Sirpent Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 Update After tossing and turning over the carrier, I decided to crank up the old CAD program I had and have a crack at seeing what could be done in terms of creating a CNC'd Aluminium billet carrier. Attached is the preliminary wire frame image of what I have generated so far. Still a lot of fine tuning to do, as the diff rear mount point and also the lower cradle arms need to be mocked up now. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 UPDATE Final cradle design done showing single cut process inclusive of nested lower suspension mounts. I have ordered a slab of 7075 - T651 Aluminium and the machinist is currently going over the CAD-dxf file I sent him. Think this is more in keeping with the original concept and a much cleaner design. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 Just a quick update for those still following this thread. Motor is now on its way and should be arriving soon, had problems with the shipping company but was all sorted out after a round of ping pong international calls and emails. As per previous posts, I have the new rear Diff / Suspension cradle all CAD'd up and thats ready to go as is the LSD Diff I picked up a few weeks ago. Today recieved my new T56 box and its nice seeing all the pieces of the puzle come together, the pics attached show itsitting next to the original "Z's" 5 speed just for a comparative, once the engine arrives and I can take some measurements of the bell housing I will make a decision on which bell housing I will use and therefore have the adaption plate made to suit. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 Well seems not much action here, but for those that are reading it some updates In preperation for the engines arrival and so as to waste the minimal amount of time when it gets here, I have pre-empted some of the fabrication and modification work, the following is an update of whats planned. 1st Motor lands in Melbourne after its trans Pacific journey from WA State on October the 1st, so Im hanging to get my hands on it once it passes customs and quarantine services. Had a hickup as the US shipping company wouldnt allow it out unless the plastic pallet I had was boxed up, this even though Australian Customs are OK with a secured clean and wrapped engine on a pallet, so through my agent here in Australia, Tony Garmey from Horizon Racing in Seattle picked up the pallet and goods, took it back to his workshop and repackaged it in a closed treated pine enclosure over the top of the pallet and delivered it back to the shipping agent. 2nd, I came up with an idea for a chassis design which would bolt in to the car rather than welding re-enforcement plating throughout the car, it got the thumbs up as far as meeting certification requirements and meet some of my objectives #1 Create a very rigid structure capable of dealing with the torque that's expected. #2 Build it in a way that would allow for almost the entire structure to be bolted in allowing for ease of removal. #3 Attempt to use the structure as the platform from where the engine, trans and diff mounted too, this would allow for the mounting and alignment of these components with the superstructure outside of the shell. So after creating a scaled drawing of the S30 from dimensional plans I had at hand, I came up with the attachments. The legend shows 3 color codes, the white areas are the OEM rails, Green the bolt in superstructure I have named a companion chassis, and the yellow weld in outriggers which will be welded into the floor and existing rails. The front cross member for the engine will become a solid welded feature into the new companion chassis allowing me to specific weld the crossmember for the mounts to the position of the engine. There is also a crossmember which will become a welded in feature also for the trans mounts and dual members at the rear which will cater for the diff allowing hang down mounts to suit the diff position, this should allow me to dispense with the rear diff cap mount period. The new chassis will bolt at the original engine cross member mount points, dual bolts will secure the chassis at each outrigger, and at the rear the chassis will bolt in at the moustache bar member, all bolt areas will utilise crush tubes where required. I know this may seem like overkill, however all up weight should come in at approximately 90Kg, considering that the new engine will be some 60kg (138 lbs) less than the L6 it doesn't phase me, in addition I have also decided to tie in the rear inner cabin suspension towers into the build with a removable tower floor brace (see attached) which will bolt through the rear floor to the companion chassis. By doing it this way, I can almost return the car to its OEM state if I ever decided to (Most unlikely) but more so I will be able to do all the final mounting and alignment of the engine, gearbox, tailshaft and differential with the chassis sitting outside of the car which is a God send. 3rd, I have decided I will dispense with the OEM fuel tank and run a dual system down the length of the car, mufflers will be mounted beneath the spare wheel well, I dont want to go cutting out the rear spare wheel well, In Australia its not compulsary to carry a spare, so the plan now is to have an alloy tank fabricated to sit inside where the spare used to sit. The tank will sit in the well and an aluminium circular plate would then have to be bolted over it therefore forming a firewall, the main neck and associated fuel lines would still come down through the 1/4 panel floor area and then sweep into the tank via a small access cut in the wheel well. After speaking to a fabricator in my area today and based on the dimensions and what I explained I wanted, he gave me an indicative price of $450.00 for a tank built of 3mm aluminium all TIG welded. The basic design (Rudimentary as I didn't have time to do a more detailed one) would be along the lines of the attachment, Internally it would incorporate 2 cross plates forming internal baffles, each baffle would have lower and upper galleries allowing for fuel to circulate into each chamber, the tank would have one pie shaped area sitting 30mm lower than the other 3 chambers into which the remaining chambers would cascade fuel into it creating a 2.4 litre pool or well. This pool should be deep enough for an internal pump pick up point, therefore an internal pump running 50+ psi would be required, this would not be included in the price of the tank as wouldn't the inductive (Non Float) sender unit. However the price would include the neck and all associated piping for return and vapours lines etc, fuel capacity will come in at 60 litres or just under 16 US Gallons. Well thats it all wrapped up in a nutshell. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Awesome project, I've been looking forward to seeing progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted October 1, 2011 Author Share Posted October 1, 2011 Awesome project, I've been looking forward to seeing progress! Thanks Buddy Just got back from a 8 day ski holiday in Queenstown New Zealand, engine hit the Melbourne docks this morning before I flew back in so will hopefully have some up close and personal picks in the coming days, planning a BBQ for some of the local "Z brain trust boys" in the coming weeks to discuss a chassis building weekend, my son is going to set up a time lapse video of the build so watch out for some interesting footage to come. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 GAME ON ! Engine arrived today so time to roll up the sleeves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slownrusty Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Super neat project. I think you should ditch the supercharger and go twin turbo!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slownrusty Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Super neat project. I think you should ditch the supercharger and go twin turbo!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sq_creations Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Starting to get exciting again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 Starting to get exciting again. Yes indeed, Well I have made a start, ripped into the box this morning and did some more measuring and mock up alignments and all looks good, should have plenty of clearance to the bonnet also. Between the towers, I will have 50mm (2 inch) clearance either side, the motor max's out at a width of 700mm and the towers are 800mm's apart The Bell housings will be a bit tricky but from what I have been able to work out, I will have to cut the rear of the T56 housing away then splice it onto the Benz housing and have it welded with re-enforcements inside and out. This will require a jig with a central shaft to align the 2 sections, I will bolt the sections to plates, one plate will have a central shaft welded to it exact center, the other plate on the other section will also be bolted and will have a centrally drilled hole, this way I can align the centers of each and vary the distance between so as to square it all up. The T56 bell is to large at the face and part of it already breaches the rear feed tubes, second the Benz uses a partially internal starter and you just wouldn't be able to mod this nor adapt something for the T56 bell, so the only way forward is to use the Benz bell housing. Whats good here is that the Benz bell tapers inwards to the box interface and the T56 is wider and has bolts holding it to the box running backwards into the bell from the box side. Because of this cutting the T56 bell rear will create an over sized plate and also allow for comfortable welding and then the addition of re-enforcement gussets. If there was another way I would do it but both bells will have to be partially sacrificed. I have to get all this done first before I can even contemplate the chassis as I need the motor and box hooked up to get all the alignments and mounts correct. Some preliminary pics taken this morning while you all slept. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Minor Update OK, finally got around to doing some house keeping around the car and also started evaluating the engine box configuration, I must say that I was a bit worried but was pleasantly surprised once I got stuck into it all. Have attached some pics below. Engine : Have decided I am going to have the motor totally dry ice blasted, having inspected all the seals I couldn't find a single leak of any sort, not even tell tell staining of the alloy left even after a decent steam cleaning, so all good in this department, however the alloy is starting to whiten off with what I think may be salt rather than moisture oxidisation, so I partially stripped away the coil packs some of the tensioner pulleys harmonic balance etc so as to give the process better penetration. I also dropped out each of the "12" plugs, to have a look at the state of the electrodes, all good, no oil deposits, nice and dry, black carbonised in color. After doing some research I came across this link and then tracked down a guy in metro Melbourne who can come and do it for me, a hell of a lot easier than trying to get into every last nook and cranny mechanically, I will do a vid of the process when its being done for those that may find it of interest. Transmission : OK this was the fun part, I stripped off the T56 bellhousing, the Benz bell Housing, The torque converter from the engine, and mounted the motor onto an engine stand. After the strip down of the 2 trannies, I took the metal gasket which lived between the Benz Box and bell housing and lined it up to the front face of the now bare T56 box (Minus its bell housing) luckily the input shaft main bearing in the box is almost exactly the same as the input shaft hole on the metal Benz gasket, so I think I was able to align the plate to the box within a fraction of a millimeter. The reason for doing this is because I will be using the Benz housing and needed to see how the outer parameter of the Benz housing would sit in alignment with the T56, good news is that the T56 housing bell mount holes are all outside of the Benz parameter, this means that once I have a plate manufactured which will be welded to the Benz bell, there wont be any issues bolting it up to the T56 and using all the original mount points. The rear of the Benz housing will have the equivalent of the plates thickness machined off (probably 1/2 inch or 12.5mm) the plate will then replace that section and then the Benz bell will be welded onto this plate which will be in the shape of the T56 face, the depth of the T56 bell is 140mm while the Benz is 145mm so the new hybrid bell will be 140mm as was the original T56 bell housing. The green dots in one of the pics represent the T56 Bolt points, while the red ones represent the alignment dowles. So overall a productive day of discovery and good luck. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted November 19, 2011 Author Share Posted November 19, 2011 (edited) UPDATE Started a new management role a month ago so have spent the last 3 weeks traveling to all the major cities across Australia meeting my new staff, in between I have been home for the weekends but havnt had much of a chance to do much. Have however been able to get into a new (Used)work drive car, thought what the heck may as well have something I can refer back to with the project so have planted my behind into a CLK320 (The non Supercharged version of the C32) I also managed to do the CAD work for the T56 adaptor, so for those of you who ever wondered how I would get the T56 six speed behind the M112 well here is the tough part, the adaptor that will be needed between the 722.6 trans bellhousing and the T56. Took some doing but the initial CAD file is ready, I will have a test alloy plate cut to check final dimensions but at this stage all looks good. There are other features to this adaptor that I have hidden as they are my IP, however once the final product is produced and proven I will be making it available upon request. Also lined up the box to the motor just for a rough idea of center shifter position to the rear of the motor and where it would sit in the bay, the supercharger intake at the rear of the heads should sit about 8" (20cm's) from the firewall. Cheers John Edited November 19, 2011 by Sirpent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 (edited) Looking great John I'm watching eagerly as this one comes together! Edited November 20, 2011 by cockerstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Looking great John I'm watching eagerly as this one comes together! Thanks Buddy See you are from WA (Washington State?) Imagine, that motor was sitting in Seatle WA just a few months ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 Happy New Year to you all from Down Here LOL Hope to post some updates in the coming weeks, been a bit slow, but back on my Aussie home forum we have been discussing tail lamp mods and came up with 2 posibilities, thought I would share. Cheers John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 The one on the right. Everything about your car is unique so I would go with a unique taillight treatment. The round ones have been done a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 The one on the right. Everything about your car is unique so I would go with a unique taillight treatment. The round ones have been done a lot. Thanks John However this al came out of a thread that was started on our forum in Oz, and I started to play around with some idea's The tear drop lenses are of a BMW Z4, they are flat/er mount so in theory can be done, I just think they give the rear a very contemporary look. I did one last adjustment to these, I raised the lamp positions, and took away the Bob Tail spoiler and I think it makes a difference again making the rear look much sleeker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rturbo 930 Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 I'd go with the round ones. I don't think the Z4 lights fit the Z body style at all. I know round lights have been done before, but they're usually trailer lights, or Corvette style lights, neither of which I like. The lights you've chosen might be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 To each his own I guess, as I mentioned this started off as a forum styling exercise first and foremost, personally I ike the Z4 lights, at first not so much but the more I look at them the more they appeal to me. The round lights are off a Ford GT, now can you imagine how hard or expensive it would be to find a set? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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