Finally running (sort of)!

[XR8tt]

On higher boost they recommend lowering oil capacity..
The windage heats oil etc..
http://www.kennebell.net/techinfo/general-info/Avoid_and_Analyze.pdf

 

[scotturnot]

Scott,

A little information on the layout of the Autorotor.

The snout is linked directly to the gearbox (it maintians the rotors relationship with each other) without any oil seals so it will leak oil if not used as a breather or sealed up.

The hole has a 1/4" BSP tapped thread in it.

If you read Corky Bell's book "Supercharged" it has photos of Autorotors with breathers attached. I followed the photos and did so. John C blocked his off.

By having the snout open to the atmoshere it allowed the vacuum in the manifold to draw the oil out of the gearbox and into the rotors. From there into the engine was a short trip.

The fix is to have a 5thou air gap on the throttle blade and block the hole off. This stops the sharp vacuum when the throttle snaps shut.

I think a smarter fix is to have a very small bleed into the manifold after the t/b that runs bach to the air filter. This would mean if you (or someone else) inadvertantly adjusted the throttle plate and closed up the air gap you would still have the air gap.

I think a small 1/8 hose from one side of the throttle to the other would most likely do the job. You could experiment to see what the largest port size you could run but still allow the ISCV to do its job. I'll probably start with a 1/4" hose and see how it goes and keep reducing it until it will idle.

Thanks Rod, I understand perfectly now. All I need to find out is if my Whipple has this same issue.

 

[Zuffen]

Time for another update.

The last week has seen me fit the crank into the block 3 times for different measurement sand fine tuning.

We've decided to linish the crank to reduce its size by .0005" (half a thou) to give us 2thou clearance. This will put it in the lower (tighter) end of the acceptable clearances.

I've spent Friday and today on the heads with the die grinder. Tomorrow is more of the same. This is the third time we've attacked the heads. I'm doing this under the guidance of one of Peter Molloy's (close to God in Australian performance circles) head experts so hopefully they will get more air into the cylinders which should drop the boost pressure and make the charger run a little cooler. Which may just give us more power or a safer engine.

At the same time I've been attacking the manifold with the die grinder and it's now at the alloy fabricators to have the sides of the ports filled so I can go back and do some more die grinding. When finished the interior will look nothing like the standard Richwood manifold.

I'm expecting parts from the States next week that will allow us to complete the machining of the block (we need to fit oil jets to cool the pistons) and then I can go back to the parts cleaner (for the gazillionth time!) and then start reassembly.

I've got my heart set on taking John Cribb's advice and running the engine in on an engine dyno. Lots of work stripping the ECU and water/meth back out of the car so we can run it all with the engine but hey that's life.

The guy's at the engine shop have been fantastic in helping me with the build and giving me free access to all their equipment and knowledge.

Hopefully by reducing th number of people with a finger in the pie it will reduce the likelyhood of another engine failure.

Nothing worth taking photos of yet but I'll snap some shots of the heads when we finish them.

 

[scotturnot]

At the same time I've been attacking the manifold with the die grinder and it's now at the alloy fabricators to have the sides of the ports filled so I can go back and do some more die grinding. When finished the interior will look nothing like the standard Richwood manifold.

Nothing worth taking photos of yet but I'll snap some shots of the heads when we finish them.

I want to see pictures of this for sure.

 

[JustenGT8]

Be a little careful with the porting on the exhaust side Rod, the water galleries are pretty close as Jaffa found out....made for some impressive steam out of the exhaust on the dyno once it finally ruptured.

 

[Zuffen]

Justen,

All the work is going into the inlet side.

The exhaust ports are plenty big enough after the last round of porting.

I'd rather strike oil than water as it's worth more!

 

[JustenGT8]

Ah Ok then....so mostly manifold matching then? I have the say the Bullet manifold is soooo much nicer for flow than the Richwood one. Alot of meat in the Richwood one though so more scope to shape the ports how you want and doesn't look to be any issues getting good flow from it with the right work.

It wouldn't hurt to ceramic coat your intercooler spacer plate and shouldn't cost much either.

You are still going to use water/ethanol injection right? My preference would be to have one jet before the SC. Cools the intake charge but possibly more importantly keeps the temps of the SC down. Another jet/s post SC just for that little bit extra intercooling effect and to get the vol of water you need into the combustion chamber.

That should well and truly have you covered for intercooling.

 

[Zuffen]

Justen,

I agree with your ideas on two nozzles.

I haven't decided if it's worth the effort yet but if intake temps are still a little high I can always fit the second nozzle.

I sent the day straightening the dividers in each port.

There was obviously some core shift when my heads were cast so I'm trimming the port dividers so they are at least a little more balanced.

I should be finished the porting on the heads tomorrow so I'll try and take the camera with me.

I've finished the intake ports themselves. We can now pass a 29mm valve down the throat of each port until it hits the valve guide. This is around a 3mm increase over stock.

It's funny how once your engine builder understands that you understand what they are talking about and that you are happpy to do the work they come up with all sorts of improvements that can be made. Simple things like radiusing the sharp edges on the pistons, or getting rid of the spark plug thread protruding into the cylinder. It all helps with detonation and I can see why they don't do it. No one could afford an engine with so much time spent on it.

I estimate I'll spend 80 hours on my engine before we start assembly! At $75.00 an hour that's $6,000.00 in preparation and a lot of stuff has allready been done so it doens't need re-doing.

At the end of the day I estimate we'll put in 90-100 hours building this engine.

 

[JustenGT8]

That last x% is all in the detail for sure Rod. That's why a boat anchor pushrod V8 supercar engine comes in at $80k+

The satisfaction you'll have when it delivers the goods will make all the effort worthwhile.

 

[Zuffen]

Time for another update.

We now have the bottom end in and pistons moving up and down the cylinders.

We ended up purchasing .001" oversized main bearings to free up number 2 & 3 cap, saved machining the crank. I now have a mismatched set of mains that would suit a stock rebuild should anyone want them.

We installed the oil jets where we thought they should go.

Once assembled we had to do some judicious bending of their arms to clear the pistons. It's very busy in there!

I had another day on the heads on Tuesday where we opened up the chamber on the outside of the inlet valves without eating into the quench area. Certainly a radiused edge will outperform the 80degree angle that was there.

I spent today cleaning the stripped heads and was ready to start assembling them when the shop owner looked at them and said "I think we can get those exhaust ports flowing a bit better yet" He grabbed the die grinder and alloy started flying. I'm sure he'll strike water over the weekend!

The valve seats will be machined on a new CNC machine and should have a bellmouth shape rather than the traditional "3 angle valve job" which will increase flow rates. Trouble is I'm not allowed to photograph the valve seats.

I ground all the valves today on a trick machine.

The workshop is so much fun with so many machines to play on!

When nothing is happening on my engine I help around the shop doing whatever they trust me to do. Today I've been working on an armoured truck, a racing HQ Holden and a sad BMW 735i (plus assembling my own engine) that needs a full engine rebuild. I'll be sad when the engine is finished and I won't be able to play in the shop.

At the end of the day this version of the engine will flow heaps more air than the last one. That should translate into increased horsepower.

I have some photos of the oil jets in place once the pistons are in but they're on my camera at the shop.

I should have photos of the heads and oil jets to post up early next week.

Now it's time to chase up the manifold from the welder and start on that.

 

[XR8tt]

HOPEFULLY !! In 6 months time you'll read back through this thread as if it was yesterday !!
Good luck Rod...

 

[cribbj]

Rod, I know how you're feeling. Sometimes the machines in the shop are as much fun as the one you drive.

Wait until you get on the engine dyno and start tuning - you won't want to get off!

You do realise this is all a secret plot by the wife to keep you occupied, and out of her hair?

 

[Zuffen]

John,

Never a truer word spoken.

I thnk she's enjoying being a "machine shop widow"

But to tell the truth I would rather not smell like the shop all the time and go to lunch with her a little more often.

 

[Zuffen]

Time for the next update and some photos.

We still haven't assembled the heads as every day the experts say take a little out od here.

The heads are now starting to get lighter! Today is the last time I'm happy to have a go at them. I fear we'll strike water if we keep going.

The ports are now big enough to get a 29mm valve head to the valve guide on the inlets and within 5mm on the exhaust. That's an enormous improvement. There are now no exposed valve guides in the exhausts but we still have them on the inlets.

The first shows an inlet port (a bit fuzzy as I got a little too close).

The second is an exhaust port.

The oil jets are in but the photo is too big so I'll post up once re-sized.

 

[Cobber]

Can just about see those radius valve seats too

Next job is to grind a few kg's off that inlet manifold and match port it to the heads.

Good job on the die grinder.

You should drop a couple of psi just with the head work.

Has anyone got photo's of the cross sections of these heads?

 

[cribbj]

Put them on the flowbench Rod!

 

[JustenGT8]

Looking good mate...i can see a few hours in that lot

 

[Zuffen]

There have been three attempts on those heads.

I paid for $5,000.00 worth of porting in them in the first two rounds then I got stuck into them over the last 3 weeks.

I figure there was 40+hours (by a professional) in them before I started and I figure I put in around 40 hours on the end of the die grinder. I'm suffering for it as my tennis elbow is giving me hell!

The guys want to put them on a bench just to satisfy their curiosity.

I wish I had a standard head handy to compare them to.

Hopefully I'll asssemble them tomorrow and we can get them on the bench.

I should also pick up my welded manifold tomorrow so it will be back to the die grinder and more aches in the elbow!

Graeme's right I hope to have improved the flow to the point that we will drop 2psi and hopefully 3 or 4psi off the boost figure.

The manifold will flow heaps more but the new remote intercooler will offset some of the gain.

 

[cribbj]

As XR8TT's CNC heads will probably become an interesting separate topic, those posts and pics have been moved into a new thread, here: http://www.lextreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12148

 

[Zuffen]

My engine came home today. I think I'll have acouple fo beers.

The last week has been pretty hard.

On Tuesday of last week we were installing the cam covers when some grit (from the blaster) fell into the intake ports and over the cam gear.

I opted to remove the heads and clean everything.

Heads were off in around 30 minutes, cleaned in an hour and back on in another two hours.

Whilst they were off the shims were mixed up so we spent two days fighting with the shims before working out an easy way to sot them out. I used a small spreadsheet to plot the all the shim sizes and then work out where they best belonged. Interesting thing was we lost 2thou clearance between setting the gaps with vacuum and no springs compared to springs alone. I assume there is a little valve stretch happening. Seat pressure is around 110lb.

Finally got it together this morning.

I now need my alloy welder to do the last 7 ports in the manifold. He did one port and I got into it with the die grinder and sent it back so he can see just how much weld is needed. Hopefully I'll have it back this week.

Once that's done I can get them onto the "outlet/inlet box", that goes between the existing Richwood manifold and the supercharger, so I can start steeing up the W2A intercooler.

In the meantime I'll use my old block to set up new engine mounts as the last set (brand new) lasted 800klm before they sheared off. I guess I have more torque than a Range Rover engine (they were standard RR mounts). I'mm looking at using some Chrysler V8 ones from the 70's.

Once I have the mounts sorted I can look at how much chopping is needed to make the intake system fit in the engine bay.

With that ahead of me I don't expect to see the motor run for quite some time.

The shop proprietor is holidaying in the States and I haven't heard any more on getting the engine on a dyno so not sure whats happening in this regard.

Lastly the heads were never flow tested so we'll never know if the porting was any good.

The best news is the rebuild cost me a little over $3,000 Aussie which I think is a bargain. Parts were around $1,200 and machining the rest. The valve seats cost me $900.00 to cut so I hope they do flow well!

Thanks to David (Lextreme) for helping source and ship parts & Ed (ed_ma61) for supplying a free stock bore block to replace my old one.