tight and holding it securely is proving a pain. i did try it in a lathe 4 jaw chuck but it still would turn. I plan on getting an old 197 clutch and using the spline to hold the shaft securely while I undo the nut. Also I have started cleaning the cases and will shot blast the outside this week and then remove all the bearing races and seals and then give it a lick of paint. Anyway im sure ill have more to show you next time (: Thanks guys
Hello again guys Not to much to update on again. But first things first Ive just been enjoying the clio this week, finally cleaned it in over a month and went for a meet up at Eurospec for a dyno day. It was really a great day and really glad how much my clio made, 193.2HP and a reasonably straight curve, these rollers are also known as the "heart break" rollers and normally read lower than others, so there is a possibility that its making a wee bit more. It will be hopefully a good 150HP more than this by next time its on the dyno Anyway back to the build, and to my relief I have finally undone the nut on the end of the input shaft. I couldnt find a clutch plate for love nor money to help me hold shaft so I could undo the nut. Therefore I had to make an aluminum collet in order to hold on the spline so I could get a breaker bar and get it undone, man it was tight! Also managed to remove all the bearing races and seals from the bell housing side of the casing, I then shot blasted the outside ready for paint. The casing was then cleaned 3 times in hot soapy water to remove all dirt and sand. All the seals, synchros and bearings are being delivered this week so I can then get the bearing races installed and also paint the casings. Thanks everyone.
UPDATE: Quite of bit of progress this week. First I managed to disassemble the input shaft, was quite simple once the nut was removed. The bearing was pressed off and then the components were laid out in order meticulously like i did on the input shaft. I then cleaned the gears with engine degreaser and then packed them away ready to be sent out for treatment. I also cleaned up the other half of the casing by first shot blasting the outside and then thoroughly cleaning the inside with hot soapy water and degreaser. Removed the bearing race where the diff sits, the other bearing race will need a bead of weld running on the inside of it, once this is done, the weld pulls the bearing race inwards and it should just fall out (: I had the Friday off so took the opportunity to take the turbo CHRa down the turbo dynamics for rebuilding and balancing, when i get it back Ill be ready to machine the housings to suit. Thanks
TURBO TIME! Right got some exciting news hopefully on the turbo side of my build. sent my CHRA off to Turbo Dynamics to get it balanced. It came back today and looks great, they have vapour blasted the core and rebuilt with new bearings and balanced. This therefore enables me to finally start machine the housings to suit. Should get the compressor cover done this weekend. I also made up a fixture to be able to mount the hot side of the turbo in the lathe, it needs some counterweighting to reduce vibration as it is off centre turning. Gearbox parts are being sent off next weekend for shot peening and superfinishing. Also getting a quiafe atb diff ordered this weekend which should be here by next week. There was one bearing race that wouldnt budge inside the casing and there was no way of pulling it out. To get it out I welded a bead of weld on the inside of the race. Once it cools the weld pulls in out the bearing race, effectively shrinking it. It just fell out after. I gave both casings a good wash again and dried them with an airline. They will be painted once Ive installed new bearing races. Finnally Ive sent off all the bolts for the engine and gearbox for zinc plating, they will be nice and shiny when they come back Anyway thanks for reading as always, will update on the turbo on Sunday.
As promised there are updates with the turbo. Managed to set it and clock the turbo housing in the lathe to within 0.01mm. Ive bored it out to size of 47.3mm diameter (Leaving me 0.3mm for sanding and blending) Surface finish was very good and I took a 0.2mm final cut to achieve this. Ill contour to radius tomorrow and then blend with emery cloth. Also managed to paint the gearbox housings the same gunmetal colour the rocker cover is painted in. A short video link: http://vid1373.photobucket.com/album...psoeww95wa.mp4 Thanks,
Right finally managed to radius the compressor cover to match the billet 20t wheel. First cut the radius and then contoured and blended it with sand paper. I used engineers fluid to check whether the wheel was contacting anywhere. All in all a success so far. Did some final contouring today and then polished the surface.
