[project] Nothing To Do With 205's, But Behold!

[M3Evo 0]

Looks like the MS1 is still available, and two of them should come to about £240 in kit form which isn't too bad considering how much faffing they should eliminate

 

Well, what a relief! After months of agonising over how to solve the piston issue we're pretty much back where we started!

 

We've gone from this:

 

 

to this:

 

 

which is the piston sitting 0.6mm lower in the bore at TDC. I'm really keen to get on and sort the 'head out now so I can get the engine built

 

Picked the crank up today and have progressed from this:

 

 

through this:

 

 

to this:

 

 

 

Gonna start on the 'head tomorrow, and also start machining away the bits of the sump I don't need anymore if I get time.

 

Wish me luck, got a date too! eep!

[M3Evo 0]

Managed to drill the remnants of the long inlet stud out today.

 

Made a strap to hold it down to the mill bed:

 

 

 

Shimmed it up until the face I wanted was level:

 

 

 

And then drilled and tapped away

 

 

 

 

Also made a start on cleaning the carbon out of the chambers!

 

[cybernck 400 1 Cars]

Good work BUT... how did the date go?

[M3Evo 0]

Really well...I think!

 

First one's the easiest though, it's the second date that's making me nervous for some reason!

[shalmaneser 26]

Great tp see this is moving ahead again, lets hope there are no more major issues like those bloody pistons!

 

Good luck with the date too!

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers dude! All went well I think, but she's away for a month now Just have to see what happens I guess!

 

Made a start on the dry sump today

 

Thought about making a sump from scratch, but then thought it'd be much cheaper, quicker and easier to just cut up an existing sump and weld a channel section to it.

 

Started out by drilling the horizontal bit of the pan so it could be bolted to the mill:

 

 

 

 

Made a little angle bracket and also used the old baffle from the sump as a support for the flappy about end:

 

 

 

And then set about cutting:

 

 

 

Plan is to weld a section of 2"x2" channel which slopes towards the back of the engine into this hole:

 

 

 

And re-make the front of the sump to follow the basic shape of the rear of the sump, also with a channel which slopes towards the front.

 

[M3Evo 0]

Made a little progress with the dry sump today. Basically faffed around alot this morning doing stuff for other people, and then got on with making the rear channel for the sump:

 

Pretty simple to do this one really, just cut the channel at an angle:

 

 

 

And then file the ends so it fits neatly in the letterbox I'd cut into the sump. Behold my mighty ground clearance!

 

 

 

Need to dream up some connectors for the scavenge hoses which keep them immersed in oil if at all possible.

 

It's not a problem if they're not as the pump has seperate scavenge stages so under braking, for example, when all the oil floods to the front, the rear one having little oil to drink won't make any difference to anything.

 

Think it's probably a good idea to incorporate a windage tray in there too.

 

Will try and make the welding attachment tomorrow too if I can.

[M3Evo 0]

Holy crap!

 

Just had a delivery of some free Prepreg carbon fibre samples!

 

1sqm of a low temp cure and another sqm of a higher temp stuff!

 

Think I'll be making little samples of things this weekend!

[hman205 1]

Fancy doing me a free gti6 coilpack cover?

[Bonzai 2]

remember to keep it rolled up in the freezer!

[M3Evo 0]

Gonna chop up the stuff with an outlife of 1month and freeze that in sheets, used pretty much all of the really low temp stuff though.

 

Had a reasonably productive weekend trying lots of little bits out.

 

Had a go with the prepreg on saturday. Cocked it up massively as I ran out of time, but it was interesting stuff to work with, and it demonstrated how mould designs need to be different using this stuff compared to wet lay-up stuff.

 

Decided to fill just this end of the wing mould as it's a complex area. This needs simplifying massively to work with prepreg, with the return for the headlamp needing to be reduced to about 6mm instead of 30!

 

 

And here's the prepreg in the mould. It's lovely stuff to work with. You just chop it up and it holds together. You could easily make a cosmetically pleasing butt joint using this stuff I reckon.

 

 

Will leave it for a few days and then see if it'll come out of the mold, but I suspect it won't as I only got it up to temperature for about an hour and a half

 

Attentions turned to sorting out this pump drive on Sunday and today. Managed to shave the M52 crank sprocket down to 15,6mm which gives the chain about 1mm clearance to the face of the block:

 

 

 

Then turned up a couple of 15mm spacers to dummy fit the timing cover:

 

 

Also shaved 0.6mm off of the oil seal thing you have to make when fitting the M52 crank so that the lower timing pulley would only move out by 15mm overall.

 

 

Here's the pump roughly where it'll go, just need to find out which are the outlet ports and sort out some way of getting the scavenges and pressure feed plumbed in. Think the pressure outlet will be dead easy as it's just across the block.

 

 

 

Then started thinking about the engagement of the crank nose bolt. Moving everything out by 15mm obviously makes this a bit marginal so I started looking for longer bolts, shaving the odd mm off the big washer that goes under this bolt....all that kind of thing. Then is suddenly occured to me that I could just recess the lower timing pulley and be done with it....so here's the result

 

 

 

 

Need to order some material to make the spacer plate for the timing cover from, and also think it's a good idea to remake the jackshaft 15mm longer and without the gear as it's now redundant. Cobbling a 15mm spacer onto this is just asking for trouble I think, and it's a simple thing to replicate.

 

Also need to order a sprocket for the pump. As luck would have it (and logic really) BMW just use a normal off the shelf chain in their engines which has a 3/8" pitch meaning I can buy an off the shelf sprocket. Also by chance, the old volvo 260 engine that chain in the piccy came from had the same chain type which has been useful for seeing what clearances to things are. Knew keeping that chain for the last 17 years was a good idea!

[M3Evo 0]

Hey, this is quite cool!

 

Demolded the little bit of a front wing I made in prepreg carbon today (been away all weekend so not made any progress on anything )

 

Here's the result

 

 

Considering it was made using a bar heater and a vacuum cleaner, it's not all that bad!

 

The mold does need to be remade in higher temp resistant materials and with more removable sections, and I need to sort out a decent vacuum pump to get to at least 12psi. Finally, need to build an oven which can get to around 120degrees C.

 

Get all that sorted and it should be relatively easy to produce high quality parts....finally!

[guffe 2]

Cannibalize a fridge, the compressor from it would probably make enough vacuum. And build a sauna, it can be used also as an oven

Edited September 9, 2009 by guffe

[Bonzai 2]

we use something like THIS in work when we are doing repairs that aren't cooked. Our hot bonders take care of both vacuum and heat when we are cooking though

[Gavin Waddell 18]

cool, came out quite well for a first attempt.

an oven is eax to build, at my work we have about 5 differnt ovens from a 36metre for cooking boats to a 1m oven for small parts. the small is made of wooden panels. we make a square fram of 10x5 cm batons then on top of that you lay a piece of 5mm 'ly wood which is glued and stapled on, then you fill the void using loft in sulation the close it off with another bit of ply wood. make 3 of these and it givis you your sides and top and for the bottom you can do the same but use 10mm ply wood as its stronger will get a pic for you if you want

 

the heat source can be a 2kw heater if you have a well insulated oven it willhold its temperatue.

 

do you really have to cook the carbon at 120? i mean thats hot we rarely go above 100, we cook at 70 degress for about 8h but the whole cycle lasts about 12 as you have to ramp the temp up. now we cook for that long because we need a high modulus of resistnce but for what your doning about 4 hours in total woulkd be fine talk to your carbon supplier.

 

if you have any questions feel free to ask a question, always happy to help

[M3Evo 0]

Looked into the fridge thing, the only problem being getting someone to safely (and ethically!) let the refridgerant out. Haven't ruled it out as an option though.

 

The venturi vac pump is an attractive option as you can get simple ones quite cheaply and they can draw quite a high level of vacuum. The drawback is that you need a decent sized compressor to run one, and compressors are noisy.

 

Been looking at these:

 

http://www.coleparmer.co.uk/catalog/produc...asp?sku=0753140

 

Which in the twin-head version will draw a decent vacuum. Also handy is that they're self contained and don't need oil.

 

That's quite spooky about the oven Gavin. Was thinking of doing exactly that, even down to the use of loft insulation! The only thing I wanna do slightly different is to lay up a skin of fire retardant fibreglass on the inside, just to be on the safe side. The fire retardant resin's white too so it should reflect a little heat back in.

 

Am I right in thinking that the ramp rate can be steeper if you're only doing thin laminates? I've only gotta do 3ply laminates to get what I want.

 

Can't remember the exact details now, but the 120degree C system seemed to have better finished properties and also has an out life of 4 weeks whereas the 70degree C stuff is about a week.

 

I'm keen to get the manufacturer to CNC cut my plies for me to save wastage so being able to store the material for a couple of weeks without the need for a big freezer would be handy

[M3Evo 0]

Take it all back, ordered a brand new fridge compressor for about £40 today

[M3Evo 0]

Got the fridge vac pump (compressor) today. Just gotta make up a load switch assembly for it and an oil recuperator and we're away!....except I need to make an oven too

 

Also, and totally unrelated to this, I passed my motorcycle theory test today!

 

Been crapping my pants about it for a week as when I did my driving theory about 12 years ago, it was just the multiple choice thing and there wasn't a hazard perception test. The lady in reception also helpfully told me that lots of people who've been driving for years fail the hazard perception part!

 

Anyway, got 50/50 for the theory, and 62/75 for the hazards. Pass for hazard is 44 so reasonably comfortable!

 

Got the CBT on monday now, module 1 practical on Friday, and then module 2 practical (if I pass the CBT and mod1) on the 6th of Oct!

[hman205 1]

Good luck with the CBT you got a bike yet or is this the first step?

[M3Evo 0]

This is aaaaall just so that I can get insurance for a holiday I'm going on in November!

 

Never wanted a motorbike in my life!

 

Never know though, might be useful some day if I pass!

[M3Evo 0]

Oh dear, not been getting much done recently!

 

Have been on an intensive motorbike course this week (module 1 practical test is on Friday! ) and also had the pleasure of being in the office on my own all weekend.

 

Turns out that, as with all things in life, more power is more betterer The 500cc bikes are SO much easier to ride than the 125s!

 

Anyway, did pop back to my folks' house for a bit to trial fit the sprocket which turned up for the oil pump. Also bought a chain from BMW in the hope that it'd be long enough to get the pump over to the side of the engine. It's not, but think the pump should be okay in the middle:

 

 

Put the standard pump in the pic to show how much ground clearance we gain. It's still a worthwhile amound I think, plus the sump can be smaller.

 

Had a bit of a panic when I thought the pump might foul the steering rack, but it looks like I can relieve the back of the sprocket to move the pump forward a give a little clearance. Don't think it's an issue where it is now, but pays to be sure!

[taylorspug 7]

Would you be interested in making a second one of these setups? The baffled sump on my engine is huge, and im getting a little worried about catching it on curbs, considering how low it hangs!

[M3Evo 0]

Sure I could be persuaded!

 

The pump did cost about £700 though so that might put you off

 

If you're definitely interested though, let me know and I'll do a proper set of drawings for the components rather than just making things piecemeal

Edited September 24, 2009 by M3Evo

[Galifrey 1]

Sure I could be persuaded!

 

The pump did cost about £700 though so that might put you off

 

Yikes I paid less than that for a whole pace dry sump system!

[M3Evo 0]

I really hope that was second hand?!

 

Hooooray! (and a sigh of relief) passed my module 1 motorbike test today!

 

Got another days training on the 5th and then module 2 on the 6th.

 

REEEEALLY nervous about that one!