The goes-way-too-f#$king-fast-mobile

[LethalEthan]

This is going to be so awesome. If y'all have never heard the glorious sounds that gilmer drive makes, please give it a listen on youtube.

[300D50]

Time to make the centering bushing.


11.5mm OD, 8.03mm ID


Parted off and ready to machine the front face.


Forgot to take a final shot before pressing it in.
Had to give the hole in the casting a quick zip with a 29/64 drill to clear up some draft angle before things could proceed.

Pressed in.
I used one of the alternator bolts and a nut to draw it in, and like a dope forgot to put a sacrificial washer in place.
Oh well nobody will see it in use.


One might wonder why I removed material from the mount just to put it back with the bushing.
Simple reason is, I didn't know exactly how much needed to be removed till I had everything mounted up and shimmed.


I left the bushing a few mm short so that I can potentially press it out down the road.

[4g63mightymax]

In general, I like the way you are doing all of this. By that I mean, not modifying the parts for the most part, but modifying the pieces that mount them. That way, you can still buy replacement parts, and not have to customize everything in the future.

Also - do you wonder if this car had guided your direction in life? I wonder that about mine. Certain cars have actually altered my direction in life, and it's weird to think about.

[300D50]

Yeah, one big goal is being able to shove an off-the-shelf part on for most things.
It's going to be hard enough to keep a straight list of what make/model/year vehicle a part came from, and if I then had to do modifications to those parts it would add more of a problem.

I'd say it's shaped my spending habits a bit, as well as kept me from buying a few other project cars as they came up.
Why buy a track toy if I'm in the middle of building, right?

All the design work has helped keep me on my toes, and it's not too bad as a hobby style thing.

[300D50]

Dry Sump Pump Pulley Time!

One of the pumps I bought came with a 28 tooth L profile pulley, 1" wide.
The gilmer kit I bought uses an L profile belt that's 1.5" wide. E-shaft pulley is 34 tooth, and a water pump pulley in 28 tooth.

Ideally, you're not supposed to to run a dry sump pump over ~5000RPM due to the chance of cavitation, but since I'm not running a pressure stage I think I can get away with running it faster.

I decided to turn the worn and beaten up dirt car pump pulley into a hub I could bolt the waterpump pulley to.
Reason is, it already has setscrew holes drilled and tapped, is bored to fit the pump shaft, and has the keyway broached.

I used the pump shaft as a mandrel when machining, because it was simple and ensured concentricity.


Trimmed off the pulley, leaving the web and hub.




I turned the hub boss down to 1.000" (The pump is SAE, and 1" worked.) and skimmed the web into a flange surface.
I believe the flange OD came out to 3" but it wasn't critical so I didn't put much thought into it


The back side of the flange was skimmed to clean it up a bit, in case I decided to mount anything to the opposite side. I left the sweeping radius intact to reduce stress risers.


I didn't take any photos of boring the centering ring on the waterpump pulley out to a slip fit on the hub.


No threaded holes yet, they're going to be zipped in on the FADAL tomorrow.




In case you're wondering, the grime that's getting all over is primarily powdered graphite from a different job that was ran on the lathe, plus ultrafine cast iron dust, and WD-40.

[300D50]

Hub fixtured in.


44mm bolt circle punched. Holes are 5mm.




Threaded M6x1.






Mocking up. Good thing I waited to do the sump plate, I would have had some interference problems where the pump was slated to mount.

[300D50]

Small reward to myself for making progress.


Pulleys line up nicely.


The 30" belt that came with the kit is too short for this setup.


Getting there.


I ended up cutting the 30" belt and using it to measure out for a new one.
The minimum length appears to be 44.5" with the pump tight to the keg.
The closest "standard" belt size was a 45" sold by Jegs.
Ordered one up, should be in by Friday.

Now I need to put some more time into CAD on the dry sump plate, aided by the foam board.

[4g63mightymax]

Damn - this all looks so awesome! It seems that the alternator pulley is what will keep the belt centered - is that correct? Also - is the alternator what adjusted the tension on the belt? Or will there be a tensioner pulley someplace?

[300D50]

Yep, alternator pulley keeps the alignment.
Best guess is because the alternator is the usual tension point?

I could put in a tensioner under the alternator, there's existing mount studs for the A/C one that would make it easy-ish.
But that would need another cogged pulley to contact the inside of the belt, which I don't really want to mess with to be honest.

Another option is to make the rightmost alternator mount somehow be the adjustable for tension, but that just brings up "Do I really want to mess with wiggling alternators around?"

What I'll likely end up doing is put a plain old flat timing belt tensioner on the waterpump blanking plate.
Simple, easy, and the idlers are cheap-ish if I can find one in the right width.

[300D50]

Well, still at the same place I was in January, alternator mount needs to be fabricated and I need to finalize the pump mounting and etc.

I had left off with the pump torn down, in process of making a new end plate to remove the oil pressure regulator section.

Now, I'm thinking of just making plugs and pressing them into the existing part to block the passages. Not elegant, but it will get me closer to my end goal with less design work. I can revisit making a new piece later on down the road as time permits.

I've also decided, just now, that my "trash screens" before the pump stages will go inside the sump plate at the pickup slots.
Saves me having to deal with any inline sandwich issues, and gets me one more step closer. If I have trash in the sump, I have bigger issues than the pump getting wadded up.

Also on the agenda, I'm going to admit defeat, and wire the alternator with a flying pigtail between the brush holder/regulator module. I have been sitting on my thumbs too long trying to keep it all self-contained and pretty, when I really just need it to work.
It will never be an off-the-shelf part, so trying to keep the same connectors is pointless.

[4g63mightymax]

Sometimes it is better to get it running, than get it right! It's also fun to make progress even if you know you'll have to revisit it at a later date. One time, my friend had a Ford Expedition that had an actual rot hole in the cylinder head where it met the intake, which meant it was leaking antifreeze. I squished a thumb-full of JB weld in the rot hole, and that thing drove for like another 80K miles before the body turned to dust. I'd vote to slap that sucker together and see how fast you can be having fun driving it!

[300D50]

Pump went back in the mill for some more work.



I pressed out the steel sleeve for the pressure regulator before hand, I had neglected to do it when I decked it last time.
It will eventually get replaced with a solid aluminum plug, press-fit with loctite 680.


Four holes milled, two in each endplate, 5mmIDx6mm deep. M6 fasteners being used.
Spacing and depth was chosen to clear the internal passageways and the tension bolts, so I don't have leaks.


Four more holes, 5mmIDx12mm deep, in the two spacer plates.
There's not enough wall thickness to easily place holes in the pumping chambers, they would either be ~3 thread engagement, or foul with the tension bolts that hold the pump together.


Final touch was boring the inlet holes out to 22mm to clean off most of the thread remnants.
22mm isn't quite 7/8, so there's a little bit of the thread major diameter still showing.
I didn't feel like going too much larger though, as I already weakened this area by milling off the fitting bosses.
Any gaps the thread remnants form on the flange bosses will be dealt with by using 518 sealant.


Speaking of the flange, here's the start of it.
First order of business, true up an offcut of 0.375" plate aluminum.


Sitting flat, fixtured, and ready to mill.


The bosses are 21.95mm OD, 2mm high, to give a tight but still "slip" fit to the pump, allowing positive location and hopefully negating the need for o-rings or seals.
The center through holes have a 16mm ID, chosen to be slightly larger than the -10AN fittings that are normally used with the pump.


Eight tight clearance holes for M6 fasteners done.


Outer profile machined.
If you look closely, I seem to have an unequal centering along the Y axis, which pushed this operation dangerously close to nipping the parallel bars on cutoff...
Near as I can tell, I must have fat fingered the stock size in CAM, since the work offsets were set with the probe to within a few thousandths.


I may actually have to remake this down the line, since the part seems to have pulled up slightly while running the finish passes on the bosses.
This wasn't noticed till after the whole program was completed, but it appears to be ~0.010" or so.
It still fits the pump, but the sealing might not be optimal.


Setting the pump with flange next to the engine (already on a sheet of aluminum plate), we just barely clear the lower PS/AC bracket stud on the front iron.
I won't be using that stud for a bracket in the final build, but it's a happy occurrence that it clears, since then I don't have to extract it till later on, and can continue using it for mounting the engine to the stand in the interim.


I used the flange as a tap guide, and threaded the 8 mounting holes. Didn't get a photo though.
I still need to get a bottoming tap or modify a plug tap, but for now I can at least bolt it down.

Next order of business is to tackle either the upper alternator bracket or the idler/tensioner for the belt.

The sump plate is going to wait, since that needs more consideration for the engine mounts, axle brace pickup, and other tie-in points.

The alternator brush holder will be getting yet more invasive modification to install a flying lead to the outside world, and that started as well.
I misplaced my hand drawn regulator schematic, so I'll have to find it again before I can go further on that.

[300D50]

Blanking pin machined out of aluminum, next to the steel sleeve that was pressed out.
No pics of the machining, had some graphite dust on the lathe and that doesn't mix with optics to nicely.


I'm using the existing screw-in plug on the one end so I don't have to machine any threads.


Nice smear of Loctite 680 retaining compound.
This is a mild press fit, turned to the same OD as the steel piece was.


Tapped partially in place, enough to start the plug in and use it to press the rest of the way.


Tightening the plug, pressing in the blanking pin.


Nearly there.


I made the pin oversized on length, so that I could tweak where the the plug stopped when it was tightened down.


Flush, or maybe .001 under the surface.


I decked the plug down till the flat of the hex aligned with the body of the pump, since having a point of the hex overhanging would irk me to no end.


I still need to get/make a bottoming tap and finish the threads, but that's all the major machine work on the pump finished.


I need to get new o-rings, give it a full cleaning, then slap the gears back in and it's done.

[4g63mightymax]

This seems like a lot of work! I'm glad you're doing it though, because it's fun to watch!

[300D50]

12ish hours and I'll have 1/4 of the upper sump plate made in plastic.

Another 10ish after that, and I'll have the matching quadrant of the lower half done.

Photos will happen around lunchtime.