200$?!?! Alright, I'm coming over... The Crinkles story

In reply to RedGT :

LOL, yeah. I Looped them together using one of the old hoses. It does have a bit of a kink in it though, so I may try and find a better way.

That's a really cool zip tie trick, using it as a plastic filler rod! I'll have to try that some time!

BirgerBuilder said:

Next step is to strip it down. My three year old's habit of removing every screw he can find is coming in handy. 

From this point forward, anyone who wrenches on a Miata without a cape is a loser. 

spork said:

That's a really cool zip tie trick, using it as a plastic filler rod! I'll have to try that some time!

I learned this little trick on my TDI project, got it to hold 20psi of boost no problem on the intercooler hoses. 

So I pulled the dashboard out. Donor  car had one with some cracks, race car had one that's in near perfect shape. And while I was in there, I could fix the leaking heater core. Surprisingly, the donor car had a leak in it's core...

But, when I did the same pressure test on the one that was in the car... no leaks. I'm guessing the fix I had done earlier had been leaking at the connections? 

Oh well, while the dash was pulled, I can clean up the wiring harness. airbag was blown and I have no need for one anyway. 

So, I needed to remove the wiring for it...

Everything wrapped in blue tape, is the airbag wiring. Keep in mind, this car had ONE airbag. Pulling the wires through the firewall and out of the fuse box was a royal pain but probably worth it.

Not even including the airbag itself, 7.25 pounds. 

And if anyone needs sensors, control modules, capacitor back ups, let me know I've got doubles of nearly all of it. 

Speaking of which, I made my first sale, $20 back into the budget!

Now I just need to sell 10-15 more similar items to get back to neutral.

Anybody need a dash board? Couple of dirt smudges but great shape. 

The one going back in the car however...

Just add zip ties! All kinds and for all reasons! 

First three just to hold it in place.  Then we add in some 'tack welds'

And more filler.

And... not bad I think. My brother's skepticism quickly disappeared when he saw the finished results. 

You can certainly see the cracks but they are easy enough to overlook if you don't know they are there. 

So it's all back together and after a brief moment of panic when the car would no longer start... (That big fuse labeled 'Air Bag' is not just for the air bag) Crinkles is back in action and appears to no longer leak coolant or overheat, but I guess we will see after the next autocross. 

Car has been sitting around for a bit but we did some small jobs this weekend. 

First off, this guy came out. 

I had been holding off on removing the AC because I thought it was functional. Turns out, it just made more noise when you pressed the button, but there was no refrigerant. 

So we yanked out 28 pounds. Now, this car has power steering which runs off of the same pulley, so I need to do something about that. 

First, I opened up the Belt bucket. 

To my brother, "what do you mean, you don't have a belt bucket?"

I really thought I got lucky on the first shot when I pulled this guy out. 

It fit perfectly, it was just a bit too wide. So, I sliced one of the ribs off the side. Which is very easy since the ribs make a nice guide. 

Too bad that after I cut it to width, it settled down into the pulleys and was now too long. So, I need to either get a shorter belt, or make some small spacers for the pump. I will likely start with the later. 

Also, I bought an AFR gauge and wideband O2 sensor. 

Found for $100 on Face-page, talked him down to $70. My brother still hasn't built the ECU yet but I plugged it in for a quick test. 

I made it removable using a stock Mazda plug I salvaged. Why? Because I want to be able to drop it into the RX7 for tuning as well. I just need to get a second plug next time I'm at the junk yard. 

Anyway, She works!

I spent a few minutes on the car, and was able to sort out the power steering. 

One chunk of Aluminum, weighing in at .25 lbs.

split three ways,

Then sanded and shaped. I didn't check the outside diameter at all so I'm pleasantly pleased that it matched the cast bracket almost exactly. 

Longer bolts were acquired for $2.50 and we are in business. 

What else did I do? I saved a quarter panel the easy way...

and while the saw was out, made the rest easier to transport. 

This might make the neighbors a bit happier... but looking at the weeds and other junk, maybe not. 

Anyway, off the to scrap yard.

Advantages of a lightweight car: easy to load. Disadvantages: not much metal left.

Was hoping for more to go back into the budget but, $.03 a pound right now, apparently. 

I actually got most of a Sunday free to work on Crinkles, so long as I could deal with it being 88 degrees in the garage, with the AC running.

Last time I ran the car, I could hear the tires hit the fenders in the rear, so...

Out come the tools of the trade.

Marked up exactly 1.5", because you know, this is a precision job.

And chop, chop.

After that, the BFH was employed to make sure all of the pointy metal is aimed up and away from the tires.

amazing craftsmanship to be sure.

I also went to the junkyard during the early morning hours, and got this:

Was kind of a PITA to get out because just one bolt was rusted on in a tight spot. Luckily, I brought my prison shank along so I could quietly 'Shawshank' that thing off of there.

Now, why would i need another stock manifold you might wonder...

Please refer to the following diagram.

Several months ago, I grabbed a VW turbo off of a 1.8T from the junkyard.

Not because it was a good fit or the right shape or anything, but because you couldn't walk 20 feet without running into one.

Well, yesterday I wanted to check and see if there is any actual space or a way to mount the thing. It's not the ideal shape but... we can make room I think.

It's kind of long and oddly shaped and clocked in the wrong position, so first I tried to unbolt it to see if there is an easy way to move the waste-gate actuator and rotate the housing.

Well... there may or may not be, but there is NOT an easy way to get at the bolts that hold the housing together. So instead of rounding them all off, I sprayed them with a liberal coating of PB-Blaster and moved on.

No matter how I mount it, the flange should be the same so I decided to start with that. I couldn't find a piece of flat plate the right size so I actually had to start with some oversized L.

2.5 pounds of it.

Cut and flatten.

Then, since I had it in the mill already, I tried to flatten it out a bit.

Since I was going to do a bunch more work on it anyway, I didn't bother to true it up, but it feels smooth to the touch.

Next, a template.

And transferred and marked.

After finding center on the rotary table, I made some chips.

Thinking I was quite smart, I made a center finder that I could screw into the turbo.

Too bad the steel from the bolt was much too soft to make a mark on the flange. I ended up going off of my original marks which were not that great and I sadly had to re-drill one hole.

A mark of shame on my otherwise perfect flange.

Steel this thick is a real bitch to work on, so this took me nearly 4 hours to make. I sure hope that's not par for this project...

Well, first some bad news.

this turbo is berked. Looks like a crack in the cast iron killed it.

Good news: a "brand new" one is only $95. So it looks like this will be a mock-up turbo. And that means I conveniently don't have to worry about getting metal chips inside of it anymore.

Back to the business.

More scrap steel, cut a big hole in it.

Face and trace.

Cut the shape out. Can for size. Beer, mediocre. Not a big fan of the mango, Lemon is good, but still too sweet for my taste.

Then line up the holes on the rotary table, and...

Beautyious. Next, the manifold. Should be a bit of a job. But, no going back now.

First simplified attempt went something like this.

However, after I tacked the two center tubes, I found that the turbo would still be sticking way out of the hood. Not that I'm worried about harming that pristine hood, but if I'm gonna do all this cutting and welding anyway, I may as well put it where I want it.

So, I cut the tubes WAY down and shortened them as far as they would go.

This puts the turbo about where I want it... wish me luck on that collector... (Note: those two center tubes do meet correctly, they just don't look it because the left one is way longer than the right.)

Alright boys, we're finally getting somewhere with this thing!

When I left off, I only had two pipes connected and I was getting a bit doubtful about if this thing would actually come together or not.

Well, get ready for a pants-load of pictures, spread out over about 3 days of building.  First, the two inside tubes were tacked in and the longer one was split open.

Next two tacked in and the inside tubes TIG welded on.

Outside tubes TIG'd and the beginnings of a merge connection. Turbo will hypothetically fit in the provided space.

Before I go any farther, I need to get a reducer pipe, well the manifold came with one. O2 bung inconveniently located in the middle of it. I was surprised at how well a hole-saw removed it. O2 bung saved for future use, further down the line.

A slightly larger hole-saw created a patch for it.

And, fixed.

The old flange was removed and I made a 'CAD' template to try out before shrinking the tube.

This part had me worried but it shrank down nicely and I tacked it back together to make sure it was the right size for the turbo flange.

If you skip ahead about 5 hours worth of trimming, pounding, and checking on repeat and you'll arrive here!

And, the finished product! Fingers crossed it doesn't crack the very first time it gets up to temperature.

Now, I obviously still need to attach the flange but I'm pretty happy that this didn't turn into a total and unsalvageable loss. so far.

This is some top-notch bodgery! That dashboard crack fix is hardly noticeable now. 

moar!

Well I feel like my work here is done. You plant many seeds but only so many germinate into junk yard turbo builds. 

Well boys, Thanks for the encouragement and I was pumped to get that flange welded on.

Fits great...But...

How the berk are you supposed to get more than one bolt in there? In fact, with a 2.5" straight pipe in there, there still isn't enough space to get bolts in...

how do they do it with the stock manifold?

Oh... I'm stupid. There is really no way to make this turbo work.

Well, luckily I didn't buy a replacement yet so, on to other options. I'm pretty sure I can still use the manifold I made but all that time spent on those flanges was a total wash...

In reply to BirgerBuilder :

Or screw some studs into the turine housing

Cut flange off, bolt to turbo, weld flange to manifold. Never remove again. 

Yeah I was gonna say studs

maschinenbau said:

In reply to BirgerBuilder :

Or screw some studs into the turine housing

The bolt holes are so close together that I'd only be able to get nuts on 2 of the studs.

TGMF said:

Cut flange off, bolt to turbo, weld flange to manifold. Never remove again. 

This would be the only way to do it. And, if the turbo was good, I would try it this way. but since the turbo is already fubar, I'm on the hunt for a new one.

Don't forget the reduced size high temperature nuts called "jet nuts" You will have to start them before the turbo is up against the flange, but I bet it is doable.

Well, as much as I dislike Facebook, marketplace saves the day again.

I didn't have a $10 on me, so he took the $46 I could give him.

Welp, time to make new flanges.

Nice. Those go for around $160 on eBay. There’s also a cheapo China bay manifold and downpipe for that turbo for a 1.6. 

We took a brief family vacation earlier this week and now it's back to business.

Took some plate steel and cut a hole.

I also used the fly cutters I have had sitting around for years and never used, to surface the flange.

After some more cutting, shaping, drilling and sanding, here we are.

The old turbo/ flange was way smaller, this is an easy issue to fix.

I did have to weld a few spots down first, then hammer the manifold out, to make it round, but that went pretty easily in comparison to making everything else.

She's coming together alright!

So much win in that last photo. That turbo is easy to clock.