Single Turbo 1UZ MKII Supra Project
- Thread starter MKII_Supra
- Start date
The 1UZFE EGR Delete Kit is available for sale here.
MKII_Supra
Member
Don't give up on me yet guys, I have quite a few new things to add to this build, but wait until a more prevalent time to show them. Work has been crazy busy, and I haven’t had as much time as I would like to OCD more things for the Supra.
Yes, I work mostly with SolidWorks. Here is the beginning frame design with our Fast Track independent front and rear suspension systems for a 1940 Oldsmobile sedan:
Just finished these renderings last night.
-Mike
Yes, I work mostly with SolidWorks. Here is the beginning frame design with our Fast Track independent front and rear suspension systems for a 1940 Oldsmobile sedan:
Just finished these renderings last night.
-Mike
MKII_Supra
Member
Ok everyone,
Life has been very busy for the past six months. I have been getting settled at a new job and area since last July, and have slowly been bitten by the car bug again the past month or so. I have been making the long 3 hour journey back home consistently every couple weekends or so, and trying to make some progress on the car. A lot of this isn't very fresh in my head, so sorry if the details are light.
A quick shot of my new office completed a few months ago at the shop. We have lots of cool projects going on currently at the shop, check the link in my signature to see what we have been up to (and why I have been so busy)!The advertisement above it is an original NOS billboard poster circa late 1950's!
I had my intakes coated, and worked a bit on the extra vac ports. I managed to pull out all the press-in vacuum stands and drill and tap them to accept small set screws. This way I can keep some small ports in case I ever need another vacuum source, front or rear. All the threaded ports needed to be re-tapped to remove the thick coating inside them.
A bit miss-placed in the thread, but I also made a new rear seat delete box last summer/fall. This replaced the large and overly tacky piece I had previously made, and is substantialy lighter and more subtle. 1/2" plywood, various MDF, and Rochford vinyl all come together to house a single 10" Solobaric sub. I picked this speaker since it was boxy and matched the lines of the car and interior well, and fit the area for the seat delete quite well.
Sorry for the messy garage.
It is weird how the grain of the plywood underneath the vinyl showed through after the glue had dried. I'm guessing it is due to some weird reaction between the wood and glue, since I carefully prep sanded and cleaned the entire box to a crisp and smooth finish before covering. After applying a bit of vinyl protectant, it is a lot less noticeable. I may have to redo it this summer if it is still noticeable in sunlight.
I also hand made some new rear interior panels to replace the fugly 6x9 pieces I made earlier. I sourced some nice cores from Andrew (Achan) here on the forum, who was gracious enough to let me gander over his parts stash and talk cars for a good bit. Thanks again Andrew! I hand sewed the upper sections (not perfect), and covered both sections with a thin layer of headliner foam/fabric, then vinyl. The vinyl I used was some generic material I bought at my local textile store, and it is quite a bit too "cheap" and shinny looking for my taste. I think I am going to order some more vinyl fro Rochford supply as their grain and material quality is excellent (but pricy).
I have been watching Nardi steering wheels float around on eBay, and purchased one when it went on sale for 15% off. I have always wanted the Nardi deep corn in red-stitched leather, so I made it happen.
Since I already had the grant adapter for our cars, I just bought a nice billet adapter to go from the Grant hub to the 6-hole Nardi pattern. A bit too bling for my tastes as it sits.
Nothing some wrinkle black can't fix. The original Grant skirt also gets the same treatment.
Since I am now surrounded by talented TIG welders at work everyday, I bought a mandrel section of 1.5" aluminum 6061 and went to work making a template of the car three hours away!
Yes, that is a legit Casio calculator watch. (The inner-engineer in me couldn't resist)
Using the template, I hauled the radiator to the shop and prepped the mandrel bend to match the curve on the cardboard. One of the guys then did a very nice job welding it to the trimmed upper inlet, after we rolled a bead on the outer lip.
The clearance is just right, and luckily the bend points almost perfectly to the water neck on the motor.
Moving on, I decided to dive into the wastegate portion of the build. I decided on TIAL's new MVR-44, which was really a no-brainer in the first place. Great looks and performance, made in the USA. The oil drain for the turbo would need to pass close to the wastegate plumbing, so I used DEI's fire-sleeve to insulate the -10AN line from the high temps.
A quick test fit on the drain ensures that the drain is always moving downhill, and routing is optimal between all the current pipes.
After a few test fits with the engine in the car to judge frame rail clearance, the wastegate lines are routed to the cross pipes.
With the radiator tucked partially under the core support, and the fans being mounted pusher style, the best place for the wastegate was out in front.
With the wastegate positioned, the wastegate exit received a bellow, and is sneakily squeezed between the engine and turbo on it's way to the main exhaust.
It was close (and lucky), but there is a decent tolerance between the top of the wastegate and where the upper radiator hose will route.
One of the perks of working at my job, is access to all the awesome machinery. I designed some new lower radiator mounts to replace the ugly older pieces I made, and our CNC tech cut them from 10 gauge steel on our CNC plasma.
The score lines were the center lines for 90 degree bends, but I forgot to bend them on the press brake before heading home. No big deal, a quick grove with a cutoff wheel and they fold over with a nice weld edge.
A world of difference compared to my earlier mounts crudely made with junk steel and a cutoff wheel. The new units still need to receive rubber padding.
I also took a few minutes to draw up a few intake block plates, and cut them from 3/16 steel. I chose steel because I have a few plans for some of them later that may require welding.
I tried my best to paint the plates to match the intake. Some are tapped to receive ports for vacuum sources.
Some socket cap bolts secure them into place for now.
The front and rear ports are vacuum sources for the wastegate, BOV, map, and FPR. The front line to the wastegate and BOV are all plumbed with -4AN lines and fittings.
With little to no room up front to mount the oil filter, I decided to secure it to the driver's frame rail behind the steering servo. This way it is a bit away from the heat of the front cross pipes, and in a very easy to change position. I made a quick template from some scrap steel to position the mount to some existing M6 holes on the rail.
Looking at the transmission side, I finally sourced a MKIII N/A W58 shifter housing. This should serve to position the shifter opening perfectly to the original body hole.
Going to town again, I decided to make a few other nice custom touches for the engine bay.
Using the existing wiper motor mounting location, I decided to kill two birds with one stone by designing a wiper motor delete and catch can mount in one unit.
I thought the holes were M8 for the wiper motor, but allas they were M6. Some trick washers will hide my mistake. (lol)
The funky windowed arms place the catch can at the right offset from the firewall, and height to the hood. The mounting arms are tapped for M6 bolts to secure the catch can to the mount.
The locking-tab method that I made the back plate allowed me to plug weld the back of the arms for a clean weld-free appearance on the front side.
My home made press-brake is used to bend the thin sheet metal used for the catch can fabrication. (haha)
I used weld tank fittings with NPT threads for the ports, and welded them flush from the inside of the canister. Not visible, but where the outer tack spot weld is shown is a divider plate that forces the inlet air/oil mix to move to the bottom of the canister before rising back up to the vent outlet. This should help keep most the oil in the canister instead of vaporizing out of the vent.
For the vent, I decided to use the existing oblong wiring hole in the passenger inner fender. I drew up their profile, and designed a clamping system to sandwich the mounts between the existing sheet metal on the inner fender. The inner mount plate is tapped for M8 bolts while the outer mount is tapped for the AN fitting.
A few test fits later and the mount arms are welded to the catch can. Here you can also see the vent in place of the original hole.
Using my previous template for the oil filter mount, I designed a much nicer and more secure version from 10 gauge steel. Notice the nice weld edges left to fill with weld. This will leave a nice finish after grinding the edges smooth. The rear of the mount is left open, as the fuel hard line needs to pass through it to mount to one of the holes that they will both share.
The catch can and mounts are prepped, and treated to etching primer and blocking for a smooth finish.
Using the same concept as the PCV vent line in the fender well, I made plates to seal all the existing holes in the engine bay I didn't want to weld permanently. Hopefully this will keep the rodents out of my interior! There are plugs for the heater core holes, A/C lines hole, both headlight/core support holes, the driver's front hole where the battery use to be, and the hole behind where the catch can mounts.
With everything prepped and cleaned, they are painted to suit their position in the engine bay. I used my cheap single action Paasche airbrush to paint a small batch of the single stage acrylic I used in my engine bay to the catch can mount and Fender well plugs. The canister and oil filter mount are painted satin black.
All the fender plugs receive gaskets cut from a universal sheet.
The catch can is assembled, using the AN fitting and some nice push-to-connect fittings for the sight. I have more of these fittings that I will use to replace the cheap nylon barbs on the coolant overflow tanks.
Note all the exposed holes in this area of the engine bay:
All the holes have been taken care of, even the one hidden behind the catch can. (Stay out of my interior you damn mice!)
The oil filter mount is assembled with the junk Fram for mock up.
Mounted onto the frame rail, it is sturdy and clears everything well. note how the fuel line passes though the rear section of the mount.
For the BOV, I turned once again to TIAL and their universal "black spring" Q.
Next to tackle was finishing up the downpipes, and connecting to the rest of the exhaust.
To judge a tight clearance to the manifold and engine, some cardboard scraps leave enough space to wrap the pipe with heat wrap, and a bit extra.
The wastegate line is plumbed back into the exhaust stream. No screamer pipe to be found on this cop-magnet...
The second downpipe section receives a small flex bellow. I separated the downpipe into two pieces since the fit is so tight in the engine bay. It would be impossible to route a one-piece downpipe and have it be removable with the engine in place.
Don't forget about the O2 bung!
Finally, a step back to look at the almost completed engine bay for the first time in over a year.
The hole on the driver's fender will receive its plug one I trim the canister mounts out of the way.
The PCV lines are routed messy in the picture, it will be addressed.
She's tight!
Did I mention she's tight?
That's pretty much up to speed for now. I have a few other nifty projects I am cooking up, and will hopefully have more progress posted in the next couple weeks.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. It always surprises me to come back to the forum and see my page had a few really flattering comments left.
-Mike
Life has been very busy for the past six months. I have been getting settled at a new job and area since last July, and have slowly been bitten by the car bug again the past month or so. I have been making the long 3 hour journey back home consistently every couple weekends or so, and trying to make some progress on the car. A lot of this isn't very fresh in my head, so sorry if the details are light.
A quick shot of my new office completed a few months ago at the shop. We have lots of cool projects going on currently at the shop, check the link in my signature to see what we have been up to (and why I have been so busy)!The advertisement above it is an original NOS billboard poster circa late 1950's!
I had my intakes coated, and worked a bit on the extra vac ports. I managed to pull out all the press-in vacuum stands and drill and tap them to accept small set screws. This way I can keep some small ports in case I ever need another vacuum source, front or rear. All the threaded ports needed to be re-tapped to remove the thick coating inside them.
A bit miss-placed in the thread, but I also made a new rear seat delete box last summer/fall. This replaced the large and overly tacky piece I had previously made, and is substantialy lighter and more subtle. 1/2" plywood, various MDF, and Rochford vinyl all come together to house a single 10" Solobaric sub. I picked this speaker since it was boxy and matched the lines of the car and interior well, and fit the area for the seat delete quite well.
Sorry for the messy garage.
It is weird how the grain of the plywood underneath the vinyl showed through after the glue had dried. I'm guessing it is due to some weird reaction between the wood and glue, since I carefully prep sanded and cleaned the entire box to a crisp and smooth finish before covering. After applying a bit of vinyl protectant, it is a lot less noticeable. I may have to redo it this summer if it is still noticeable in sunlight.
I also hand made some new rear interior panels to replace the fugly 6x9 pieces I made earlier. I sourced some nice cores from Andrew (Achan) here on the forum, who was gracious enough to let me gander over his parts stash and talk cars for a good bit. Thanks again Andrew! I hand sewed the upper sections (not perfect), and covered both sections with a thin layer of headliner foam/fabric, then vinyl. The vinyl I used was some generic material I bought at my local textile store, and it is quite a bit too "cheap" and shinny looking for my taste. I think I am going to order some more vinyl fro Rochford supply as their grain and material quality is excellent (but pricy).
I have been watching Nardi steering wheels float around on eBay, and purchased one when it went on sale for 15% off. I have always wanted the Nardi deep corn in red-stitched leather, so I made it happen.
Since I already had the grant adapter for our cars, I just bought a nice billet adapter to go from the Grant hub to the 6-hole Nardi pattern. A bit too bling for my tastes as it sits.
Nothing some wrinkle black can't fix. The original Grant skirt also gets the same treatment.
Since I am now surrounded by talented TIG welders at work everyday, I bought a mandrel section of 1.5" aluminum 6061 and went to work making a template of the car three hours away!
Yes, that is a legit Casio calculator watch. (The inner-engineer in me couldn't resist)
Using the template, I hauled the radiator to the shop and prepped the mandrel bend to match the curve on the cardboard. One of the guys then did a very nice job welding it to the trimmed upper inlet, after we rolled a bead on the outer lip.
The clearance is just right, and luckily the bend points almost perfectly to the water neck on the motor.
Moving on, I decided to dive into the wastegate portion of the build. I decided on TIAL's new MVR-44, which was really a no-brainer in the first place. Great looks and performance, made in the USA. The oil drain for the turbo would need to pass close to the wastegate plumbing, so I used DEI's fire-sleeve to insulate the -10AN line from the high temps.
A quick test fit on the drain ensures that the drain is always moving downhill, and routing is optimal between all the current pipes.
After a few test fits with the engine in the car to judge frame rail clearance, the wastegate lines are routed to the cross pipes.
With the radiator tucked partially under the core support, and the fans being mounted pusher style, the best place for the wastegate was out in front.
With the wastegate positioned, the wastegate exit received a bellow, and is sneakily squeezed between the engine and turbo on it's way to the main exhaust.
It was close (and lucky), but there is a decent tolerance between the top of the wastegate and where the upper radiator hose will route.
One of the perks of working at my job, is access to all the awesome machinery. I designed some new lower radiator mounts to replace the ugly older pieces I made, and our CNC tech cut them from 10 gauge steel on our CNC plasma.
The score lines were the center lines for 90 degree bends, but I forgot to bend them on the press brake before heading home. No big deal, a quick grove with a cutoff wheel and they fold over with a nice weld edge.
A world of difference compared to my earlier mounts crudely made with junk steel and a cutoff wheel. The new units still need to receive rubber padding.
I also took a few minutes to draw up a few intake block plates, and cut them from 3/16 steel. I chose steel because I have a few plans for some of them later that may require welding.
I tried my best to paint the plates to match the intake. Some are tapped to receive ports for vacuum sources.
Some socket cap bolts secure them into place for now.
The front and rear ports are vacuum sources for the wastegate, BOV, map, and FPR. The front line to the wastegate and BOV are all plumbed with -4AN lines and fittings.
With little to no room up front to mount the oil filter, I decided to secure it to the driver's frame rail behind the steering servo. This way it is a bit away from the heat of the front cross pipes, and in a very easy to change position. I made a quick template from some scrap steel to position the mount to some existing M6 holes on the rail.
Looking at the transmission side, I finally sourced a MKIII N/A W58 shifter housing. This should serve to position the shifter opening perfectly to the original body hole.
Going to town again, I decided to make a few other nice custom touches for the engine bay.
Using the existing wiper motor mounting location, I decided to kill two birds with one stone by designing a wiper motor delete and catch can mount in one unit.
I thought the holes were M8 for the wiper motor, but allas they were M6. Some trick washers will hide my mistake. (lol)
The funky windowed arms place the catch can at the right offset from the firewall, and height to the hood. The mounting arms are tapped for M6 bolts to secure the catch can to the mount.
The locking-tab method that I made the back plate allowed me to plug weld the back of the arms for a clean weld-free appearance on the front side.
My home made press-brake is used to bend the thin sheet metal used for the catch can fabrication. (haha)
I used weld tank fittings with NPT threads for the ports, and welded them flush from the inside of the canister. Not visible, but where the outer tack spot weld is shown is a divider plate that forces the inlet air/oil mix to move to the bottom of the canister before rising back up to the vent outlet. This should help keep most the oil in the canister instead of vaporizing out of the vent.
For the vent, I decided to use the existing oblong wiring hole in the passenger inner fender. I drew up their profile, and designed a clamping system to sandwich the mounts between the existing sheet metal on the inner fender. The inner mount plate is tapped for M8 bolts while the outer mount is tapped for the AN fitting.
A few test fits later and the mount arms are welded to the catch can. Here you can also see the vent in place of the original hole.
Using my previous template for the oil filter mount, I designed a much nicer and more secure version from 10 gauge steel. Notice the nice weld edges left to fill with weld. This will leave a nice finish after grinding the edges smooth. The rear of the mount is left open, as the fuel hard line needs to pass through it to mount to one of the holes that they will both share.
The catch can and mounts are prepped, and treated to etching primer and blocking for a smooth finish.
Using the same concept as the PCV vent line in the fender well, I made plates to seal all the existing holes in the engine bay I didn't want to weld permanently. Hopefully this will keep the rodents out of my interior! There are plugs for the heater core holes, A/C lines hole, both headlight/core support holes, the driver's front hole where the battery use to be, and the hole behind where the catch can mounts.
With everything prepped and cleaned, they are painted to suit their position in the engine bay. I used my cheap single action Paasche airbrush to paint a small batch of the single stage acrylic I used in my engine bay to the catch can mount and Fender well plugs. The canister and oil filter mount are painted satin black.
All the fender plugs receive gaskets cut from a universal sheet.
The catch can is assembled, using the AN fitting and some nice push-to-connect fittings for the sight. I have more of these fittings that I will use to replace the cheap nylon barbs on the coolant overflow tanks.
Note all the exposed holes in this area of the engine bay:
All the holes have been taken care of, even the one hidden behind the catch can. (Stay out of my interior you damn mice!)
The oil filter mount is assembled with the junk Fram for mock up.
Mounted onto the frame rail, it is sturdy and clears everything well. note how the fuel line passes though the rear section of the mount.
For the BOV, I turned once again to TIAL and their universal "black spring" Q.
Next to tackle was finishing up the downpipes, and connecting to the rest of the exhaust.
To judge a tight clearance to the manifold and engine, some cardboard scraps leave enough space to wrap the pipe with heat wrap, and a bit extra.
The wastegate line is plumbed back into the exhaust stream. No screamer pipe to be found on this cop-magnet...
The second downpipe section receives a small flex bellow. I separated the downpipe into two pieces since the fit is so tight in the engine bay. It would be impossible to route a one-piece downpipe and have it be removable with the engine in place.
Don't forget about the O2 bung!
Finally, a step back to look at the almost completed engine bay for the first time in over a year.
The hole on the driver's fender will receive its plug one I trim the canister mounts out of the way.
The PCV lines are routed messy in the picture, it will be addressed.
She's tight!
Did I mention she's tight?
That's pretty much up to speed for now. I have a few other nifty projects I am cooking up, and will hopefully have more progress posted in the next couple weeks.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. It always surprises me to come back to the forum and see my page had a few really flattering comments left.
-Mike
MKII_Supra
Member
A few updates for a project revival!
I apologize for the poor photos through this next documentation. I was so busy working that I didn't take any time to mind my settings, and some pictures turned out kinda crappy.
There have been a few fabrication projects I wanted to tackle for some time now, some being a necessity and others to prepare me for future projects. I had sourced both a manual and auto style transmission cross member for my swap, and neither provided any viable orientation to confidently secure to the chassis. I also needed to find a way to tighten up the front end and engine relative to the frame, since all my clearances are reasonably tight around the engine bay. Lastly, I wanted to do a bit of preparation for a rear coilover conversion in the near future. I started by measuring off existing parts, and making paper templates on some things to create a nice tight profile to existing body structures. After having everything designed, built and assembled with hardware in SolidWorks, I commited to the designs and had them cut from 10 gauge steel at work.
The transmission mount needed to be offset 1.75" more than what the auto-style cross member allowed, and I wanted to utilize a GM style poly mount.
A front strut tower brace should make things a bit more stiff in the engine bay, and keep the nose from flopping around on me.
A rear strut tower system will help me prepare for rear coilovers, and keep the flexing hatch back in solid order. A big amount of credit and thanks goes to Carlos Brown for his original rear tower design he has posted in various areas. I remember seeing it a while back, and getting excited about trying something similar with my own twist. When I got to stripping apart the car and looking at it, it became obvious that Carlos has figured out one of the best ways to triangulate the towers while not destroying the carpet or rear hatch area. Every deviation I could think of was too much of an aesthetic tradeoff, requiring the rear interior trim to be hacked up beyond saving.
Aside from designing some stiffer Shore 85A poly mounts for the engine in the near future, an engine torque damper will keep the engine from crashing all my bits and pieces into the dolled up engine bay.
The steel parts were cleaned of their slight kurf left from the CNC plasma cutter, and all the weld edges were cleaned and prepped. Starting with the transmission crossmember, the 10 gauge steel was bent after scoring the reference lines with a cut-off wheel.
After test fitting and adjusting, the parts were checked for square and proper final dimensions before tacking together. Notice how a deliberate weld edge is left to fill with weld, so after grinding it appears smooth and continuous.
A clamp and flanged nut with the proper diameter make a nice die to bend the correct radius around the edges.
After everything is tacked together, it is checked again for straightness and dimensions.
Since there are no decent mount options for the W58, I decided to adapt Energy Suspension's GM style transmission mount to the crossmember. This means I needed to build an adapter to mate the mount to the angled threaded bosses on the transmission.
The rear tower braces were constructed and prepped to weld. The stitched tabs on the center sections and outer ends allowed me to plug weld everything together, and later sand everything to a nice smooth finish. The rod ends are 1/2"-20, and use 1/4" thick rod end spacers on each size to gain a larger footprint on the uprights.
For the front strut tower, windowed and gusseted arms are fabbed to reach to the heims on the cross bar.
Once all the main large assemblies are welded, they are ground down and finish sanded to a uniform and smooth finish.
I assembled the trans mount setup to check for final fitment of everything. It mated to the transmission perfectly, with the chassis bolts securing right in the center of the slotted recepticles in the mount.
No finish sanding was done on this mount that you never see. It received a few coats of etching primer, followed by satin black enamel.
The front strut towers have a stepped edge where the tower's outer face is spot welded to the top plate. I didn't want to smash the brace between these two surfaces, so I designed a spacer to be plug welded and smoothed to the bottom of the tower plates.
One of the hardest parts of building the tower brace plates was bending the compound curves in the outer 10 gauge steel gussets that wraps them. Some magic and a million trial and error bends with a vice and guide curve finally get the surfaces perfect, with just the right offset clearance to the strut tower. The heim arms are then welded to the plate assemblies.
A dozen various grit level of Roloc disks later, the welds are knocked down and blended decently between the pieces. An in-between shot:
Once the parts are finish ground to a decent level, they are cleaned and painted with etching primer. A few successive stages of sand and re-prime were needed to get a nice smooth finish.
It's an extremely tight fit to the brake reservoir, which required some trimming to allow the fill cap to be easily removed.
Using my airbrush and some of the single stage acryic PPG paint I used for my engine bay, the tower plates were painted to match the rest of the engine bay.
The mount for torque damper on the engine resides on the block off plate on the intake where the EGR equipment once resided. I re made this plate with the correct slots and tabs so it could be plug welded from the rear, and stich welded on both the inside and outside edges of the tabs.
After everything had dried and cured, the parts were assembled with the onslaught of hardware I purchased specific to every component. Low profile cap bolts on the arms for hood clearance, nylon locking nuts, and stainless cap bolts for the engine torque damper. I used AFCO aluminum 1/2" ID (5/8"-16 shank) rod ends with a black anodized and swedged 6061 aluminum tube for the cross bar.
Lolz.
The rear strut tower uprights were test fit to the towers themselves, and the fit was nice and tight. A few measurements were noted, and the uprights were welded to the cross bar that joins them together on the bottom.
The cross bar was welded to the uprights, and the center triangulated mounts were welded to the center of the bar. Everything is assembled using the heims, spacers, swedged tubes and fasteners and then test fit between the towers. The fit was extremely tight, with a bit of rough handling needed to massage the assembly into place.
One of the hardest parts of doing the rear brace was trimming down the carpet-coverd plastic panels that close off the towers. A series of test fit and trims later, they hug the uprights nice and tight.
After everything was checked for fitment, the assembly was cleaned and prepped for a few coats of etching primer.
The parts that are readily visible are finish sanded to 400 grit before a final coat of satin black.
Once everything is cured and ready to handle, it is assembled and added to the back of the car. The tricky part here was trimming the carpet for all the brackets, and making it look nice. I had to sacrifice a larger hole in the center of the carpet since I wanted my center heim mounts to be double shear.
-Mike
I apologize for the poor photos through this next documentation. I was so busy working that I didn't take any time to mind my settings, and some pictures turned out kinda crappy.
There have been a few fabrication projects I wanted to tackle for some time now, some being a necessity and others to prepare me for future projects. I had sourced both a manual and auto style transmission cross member for my swap, and neither provided any viable orientation to confidently secure to the chassis. I also needed to find a way to tighten up the front end and engine relative to the frame, since all my clearances are reasonably tight around the engine bay. Lastly, I wanted to do a bit of preparation for a rear coilover conversion in the near future. I started by measuring off existing parts, and making paper templates on some things to create a nice tight profile to existing body structures. After having everything designed, built and assembled with hardware in SolidWorks, I commited to the designs and had them cut from 10 gauge steel at work.
The transmission mount needed to be offset 1.75" more than what the auto-style cross member allowed, and I wanted to utilize a GM style poly mount.
A front strut tower brace should make things a bit more stiff in the engine bay, and keep the nose from flopping around on me.
A rear strut tower system will help me prepare for rear coilovers, and keep the flexing hatch back in solid order. A big amount of credit and thanks goes to Carlos Brown for his original rear tower design he has posted in various areas. I remember seeing it a while back, and getting excited about trying something similar with my own twist. When I got to stripping apart the car and looking at it, it became obvious that Carlos has figured out one of the best ways to triangulate the towers while not destroying the carpet or rear hatch area. Every deviation I could think of was too much of an aesthetic tradeoff, requiring the rear interior trim to be hacked up beyond saving.
Aside from designing some stiffer Shore 85A poly mounts for the engine in the near future, an engine torque damper will keep the engine from crashing all my bits and pieces into the dolled up engine bay.
The steel parts were cleaned of their slight kurf left from the CNC plasma cutter, and all the weld edges were cleaned and prepped. Starting with the transmission crossmember, the 10 gauge steel was bent after scoring the reference lines with a cut-off wheel.
After test fitting and adjusting, the parts were checked for square and proper final dimensions before tacking together. Notice how a deliberate weld edge is left to fill with weld, so after grinding it appears smooth and continuous.
A clamp and flanged nut with the proper diameter make a nice die to bend the correct radius around the edges.
After everything is tacked together, it is checked again for straightness and dimensions.
Since there are no decent mount options for the W58, I decided to adapt Energy Suspension's GM style transmission mount to the crossmember. This means I needed to build an adapter to mate the mount to the angled threaded bosses on the transmission.
The rear tower braces were constructed and prepped to weld. The stitched tabs on the center sections and outer ends allowed me to plug weld everything together, and later sand everything to a nice smooth finish. The rod ends are 1/2"-20, and use 1/4" thick rod end spacers on each size to gain a larger footprint on the uprights.
For the front strut tower, windowed and gusseted arms are fabbed to reach to the heims on the cross bar.
Once all the main large assemblies are welded, they are ground down and finish sanded to a uniform and smooth finish.
I assembled the trans mount setup to check for final fitment of everything. It mated to the transmission perfectly, with the chassis bolts securing right in the center of the slotted recepticles in the mount.
No finish sanding was done on this mount that you never see. It received a few coats of etching primer, followed by satin black enamel.
The front strut towers have a stepped edge where the tower's outer face is spot welded to the top plate. I didn't want to smash the brace between these two surfaces, so I designed a spacer to be plug welded and smoothed to the bottom of the tower plates.
One of the hardest parts of building the tower brace plates was bending the compound curves in the outer 10 gauge steel gussets that wraps them. Some magic and a million trial and error bends with a vice and guide curve finally get the surfaces perfect, with just the right offset clearance to the strut tower. The heim arms are then welded to the plate assemblies.
A dozen various grit level of Roloc disks later, the welds are knocked down and blended decently between the pieces. An in-between shot:
Once the parts are finish ground to a decent level, they are cleaned and painted with etching primer. A few successive stages of sand and re-prime were needed to get a nice smooth finish.
It's an extremely tight fit to the brake reservoir, which required some trimming to allow the fill cap to be easily removed.
Using my airbrush and some of the single stage acryic PPG paint I used for my engine bay, the tower plates were painted to match the rest of the engine bay.
The mount for torque damper on the engine resides on the block off plate on the intake where the EGR equipment once resided. I re made this plate with the correct slots and tabs so it could be plug welded from the rear, and stich welded on both the inside and outside edges of the tabs.
After everything had dried and cured, the parts were assembled with the onslaught of hardware I purchased specific to every component. Low profile cap bolts on the arms for hood clearance, nylon locking nuts, and stainless cap bolts for the engine torque damper. I used AFCO aluminum 1/2" ID (5/8"-16 shank) rod ends with a black anodized and swedged 6061 aluminum tube for the cross bar.
Lolz.
The rear strut tower uprights were test fit to the towers themselves, and the fit was nice and tight. A few measurements were noted, and the uprights were welded to the cross bar that joins them together on the bottom.
The cross bar was welded to the uprights, and the center triangulated mounts were welded to the center of the bar. Everything is assembled using the heims, spacers, swedged tubes and fasteners and then test fit between the towers. The fit was extremely tight, with a bit of rough handling needed to massage the assembly into place.
One of the hardest parts of doing the rear brace was trimming down the carpet-coverd plastic panels that close off the towers. A series of test fit and trims later, they hug the uprights nice and tight.
After everything was checked for fitment, the assembly was cleaned and prepped for a few coats of etching primer.
The parts that are readily visible are finish sanded to 400 grit before a final coat of satin black.
Once everything is cured and ready to handle, it is assembled and added to the back of the car. The tricky part here was trimming the carpet for all the brackets, and making it look nice. I had to sacrifice a larger hole in the center of the carpet since I wanted my center heim mounts to be double shear.
-Mike
BlackUZZ31
Member
****ing nice work!
try an MA70 master cylinder the reservoir is a bit more compact in some ways...
my only concern is your RHS cam cover is going to have a short term relationship with your wastegate pipe and then end up divorced from the motor
try an MA70 master cylinder the reservoir is a bit more compact in some ways...
my only concern is your RHS cam cover is going to have a short term relationship with your wastegate pipe and then end up divorced from the motor
Last edited by a moderator:
MKII_Supra
Member
Thanks guys.
More updates hopefully tonight! But for now, some powdercoat mug-shots:
-Mike
More updates hopefully tonight! But for now, some powdercoat mug-shots:
-Mike
BlackUZZ31
Member
surprised not to see the intake powerported or what ever it's called over there....
( http://www.autospeed.com.au/cms/A_111154/article.html )
( http://www.autospeed.com.au/cms/A_111154/article.html )
MKII_Supra
Member
I'm not really on a "mad power trip" with this build. I will be happy to see 400 HP, I am not really looking for anything more than that. If I wanted a better flowing intake, I would have had one made from sheet metal with a forward facing throttle body. The power level I am looking for is more of a low-boost weekend cruiser (which should keep my W58 happy!)
-Mike
-Mike
![a>](http://<a href="http://s873.photobucket.com/user/bcaceisme/media/34e14be0-0a40-4ca4-914c-bf72449ee09e.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/ab292/bcaceisme/34e14be0-0a40-4ca4-914c-bf72449ee09e.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 34e14be0-0a40-4ca4-914c-bf72449ee09e.jpg"/></a>)
MKII_Supra
Member
Sorry everyone. Life has been crazy with lots of ups and downs. Work has been good and challenging, and I don't get home often to devote a ton of time to this car. I also had a death in the family, which realigned my priorities for a while.
Sorry if the updates seem random or off base compared to where I last left off. This isn't my main forum thread I update my build in, or even the main forum. I have been dropping teaser pics of a project for the past couple days on other forums, and here is my latest reply:
Ok guys, I found some time to sit down and do a bit of a write up on what has happened so far on this control arm project. After debating and looking for a more substantial way to convert my car to five lug, and use a strong and viable stub axle option, I decided to just start from scratch with the trailing arms. There were alot of different things to consider with this amount of fabrication. I ideally would have liked to design a SLA double wishbone rear suspension, but the condition of my car's body and paint persuaded me away from the extensive sub-frame and body modifications I would most likely have to do in order to achieve what I wanted from it. I decided instead to keep the car's original geometry (slightly tweaked), and just redo many of the components on the rear suspension to suit what I wanted.
There were a list of things I wanted to accomplish on the rear of the car, but here is what I wanted with the new trailing arms:
1. A much more suitable stub axle at the hub, and a matching hub bearing assembly that was easily sourced and attached to a simple carrier design.
2. Improved shock mount, in double shear to instead house a coilover.
3. Remove the unnecessary spring perch, and open the wheel/tire relief slightly for more options if needed.
4. Re-investigate the sway bar mounts, and sway bar in general. (This will come later)
5. Poly bushings at mount points. (more details on this below)
6. New brake mounting ears for my choice of calipers.
7. Adjust the rear track width slightly to accommodate more popular wheel fitments.
8. A parking brake assembly that could match a large diameter OEM rotor, that was easily sourced, and adaptable to the stock parking brake lines.
The list was quite long, and I needed to find components that would function correctly together as a single unit. Although there were plenty of options to research or choose, the winning combo for me was easy to find, and I had already had my mind set on it before the project even began. We use C5/C6 Corvette components on alot of our suspensions and vehicles at work because they are easily available new and from the aftermarket, they hold gobs of power and abuse, and they are very easily retrofitted to custom applications. The stock rear C5/C6 rotors are 12" in diameter, have an internal parking brake unit that is simply sandwiched behind it's bolt-on hub assembly, and the Corvette CV's can easily handle any torque values I plan to produce. After only a day or two of searching Vette forums and Ebay, I had used sets of good condition CV axles and parking brakes shipped to my door for very cheap. The hubs can be had new from Timken, which we stock in plenty at our shop. I bought some mid grade drilled and slotted rotors on RockAuto for a C6, and have a world of caliper options to choose from.
We use Delrin bushings on a majority of our control arm points, as it is the best compromise of compliance and rigid connections for a car that will be driven and driven hard. Taking into consideration however, that after a camber eccentric is added to the outboard mount, the control arm ends need to be able to adjust in two separate planes for caster and camper in relation to the center line of the mounts. I would prefer to use Delrin for this application, but I feel that a bit more compliance is needed with this type of eccentric system to allow the arms to properly move through the full alignment ranges without binding.
I plan to add multiple calculated sway bar link mount points to the arm, after fitting a new splined sway bar and arms to the sub-frames. This will be added later after addressing other areas.
Lastly, I slightly widened the track width of the car to push the rear offsets another cm on each wheel. Although I will loose some of the "JDM tight lip space," I will be in a much more suitable range of offsets for wide 10.5" wheels. (Think 350Z fitment)
My first steps were to take everything out from the underside of the car. No pics here, just dirty and greasy hands from the total dismantle of the rear suspension. Before anything was removed, I measured as much as I could under the car to keep a frame of reference for available room and mounting points to key areas. For the trailing arm portion of this endeavor, the arms were hauled back to the shop for some after hours reverse engineering.
Nothing fancy here, the control arms are simply mocked into place for easy measuring. It is hard to tell, but the key is lifting the rear control arm points to the right point, so that when the hub is lifted to a certain height it is perfectly perpendicular to the table surface. This will make the measurements to the critical hub face easier and more accurate.
The not-so-ideal shock mount will need to be improved if it will be the main connection for the shock and spring line of the rear suspension.
Point proven that the simplest tools can be used with the right experience to accurately measure an existing component. For my end of my job at the shop, reverse engineering is 50% of what I do. let's just say I have gained a fair amount of know how and tricks to making sure I have accurately measured some complex and awkward parts. One of the hardest parts of designing new components is not designing the new parts themselves, but getting accurate and verifiable measurements of the original part you are trying to replace.
With all the critical points plotted and double checked, it is on to my CAD wizzard lab to design something better, and in which I can fabricate with my skill level. Right off the bat, I already see people commenting and asking about tubular versions of the arm, versus my fabricated sheet metal arms. Tubular arms are a great way to reduce weight and space constrictions, when your suspension points are much more triangulated than with our original trailing arm. Remember, our wheel is connected to a hub that is mounted to a fixed carrier on the trailing arm, with only the two original control arm points connecting it to the sub-frame of the car. The carrier on the arm has to be as rigid as possible, and any deflection is magnified by the wheel's size in relation to the wheel well. A small angle of twist at the carrier center is easily seen and felt in the grand scheme of the wheel. Since the carrier is so far away from the original mounting points, there is a substantial need for the the hub to be fixed as rigid as possible the arm and CA mounting points. Tubing simply cannot create an effective enough torque box on its own to hold the carrier's orientation under loading compared to a fabricated sheet metal arm. There is a reason why most trailing arms are stamped or fabricated sheet metal in OEM and aftermarket form. We fight tubular arms often at work, and see them deflect and bend when they are half the fixed length that our trailing arms are, and better triangulated in SLA systems. Not to say a nicely layed out tubular arm with sheet metal gussets and plates can't work great, it certainly can. I really just see the need to fix the hub mount as rigid as possible, and that says planar over tubular. (Think trophy truck arms, the longer your suspension arms are with less fixed triangulation points, the more need there is for more substantial ways to connect your critical components)
After drawing each of the new components I had to use with my system, I was able to design the actual arm. A few revisions later, and everything falls into place:
You can see in the above image how everything basically works together, and why the corvette components are so easy to adapt. The hub bearing has a simple symmetrical flat face with three bolts for mounting, and the parking brake backing plate (that all the parking brake bits mount to) is simply sandwiched behind it onto a flat mount. The stock 12" rotor is plenty big enough for what I need in a rear rotor, and has the internal parking drum for the e-brake. Bushings at the mount points, the Corvette stub end, and a generic coilover can also be seen.
A close up of the hub and brakes. The parking brake adjuster and lever mechanism was not modeled, as it is redundant.
You can see the provisions I made in the steel for the parking brake lever arm, which will be adapted to our stock lines. The back side of the hub assembly passes into the carrier section, where the CV stub is centered. The coilover is mounted in double shear with a spacer lug, which allows for easier install and options for spherical mount widths. Pleanty of room has been left for any damper adjustment knobs.
Everything was clearance checked with a small barreled 17" wheel, the smallest option I could see myself using.
Armed with the design, we cut the steel at work with the CNC plasma. I lay everything out and check everything over before starting.
Before anything is bent in the press brake or tacked together, all the metal is cleaned of its mill scale and the hardened surface edge the plasma leaves behind. Pieces are then bent in the press brake on their center lines to the needed angles, and things start falling into place.
The perfect weld edge is an important factor in all of my designs.
The pieces are tacked together and checked for squareness and measure, then I begin welding everything together.
I don't have a ton of time behind a TIG torch, but I have been getting alot of help from some of the very best welders in the industry. I think my game has come up quite a bit for maybe only having about 20 hours of practice.
Consistency is something I still struggle with. I can lay down a decent bead, but it hard for me to repeat the same bead size and stagger after stopping a pass. Practice makes perfect!
My edge to edge welds aren't the prettiest, but they are not going anywhere!
Note the black remnants of my non-welding dedicated gloves that melted onto the coil mounts.
After a day of working, I have the main bodies mostly finished:
Stay tuned for more. I hope to work more on this project through this week. This is also not the only thing being overly re-designed for the rear of the car. More soon!
Thanks,
-Mike
Sorry if the updates seem random or off base compared to where I last left off. This isn't my main forum thread I update my build in, or even the main forum. I have been dropping teaser pics of a project for the past couple days on other forums, and here is my latest reply:
Ok guys, I found some time to sit down and do a bit of a write up on what has happened so far on this control arm project. After debating and looking for a more substantial way to convert my car to five lug, and use a strong and viable stub axle option, I decided to just start from scratch with the trailing arms. There were alot of different things to consider with this amount of fabrication. I ideally would have liked to design a SLA double wishbone rear suspension, but the condition of my car's body and paint persuaded me away from the extensive sub-frame and body modifications I would most likely have to do in order to achieve what I wanted from it. I decided instead to keep the car's original geometry (slightly tweaked), and just redo many of the components on the rear suspension to suit what I wanted.
There were a list of things I wanted to accomplish on the rear of the car, but here is what I wanted with the new trailing arms:
1. A much more suitable stub axle at the hub, and a matching hub bearing assembly that was easily sourced and attached to a simple carrier design.
2. Improved shock mount, in double shear to instead house a coilover.
3. Remove the unnecessary spring perch, and open the wheel/tire relief slightly for more options if needed.
4. Re-investigate the sway bar mounts, and sway bar in general. (This will come later)
5. Poly bushings at mount points. (more details on this below)
6. New brake mounting ears for my choice of calipers.
7. Adjust the rear track width slightly to accommodate more popular wheel fitments.
8. A parking brake assembly that could match a large diameter OEM rotor, that was easily sourced, and adaptable to the stock parking brake lines.
The list was quite long, and I needed to find components that would function correctly together as a single unit. Although there were plenty of options to research or choose, the winning combo for me was easy to find, and I had already had my mind set on it before the project even began. We use C5/C6 Corvette components on alot of our suspensions and vehicles at work because they are easily available new and from the aftermarket, they hold gobs of power and abuse, and they are very easily retrofitted to custom applications. The stock rear C5/C6 rotors are 12" in diameter, have an internal parking brake unit that is simply sandwiched behind it's bolt-on hub assembly, and the Corvette CV's can easily handle any torque values I plan to produce. After only a day or two of searching Vette forums and Ebay, I had used sets of good condition CV axles and parking brakes shipped to my door for very cheap. The hubs can be had new from Timken, which we stock in plenty at our shop. I bought some mid grade drilled and slotted rotors on RockAuto for a C6, and have a world of caliper options to choose from.
We use Delrin bushings on a majority of our control arm points, as it is the best compromise of compliance and rigid connections for a car that will be driven and driven hard. Taking into consideration however, that after a camber eccentric is added to the outboard mount, the control arm ends need to be able to adjust in two separate planes for caster and camper in relation to the center line of the mounts. I would prefer to use Delrin for this application, but I feel that a bit more compliance is needed with this type of eccentric system to allow the arms to properly move through the full alignment ranges without binding.
I plan to add multiple calculated sway bar link mount points to the arm, after fitting a new splined sway bar and arms to the sub-frames. This will be added later after addressing other areas.
Lastly, I slightly widened the track width of the car to push the rear offsets another cm on each wheel. Although I will loose some of the "JDM tight lip space," I will be in a much more suitable range of offsets for wide 10.5" wheels. (Think 350Z fitment)
My first steps were to take everything out from the underside of the car. No pics here, just dirty and greasy hands from the total dismantle of the rear suspension. Before anything was removed, I measured as much as I could under the car to keep a frame of reference for available room and mounting points to key areas. For the trailing arm portion of this endeavor, the arms were hauled back to the shop for some after hours reverse engineering.
Nothing fancy here, the control arms are simply mocked into place for easy measuring. It is hard to tell, but the key is lifting the rear control arm points to the right point, so that when the hub is lifted to a certain height it is perfectly perpendicular to the table surface. This will make the measurements to the critical hub face easier and more accurate.
The not-so-ideal shock mount will need to be improved if it will be the main connection for the shock and spring line of the rear suspension.
Point proven that the simplest tools can be used with the right experience to accurately measure an existing component. For my end of my job at the shop, reverse engineering is 50% of what I do. let's just say I have gained a fair amount of know how and tricks to making sure I have accurately measured some complex and awkward parts. One of the hardest parts of designing new components is not designing the new parts themselves, but getting accurate and verifiable measurements of the original part you are trying to replace.
With all the critical points plotted and double checked, it is on to my CAD wizzard lab to design something better, and in which I can fabricate with my skill level. Right off the bat, I already see people commenting and asking about tubular versions of the arm, versus my fabricated sheet metal arms. Tubular arms are a great way to reduce weight and space constrictions, when your suspension points are much more triangulated than with our original trailing arm. Remember, our wheel is connected to a hub that is mounted to a fixed carrier on the trailing arm, with only the two original control arm points connecting it to the sub-frame of the car. The carrier on the arm has to be as rigid as possible, and any deflection is magnified by the wheel's size in relation to the wheel well. A small angle of twist at the carrier center is easily seen and felt in the grand scheme of the wheel. Since the carrier is so far away from the original mounting points, there is a substantial need for the the hub to be fixed as rigid as possible the arm and CA mounting points. Tubing simply cannot create an effective enough torque box on its own to hold the carrier's orientation under loading compared to a fabricated sheet metal arm. There is a reason why most trailing arms are stamped or fabricated sheet metal in OEM and aftermarket form. We fight tubular arms often at work, and see them deflect and bend when they are half the fixed length that our trailing arms are, and better triangulated in SLA systems. Not to say a nicely layed out tubular arm with sheet metal gussets and plates can't work great, it certainly can. I really just see the need to fix the hub mount as rigid as possible, and that says planar over tubular. (Think trophy truck arms, the longer your suspension arms are with less fixed triangulation points, the more need there is for more substantial ways to connect your critical components)
After drawing each of the new components I had to use with my system, I was able to design the actual arm. A few revisions later, and everything falls into place:
You can see in the above image how everything basically works together, and why the corvette components are so easy to adapt. The hub bearing has a simple symmetrical flat face with three bolts for mounting, and the parking brake backing plate (that all the parking brake bits mount to) is simply sandwiched behind it onto a flat mount. The stock 12" rotor is plenty big enough for what I need in a rear rotor, and has the internal parking drum for the e-brake. Bushings at the mount points, the Corvette stub end, and a generic coilover can also be seen.
A close up of the hub and brakes. The parking brake adjuster and lever mechanism was not modeled, as it is redundant.
You can see the provisions I made in the steel for the parking brake lever arm, which will be adapted to our stock lines. The back side of the hub assembly passes into the carrier section, where the CV stub is centered. The coilover is mounted in double shear with a spacer lug, which allows for easier install and options for spherical mount widths. Pleanty of room has been left for any damper adjustment knobs.
Everything was clearance checked with a small barreled 17" wheel, the smallest option I could see myself using.
Armed with the design, we cut the steel at work with the CNC plasma. I lay everything out and check everything over before starting.
Before anything is bent in the press brake or tacked together, all the metal is cleaned of its mill scale and the hardened surface edge the plasma leaves behind. Pieces are then bent in the press brake on their center lines to the needed angles, and things start falling into place.
The perfect weld edge is an important factor in all of my designs.
The pieces are tacked together and checked for squareness and measure, then I begin welding everything together.
I don't have a ton of time behind a TIG torch, but I have been getting alot of help from some of the very best welders in the industry. I think my game has come up quite a bit for maybe only having about 20 hours of practice.
Consistency is something I still struggle with. I can lay down a decent bead, but it hard for me to repeat the same bead size and stagger after stopping a pass. Practice makes perfect!
My edge to edge welds aren't the prettiest, but they are not going anywhere!
Note the black remnants of my non-welding dedicated gloves that melted onto the coil mounts.
After a day of working, I have the main bodies mostly finished:
Stay tuned for more. I hope to work more on this project through this week. This is also not the only thing being overly re-designed for the rear of the car. More soon!
Thanks,
-Mike
