CIH Turbo EFI by RallyBob

[davegt27]

hey that sounds pretty Good

thanks
David

[RallyBob]

I see that TIG is DC only though, so no aluminum welding capabilities. Either way, I'd go for the 220 version, it won't draw as many amps.

[Sportwagon75]

Nope...you'll need to spend alot more than that to get aluminum capabilities. But this is a great machine for the average guy just doing small jobs in his garage and around the house...like me!!!!

[Nathan Acree]

Bob,

Do you know anyone that will make custom "dead-soft" header gaskets?

I am looking for some for the custom headers on my V6 project.

Thanks,

Nathan Acree
Albuquerque New Mexico

[RallyBob]

Originally posted by Nathan Acree Bob, Do you know anyone that will make custom "dead-soft" header gaskets? I am looking for some for the custom headers on my V6 project. Thanks, Nathan Acree Albuquerque New Mexico

I assume by 'dead soft' you mean annealed copper? I had some big-bore 97mm Opel head gaskets made from copper a few years back, but I had to anneal them myself in my 'shop' oven. I had a water-jet cutting company make them, as no one could cut them via laser or plasma cutter.....the copper is too great a heat-sink.

I had about 30 gaskets made though.....which cut down on my programming/setup time costs a bit by spreading it out over multiple pieces.

Sorry if my answer doesn't help you, but I imagine with some patience you could make them by hand. IIRC, the 60 degree V6 has a round exhaust port (at least the iron heads), so with an appropriately sized hole-saw, a Unibit, and some aviation snips, I imagine in an hour or so you could cut out a set.

[Nathan Acree]

Originally posted by RallyBob I assume by 'dead soft' you mean annealed copper? I had some big-bore 97mm Opel head gaskets made from copper a few years back, but I had to anneal them myself in my 'shop' oven. I had a water-jet cutting company make them, as no one could cut them via laser or plasma cutter.....the copper is too great a heat-sink. I had about 30 gaskets made though.....which cut down on my programming/setup time costs a bit by spreading it out over multiple pieces. Sorry if my answer doesn't help you, but I imagine with some patience you could make them by hand. IIRC, the 60 degree V6 has a round exhaust port (at least the iron heads), so with an appropriately sized hole-saw, a Unibit, and some aviation snips, I imagine in an hour or so you could cut out a set.

Bob,

Dead-soft means annealed as far as I know ( I was simply told to ask for dead-soft copper).

I never thought about making them myself, but you are correct- with round ports it should not be that hard.

As always thanks for your insights,

Nathan Acree
Albuquerque New Mexico

[RallyBob]

Well, thanks to our own oldopelguy's ideas, I fabricated a custom breather tube off the side cam cover of the head. I used a piece of radiused 1.75" tubing, and cut out a stock cam cover. This part will eventually be chrome plated, so I polished them before welding to make the plater's job a little easier later on.

[RallyBob]

At the top of the breather, I fitted a piece of 18 ga. sheetmetal. Onto this I still need to weld a -10AN fitting in place for the breather hose.

[RallyBob]

I then welded the top cap in place....

[RallyBob]

Finally the tube was welded to the cam cover. I still need to grind the welds better and polish it some more, but it's taking shape now.

[RallyBob]

Yea, I know, blasphemy.

Okay, I sanded the 'OPEL' letters off, but I thought it just cleans up the look of the valve cover nicely. I'll be powdercoating the valve cover in lieu of polishing or plating, so I decided to smooth things out.

In addition, the breather holes in the side will be filled and smoothed over to match the other side of the cover.

[RallyBob]

I also sanded off the bumps at the rear of the cover. Of course, this broke through to the bolt holes within, but I'll just weld them up and sand it smooth again.

[RallyBob]

With the 3 day weekend here I decided to focus on the turbo manifold, as I'm already a week behind schedule. Things just got worse when I realized the manifold that I had designed in my head would not fit in reality. The stock EFI intake manifold simply gets in the way, and if I tried to place the turbo below the manifold I feel the heat would melt the engine mount, the upper a-arm bushings and would potentially create too much heat in the block itself.

My final solution is to place the turbo above the inner wheel well. It gets fairly close to the hood, so some heat shielding will be required. It also gets close to the throttle cable, so I may have to reconfigure that as well. If the inner plastic liner melts, the throttle will stick.....

Didn't finish it, but it's all 'figured out', and the rearmost tubes are tacked in place. Should be able to complete it tomorrow.

[RallyBob]

Had to heat 'n hammer the turbo collector so that all 4 header tubes would fit. PITA too, since the metal is nearly 1/4" thick. Here it's roughed out, and you can see the taper created from the opening of the collector down to the turbo housing itself.

[RallyBob]

Here you can see the approximate location of the turbine housing of the turbo. It gets kinda close to the intake manifold, so the thermal barrier I'm having applied (Swain Tech) will go a long way towards reducing the radiant heat.

More pics tomorrow....

[oklaopel]

I've been planning my EFI conversion for a long time...but your efforts and attention to detail leave me thinking about starting over and doing some of what you've done...very impressive!!

[RallyBob]

Thanks for the nice comments. Usually I prefer to plan these things in my head for some time (sometimes months, other times years....). This way I can weed out the ideas I don't like before I go and spend any time or money on them. But in this case I literally was given the word 'go' on a Sunday and started fabricating on Monday. So I hope it lives up to my standards, and to those of the Opel crowd at Carlisle.

I should have finished the manifold today, but I was one 90 degree bend short.....

I still got the rest of the manifold welded up. I chose to smooth out all the welds, which required each tube to be partially assembled/welded first and then sanded, otherwise access to certain seams could not be made after the manifold was tack welded together. Here's one of the center tubes after welding, but before polishing. So far, so good.

[RallyBob]

This was as far as I got today because of the missing tube bend. I still have two welds at cylinder #1 and #4 to smooth out at this point.

[RallyBob]

And here's an overview of the manifold, with the collector roughly in position, and the turbine housing of the turbo in place. The collector still needs to be polished down too, it's really rough from hammering on it....

[okieopel]

Enough with the polishing already! Put it together and lets see if she will fly.

[namba209]

Very nice Bob, I've got to smooth out the welds on the exhaust manifolds, I just hope they turn out as good as yours. They do look nice.

Ron