Looking for some updates
OM606.692 Turbodiesel into FJ40 (SBC Swap)
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Any updates?
I been really busy with a new job and haven't been working on it but about to get going again I'm going to build another manifold exhaust and try a he221w turbo. With the hx 30 I can just barely get 30 psi and think I need around 40 and this turbo Is good for 39 so I've been told. That turbo is boosting extremely fast on 4bt so I'm hopping it will do the same on 606.Any progress at all?
How are things going any updates
Following the progress on the 606 into the 40 series. And any update regarding top-mounted instillation of intercooler onto the 606.
I have an 80 series with 606. Camperized; my wife and 1 year old daughter are driving to South America. Worried about it getting warm when in the altitude of the Andes.
I have an 80 series with 606. Camperized; my wife and 1 year old daughter are driving to South America. Worried about it getting warm when in the altitude of the Andes.
- Thread starter
- #86
Hello all - it's been a while!
I wanted to touch this thread again and supply some new info based on my experiences with my OM606 over the last year. I've got about 5k miles on the mill/trans, and a lot of observations.
Cooling: Originaliowan: You are right to be concerned here. Are you planning on towing anything at altitude? If you set it up right, you should be fine. If you don't you'll have a rough time.
Re. the intercooler, I'm not sold on it's efficacy. I don't have pre/post IC charge air temp data, which would answer that, but I'm thinking about installing some guages to answer the question. I just don't see how the IC could get enough air to make any difference once the engine is heat-soaked. I'm leary of adding a hood scoop as that can backfire big time by creating positive pressure in the engine bay and reducing total airflow. If the pre-post testing isn't definitely a plus, I'll probably remove it.
MORE IMPORTANTLY: USE A MERC MECHANICAL FAN. Really, really. I fought cooling horribly using electric fans (even big ass SPAL high amperage ones). Nothing worked. Switched to a mechanical fan, built a good tight shroud, crammed it back in, and whammo. The engine never has overheating issues, even stays cool with 2/3 full coolant. Fitting the mech fan is very, very tight. I had to cheat move my forward bonnet forward by .25 of an inch, and even then everything is very, very tight. However, no issues with the fan hitting the rad even under pretty hard bumping. Mech fan also means you're not relying on electrics to keep cool, which is a HUGE reliability/safety pitfal.
I've you've never crawled along at altitude with a failing alternator, a dying battery, battling overheating because you fan can't keep up on the dying battery trying to find anywhere to camp with 2 toddlers, a co-pilot, and rapidly dwindling daylight, you haven't lived.
The beauty of the engine is that it needs no electrical input to keep on running. Keep it that way, and don't use electric anything in the critical path of keeping the truck moving forward.
I have my pump cranked up for close to maximum fuel delivery on 7.5mm elements. I over-fuel at idle to wake things up in turbo land as fast as possible. This is for daily driving. EGTs stay pretty much in control unless you floor it and keep accelerating hard up a significant grade.
For overlanding, I dial the fuel back to optimize for range and low EGTs. I'm thinking about adding a cable-actuated adjustment sytem to allow me to toggle between "performance" and "economy" modes on the pump.....
Turbos: I have installed and put 3k miles on a pretty cool compound turbo setup. I had originally put in a 10cm housing HX-35 Holset. It worked, but spooled later than I'd like.
I had the the Borg Warner K14 from that was stock with the OM606 sitting around, and I thought, what's better than 1 turbo? 2 turbo!
My setup is a touch unorthodox - KX35 sees exhaust first, feeds the K14. There is a TIAL wastegate set at 15psi (After much experimentation) that shunts exhaust around the K14 and into the downpipe.
This results in making 2+ psi in neutral, and nice quick pickup in mild boost. In higher gears accelerating (where the volume of the K14 simply isn't enough to burn 170cc fuel rate) the HX35 spins up and takes load smoothly off the K14 and vroooooom.
I really like this situation. Also tricky to fit, made possible by the ELBE exhaust manifold.
Only issue has been hoses blowing off, fabbing up better tubes/connectors to fix this. INSTALL A CATCH CAN FOR THE PCV. Oil getting into the intake stream leads to various bummers, but especially causes hoses to pop off. Without the turbo, engine is a DOG DOG DOG and it's a huge downer to blow a hose towing up a grade.
Transmission/Adapter:
Here is where I've screwed up a bit, and really suggest taking your time. I'm planning to pull the engine and transmission from the truck in the next couple months and revise. I'll rebuild the trans with new synchros, fix a leaking forward oil seal on the Orion, a oil pan leak on the 606 (Can't drop the oil pan without pulling the engine due to the adapter plate configuration), and re-package the install as professionally as I can, rather than as quickly as I could to get it on the road.
Mistake 1: When you install the NV4500, make sure you use RTV on the shift-tower mounts/joints. I bled out almost a full charge of the unobtainium special NV4500 oil by virtue of the poor OEM seal here.
Mistake 2: Don't drive the damn thing if you are remotely low on trans oil. DUh, but coupled with Mistake 1, this led to the degredation of the Synchros and shifting is not smooth and nice as it should be.
Mistake 3: DO NOT rely on the Advanced Adapters cross-member/mount that bolts on to the end of the Transfer Case. This leaves the whole drive train supported only on the engine mounts and the very far end of the trans assy, and causes trans bolts, bellhousing bolts, etc. to loosen and the whole thing to sag, which leads to vibrations that aren't fun and can't be good for much of anything in the drivetrain. In fact I'm pretty sure this is really, really bad, but I'm trying not to think about it till I pull the drivetrain and open it up because it makes me want to cry.
Fabricate an additional crossmember to support the transmission underneath it. This is a PITA, but I think important.
Mistake 4: Even though it's a "naturally balanced engine" and a neutral-balance GM flywheel, GET THE FLYWHEEL AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY PROFESSIONALLY BALANCED. For a couple hundred bucks, you KNOW that everything should be smooth and nice. I didn't have my balanced, and I think mine is a bit off, which leads to... vibrations. Blegh.
I have been disappointed in the OME HD in the rear. This may have to do with my specific installation, although I'm pretty sure it's nominal as far as geometry goes, but the rear likes to sag even without a trailer. I have installed Airbag Man (out of Australia) helper airbags and these are awesome - greatly reduced body roll (which is a double-plus with the weight of the RTT on the rack) and adjustable stance based on bag pressure. Bueno!
NV4500 - Still deciding if I like this transmission as much as I hope I would. Where it really shines is in offroad in 4 low. Then the 5th gear, which about equals 2nd gear in High with the 4:1 orion, 4:11 difs, and 33 tires, lets you leave it in low pretty much all the time you're on anything other than nice gravel road.
I think most of my disappointment likely stems from my various install mistakes. We'll see how I feel after I rebuild and re-install.
These are the biggies. I'll be checking here for a while to answer any questions.
I wish I'd had the time/money to completely rebuild the engine prior to installing it. But that's something like 5k in parts alone. Eek.
*gn
I wanted to touch this thread again and supply some new info based on my experiences with my OM606 over the last year. I've got about 5k miles on the mill/trans, and a lot of observations.
Cooling: Originaliowan: You are right to be concerned here. Are you planning on towing anything at altitude? If you set it up right, you should be fine. If you don't you'll have a rough time.
Re. the intercooler, I'm not sold on it's efficacy. I don't have pre/post IC charge air temp data, which would answer that, but I'm thinking about installing some guages to answer the question. I just don't see how the IC could get enough air to make any difference once the engine is heat-soaked. I'm leary of adding a hood scoop as that can backfire big time by creating positive pressure in the engine bay and reducing total airflow. If the pre-post testing isn't definitely a plus, I'll probably remove it.
MORE IMPORTANTLY: USE A MERC MECHANICAL FAN. Really, really. I fought cooling horribly using electric fans (even big ass SPAL high amperage ones). Nothing worked. Switched to a mechanical fan, built a good tight shroud, crammed it back in, and whammo. The engine never has overheating issues, even stays cool with 2/3 full coolant. Fitting the mech fan is very, very tight. I had to cheat move my forward bonnet forward by .25 of an inch, and even then everything is very, very tight. However, no issues with the fan hitting the rad even under pretty hard bumping. Mech fan also means you're not relying on electrics to keep cool, which is a HUGE reliability/safety pitfal.
I've you've never crawled along at altitude with a failing alternator, a dying battery, battling overheating because you fan can't keep up on the dying battery trying to find anywhere to camp with 2 toddlers, a co-pilot, and rapidly dwindling daylight, you haven't lived.
The beauty of the engine is that it needs no electrical input to keep on running. Keep it that way, and don't use electric anything in the critical path of keeping the truck moving forward.
I have my pump cranked up for close to maximum fuel delivery on 7.5mm elements. I over-fuel at idle to wake things up in turbo land as fast as possible. This is for daily driving. EGTs stay pretty much in control unless you floor it and keep accelerating hard up a significant grade.
For overlanding, I dial the fuel back to optimize for range and low EGTs. I'm thinking about adding a cable-actuated adjustment sytem to allow me to toggle between "performance" and "economy" modes on the pump.....
Turbos: I have installed and put 3k miles on a pretty cool compound turbo setup. I had originally put in a 10cm housing HX-35 Holset. It worked, but spooled later than I'd like.
I had the the Borg Warner K14 from that was stock with the OM606 sitting around, and I thought, what's better than 1 turbo? 2 turbo!
My setup is a touch unorthodox - KX35 sees exhaust first, feeds the K14. There is a TIAL wastegate set at 15psi (After much experimentation) that shunts exhaust around the K14 and into the downpipe.
This results in making 2+ psi in neutral, and nice quick pickup in mild boost. In higher gears accelerating (where the volume of the K14 simply isn't enough to burn 170cc fuel rate) the HX35 spins up and takes load smoothly off the K14 and vroooooom.
I really like this situation. Also tricky to fit, made possible by the ELBE exhaust manifold.
Only issue has been hoses blowing off, fabbing up better tubes/connectors to fix this. INSTALL A CATCH CAN FOR THE PCV. Oil getting into the intake stream leads to various bummers, but especially causes hoses to pop off. Without the turbo, engine is a DOG DOG DOG and it's a huge downer to blow a hose towing up a grade.
Transmission/Adapter:
Here is where I've screwed up a bit, and really suggest taking your time. I'm planning to pull the engine and transmission from the truck in the next couple months and revise. I'll rebuild the trans with new synchros, fix a leaking forward oil seal on the Orion, a oil pan leak on the 606 (Can't drop the oil pan without pulling the engine due to the adapter plate configuration), and re-package the install as professionally as I can, rather than as quickly as I could to get it on the road.
Mistake 1: When you install the NV4500, make sure you use RTV on the shift-tower mounts/joints. I bled out almost a full charge of the unobtainium special NV4500 oil by virtue of the poor OEM seal here.
Mistake 2: Don't drive the damn thing if you are remotely low on trans oil. DUh, but coupled with Mistake 1, this led to the degredation of the Synchros and shifting is not smooth and nice as it should be.
Mistake 3: DO NOT rely on the Advanced Adapters cross-member/mount that bolts on to the end of the Transfer Case. This leaves the whole drive train supported only on the engine mounts and the very far end of the trans assy, and causes trans bolts, bellhousing bolts, etc. to loosen and the whole thing to sag, which leads to vibrations that aren't fun and can't be good for much of anything in the drivetrain. In fact I'm pretty sure this is really, really bad, but I'm trying not to think about it till I pull the drivetrain and open it up because it makes me want to cry.
Fabricate an additional crossmember to support the transmission underneath it. This is a PITA, but I think important.
Mistake 4: Even though it's a "naturally balanced engine" and a neutral-balance GM flywheel, GET THE FLYWHEEL AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY PROFESSIONALLY BALANCED. For a couple hundred bucks, you KNOW that everything should be smooth and nice. I didn't have my balanced, and I think mine is a bit off, which leads to... vibrations. Blegh.
I have been disappointed in the OME HD in the rear. This may have to do with my specific installation, although I'm pretty sure it's nominal as far as geometry goes, but the rear likes to sag even without a trailer. I have installed Airbag Man (out of Australia) helper airbags and these are awesome - greatly reduced body roll (which is a double-plus with the weight of the RTT on the rack) and adjustable stance based on bag pressure. Bueno!
NV4500 - Still deciding if I like this transmission as much as I hope I would. Where it really shines is in offroad in 4 low. Then the 5th gear, which about equals 2nd gear in High with the 4:1 orion, 4:11 difs, and 33 tires, lets you leave it in low pretty much all the time you're on anything other than nice gravel road.
I think most of my disappointment likely stems from my various install mistakes. We'll see how I feel after I rebuild and re-install.
These are the biggies. I'll be checking here for a while to answer any questions.
I wish I'd had the time/money to completely rebuild the engine prior to installing it. But that's something like 5k in parts alone. Eek.
*gn
I'm interested in your turbo setup. Do you have any pictures of it?
- Thread starter
- #88
Sure!
Also some pics of fan shroud, clearance, general crampedness. The turbos don't photo well due to all the packing, but feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to clarify. Big turbo is mounted backwards, such that the exhaust outlet is facing forward. I know a lot of the tubing isn't ideal, but you make with what you got.
Cheers!
*gn
Also some pics of fan shroud, clearance, general crampedness. The turbos don't photo well due to all the packing, but feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to clarify. Big turbo is mounted backwards, such that the exhaust outlet is facing forward. I know a lot of the tubing isn't ideal, but you make with what you got.
Cheers!
*gn
*g
You been working on the two stage Alda curious as to what it looks like. Would like to do it with mine. Herd DM has perfected it like to hear from you.
Skip
You been working on the two stage Alda curious as to what it looks like. Would like to do it with mine. Herd DM has perfected it like to hear from you.
Skip
Ya I do, I have a 151R Toyota version that I have set up it does make it a bit longer with Toyota X box but had Marlin do his majic on it and he had guaranteed 1000 hp and a bunch of torque so at my set up it should be ok, ax15 is vertually the same with a longer input shaft and larger input bearing which I have converted to. I consider it a great way to go. I am sure there will be some opinions as to this set up but this is how I am going to roll.
BYW
North West Diesel Off Road has the adapter already if someone is interested, tell Ron Skip Sent you.
North West Diesel Off Road has the adapter already if someone is interested, tell Ron Skip Sent you.
I am sure he is, also he is doing a bunch of good stuff with the 150 the v-6 version of the 151R I was told just as strong and will take the AX15 input shaft. He also built one of those for me and I put the gear driven T case on the back of it, however it needs an adapter to mate up.
Take a number he is prob booked for 1-2 years. One of the few guys doing this install.
Good afternoon, I'm working on the same swap on a jeep TJ, what about the oil sump clearance?, could you show some pictures?, thanks.
- Thread starter
- #98
Howdy All,
Been another long time away. Back in 2017, the OM606 shifted forward from a pothole impact and clipped the fan blades off on the shroud. A few hundred feet later, major overheating warped the head and blew the gaskset. I was on the freeway up a hill with no margin and no where to bail out, so I had to keep going and watch the temps skyrocket.
I've spent the time since then on a complete rebuild of the chassis. Basically, in 2016 I stopped drinking, mostly because I felt I was getting dumber and more forgetful and needed to do something. Not an easy process, but I have a lovely family who gave me the necessary motivation to get and stay happily sober. Some people can love beer and not slide down a slippery slope. I am not one of those people, it turns out.....
The upshot is I have a lot more patience/focus/precision, and I've chosen to do The Last Complete Overhaul of this truck. Haha, but I'm partially serious. I want this to be the last time I completely rebuild core systems, and if I have to get in to repair something, I want that to be as pleasant an experience as possible. Nothing oily, nothing stinky, nothing itchy (looking at you, glass exhaust wrap), etc.... Everything designed to be R&R'd.
Essentially, I want to spend my time driving my Landcruiser, not fixing my mistakes....
I'm gotten through quite a bit of the to-dos, which I will outline shortly, and am now beginning final assemlby of a very similar but fundamentally different machine.
Mandate: A robust assembly designed for ease of maintainence and long service life.
1. I had the block bored and sleeved to Mercedes' spec. This was a very challenging thing to have done correctly, but the engine I bought, although low in milage, showed signs of significant neglect. My hamfisted first build didn't help anything, and there was heavy scoring on the cylinder walls from a time when I ran the engine without an air filter... So I've fully rebuilt the engine, re-doing all the things I didn't attend to and should have - balanced the clutch, injectors are professionally rebuilt, pop-tested and patterned. All new seals/gaskets, overhauled the hydraulic tappets, new rod & main bearings. New piston rings, crank magnafluxed and inspected.
2. Next, I sent off the head to Texas for straightening, a full valve job, and new exahust valves to be installed by Brooks Elliot. I chose him because of his reputation and prior experience working on performance OM606 heads. He did a wonderful job.
3. A core mandate of this build is that I want -no- leaks. No boost leaks, oil leaks, water leaks, gear oil leaks, zip zero nada. If I do it and it leaks, I re-do it till it doesn't. That means replumbing everything (every. thing.) with cunifer hard lines and AN fittings, with AN flex lines at the transition points. I've spent the last year collecting the necessary bending / flaring tools to do this in space-plane style.
3. I want things to fit without cramming. Everything must have the necessary clearances to move as needed, and restraints to keep it from moving further. To do this has required a serious design effort in terms of packaging. The drivetrain is very long, the truck very short, and the number of subsystems needed to keep it all cool is daunting. I begin by building an accurate (+- 2mm for critical dims) 3d model in Rhino of my truck, starting by using a laser XYZ locator I built out of linear rails to map the frame. Without the model, I would have had to assemble and dissassemble the truck over an dover again just to test different ideas. So I spent a couple months measuring the crap out of things, and then began fitting everything in and checking/re-checking driveline angles, etc. The end result I am happy with. Clearances are very tight - 1/8th of an inch in places. But they should be sufficient, and I've planned them carefully with future maintenence in mind.
4. The relocation of everything created a good opportunity to strip the frame down to bare metal inside and out, cut out the moderatly rusty rear frame member and last 12 inches of each rail. So I built a brand new rear frame, boxed the whole length, and added in some beefy sliders. Relocating for fit meant lowering the engine 2 inches and moving it back about the same. This meant I couldn't get away with my pan clearance anymore, and so I spent a month scrubbing ebay.de until I found a pump and pan from an OM648 that I could afford. The 648 pan is rear sump, and the pump is a higher-output unit to boot. It took 6 weeks to get here from Germany due to the pandemic. Just like old times....
5. I'm sick of overheating, thinking about overheating. So I've added a massive oil cooler and a frozen boost air-to-water intercooler to (hopefully) end that conversation permanently.
6. I spent some of the time since the head blew up building a really fun offroad camping trailer. In doing that I upgraded my wiring skills. So, this build will feature a race-grade, fully sealed harness w/ Duetsch connectors, mil-spec crimp connections, tefzel wire, and all that sort of overkill. No more chassis ground, seperate circuit for everything, etc.
7. Part of 'no leaks' means re-locating the fuel tank out from under the passenger seat to the rear. I've built a 22 gallon tank similar to the con-ferr model out of some stainless I had hanging around. Since I was already going to be re-working the rear, I could make some good mounting provisions for this tank.
8. The old compound turbo setup was fun, but leaky in every way and oil drainage was insufficient. This time I started with a brand new Holset HE211 (more efficient than the old BorgWarner K14) and a new impeller on my HX35, and have fabricated a 100% aluminum intake w/ vanjay clamps for the connections. The hot side exhaust is mostly stainless, much more carefully fitted. Part of the over-heating issues derived from the excessive amount of hot pipe in the engine compartment. I've re-configured everything to minimize piping, and designed an insulation system that uses layered ceramic and aerogel (pyrogel XT-E) in a stainless wrapper to shroud all the hot piping I can. It's an approach based around some aerospace applications I researched, hopefully it does what I need. I had the Elbe Engineering tubular manifold ceramic-coated @ Jett-Hot, primarily to prevent rust. I'll take any heat reduction I get as well.
I'm pretty stoked to be beginning the assembly after literally years of planning and waiting and saving (anyone who's had engine work done probably knows what I mean by that. Holy cow getting good work done takes a looooong time....). Maybe with luck my kids will get to ride in Serenity again before they are grown...... (6 and 8, now....). I miss my '40.
Over the next few weeks I'll be uploading pics and details along the way. I apologize to the folks who I left hanging over the last couple years with unanswered questions. My soul was too sad from the head warping to log in here until I'd gotten a handle on things and turned it around.
Peace,
*gn
Been another long time away. Back in 2017, the OM606 shifted forward from a pothole impact and clipped the fan blades off on the shroud. A few hundred feet later, major overheating warped the head and blew the gaskset. I was on the freeway up a hill with no margin and no where to bail out, so I had to keep going and watch the temps skyrocket.
I've spent the time since then on a complete rebuild of the chassis. Basically, in 2016 I stopped drinking, mostly because I felt I was getting dumber and more forgetful and needed to do something. Not an easy process, but I have a lovely family who gave me the necessary motivation to get and stay happily sober. Some people can love beer and not slide down a slippery slope. I am not one of those people, it turns out.....
The upshot is I have a lot more patience/focus/precision, and I've chosen to do The Last Complete Overhaul of this truck. Haha, but I'm partially serious. I want this to be the last time I completely rebuild core systems, and if I have to get in to repair something, I want that to be as pleasant an experience as possible. Nothing oily, nothing stinky, nothing itchy (looking at you, glass exhaust wrap), etc.... Everything designed to be R&R'd.
Essentially, I want to spend my time driving my Landcruiser, not fixing my mistakes....
I'm gotten through quite a bit of the to-dos, which I will outline shortly, and am now beginning final assemlby of a very similar but fundamentally different machine.
Mandate: A robust assembly designed for ease of maintainence and long service life.
1. I had the block bored and sleeved to Mercedes' spec. This was a very challenging thing to have done correctly, but the engine I bought, although low in milage, showed signs of significant neglect. My hamfisted first build didn't help anything, and there was heavy scoring on the cylinder walls from a time when I ran the engine without an air filter... So I've fully rebuilt the engine, re-doing all the things I didn't attend to and should have - balanced the clutch, injectors are professionally rebuilt, pop-tested and patterned. All new seals/gaskets, overhauled the hydraulic tappets, new rod & main bearings. New piston rings, crank magnafluxed and inspected.
2. Next, I sent off the head to Texas for straightening, a full valve job, and new exahust valves to be installed by Brooks Elliot. I chose him because of his reputation and prior experience working on performance OM606 heads. He did a wonderful job.
3. A core mandate of this build is that I want -no- leaks. No boost leaks, oil leaks, water leaks, gear oil leaks, zip zero nada. If I do it and it leaks, I re-do it till it doesn't. That means replumbing everything (every. thing.) with cunifer hard lines and AN fittings, with AN flex lines at the transition points. I've spent the last year collecting the necessary bending / flaring tools to do this in space-plane style.
3. I want things to fit without cramming. Everything must have the necessary clearances to move as needed, and restraints to keep it from moving further. To do this has required a serious design effort in terms of packaging. The drivetrain is very long, the truck very short, and the number of subsystems needed to keep it all cool is daunting. I begin by building an accurate (+- 2mm for critical dims) 3d model in Rhino of my truck, starting by using a laser XYZ locator I built out of linear rails to map the frame. Without the model, I would have had to assemble and dissassemble the truck over an dover again just to test different ideas. So I spent a couple months measuring the crap out of things, and then began fitting everything in and checking/re-checking driveline angles, etc. The end result I am happy with. Clearances are very tight - 1/8th of an inch in places. But they should be sufficient, and I've planned them carefully with future maintenence in mind.
4. The relocation of everything created a good opportunity to strip the frame down to bare metal inside and out, cut out the moderatly rusty rear frame member and last 12 inches of each rail. So I built a brand new rear frame, boxed the whole length, and added in some beefy sliders. Relocating for fit meant lowering the engine 2 inches and moving it back about the same. This meant I couldn't get away with my pan clearance anymore, and so I spent a month scrubbing ebay.de until I found a pump and pan from an OM648 that I could afford. The 648 pan is rear sump, and the pump is a higher-output unit to boot. It took 6 weeks to get here from Germany due to the pandemic. Just like old times....
5. I'm sick of overheating, thinking about overheating. So I've added a massive oil cooler and a frozen boost air-to-water intercooler to (hopefully) end that conversation permanently.
6. I spent some of the time since the head blew up building a really fun offroad camping trailer. In doing that I upgraded my wiring skills. So, this build will feature a race-grade, fully sealed harness w/ Duetsch connectors, mil-spec crimp connections, tefzel wire, and all that sort of overkill. No more chassis ground, seperate circuit for everything, etc.
7. Part of 'no leaks' means re-locating the fuel tank out from under the passenger seat to the rear. I've built a 22 gallon tank similar to the con-ferr model out of some stainless I had hanging around. Since I was already going to be re-working the rear, I could make some good mounting provisions for this tank.
8. The old compound turbo setup was fun, but leaky in every way and oil drainage was insufficient. This time I started with a brand new Holset HE211 (more efficient than the old BorgWarner K14) and a new impeller on my HX35, and have fabricated a 100% aluminum intake w/ vanjay clamps for the connections. The hot side exhaust is mostly stainless, much more carefully fitted. Part of the over-heating issues derived from the excessive amount of hot pipe in the engine compartment. I've re-configured everything to minimize piping, and designed an insulation system that uses layered ceramic and aerogel (pyrogel XT-E) in a stainless wrapper to shroud all the hot piping I can. It's an approach based around some aerospace applications I researched, hopefully it does what I need. I had the Elbe Engineering tubular manifold ceramic-coated @ Jett-Hot, primarily to prevent rust. I'll take any heat reduction I get as well.
I'm pretty stoked to be beginning the assembly after literally years of planning and waiting and saving (anyone who's had engine work done probably knows what I mean by that. Holy cow getting good work done takes a looooong time....). Maybe with luck my kids will get to ride in Serenity again before they are grown...... (6 and 8, now....). I miss my '40.
Over the next few weeks I'll be uploading pics and details along the way. I apologize to the folks who I left hanging over the last couple years with unanswered questions. My soul was too sad from the head warping to log in here until I'd gotten a handle on things and turned it around.
Peace,
*gn
- Thread starter
- #99
Here is the frame, all stripped down, with most of the heavy fabrication done. I used Picklex 20 as a pre-treatment prior to paint. To get to this point was a pretty hellish combination of grinding, wire wheel, sand blasting, and a lot of welding dirty steel along the seams to box the frame. Standard flux core was not good, TIG (predictably) a total failure. Ended up saddling some .045 ESAB Dual Shield into a 50's era MIG spool gun attached to a giant Post-War DC CC power unit. There was a steep learning curve (like all things welding) till I at least didn't hate the results, but it would put down a clean bead and man can spray transfer ever haul ass. I wish I had the opportunity to take classes and learn to really weld. Maybe in the next decade.
Taking the time to throw together a crude rotisserie was really, really worth it in terms of work ergonomics.
Taking the time to throw together a crude rotisserie was really, really worth it in terms of work ergonomics.
- Thread starter
- #100
Here is some of the modeling work showing the fuel, cooling, oil, intake, turbo systems mostly finalized. I need to update the model to reflect the final slider geometry I went with, and the new rear frame diagonal struts, but it's pretty spot on other than that.
