Making parts for a Fiat

As a Fiat and Mini aficionado I'm having fun watching this happen!

Love the progress you're making!

I have been working on this. Most of it was wasted as false starts and redesigns.

I'd like to introduce you to the silliest "resonator" out there.  This is what happens when you buy based on measurements.

The reviews for it say it is surprisingly effective. We will see. 

I lost a week to a trip to Sonoma for the Velocity Invitational, where I saw many cool and inspirational things

That blue Brabham was my favorite car of the event for some reason. The Family Huckster is bananas. It moves like a Robotech cartoon.  The Trans Am class might not have been the fastest group out on the track but damn it they were sure the loudest.

Anyway after a lot of hand wringing.  I have decided on an intake and intercooler design and the fabrication has begun

I remoed anything extraneous from a 1.4 Aveo throttle body

And made the flange.

The Aveo unit was chosen for its diminutive size, cable operation plus stepper idle controller and the fact that the E-throttle version will bolt in place should I decide to go DBW.

And the initial plan was to hammerform the plenum so I made a plug.

But that wasn't about to happen with the material I have on hand so it will be fabricated in a more normal manner. 

Update soon

Ok, soo..... intercoolers......

I grabbed every one I had, I borrowed a few, I scoured the spearco catalog and folded up some cardboard dummies. I was unhappy with the fit on all of 14 of them. A 1.8t sidemount was close but ducting to it was an issue. Best case was mounted high over the motor, but I didn't want to open the engine cover and just have intercooler visible.  I am all about function over form but after this much work I wanna show my E36 M3 off!

So I sat and stared at every used intercooler on ebay and fought off my own tendencies and took a leap.

Despite my vehement opposition, I'm going air to water. Happy "I told you so day" to all who celebrate. 

But i am doing it differently than you think. 

This is the water to air exchanger off of a VW 1.4tsi motor. It showed up damaged from ebay so it is just a stunt intercooler for fabrication purposes.  The seller refunded my money and everything 

so i made a plate to hold the OEM gasket

Which went poorly because my power feed decided that a steady feed rate was for suckers and intermittently went full speed on me. I broke 6 end mills and then waited for a new unit to arrive to finish the job

The cheap new Vevor unit is so much smoother than the old Wells Setting from 1984. The bevel gear is helical instead of straight cut so it has really changed the feel of the machine, even when manually operating it.

The plan was to hammer form the plenum but I decided to use the 6061 I had on hand instead of spending $200 on a 1000 series sheet. There is no way T6 6061 1/8" thick will bend the way I wanted it to. 

Those sheets have been sitting in my garage for 14 years! Happy to finally get to use them!

Anyway, the plenum is tacked up

So yeah. I didn't have the space for an intercooler near the back of the car where I could easily blow air over it but a slightly larger intake manifold will fit. Plus I get a tidy and short charge pipe for a clean bay.

A small pump, a sport bike radiator and a small reservoir can be placed wherever I can hide them.

As much as I fought this, I am happy where I am ending up.

Materials for the base flange and runners arrived today. I will start those next week.