The wait is on til tomorrow. Certainly is a piece of mastery in action. It's only taken me two hours to catch up, but god an epic tale so far!!
Again with the cliffhangers! You should be ashamed Brian, because of you there are hundreds of sleep deprived Dub fans walking around like zombies today, unable to sleep in anticipation of your rocker cover!
Sorry for the delay, had to do weekend stuff as you do... Anyway, I started into it 2hrs ago, and once I had it moulded up I realised that I moulded it up a daft way, as in the box that weighed a ton was on the top, which had to be lifted off. A 30kg cope is no joke let me tell you So, tomorrow, Im going to mould it up upsidedown. Ill go through tonights process tomorrow eve, and the correct process too. Its funny how it makes sense to do it the other way when you have it done!! The smelter also took an age to warm up because of the new bricks/cement, loads of steam for an age, and not much heat. Still, I got a perfectly usable 100% full part, but I know it could be shinier and easier mould up which is why Im casting it upsidedown tomorrow. Ill leave you with the last picture of 18 which youll see tomorrow, Uploading is taking an age Signing off for tonight, my bed is calling BG
Thanks guys Got it poured a second time a while ago and I now have a part that almost resembles a die cast item Photobucket keeps failing to upload on me As in it takes ages to upload, and then says it cannot save any of them. I emailed them, and they are to look into it. I cannot change account holders at this point, too much stuff with them to change now. So, no pictures today either. Hopefully tomorrow. Tomorrow eve I hope to pull in the car and remove engine, remove head, and rebuild head with new seals. I can then screw it onto the 2.0L bottom end and run her through the test. Then...back to work on the higher output 8v. And breathe BG
Noooooooooo cant change over, that would mean Id have photos in two places then ,and Im paying photobucket for my account as is, so they are sorting upload speed as we speak. Set it uploading last night and it took in 17 pics b this morning so here they are, they are of the first mouldup(the wrong way) How it looked, just set down on a flat bed of sand to start, gate pattern installed, Riser runner, Pushed in and re smoothed, Starting to fill rocker, chill installed to help cool thick area under font, Filled, Left down on flat sand, Cam area filled up, Cope on, And filled up, Cope lifted off, this is the bit that was a bear, it weighed a ton because gate system made mould very wide, Filled, Out, same pic as above, and a close up of the cap area direct out of mould, Ill set it uploading again now and hopefully it will take in the second set of mould up pictures by this eve, I hope[:^(] BG
Funky, I dont know about a masterpiece, but its exactly what I want, albeit veryyyyy slow!! Very funny Dan Prof, Thats gas! Red eye and all! Hair profile matches too! So, photobucket is semi okish, so Ill continue on to keep the photos upto date as best I can so I dont have to go back over them. I havent as many photos as I took because its having problems uploading them for some reason, but works on others fine. So here they are, This time I moulded the part a bit different, still poured it the right way up, but changed the gating and added a riser. For the gate, I used a stocky tapered bit of teak, and fed the part centrally with two fan gates off the main runner. I let the main runner follow on past the fans to let any cold slugs, or dirt, travel on past the gates. The riser helps keep head pressure on the far end too. Making the mould like this made it very light to lift off to, since I didnt have a massive fan gate outside the mould taking up room in the box. The pictures are a little skimpy, but you'll get the idea, The part out, and awaiting flash tidy up, Proper fill, great shine and detail, The underside, showing fan gates and main runner, Run of 180 grit brought up the font and ribs as planned, Cutting out the breather area, riser now snapped off, Another view of underside, Sitting in primer and drilled too for cover bolts. Ive one or two bits of machining/tapping to do on it yet, but its perfect, and Im happy, For the gasket surface underneath Im going to give it a run on the lapping plate, Its pretty near flat as is, Hope to remove engine this eve, and start build it up then BG
I know nothing about casting but it looks clean as a whistle Brian, certainly better than that V8 head you have!
That is nothing short of spectacular!!! Well done mate, seriously!! Have you never thought about going into business making stuff like this bespoke? SERIOUSLY, it's awesome and I certainly would pay a premium to have something like that adorning my engine!!!
Looking good Brian. You mentioned shrinkage earlier on, with this type of casting where there is relatively little wall thickness, did you get any discrepancies in dimensions between the pattern piece and the finished casting?
Yes, its the same no matter what thickness(more or less) All in all this shrunk around 5mm In length to give you an idea. That all has to be factored in with the pattern on all dimensions. I mentioned I touched up the oil cap hole with the file before gluing into pattern, this was to allow for shrink also Got the engine pulled this eve, As you can see its well tired Thats a kent gsh2, which Ill be refitting, Headgasket also semi shot, slight blow on the fire ring, Gave head a good going over too ''Because Im worth it'' Valve guides were dead, as were seals, which I knew by the oil loss amongst other things, Gave it a full port, new guides, tapered the noses, polished valves, and gave head a real good clean. This should ensure a good solid healthy head for however long its in there, Valves awaiting grinding/lapping, The nct man wont be too far off now BG
and Brian's inbox is full of requests for work being done. I'm not surprised. Dude, you have a talent you should monopolise upon. It's rare these days to find a guy with the skills you have!!
Nah, not full of requests, just general pms Im not trying a sales pitch, or monopolising anything, just doing what I love, and always wanted to do Whatever follows, who knows, but all this is very important to me, was for a long time, and will be for a long time, its something I need to do, to prove to myself, that I can. Im starting to surprise myself with the patience I have, maybe I always had it, or maybe I got more, but I no longer get that panic feeling I once did when wanting to get something done. If its not 100% right, or needs more, Ill give it more, without getting frustrated. Maybe Im just getting old It is slightly frightening though, as it opens up a lot of stuff, In that anything is now possibly possible, Rant/ BG
