New parts fabrication ideas?
 

I've really had the bug to fabricate something new here lately, but I am out of town for work for the next two weeks, then I will be going to Maui for a month. :) Since I won't be home for a while, I thought now would be a good time to start doing my research and try to get some ideas of something that would be worth doing.

I am nearing the end of my build (see sig for link) and have not put a whole lot of effort into my tune yet, and with winter here (in Colorado) I won't be getting the car out to do anymore of that until the spring. I figured now would be the time to add any improvements that will affect the tuning.

My initial thoughts are to fabricate a new UIM and LIM. What do you guys think? Worth it or not? I want to do the LIM to correct the flow imbalance that exists in the stock manifold, and I want to do the UIM to improve flow, as well as to improve the low RPM torque as much as possible since I ditched the twins for a new Garrett T04z. I also want to clean up the looks of the motor since I've eliminated all of the emissions junk.

The problem is that I don't have any experience in designing manifolds for "function" and I haven't been able to find any specific information about it for the 13B. Searches for UIM and LIM return so many different results that it is pointless to try. Does anyone have any links that pertain to UIM and LIM R&D for the 13B.

Any other ideas are welcome also.

It would definitely be worth it, and fun as hell to mess around with until u get it right!

Personally, I see no gain.

If you absolutely have the urge to get creative, then go for it!! Otherwise, what is the point? Imbalance in flow, sure. So what? Your TO4Z will make over 500whp with AI. The redesign of a manifold that is effective is extremely involved and likely just not worth it.

My recommendation is to spend your time and money on area's of your car that you have overlooked. I looked at your mod list, and your car looks very sorted. Maybe a few idea's that you may or may not have already looked at.

Water Injection
HID retrofit
Better cooling ducting
929 Master Cylinder
Silicone vacuum lines
Upgraded oil coolers

Here's some good reads on manifold design if anyone is interested.

http://horsepowercalculators.net/int...anifold-design

http://www.custom-car.us/intake/intake-manifold.aspx

XLR8, You might very well be right about it not being worth it if I'm looking for gains. My main interest here is to do whatever I can to improve the low end torque and HP. That's my excuse anyway. I enjoy fabricating just as much as I do driving the car, I just don't want to go into it without enough information to make it perform at least as well as the stock manifold. I don't enjoy fabricating trash, so I guess it would be a bit of a gamble until I get it on the dyno.

As far as your recommendations go:
Water Injection - Already installed
HID retrofit - No interest
Better cooling ducting - Already In Progress
929 Master Cylinder - Agreed, but I can't fabricate it
Silicone vacuum lines - Already Done
Upgraded oil coolers - Just installed the Sakebomb dual 25 row coolers.

Thanks and keep the ideas coming.

I dont see the point in making a custom LIM because Xcessive already makes one, and it is still available. Maybe if you could make it much cheaper but I dont know how you could do that.

I can certainly understand if you want to make one so you can point to it and say you made it though. If that is the case than go for it.:icon_tup:

John

OP, I see where you are coming from. It's great to see owners who get involved in their car and not just "own" them or modify them. Always looking for innovative ways to improve the overall performance and styling is what makes being a car enthusiast so enjoyable.

If you're looking for torque, I would start by looking into things that will increase spool time. There in lye's all the key to rotary torque. Start with ditching that front mount, and looking into a V-mount. V-mounts are a fabricators field day. Next of course would be an electronic boost controller, turbo blanket, and ceramic coating the IM's. With my setup, I hit 15psi at 3500rpm on a stockport. It will be increased even more once it is ported. I literally have maybe 3' total of intercooler piping.

And to toss a few more idea's at ya! ;)

Rollbar
Upgraded sway bars
Corner balancing
LSD diff
Trans & diff braces
Aluminum drive-shaft (Rotary Extreme)
Custom fire extinguisher mounting (fun fab work there :))
Coil relocation

Trans & diff braces are a good idea! If you've looked through my build thread you will see I have recently spent more than just a few pennies and I can't really "buy" much more for a while unless I want to be single. And I'm not talking about my turbo if you know what I mean. That's why I'm looking for things I can fabricate, not buy. A few materials here and there, no big deal, but if I start ordering more parts... it probably won't turn out too good. Besides, I'm kind of ready to stop spending money on it for a while too. This last build cost me more than I paid for the car around 10 years ago!

Cupholder?

I have one of those every once in a while, but I call it a passenger.

A bolt on fully ducted front brake system. Backing plates are already available but the pinch point in the fender well for a 3" diameter tubing sucks. The new vette's have a nice piece of blow-molded plastic for this location. Sure would be nice to have something to fit an FD.
Oh and some nicely fitted inlets that mate to the back of the stock lip or the '99 lip would be nice also. :)

Regards,
Crispy

How about a bolt-in quick release fire extinguisher mount?

I only mention because I want one ;)

This is actually on my list of things to do but I haven't started looking into it yet. I will have to make sure I keep patterns of all of the pieces when I do it so that it can be replicated easily. I'm still uncertain where I'm going to get the fresh air from to be honest. Do you think it would be too hot to use the air exiting from the oil coolers? I probably won't be able to do much for ya in the way of making it work with a '99 spec bumper though since I don't have one.

This is something I need to sort out as well. In the past, I always tucked it in behind the passenger seat and the bins. If I were in a wreck though, who knows where it might end up. That's not the time to have to go searching for it.

Great ideas, keep 'em coming!

New exhaust manifold for non-sequential twins
New Y-pipe for non-sequential twins
More efficient intake for rear turbo on stock twins.

I like the twins :)

Drop spindles.

we already have the Excessive/Ground Zero LIM....... now we need a matching UIM and we're all set

I'd be interested in the backing plate for brake ducting. And if you're in an accident bad enough that it would uproot your extinguisher from behind the seat, finding it might be the least of your worries haha.

Do you ever bring your car out? I'm hoping to get with Mike B and get some things planned this summer for Denver area/C Springs/etc, probably at least a big meet in Denver at some point.

I'm pretty sure mine's going to work :)
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...C/IMG_0760.jpg

^ Holy crap... you could make some wheel center caps

I don't have the twins anymore so that might be a little difficult for me.


I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to drive around on spindles that someone fabricated in their garage. Besides, all you need is a decent set of coilovers unless I'm missing something.


I agree. I just don't like the price tag on the Excessive LIM.


I will be doing these sooner or later, but probably later at this point.

I will definately be bringing my car out in the spring. I haven't been around the last few years because I've been saving & building, but now, I am about ready to start going to the meets again. I sent a message out on the Yahoo group a few weeks back looking for interest to get Steve Kan back to Denver for some tuning in the spring, but I didn't get much of a response. Hopefully it will happen. I'm just learning to tune for the first time and would really like Steve to go through it on the dyno before I start hammering on the car too much.


Nice! I've been meaning to go back and read your thread again. Looks Good! I can't wait to see how the supercharger works out.


Huh?

Cool. Well I'm going to try to make some myself I think, at least for now. I think I'm ready for this part of the project haha.

Awesome, well I hope to see you at some point this year then, I've been wanting to meet up with more Denver owners and we have a pretty good size crew in C Springs. I remember Mike saying something about bringing Steve back, but I don't know what happened to it. My buddy Dave in Loveland has been tuning mine, he's pretty good so far haha. We only do street tuning now since something catastrophic happens every time I get on the dyno haha.

If you're going up to Loveland to have him tune it, then you're passing right by my house. Give me a shout some time if you are going by. If mine is running well enough by then, maybe I could meet you guys in Loveland. I think Turbo8 is in Ft. Collins. We could put together our own meet I suppose.

Where are you at mymmeryloss? You mentioned being something about reasonable prices on your side of the hill in the past. Are you in Grand Junction or somewhere over there on the western slope?

Turbo8 is who tunes my car haha, he lives in Loveland but I think Ft Collins is nearby where he lives. I remember driving from his house to go to a pizza place in Ft Collins and it wasn't too far. He usually meets me at Speed Raceway to tune the car though, since it's halfway between us. There are others in that area up there too though, so we could still get a good meet going. When I go to Turbo8's (Dave's) again I'll let you know.

Sweet! Sounds like a plan. Now I just have to figure out how to get my car registered again. When I started my build, there were no emissions laws in Erie, however, just last November they started emissions testing and now I don't have even one piece of emissions equipment left on my car... Unless you can count the gas cap.

I have a solution for the registration problem. I got your back haha. PMed you.

I already PM'ed him about it Eric haha

Oh OK cool. Looks like we're all on the same page haha.

Hmmm…

Dry sump front cover that allows for AC

I've never even seen a dry sump front cover in person. It sounds a little complicated for not having a mill in my garage though.

If welding is something you're capable of (obviously you are, judging by that killer UIM) you should design a fuel cell that bolts up like OEM., removable bulk head, fuel bladder, E85 friendly, tucked up a little higher, so it can't be seen stickibg out inder tge valance from the rear.

Slightly less capacity, but better overall design, with a real internal 1.5 gallon swirl pot/ surge tank.

Well, not really. The deal is, if you lower the car past the point where the outer ball joint is level with the inner pivot point (as you do at 25" fender height), you put your roll center down in the ground someplace.

Agreed, I wouldn't want something fabricated in a garage though. There was a Japanese company that made a fabricated steel set you could buy through RHD, but I read that their Miata variety broke. No thanks.

I talked to a fabricator/machinist out in California that DID in fact make a set, but after first contact he said we was going to check on the fixture, and then would never return a call for weeks. I finally just got pissed and called his ass every day for a month just for the hell of it, since he was such a dick.

Anyway, it would be cool if someone would CNC or cast a set, AND return phone calls.

After reading a few posts over the last few days, I have decided that I will definitely be reinforcing my PPF when I get home (Tomorrow, Yay!) and I will be fabricating one of these as well. (See attached image) I can't believe that after all of these years, I never realized how much of a weak point the PPF is, and that it can be responsible for a lot of the wheel hop (which I also have). I must have missed all of those threads I guess.

I believe it's Tweakit that is building a diff brace that also clamps around the diff itself. Not sure if you'd be interested in anything like that, and since this thread is about you fabbing stuff I now feel like an idiot lol. Just wanted to let you know just in case you'd be interested. I like the one you posted up too. Are you going to make any tranny braces? I might be interested in one of those.

Yeah, I'll probably do that as well, but I'm going to start on the rear diff and the PPF. I guess I should find a good pic of tranny brace as well and then try to improve upon it.

Can anyone explain to me why Banzai Racing's brace only attaches on one side? It would be MUCH stronger if it were attached on both sides.

I built this, running 8 Kinsler nozzles, 4 x 60mm butterflys. 4 nozzles below B/Flys and 4 x 3 1/2 inch nozzles in the middle of the ram tubes. It was a mission but worked out realy nice. Probable wouldent fit in a road car.

Nice work rotory26! Where is the intake pipe running? It looks like it is running through the firewall.

Thats because that is a Transmission Brace. the other one shown is a Diff Brace:)

I think that tranny brace might be in the way of the DP if it connected on the other side. Although the stock brace goes over the DP so I'm thinking this one could too, and just replace the stock brace completely, and still have holes for mounting to the tranny. Although I'm wondering with these braces if it might be better to have rubber insulators that the bolts slide through to let it have just a little movement so the bolt holes don't get damaged over time.

Good beads on that one

I know that is a tranny brace. It wouldn't be difficult at all to make a new brace that replaces the stock one and attaches to the tranny for added support.

You know what I mean about insulators? Kinda like bushings. Do you think that would be a good idea? I've heard of the bolts eventually wearing out the holes due to movement from the engine wearing on it. I would think using solid mounts or maybe even Delrin would mitigate that and maybe not need bushings for the brace. I'm also wondering if the brace would even be functional if it had bushings in it, but if they were small enough or strong enough it might still be worth it.

@ speedjunkie

I think by the time you get the hardware as tight as it should be, the addition of any rubber or delrin insulators would become useless. I intend to run longer hardware all the way through (where possible) to the inside of the car and then install a backing nut to ensure that it cannot come loose. Plain and simple, if the holes are wearing out, the bracket is moving around, which means the hardware is not tight, or is coming loose.

Yeah I hear you. Just a thought.

Definitely do the new UIM if you wish. The stock manifold leaves much to be improved upon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20669521@N08/5499705091/http://www.flickr.com/photos/20669521@N08/5499705091/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/20669521@N08/, on Flickr

Or ditch both the upper and lower and do a custom single piece manifold... larger runners, better distribution, and tailored to your fuel setup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20669521@N08/5879750873/http://www.flickr.com/photos/20669521@N08/5879750873/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/20669521@N08/, on Flickr

Yes here is some photos of the hole setup.

This is what I look at when dealing with Methanol. It takes a lot of heat to turn it to a gases form which you need it to do, for it to be able to bond to the atoms of oxygen. So you need a nice straight runner so the fuel can drag some heat from the manifold on its way to the chamber. Also another photo of the end of the ride.

Those are some beautiful manifolds there SENZA.

I have been doing some reading and found a few really good posts on calculating the theoretical "ideal" runner and plenum sizes for the manifold. I will try to dedicate some time to designing a new manifold based on my streetport, with a T04z and a 3" exhaust. I will also model it up in SolidWorks and run some flow simulations on it since I can. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. However, I don't think I will get this done before I dyno in the spring, which may be a good thing. This way, I can get some before/after numbers.

I'm not making any promises here, but I do intend to do this at this time. Don't be upset if it doesn't happen quickly.

I finally got around to making my fire extinguisher quick release bracket this week. It's still a little rough around the edges, and I need to figure out where to mount it, but it holds pretty tight.

It looks like I may do a run of these quick release clamps. One of my buddies posted my vid up on a forum he visists for his Defender 110 and there was quite a few people wanting them. I would like to start a group buy interest thread, but I can't seem to get a reply to the PM I sent to the moderator over that section of the forum about whether or not you have to pay to beocome an approved vendor just to post in the group buy & product development interest thread. All I can find is that you have to be an approved vendor to post in the group buy section, but it doesn't say anything about the group buy interes and product development section.

Here's a 3d model rendering of it if anyone cares...
Attachment 690886