LittleRedSpirit

Thanks guys thats great. I also fitted the twin usb charger outlet I bought the other day. She likes long walks in the country...

So I scaled in the 2gr factory vvti settings for the inlet cam and it works pretty well. Sent my cruise afrs rich and made more torque all over so there's a win. I've trimmed up the fuel to suit and highway economy seems what I would expect now. Had a couple nice drives one to Dayboro and one around the hills loop from Samford to Waterworks road. Oil temps are observable now as I connected the gauge up and installed it in place of the faulty oil pressure gauge. Takes about ten minutes to raise the needle above 50 and then it got to 102 on the way up the steep side and eased to 97 on the way down. Whats a healthy oil temp?

You might have an incorrect pcv system that pressurises the engine and forces oil into the cylinder, either that or its blocked maybe so the head pressurises with spare combustion gasses and forces oil out.

4age 20v, it has itbs and gets good economy and performance

I don't think there are and 4af or 7af type itbs out there. Whatever you choose you need to make a manifold, the way I did it, I had a motor with a wider port spacing so I had a plate made that aligned the ports correctly, then I got an inlet flange then I cot some thick walled pipe and made a transition between round and oval to match the engine ports. Then I had it welded up. The tabs that act as linkages were all extended to reach. Sam q did the machining and welded the tabs for me.

I'm sure there is, but in general terms, the ideal volume is more than what fits in most engine bays, hence the size of the box on a 20v which is quite large but quite good for performance. Scaling thos volumes up another 50% for the 2400 cc engine gets very volumous indeed. I was putting some of my ideas together in my thread on ae86 dc and a member contacted me who had done fairly good testing on itb airboxes for his beams. He said it was all about the air being as still as possible so it can easily be drawn up to the bellmouths and that the volume should be large and the opening as big as possible. To slow the air I have used a 5 inch inlet that will come in at 5 inches than immediately flare to a larger diameter for a reverse venturi effect.

Today I removed and painted the headers. I also fitted the factory oil cooler. I did an oil and coolant change. Downpipe here under the headers. Had to bend it around the mount and extend the straight piece of hose. Fitted the sender for the oil temp gauge through the second sump plug. Maybe tomorrow I can fit the carter lift pump and make it a heck of a lot quieter. Have to recalibrate the o2 sensor as its gone to hell since being removed.

I have done a little proof of concept idea and the tape came away perfect so I'm happy with my method for release. I decided to use a vacuum bag system while curing so I bought some peel ply as well to even out the resin. I am going to try and use a storage type vacuum bag to cure it and remove air from the layup. I read the thing reed posted above and after seeing how the un-vacuum cured manifold had lots of pinholes and got bogged up I decided that would suck donkey dicks so I will be using the vacuum method and maybe up to 3 layers of cloth to make it thick and strong. My darn 5 inch pipe didn't come so no glass laying today. I did receive the air filter which is awesome looking and the silicon hose I needed though. I still need a breather medium to squish over the peel ply and absorb the extra resin that bleeds out of the layup.

Nice.

Beams?

I have crane dave. Its Mungis but Ive been storing it for a decade.

Youre always welcome David.

Yeeeeeeeee Hawwwwwwww :dancetall:

Ive also now got a piece of 5 inch intercooler pipe and a 5 inch rubber joiner on the way to attach the k and n filter. By my estimates it will fit and almost touch the radiator support so hopefully I don't need to slightly re align the filter funnel to make space.

I have now test fitted the tape encased lower piece in the bay, clears everything well. Put the lid on and had an interference issue with the bonnet so it has been shaved down enough to rectify it and just generally cleaned right up. Room for air Filter: Side view: Top View: Left enough room to make heater and fuel connections easy under here. Engine side clearance Clearance underneath About a handwidth from the firewall seam without glass. Booster and vac hose: Brake master clearance:

Thanks Matt I hadnt read that but its more or less what I am doing. I built the foam in layers area by area and got all the space i could, then the other day added a lot of little areas around the rear throttle trumpet and booster and moved the whole box 20mm back towards the firewall, so i have the ability now to run the long trumpets inside. I was wondering about maybe concealing a couple of thin metal strips inside the fibreglass to stiffen some of the broader areas, and thats what I think Ill do, especially the lid, having read his feedback, and Ill take time to put enough resin in. I'm using epoxy resin so I think it should be pretty strong when done but not too brittle. I'm using this fibre as my reinforcement, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramid Materials: The pieces essentially ready for glass. Rear view mated to lid. You can see I took all the space available by the freaky shape of it: Front side view Top view

Now I'm wondering if I should add a metal neck to clamp the silicon hose on, Problem being I need to order a 5 inch intercooler pipe to cut up so it would mean no glass today.

Yeah you can see how I've cut the top off to make a lid. At this moment the plan is to let the plaster dry up to its fullest, then sand back smooth, tape on the funnel I have for a 5 inch inlet, and then glass up the lower part. Before removing the foam from inside the lower body Ill tape the lid mould down with the release tape and make a gap for a seal around the top by applying a thin foam tape as a spacer to make a gap between the overlapping edges. Then this can be removed as a space for a seal after curing. Then once its all cured Ill pop the 2 pieces apart, and melt the styro out from inside the box with thinners or petrol or something. This should leave me with 2 x rigid pieces that form a box with a seal in between. I've got the machined alloy plate as a composite to lay in so it mounts perfectly on the throttles, and I also have a couple 4mm alloy plates to attach in strategic spots as places I can tap threads for PCV and for idle control air supply etc. There will be one plate in the front and one down low as well to allow a dual purpose support bar so the weight isn't just hanging off the inlet all the time, and that will be at the lowest point inside also meaning when you remove the bolt it will drain any fluid that's caught in the bottom of the box away.

Had a couple more rounds of filler on the airbox, getting it smooth enough to glass up now I think. I'm pretty excited about this project, Ill have to mix up some resin and get to work!

Just filled all the imperfections in the blank with some spaka filler, so will sand it back as soon as its dry enough and then maybe touch it up again, then cocoon it in tape and hopefully lay glass tomorrow. I have some chopped strand matt and some beautiful aramid fibre that should be pretty good for the job. Its nice and not too much weaker than carbon fibre. The inlet will accept a 125mm silicon hose. I need to find a 5 inch outlet pod filter.

Got my airbox backplate machined with irregular edge so that it can get a better bond to the fibreglass. The main foam Blank. Yesterday I spent ages adding volume to the airbox as much as possible around the brake booster and clutch master cylinder. I also added some more on the inside edge underneath and 30mm more to the lower edge. I did some tests with the kikusui 101 tape and found it stuck well to the foam but if you multi layer it it doesn't like to stick to itself, so I abandoned that and now have tested simple grey duct tape which releases epoxy resin beautifully. Ill be cocooning the whole thing in that and then laying up the glass on it. Then Ill tidy the top edge and make the cap with the airbox as the base for it. I sawed off the top of the blank to make a removable cap. I was a bit concerned about the thing being too close once layers of fibre went in so I shrunk it fairly evenly all over by painting it with aerosol primer which ate back around 2-3mm of foam all over, and then I sanded it up and filled any holes and cracks with a soft plaster filler. I'm tempted to do some more prep so its prettier when done but I'm also pretty impatient to get it laid up.

OK I got the quote from PLR and it was a bit shocking really. 3500 dollars to do a piston swap (I provide pistons) and valve job on a near new motor Ill be passing on that I guess. I assume it may not cost the full 3500 if they find the bearings and machining is on point but who knows. That didn't include any mention of balancing. Can anyone tell me from experience if they have had decent improvements from the performance valve work they do on 16v heads? At this point I'm considering just popping the head off and sending that to them if there's some improvements to be had, then swapping in the pistons myself but would require someone who knows motors well to guide me. Any volunteers? Any info on PLR in general? I'm going to make the fibreglass air box this weekend as my metal work guy will have the flange plate made for me tomorrow. The biggest thing I'm yet to decide is how to open and close the lid opening to mount it. I'm tempted just to have a segment that slightly overlaps and has a recessed edge that meets a rubber seal maybe. Then I can just strap the cover down with clips or something if its a nice match, but I'm still deciding that one.

new ep is out

Could you go manual?

I realised the reason it was hard to put a fuel hose on the rail was that I needed to use a quick release fitting. Much neater I think. Polished things a bit and sent the yellow jacket coils back, had a faulty one. have already received replacements that arent yellow funnily enough. They look more like OEM units in colour.