Hello but I'm not building a Haynes roadster, quite

[AshG]

inlet manifold looks ok now its been tarted up my mate tom could never get the hang of ali he always said to me you dont need to be a good welder as long as you are good at grinding things lol.

i have finally managed to get the nack of ali but it took me a good year and about 3 big bottles of argon at £50 a pop. i found that a little bit of high frequency pulse helps when doing thick stuff to thin. will have a look at what the numbers on my welder say for the freq settings that i use for that sort of stuff (i just remember the positions not what it says on the switches lol).

Also i found that using Ceriated tungstens made life easier on ali, they can also be used on steel so double bonus.

[Davey]

Cheers Ash, I've done plenty of ali work in the past but it was many years ago so my skills are a bit rusty, your mate does have a point . I'm pretty sure I am using ceriated tungstens now, the originals that came with the TIG were plain tungsten but I had to buy some more because you only get a couple of really thin ones as standard. The manifold does still need some more work and fettling but its coming along. I'm just working out a little deal that will hopefully pay for the Emerald ECU, fingers crossed that it all works out .

D.

[AshG]

at the end of the day its function over form that is important. ali is usually my last choice when it comes to materials think i would have done the manifold with stainless

been tinkering out in the workshop and have made a charge cooler out of ali and shortened the sump on the new engine which is also ali. dont know what the composition of the ali on the sump was but the thing was a total pig to weld even using rods with extra silicone especially for welding cast.

will stick some pictures up when new year is all done and dusted and im let back out in the workshop.

[Davey]

I made a good start on shortening my sump today, yes its ali and full of all sorts of crappy inclusions so just like yours Ash its been a pig. I managed to reduce it by 35mm which should be sufficient (damn well better be ) using a reciprocating demolition saw with a coarse metal blade. i've taken a few photos as I've gone along but I'll wait to post them till its all sorted and I know it don't leak .

D.

[AshG]

i had a couple of little pin holes in mine filled the sump up with water mixed with a bit of food die and left it over night. marked the points it dripped from then went over them again, its unavoidable with cast ali as you can get little air pockets caused by crud in the material, reheating it usually brings the crap to the surface

[Davey]

Well I've now completed the sump alterations and hopefully there should be some photos attached to this posting. I cut 35mm out of the sump pan using a demolition reciprocating saw with a coarse metal blade fitted, to hold the sump while I cut it I clamped it to the front rail of the Dragon. I re-used the front and sides of the piece I cut out to extend the mid section to retain a similar volume to the original, I reckon I'm probably about half a litre shy of the original which I don't think will cause too much of a problem as its not really going to be a race car.

Once I'd welded the base back on and the extension pieces on I cut out the section where the sump pan goes down at the front (photos will explain better than words) and then welded on a piece of 3mm ali sheet to close the whole sump off. Inside I drilled three 8mm dia holes in the pan base to prevent air locks. I filled it with water and found a couple of pin holes just as Ash did so just went over them again. The sump plug had been butchered in the past and was a real mess so I turned the head down in the lathe so that it was a nice fit in a 12mm nut which I then welded onto the plug so it now has a nice big 19mm hex head.

D.

[Davey]

Here's the last few photos of the sump.

D.

[Davey]

I managed to get an hour on the Dragon today and have refitted the sump and oil pickup pipe. While I had the engine hanging on the crane I used a G clamp to measure the required travel on the clutch release fork. From fully engaged to fully disengaged the fork moves 20mm at cable position which works out perfectly as my clutch pedal has about 24mm movement. I also had a stroke of luck with a radiator, a nerighbouring business specialises in French cars and has a C5 diesel he's breaking. well a quick meausre up and the rad will be just the job so £20 later I have a rad and both hoses, might try for the fan too on Monday.

D.

[Bonzo]

Sump looking good Davy

Pleased to see that you are managing to find some time for your build

Never know, you may even manage to get the motor up & running before the start of your forthcoming silly season

[AshG]

sump looks good like the stepped design should reduce the need for baffles