The Superboxer, a new heart for the Silver Bullet

[silverbullet]

I will get some metal cut today

[silverbullet]

Got slightly ahead of myself! I have to sort out the extension piece to go between the s/c discharge plenum and the chargecooler inlets, so that they are located in space and fixed before I think about the inlet runners and where they fall (and how that influences the cooler outlet plena) but progress is progress.
Another bandsaw session to remove the V8 integral manifolds, done in two hits:

Close enough:

You get where this is going:

[silverbullet]

As part of the ongoing struggle to get all this extra stuff piled up ontop of the engine and plumbed together beneath the standard height hatch, I had a little light bulb moment.
Take one late Caravelle grp engine hatch and remove old foam to see how close it can get. Did you know there is chickenwire inside the foam?


Set to with an old filling knife to scrape the foam off. Surprisingly good condition for 1985!


[After a bit of trial fitting I have worked out that -measuring from the top of the engine lifting eyes- I have 180mm vertical with which to play before the chargecoolers touch the underside of the hatch, which ia flush with the underside of the hatch seal flange]

Yet more fiddling with the bypass valve, a notch filed in the crankcase top flange made all the difference!





Blackboard has some use after all...

[silverbullet]

All starting to slot into place (I may have said this before...)
The chargecoolers dictate everything, they couldnt be 10mm longer and it helps if ALL the ancilliaries are bolted up.
Its snug!

Clutch slave will be easily removeable (nuts now welded to bracket) but only access will be from below.

[silverbullet]

Took the opportinity to bag some machine time and get a bit of 8000rpm carving done. This is the rhs plenum for cylinders 1 & 2 roughed out:

[silverbullet]

They are a bit lighter now...

[silverbullet]

Clearances are improving all around too. Not having owned a 2.1 2wd (and the bus now being ex-Subaru) I bought all new hoses to finish the mock-up and good job that I did!

Slave cyl should be more accessible:

Inverted throttle body sits better in this corner, but the compressor inlet is going to need a fair bit of work...


I am still amazed how all these elements are slotting around each other in the volume available

[silverbullet]

Little steps...
I thought that I might have painted myself into a corner, but things seem to have worked out for the better after all.
I had been working from the premise that the chargecoolers could sit flat and parallel to the crankshaft axis, while completely ignoring the fact that Jaguar had them at a slight angle.
This put their air inlets at a compound angle and I had no way of knowing the pitch of their mounting holes. Not good!

Some careful work on the surface plate with calipers, blocks, spacers, vernier, bits of string and chewing gum saw a simple flat plate cut & drilled to temporarily tie the coolers together at the oem angle.
Cable tie and blocks of wood still present, the slight incline of the coolers is now obvious:

Thankfully the overall height is still below my limit for clearing the hatch underside

Still looks good (if very tight) for the alternator and aircon compressor clearances too:



Next job: inlet runners have to be sorted before the TIG welding can begin...

[ghost123uk]

Ian, I am no expert on this type of thing (at all) but am watching all of this with great interest.

A thought just crossed my mind, will this beast generate a larger amount of heat in the engine bay that might need catering for?

[silverbullet]

Morning John!
Quite possibly... but its not like there is a red-hot turbo in the corner boiling the oil. The compressor will make heat, the coolers and their rad up front will lose that. I plan on putting vents into the rear light blenders to draw a bit more air out the back and I have an idea for improving the airflow through the front radiator(s).

[ghost123uk]

Oh good, I'm glad it wasn't a daft thought then

I'll bet the first firing up, and then the first test drive will be a tense but hopefully exciting (in a nice way) occasion

[silverbullet]

No, not daft at all! I am sure there have been a few questions that have made me stop and think, only to make a U-turn.

The job list is long...

Inlet runners
Compressor discharge extension
Compressor mounting
Throttle body/compressor inlet manifold
Compressor drive shortening
Crank pulley & belts (serpentine?)
Airbox

Then there is the engine build itself, fuel and ignition management inc. coil-on-plug, clutch spec (twin plate?) mounting the UN-1 (bodyshell mods), gearchange linkage, sourcing some Porsche Big Reds at sensible money (I have the hubs and adaptors)

To think that some have asked me what is taking so long

[silverbullet]

While I ponder how few vacuum connections I (don't) need on the throttle body, I went back and had another look at the gear calculator figures

Tyre Size: Width (mm) 255
Profile (%) 45
Diam (in) 17

Diff Ratio__3.778

Gear Ratios:
1st Gear__3.36
2nd Gear__2.05
3rd Gear__1.38
4th Gear__0.96
5th Gear__0.76

Gears/RPM____1st____2nd___3rd_____4th_____5th

1000 Rpm ____6.1____10.0___14.9___21.4____27.0
1500 Rpm ____9.2 ____15.0___22.3___32.0____40.5
2000 Rpm ____12.2 ___20.0___29.7___42.7____54.0
2500 Rpm ____15.3 ___25.0___37.1___53.4____67.4
3000 Rpm ____18.3 ___30.0___44.6___64.1____80.9
3500 Rpm ____21.4 ___35.0___52.0___74.7____94.4
4000 Rpm____24.4 ___40.0___59.4___85.4____107.9
4500 Rpm____27.5 ___45.0___66.9___96.1____121.4
5000 Rpm____30.5 ___50.0___74.3___106.8___134.9
5500 Rpm____33.6 ___55.0___81.7___117.5___148.4
6000 Rpm____36.6 ___60.0___89.1___128.1___161.9

Front tyres are 215/50/17, so the error goes from 6.0mph in first to 158.3 in 5th

[silverbullet]

The EJ22 has been gone for some time and the gearbox was sold, but the Subaru loom was still hanging around and I had some time (and daylight!) available, so out it came:

Now I have a reasonably clear engine bay!

I need to locate a good late type alternator/starter junction box loom (heavy permanent live & charge lamp) because this one had to have the alternator end cut off, a side effect of the TSR "integration"

[silverbullet]

Thoughts turn to getting the UN1 attached to a wbx crankcase and seeing just how much cutting will be needed to get it into the bus.
Found a slab of 1" alloy plate lurking in the material rack, just enough for this job

Time to take a peek at the UN1 diff, all looks ok (phew)