633 replies to this topic

[76lxhatch]

The air temp sensor came with this little aluminium mounting block, presumably for welding onto an aluminium intake pipe. I don't have one of those though and it says to mount it directly before the throttle so I figured it may as well be in the throttle body itself. This means it doesn't have to be in the air filter base which keeps it relatively safe and everything can still be connected and run without the air cleaner housing installed.

 

Bored it out slightly and made a little tube insert so that it has a spigot which sticks out for locating and easier sealing.

 

Made a big hole in the downhill side of the new throttle body to match.

 

You can see the tube goes right through and seals against the o-ring of the sensor itself.

 

With the sensor installed.

 

The block is epoxied on just in case. I thought about welding a couple of tacks but want to avoid any damage to the throttle body.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 17 July 2023 - 03:03 PM.

[76lxhatch]

I can't seem to find any photos of what it looked like before, but some clown (me) had run the lines straight out of the brake master cylinder down to the chassis rail in a way that made it very awkward to get at the rear spark plugs on the driver side.

 

Finally got around to making some new ones that give a lot more clearance. In hindsight having the ports on the other side of the master cylinder would have been ideal, but like many parts on this car that's not just a standard unit, it has been internally modified, so no such thing as a straight swap.

 

Also removed the old ECU and added some rivet nuts as standoffs to mount the new ECU bracket. Broke my rivet nut tool and had to install the last two the hard way :-/

 

Still fits well enough up behind the glove box (which is remove in this photo). Hopefully this area will be a bit neater once I've finished the wiring changes.

[76lxhatch]

I may have done some of the damage removing it, but regardless the speedo gear doesn't look like it would have lasted much longer. With the high tooth count making them so thin the supplier does say they have a reduced lifespan.

 

Made up a replacement.

[Bruiser]

You’re a dab hand on a machine, mate
All your bits look like pro made bought ones
Everything I make looks like a hack grinded then filed and sanded
backyard job

[76lxhatch]

Thanks for the kind words, I think a large part of it though is that its easier to spot the flaws in your own work (not to mention I don't post photos of the failures!)

[76lxhatch]

Continued butchering of the rocker covers, coil brackets are now permanently mounted.

 

Wiring is progressing slowly. ECU in place.

 

Started on coil connectors.

 

Still some work to do here, but everything is basically mapped out.

[76lxhatch]

Keep getting side-tracked on small projects, but nice to tidy some things up while its all apart. The fuel rail inlet is quite tight against the heater hoses so I wanted to change it to an angled fitting. I have no idea why 3/8" NPT fittings no longer seem to have a 3/8" hose tail? (Black fitting is the one removed)

 

It is however excessively thick so there's room to machine...

 

And with the ugly blue knocked off, that will work.

[Heath]

Haha I love your fourth jaw extender.

[76lxhatch]

Another side-track project, trying to clean up the heater hoses. They were both running down the passenger side rocker cover along with the tap, but now that the distributor is mostly gone there's room for the tap sideways across the back.

 

Got hold of some stainless bends and tubing, and machined up some fittings for joining and hose tails.

 

Welded up and added some mounting tabs.

 

These now run down either side of the manifold and are a lot less in the way of the rocker covers and injectors.

 

Manifold still has to come off for a re-paint, I'll make up some ends to leak test them before final fitting.

[76lxhatch]

Bought some of these.

 

I want them to be as integrated as possible, but ideally I'd like to avoid cutting up an original SS dash. So far the plan is to put the instrument cluster away for safe keeping and build a new structure to house the gauges, along with some surrounds that adapt it to the standard recesses. A bit like this.

 

Will be using locating rings to position the surrounds over the gauges. As per usual I couldn't find any aluminium the right size, not so bad now I have a furnace. The first couple used some old extrusions of unknown origin which cast fine but were a nightmare to machine, need to be more selective in future. This one's an old water pump housing.

 

After much machining on the lathe and a little on the mill.

 

As usual it took a few goes to get the correct shape on the 3D printing, but I'm pretty happy with these.

 

The surrounds are a very snug fit into the locating rings, which have a recess that sits around the gauge bezel. When the replacement thread tap arrives the holes will be tapped for some M3 screws. The gauges will be mounted in a place of aluminium or something like that, and attach to the back of the fascia as the original instrument cluster did. The locating rings will screw to it also.

 

Depth to the gauge face is supposed to be about the same as the originals.

 

Mock up. The speedo surround is a funny colour because I've started sanding it smooth. There's just enough depth in the original holes for the little flange at the front to sit flush.

 

Those with good eyes might also notice there are a couple of small protrusions in the quad gauge surround. These will house coloured LEDs for the brake warning and check engine lights.

[yel327]

Do you need a handbrake lamp too? Is the high beam lamp in the speedo? Nice work BTW.

[76lxhatch]

Yes high beam is the little dot in the speedo just above the indicators. Planning to leave the brake fail and park brake hooked up to the same light.

[Heath]

Holy moly mate. I could have really helped you with that! Unless your preference was re-inventing the wheel, haha!

 

https://www.gumtree....812?edited=true

[76lxhatch]

Your conversion is awesome too and I did seriously think about going that way. But I started thinking about making minor changes which probably would have ended with re-inventing the wheel anyway, so figured I may as well begin there. Glutton for punishment but all the custom parts are good fun. It might all turn out to be a failure yet so there's always plan B!

[FLY_LX]

I like your can do attitude, and custom machined parts. they sure look sweet.

would have pics /details of your furnace.

[76lxhatch]

Thanks, its a slow process but I do like to do as much in-house as possible.

 

The furnace is part of an old air compressor tank lined with ceramic wool and a reflective coating (ITC100). There's a lid with smaller chimney not shown in this pic, also lined. The crucible only holds about 500mL but everything gets up to temp reasonably well.

 

 

The burner is very similar to the common designs on the web, a piece of 3/4" galv water pipe with a venturi. The nozzle is a mig tip, it screws into a drilled piece of threaded rod which also serves as the hose fitting and allows the disc to spin around it as an air valve.

 

 

I haven't got as far as making proper molds yet, its more just creating chunks to machine.

[FLY_LX]

cheers mate.

looking into making one, how does the ceramic wool & coating hold up? it does seem to be a better set up than other options. presume its alot lighter weight than straight refractory.

I'm pretty tight so will try to cobble together a oil burner, and apparently they can melt steel?

does it consume much gas to melt ali?

did you make your crucible? have seen you can make from graphite & liquid glass.

yeah making patterns/ cores looks like an art in its self.

[76lxhatch]

So far its holding up well, I think the coating helps a lot. When I first put it together before adding the coating I fired it up to dry everything out and was interested to see how hot it could get - ended up melting the wool in the flame path into little hard balls. However keeping it under 1000 degrees with the crucible in there and the coating added, so far it doesn't seem to have deteriorated at all. The wool was easier to get than refractory, but I had to order the coating off eBay. The outside is mostly cool to touch which gives you an idea how well it insulates.

 

I thought the gas consumption would be fairly high (its a high pressure regulator not just a BBQ deal) but actually not too bad, have done a dozen melts or more and still only halfway through a 9kg bottle. Being well insulated and fairly small makes it heat up relatively fast and obviously less time running uses less gas. Definitely convenient, if you wanted to go hotter you could force-feed the air with the gas to get to the next stage.

 

Not sure steel would be an option with any home-made setup, if so you'd likely burn through the furnaces as they wouldn't hack it. Only ~750 degrees for aluminium, ~1800+ for steel. What I might try one day is getting up to ~1200 as that would allow copper and brass, a little more and maybe cast iron which would be quite handy.

 

The crucible is just a standard graphite one that I bought, wanted something that would last a while. The other thing I bought to go with it is a laser thermometer that can read up to 1400 degrees; I don't use it as much during the melt now I have a feel for it but still good to know when everything is up to temp and avoid going too hot (wearing out parts), also very handy to know when the cast part is safe to touch!

[FLY_LX]

cheers.
interesting about gas consumption, i would have thought more. something to think about.
i know you can adjust air/ gas ratio, can you adjust gas pressure/ flow or is it just flat out.

i got the gingery books, was going attempt to make the lathe, but recently acquired one.
now i'm going through the horizontal mill book. don't know how a aluminium mill will hold up though.


did you know you can do lost casting with 3d prints. lot easier than carving wood or what ever.
i need to get one, they seem handy to have. if you know how work with modelling software and all that.

Edited by FLY_LX, 12 August 2023 - 08:21 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Yes the pressure regulator I bought is adjustable (turn the red knob), makes a difference.

 

For anything but simple parts 3D printing seems to be the way (small sizes at least). I'm only set up for ABS, not sure that would be any good for lost casting but can't be too hard to make standard molds.

[76lxhatch]

Had a go at modelling some mounts for the gauge panel and they came out pretty well, will be heaps strong enough.

 

Add some holes with a bit of aluminium sheet around them. Once the gauges and adapters are mounted this isn't so flimsy.

 

Dummy assembly.

 

With surrounds and extra LEDs.

 

It all screws in exactly the same as the original cluster.

 

Proof that it fits.

 

Just need to blow it all apart for sanding and painting now. The surrounds seem to be quite captive just pushed into place, but if they need a little help I'll just add a couple of dobs of epoxy on the outside where they meet the locating rings. No modifications to original parts at all which makes a change!

[76lxhatch]

Nothing exciting today, made a double adapter for oil sensors - going to run pressure and temp to the ECU as well as pressure to the dash gauge.

 

As you can see I've already relocated the hole on the oil pump to gain clearance to the power steering pump but there's still some room.

[yel327]

Red 6 intake manifold vacuum post does the same job! could have saved you a few hours. Does it at 90deg to what you have though.

 

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[76lxhatch]

The sensors are both only 1/8" NPT and the original/hole in the pump is 1/4" NPT. You can buy them similar to the version I made too but for the same money I got additional material for another day, it fits exactly how I wanted it, and I got the enjoyment of making it.

[Heath]

I actually set up my 0-5V SpeedHut oil pressure sensor to supply to both my ECU and my gauge. I never bought a second oil pressure sensor.