Letting the "Chicken" out of the bag.

Post on Pauls instagram page about the trigger wheel. 

I dropped off the headers ar Pauls shop on Thursday @ 12:30, got a text just after I go home at 14:30 that they were done, I guess I should have stayed in town a little longer.  Oh well, Ill just have to pick them up early next week, then ill be able to start looking at plumbing the intake exhaust and oil lines.  I picked up the trigger wheel when I stopped in, luckily Paul found the old Crank position sensor mount he used to use.  I need to find a way to keep it from walking away from the wheel (he had trouble with that) but that find DOES save me some fab time.  Ill post pictures when I have them.

Challenger392 said:

Pic of chicken 2 at Mt Washington.  Mid-mounted Audi 2.7 with a transfer case to send power back to the front. 

Front suspension on Chicken 2 is Audi A6, Paul has a jig setup to recreate the geometry and use stock control arms.  The rear suspension is custom double wishbone of some kind. 

Looks like things are progressing better than my project.. 

The rear a-arms on chicken 2, those came from the scrap bin at VTsportcar from when paul was working there.. I can only imagine the goodies that are pulled out of there daily..

You thinking you are gonna have this thing ready for Phlio/Ascutney?

Ohh Im sure there must be all sorts of good stuff there!!  You should start a build thread for your car, you know, because building a race car and having a young family isn't enough to do .  I would LIKE to have it done for May but I don't get a lot of time to work on it with the Kid and other things going on.   Ill be lucky if I get it done in enough time to make 5 events.  I could always run the Mod in FL for a few events to make sure I can still make points for the year.  

Progress report. Retrieved the now welded headers from Paul and installed them on the car. 

In other news, I installed the crank damper with the new trigger wheel on it and installed the crank sensor block.

As you can see its shortcoming is is the fact that it only has one bolt.  I will either attempt to make a small link to triangulate it with another bolt hole, or try to drill and pin it into the case. 

I've also been working on wiring this week.  I've got most of the engine sensors, injectors and ignition coils wired at the engine side with all the wires bundled and stuck through the firewall to where the ECU sits.  I need a make a buss bar in the foot well to connect all of my coil and injector power wires to.  Once I get more intake plumbing done ill have to run my MAP, Manifold Temp, and any other remaining wires up to the ECU.

AngryCorvair said:

this is a crazy build!   thanks for sharing.

any chance you can post a pic or two of the transmission end of the shift business?  i'm going to use an audi 6MT in my V8 Corvair and plan to use a cable shifter for reduced Rube Goldberging.

Here ya go!! This is the super duper shift linkage.  Just the stock shift rod cut down with some slotted levers mounted to it.  The rear of the shaft sits in a heim joint so it can rotate and slide fore and aft.  There is also a small link that connects the ball end on the front to the trans. 

In reply to Challenger392 :

Cool, thanks!

Pro tip, buy yourself a set of these cute little flush cut snapon pliers, use them ONLY for zip ties. I repeat, use them ONLY for zip ties. If you cut steel wire with them they are now trash. The result will be nice flush zip tie ends not the usual razor sharp ends you get with a normal set of diagonal cutters.

As you can see in the picture below, the lower one was cut with these flush cuts, the other with normal set of diagonal cutters. 

I got a new welder, and its awesome.  A huge step up from the super cheap wire feed only I had before. 

I am not the only guy with a welder in the kitchen

I may have missed it but I would plan on throwing a brace on the turbo from the block somewhere, otherwise you will probably break the manifold, studs, or weld. Any reason you didn't run a v-band instead of welding the turbine housing to the manifold?

Sean

In reply to smokeysevin :

Simplicity, weight, strength, cost.  Mostly cost.... Im not terribly worried about bracing the turbo, its on a pretty short arm, and probably weighs less than a thick set of long tube headers on a v8.  The heads have 9 studs per side. The first thing that would probably crack is where the cast turbo is welded to the manifold. 

New Ignition Coils came in, Thanks Rockauto!!  These are 4 pin units are off the 01 4.2 V8.  The stock 3 pin ones don't play nice with the Megasquirt.  These are the equivalent of the VW "Pencil" COP units, but have the same flange as the 2.7 so they are a direct bolt on.  The MS ECU should be able to drive them directly.  I also received my new manifold gaskets so I could mount the manifold permanently.

I have been waffling about where to install my alcohol content sensor.  I finally decided to put it right off the tank.  Mostly for ease of mounting and to keep it away from the heat of the engine bay.  Its just plastic after all.  The tank has 4 pumps in it coming out of 2 AN6 feed lines which then merge into 1 AN8 line up to the front.  It seems excessive but it was setup to run straight Meth at one point so flow was important.  I put the alchy sensor in one of the AN6 feed lines.  The stock GM sensor just has those silly quick disconnects, I bought some adapters to AN6.  I will probably safety wire both adapters together just for safety sake.  Putting the sensor this far from the engine means there will be a little bit of lag from the sensor to the engine but with the amount of volume that the pumps put out and how much will be running back to the tank in the return line I doubt it will matter. Add to that the fact that fuel mix doesn't just change in a millisecond I'm sure it will be fine. 

Took a trip to the local junk yard this week to find a throttle body.  I can't use the stock throttle by wire one, MS doesn't support it.  The car originally had one off of a Hyundai 4 cylinder.  Pretty much direct bolt on with just a TPS.  This one came off of a Hyundai Genesis v6 and has a simple 3 wire PWM IAC as well as a TPS. Ooooo fancy.  Paul had used a manual high idle switch that actuated a small jack screw type actuator to adjust the idle speed before.  This should be a little simpler more seamless once setup.

Finished making the adapter plate for the throttle body this week.  I think it turned out OK. 

With the 1/4" plate between the throttle body and manifold it really makes things tight with the power steering pump.  3 of the bolts are just fine, but the 4th sits so close behind the inlet elbow in the pump I had to countersink the hole and use a flush head screw to make it work.  The downside is that I will have to take the PS pump off the front of the engine if I ever want to remove the throttle body. 

I installed the Pump temporarily for a fit test, but it is all going to have to come back apart. I need to weld the control horn in the position that, and have paul weld the aluminum intake pipe on to match up with the exising plumbing. 

Paul at SuperCar Machine Shop welded the intake pipe on for me.  He does an awesome job, especially since this was welding thin wall tubing to a cast aluminum throttle body. 

Ive also been working on plumbing all of the fuel lines. Ill post a couple pictures of the complete bundle of snakes once its all tidied up.  I DID put fuel pressure to the system and there were no leaks so that's a relief.  I also received the turbocharger cartridge that I ordered and got it installed.  All I need to do now is install the intercoolers so that I can get the compressor housing clock angle correct.  After that I have a TON of wiring to do.  

Fuel lines to the rails are done. Did I go overboard? Yes.  Why? Cost. Notice the lack of brackets holding the fuel rails down.  I bought them used on ebay for cheap.  And the fancy fuel pressure regulator came with the car. I DID put fuel pressure to the rail and everything seems to hold pressure. Not bad for old injector O-Rings stuffed in just for fun.  Ill be putting in all new when I put in the BIG injectors.  If my calculations are correct, the fuel lines could easily flow enough for 2000hp sooo I think its safe to say im future proofed.

Wow. This thing is going to fly!

Just got up to date reading the thread. For some reason Grassroots isn't sending me updates when you update.

Anyway it looks great.  Lots to do but I know that feeling.  I got the shift linkage, shifter and brakes installed tonight. Three things off the list.

C392 just curious, how aware were you of the complexity involved with this motor/cpu/etc..etc when you

decided to make this 'chicken' your yard bird?  opposite ends of the spectrum compared to a SBC  with a

carburetor.....  

In reply to 759NRNG :

Oh I was aware...thats probably the crazy part about it.  Its like selling your reliable Toyota to buy a 70's Italian car as a daily driver.  It DOES NOT make sense, yet here we are..... One of my biggest goals is to add as much reliability to this car as I can.  In all reality I SHOULD be able to make it a fairly reliable vehicle, at least for a race car.  I just need to not get too boost crazy.