Steves Megane conversion build - She's finally running (VIDEO inside)
- Thread starter Stephenvenning
- Start date
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Another update.
Unfortunatly my company has been put on short time hours so not much spare cash to plough into this engine build. Therefore I have decided to concentrate on the cheaper and more finicky jobs of the build to make it look pretty.
First I managed to pick up a second hand non res milltek which I fitted in a few hours, sounds epic and should go well when I put the meg engine in, as Ill be using milltek down pipe and sports cat so it should make fabricating the exhaust connection a bit easier.
Managed also to give a quick detail of the car before PFC, great turnout this year and the weather was hot and sunny which was a bonus too. All in all a fun day with plenty of tasty motors. I hope mine will be a bit more of a headd turner next year when its boosted.
Speaking of cheap things to do on the engine I decided to strip the alternator and check for functionality. Ill also paint this the same gun metal grey colour the rocker cover is sprayed in. This will look great, as the alternator is normally left bear aluminium due to how much of a pain in the arse it is to paint safely without damaging it.
Plans for next update is finish alternator and machine out the turbo housing for the 20T wheel that is due to arrive this week. Also picked up some brand new 630cc injectors for £90 today which is a bit of a bonus.
Unfortunatly my company has been put on short time hours so not much spare cash to plough into this engine build. Therefore I have decided to concentrate on the cheaper and more finicky jobs of the build to make it look pretty.
First I managed to pick up a second hand non res milltek which I fitted in a few hours, sounds epic and should go well when I put the meg engine in, as Ill be using milltek down pipe and sports cat so it should make fabricating the exhaust connection a bit easier.
Managed also to give a quick detail of the car before PFC, great turnout this year and the weather was hot and sunny which was a bonus too. All in all a fun day with plenty of tasty motors. I hope mine will be a bit more of a headd turner next year when its boosted.
Speaking of cheap things to do on the engine I decided to strip the alternator and check for functionality. Ill also paint this the same gun metal grey colour the rocker cover is sprayed in. This will look great, as the alternator is normally left bear aluminium due to how much of a pain in the arse it is to paint safely without damaging it.
Plans for next update is finish alternator and machine out the turbo housing for the 20T wheel that is due to arrive this week. Also picked up some brand new 630cc injectors for £90 today which is a bit of a bonus.
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Should be done by next FCS I hope 
with the whole work front I don't think I'll be made redundant tbh. If I do then in the area I live there is a big need for engineers so shouldn't be a problem getting a new job. The car really hasn't changed much apart from the exhaust. This was the plan from the start to put all the modifications on at the same time so I don't have to pay modified insurance for longer than I need too
with the whole work front I don't think I'll be made redundant tbh. If I do then in the area I live there is a big need for engineers so shouldn't be a problem getting a new job. The car really hasn't changed much apart from the exhaust. This was the plan from the start to put all the modifications on at the same time so I don't have to pay modified insurance for longer than I need too
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Some little updates:
First and the most exciting thing is the 20T compressor wheel has arrived and it was certainly worth the wait. Beautiful piece of engineering. The 20T wheel is around 10mm larger on the inducer and exducer over the standard 14T wheel in a meganes turbo. should make for good gains and perform better than any hrbid turbos currently on the market, a true bolt on option. In the next few weeks ill hopefully machine the compressor housing to suit, making the custom tooling will be the tricky part tbh.
My injectors also arrived, tried to mock them up to my fuel rail and there was some slight fitment issues. These injectors don't go as far inside the fuel rail as the standard ones did, so the rail mounts had to be spaced out backwards and the holes opened up. Not perfect but I really cant be bothered to make up new rail brackets.
To keep me occupied in the week I carried on with the alternator. First checked the bridge rectifier was working. This is done by checking that the diodes operate at the correct threshold voltage att 0.5V. Luckily they had survived this alternators hard life so dont need to be replaced. I took the casings to work and sand blasted them followed by a lick of paint, they look brand new now and match my engine now. The coil windings were cleaned up and installed back in the casings. Next week Ill concentrate on the iron core of the alternator and give the spindle a clean up on the lathe with some emery cloth.
Some pictures as usual.
First and the most exciting thing is the 20T compressor wheel has arrived and it was certainly worth the wait. Beautiful piece of engineering. The 20T wheel is around 10mm larger on the inducer and exducer over the standard 14T wheel in a meganes turbo. should make for good gains and perform better than any hrbid turbos currently on the market, a true bolt on option. In the next few weeks ill hopefully machine the compressor housing to suit, making the custom tooling will be the tricky part tbh.
My injectors also arrived, tried to mock them up to my fuel rail and there was some slight fitment issues. These injectors don't go as far inside the fuel rail as the standard ones did, so the rail mounts had to be spaced out backwards and the holes opened up. Not perfect but I really cant be bothered to make up new rail brackets.
To keep me occupied in the week I carried on with the alternator. First checked the bridge rectifier was working. This is done by checking that the diodes operate at the correct threshold voltage att 0.5V. Luckily they had survived this alternators hard life so dont need to be replaced. I took the casings to work and sand blasted them followed by a lick of paint, they look brand new now and match my engine now. The coil windings were cleaned up and installed back in the casings. Next week Ill concentrate on the iron core of the alternator and give the spindle a clean up on the lathe with some emery cloth.
Some pictures as usual.
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
UPDATE:
With the alternator stripped I cleaned up the copper bushings on the lathe by taking a slight with a facing off tool, this got the bushings square, as they had got very concave from the contact with the brushes. With the surface flat the brushes will make a far better contact. Bearings should arrive this week so I can change them and also give the iron core a coat of hammer blow paint to protect it from corrosion.
Now onto the turbo, this week I managed to get the turbo CHRA machined to the new 20T wheel. I first set it in a four jaw chuck (This lets you accurately centre the component as the jaws are adjusted independently, this is needed as a turbo is fairly high tolerance), then using a DTI gauge to check it was centered within 0.01mm in the x and y axis. I measured the CHRA original size and then measuring the old compressor wheel, the size of the wheel was 52mm inducer and 53mm on the CHRA, giving me 1mm clearance. Therefore when modifying the CHRA Ill give a 1mm clearance too, so with the 58mm diameter on the new wheel, this gives me a diameter to machine the CHRA to 59mm. Using a boring bar I machined out the CHRA to the worked out diameter, didn't need to use coolant as cast iron is self lubricating due to its high graphite content. Now finally using a 45 degree chamfer tool I cut a 1 x 45 degree chamfer, to match the new 20T wheel.
The new wheel fits nicely now as you can see from the photos.
Thanks
With the alternator stripped I cleaned up the copper bushings on the lathe by taking a slight with a facing off tool, this got the bushings square, as they had got very concave from the contact with the brushes. With the surface flat the brushes will make a far better contact. Bearings should arrive this week so I can change them and also give the iron core a coat of hammer blow paint to protect it from corrosion.
Now onto the turbo, this week I managed to get the turbo CHRA machined to the new 20T wheel. I first set it in a four jaw chuck (This lets you accurately centre the component as the jaws are adjusted independently, this is needed as a turbo is fairly high tolerance), then using a DTI gauge to check it was centered within 0.01mm in the x and y axis. I measured the CHRA original size and then measuring the old compressor wheel, the size of the wheel was 52mm inducer and 53mm on the CHRA, giving me 1mm clearance. Therefore when modifying the CHRA Ill give a 1mm clearance too, so with the 58mm diameter on the new wheel, this gives me a diameter to machine the CHRA to 59mm. Using a boring bar I machined out the CHRA to the worked out diameter, didn't need to use coolant as cast iron is self lubricating due to its high graphite content. Now finally using a 45 degree chamfer tool I cut a 1 x 45 degree chamfer, to match the new 20T wheel.
The new wheel fits nicely now as you can see from the photos.
Thanks
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Hl turbine will require machining as it's bigger than an l turbine. Shouldn't be too bad. Hardest bit will be making up the tooling
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Ah oka, yeah I believe it will be a straight swap. I'll have to see maybe 9 blade but there more expensive. We will have to see
I'm trying to find out what spec the RStuning is as this will give me a guide.
I'm guessing td04hl-19t with clipped 12 blade turbine and 11 blade billet compressor.
Guess the 11 blade would be sufficient when that's the case but then again the GT2871r has a 9 blade too which is a bit bigger and really tops out at about 400 with the .86 housing.
So guessing for all out power you need the 9 blade.
Saying that i've seen a few on the RStuning hybrid making about 360bhp
I'm guessing td04hl-19t with clipped 12 blade turbine and 11 blade billet compressor.
Guess the 11 blade would be sufficient when that's the case but then again the GT2871r has a 9 blade too which is a bit bigger and really tops out at about 400 with the .86 housing.
So guessing for all out power you need the 9 blade.
Saying that i've seen a few on the RStuning hybrid making about 360bhp
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
I think it is a td04hl 19t, however I'd imagine them cars in the late 360's are running cams. I'm not gonna do cams at the moment, in quite interested in what the standard ones will do.
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
UPDATE:
A fair bit has happened since my last post, Ill start with the bit most people wont be interested in, the alternator. I first gave the iron core a coat of anti corrosion paint to tidy it up really as i cant be dealing with rusty parts on my build. I then took the rectifier module and pulley wheel and gave them a blast with the sand blaster to remove all the crud and corrosion, I followed this by painting them the same metallic blue that the cam pulleys were painted in, to make the alternator look a little less boring :lol: turned out rather well i think.just needs re assembling now and the bearings to be replaced.
To make the rocker cover look that little bit better, i had all the bolts zinc plated which makes them almost chrome looking. This should also protect the bolts from rust, which would look rubbish, especially with all the work that's gone into this project.
Over the last few weeks one of my side lights had blown and it was time to replace, a job that I had been putting off as I dont have the smallest of hands :lol: I therefore made the decision to change them to bright white LED bulbs and at the same time change all the indicators to Osram Diadem. I must say this has really modernized the front end. These LED's are so bright! makes my projector headlights kind of pointless now :lol:
Right onto the most anticipated bit and how my turbo is going. This week I received the 9 blade HL turbine wheel from ARD tuning again, lovely bit of kit and really well made, cant recommend this company enough for td04 parts. This turbine is slightly larger than the L wheel and should make for better spooling.
In order to accurately measure the rotating contour on the compressor and turbine wheel I used a method known as shadow graphing. This is done by projecting the objects profile onto a piece of paper and then tracing the outline. I setup a basic jig with my phone light, compressor wheel mounted in a drill and the a piece of card as the back drop. two points were marked on the piece on the card at 94mm apart (2 x the diameter of the inducer) this gave me a reference point to line the shadow up with to give me a shadow double the size of the actual compressor wheel. The lights were turned off and the drill was turned on, the outline was then traced.
Using a radius gauge to curve was determined to be a 20mm radius, but remember this is a 1:2 scale, so the actual radius I have to make a tool to is 10mm. Proper engineering that
Thanks for reading.
A fair bit has happened since my last post, Ill start with the bit most people wont be interested in, the alternator. I first gave the iron core a coat of anti corrosion paint to tidy it up really as i cant be dealing with rusty parts on my build. I then took the rectifier module and pulley wheel and gave them a blast with the sand blaster to remove all the crud and corrosion, I followed this by painting them the same metallic blue that the cam pulleys were painted in, to make the alternator look a little less boring :lol: turned out rather well i think.just needs re assembling now and the bearings to be replaced.
To make the rocker cover look that little bit better, i had all the bolts zinc plated which makes them almost chrome looking. This should also protect the bolts from rust, which would look rubbish, especially with all the work that's gone into this project.
Over the last few weeks one of my side lights had blown and it was time to replace, a job that I had been putting off as I dont have the smallest of hands :lol: I therefore made the decision to change them to bright white LED bulbs and at the same time change all the indicators to Osram Diadem. I must say this has really modernized the front end. These LED's are so bright! makes my projector headlights kind of pointless now :lol:
Right onto the most anticipated bit and how my turbo is going. This week I received the 9 blade HL turbine wheel from ARD tuning again, lovely bit of kit and really well made, cant recommend this company enough for td04 parts. This turbine is slightly larger than the L wheel and should make for better spooling.
In order to accurately measure the rotating contour on the compressor and turbine wheel I used a method known as shadow graphing. This is done by projecting the objects profile onto a piece of paper and then tracing the outline. I setup a basic jig with my phone light, compressor wheel mounted in a drill and the a piece of card as the back drop. two points were marked on the piece on the card at 94mm apart (2 x the diameter of the inducer) this gave me a reference point to line the shadow up with to give me a shadow double the size of the actual compressor wheel. The lights were turned off and the drill was turned on, the outline was then traced.
Using a radius gauge to curve was determined to be a 20mm radius, but remember this is a 1:2 scale, so the actual radius I have to make a tool to is 10mm. Proper engineering that
Thanks for reading.
