Update and improvements on my Oxy build

[grelland]

Guys.

It has been a while since I posted here, but I had a build thread both here on the efi-forum a few years back, and over the years I have received invaluable help from you and also the guys over at the EFI-forum.

The intention with this thread is to update you on the progress, so maybe someone out there can learn from my mistakes, but also to get some great advice as the build progresses over the winter.

Just to start off with a short recap of a current description of the engine as I used it this summer/fall:

-2.1 l WBX case modified by myself with mostly hand tools
-Fully balanced stock 76mm wbx crank
-AA flywheel
-Cylinder adapter rings from Rocky
-94mm Cima barrels machined to correct diameter/length locally
-Scat I-beam rods
-Wiseco 94mm pistons
-CB 043 Los Panchito CNC ported heads (40x35.5mm)
-dual tapered alu pushrods from aircooled.net
-Pauter 1:1.3 rockers
-CSP Python exhaust
-Microsquirt ECU
-38mm throttle bodies from VW Speed shop/The dub shop

The oils system consist of a sandwich plate between case and filter and one external cooler. More on this later

Installed in my daily driven Ghia it looked something like this:

i ghian.jpg

[grelland]

To recap a little, I had a thread in here about what I suspected was an oil starvation problem that resulted in a full rebuild a couple of years ago.

After that rebuild, I struggled a lot with that the engine ran like crap and I needed to constantly readjust my valves... I suspected my rockers, and other things like pushrods and of course cam/lifter.

I started with the easy parts (as long as the engine was in the car) and replaced the pauter rockers with a "cheap" 1:1.4 setup just to see if it made any changes, but no...

Then after struggeling a bit more I pulled one of the pushrods and it looked like this:

banan.jpg

Then I had no options but to pull the engine and open it, and this is what I found:

lifter1.jpg

lifter2.jpg

These were "cheap" no-brand lifters and what I thought was a new FK8 cam.

After some headscratching as to trying to figure out what had happened, I discovered that I most likely had a major brainfart when assembling the engine, as I had istalled the old JPM cam that was deemed dead and buried after the failure the year before. I suspect that the failing cam lobes had brought with them the lifters to create a major disaster...

So new bearings and thorough cleaning was on the agenda, and I also installed a set of Torsten Pieper lifter bores as I was afraid the old ones from Rocky had taken a serious beating from this.

THEN I installed the new FK8 cam and a set of georgious Torsten Pieper tool steel lifters.

[grelland]

I assembled the rest of the engine over the winter last year, and when spring came, everything seemed ok when it came to the cam/lifter issue, but what bothered me a little (or actually a lot when I think of it) was that the oil temp kept rising as I drove the car and after some 20-25 minutes the oil pressure at idle often dropped down to a level where the oil light started flickering.

At that time I used a sandwich plate between the case and the filter and a single cooler with no fan mounted next to the gearbox.

Again after a lot of testing with various sandwich adapters, cooler locations and fans, I concluded that I simply did not have enough cooling capacity in the setup, so I decided to pull the engine and add a type1 cooler in a doghouse configuration in addition to the external cooler.

I started by making a (crude) steel adapter in order to mount the cooler inside the doghouse and hook it up using AN-10 fittings:

adapter.jpg

Then I added an external thermostat to kick in the external cooler as needd (the doghouse cooler see a full flow of oil):

termostat og kjøler under.jpg

My middle son (aged 15) was assembling all the oil lines/fittings as I crawled around taking measurements:

Inge oljeslanger.jpg

And the engine bay then looked something like this with the oil hoses coming out of the adapter. (this is a mock-up; hence the rough edges in the holes in the fanshroud):

prøvemont viftehus med doghouse.jpg

[grelland]

This helped a lot, and the oil temp is now comfortably resting in the 90°C range and an under-the-plug temp sender indicates a temperature in the 100-105°C range under normal conditions.

The oil pressure is still not great, but decent; I later realised that when searching for the root cause of the oil temp issue I replaced my oil pump with one that I had not o-ringed, so I assume this will be better once I rebuild the engine with o-ringed pump.

I drove the car in this configuration the entire fall this year, and I am very pleased with the engine. It pulls strongly, and still behaves well in traffic. I have not had it on a dyno, but I estimate 150-160 hp and a good low end torque due to the small butterflies and low volume intake runners in the CB heads.

The plans for this winter were initially just to fix all cosmetic issues, as all this wrestling with thermostats, oil lines and the new doghouse setup really showed in the engine compartment, but you guys all know how these things work... and before I started to remove the engine, I stumbled across a set of SCAT wedge port 44x37,5mm heads, and I decided a full rebuild was needed

So right now, I have started the tear-down of the engine, but before that I did some mock-up on the TB/Intake side.

The wedge port heads have significantly larger intake ports than the CB's, so my old offset manifolds do not have enough meat to allow for the necessary porting so I found a set of CB EFI intakes in one of my parts shelves, and this is an indication of how much I need to open them up:

porting.jpg

These are a bit higher than the old ones, and this shot indicate the difference from the old:

ny og gammel.jpg

I have been a little bit annoyed with the intake growl from the ITBs, so I am planning to make a setup similar to what Bergmann has:

bergmann.jpg

So after another look through my parts bins, I found a pair of these:

turbo-lokk.jpg

And since my son is quite good at 3d-modelling and has a 3d-printer in the basement I will add a set of these:

trakter.jpg

[grelland]

As one can see, the base plate of these turbo-boxes will interfere with the current location of the injectors, but the CB intakes have bungs in them, so I will move the injectors down to the inside of the TBs.

This is not ideal in my mind, but all engineering work involves compromises, and this is one of them. The following illustration show that the outside injector location is probably better since it aims directly at the valve, but with modern injectors with good atomization I expect this to be good:

retning.jpg

This also shows the clearance wrt the fan shroud, and with these 36hp style aftermarket shrouds, it will be ok.

Since the oil hoses coming out of the fan shroud interferes with the carb linkage, I have decided to go for a solution from logmech in Sweden:

logmech.jpg

Now we are getting close to the status as of today, as I yesterday evening opened the case (with some help from my 11-year old son) and I was anxious to see if everything was ok in the cam/lifter department.

And to my eyes, it looks good, but I will have a good cleaning and inspection session one of the coming days:

kam.jpg

løftere.jpg

So the next thing on the agenda now is to thoroghly clean everything and at least put the short block back together before I start fiddeling with setting up valve train geometry etc so that I can order a new set of pushrods etc.

So any input/comments are more than welcome as I will keep updating you on the progress the new few months.

[grelland]

I started cleaning today, but I have a question that someone might help me with.

I dont have large enough plugs for these two oil galleries:

plugs.jpg

Does anyone know what size plugs I need and where to get them?

[grelland]

Hmm, not very active this forum, but I will keep posting, and hopefully someone find it interesting:)

Not too much exciting stuff going on, but I have ported the intakes and I have decided to paint the engine case and intakes in a flat black heat resistant color, so here is the first intake ready:

sorte.jpg

Then I cleaned one of the case halves, and after a thorough cleaning it also received a thin coat of flat black:

ene halvdelen lakkert.jpg

I also discovered that even though my new scat heads were opened for 94mm barrels, my cima/mahle ones were some 1/10 mm too large, and it turned out that the previous owner used AA barrels and they were seemingly a tad smaller OD. So the heads are out at my friends at Unneberg Bil for machining.

When it comes to the oil gallery plug I removed, I found a pair of M22x1.5 plus, so I need to open the gallery a tad, since it measures about 19mm, before I can insert a plug like this:

plug.jpg

[ajdenette]

There are people watching, I have not built an engine from this far or done much modifications so unfortunately I don't have a lot of input but do have knowledge about water boxers and air cooled engines.

[grelland]

There are people watching, I have not built an engine from this far or done much modifications so unfortunately I don't have a lot of input but do have knowledge about water boxers and air cooled engines.

Glad someone is watching

[Piledriver]

I see you, I just don't get on as much lately with the new job and house in the works.

The lower plug is not pressure plug so you can pop them out from the inside and pop them back in with some locktite after cleaning the oil pickup out.
I'm not sure about the upper one, don't think I pulled that one..

[grelland]

I see you, I just don't get on as much lately with the new job and house in the works.

The lower plug is not pressure plug so you can pop them out from the inside and pop them back in with some locktite after cleaning the oil pickup out.
I'm not sure about the upper one, don't think I pulled that one..

I already pulled the lower one but found a 22mm plug so I will tap it. The upper one I leave in

Sent fra min SM-G950F via Tapatalk

[grelland]

Things are moving slowly ahead, and one of things we have been working on is to clean up the look of the engine, and since I concluded that I will never use heat exchangers on this engine, I decided to remove the out-takes on the shroud.

My lovely wife gave me a TIG-welder for Christmas, so my oldest son figured he should give it a try, so this is what we did a few days ago. Not too shabby for the first time

sveis.jpg

før sliping.jpg

slipt.jpg

Some bondo and paint and this will be just fine.

I am still waiting for the heads to come back from some minor machining, so that I can start the assembly and check valve clarence and rocker arm geometry.

I still have some weeks before spring arrives

[grelland]

My youngest son helps me assembling the short block am the oldest one and a friend are painting the tins. Nice Saturday afternoon in the garage

shortblock.jpg

tind.jpg

[grelland]

I mentionned that I am looking for a solution for reducing the intake noise, and while I am waiting for the cylinder heads to return from the machine shop, I had a look at the intake boxes. The idea is a solution similar to the CB turbo boxes, with one centrally mounted filter.

My son modeled some base plates and printed a prototype on his 3D-printer, and this looks like a good start:

air box.jpg

He is also working on uopdating his home-made cnc-router so that these plates can be machined out of aluminum if I dont find a plastic that will hold up.

Always fun to combine hobbies

[jackstraw]

Great job. Liking the pics. I'm curious about the strength of a 3D printed whatever. Interesting technology.