308 V12 conversion begins

Oh shoot, I need to got let him out then

 

Thanks…I guess

I’m just hoping that someday I can be an honorary stooge!

 

SWEET!!!!!

 

Everything is TIG welded with straight argon. I do pre-heat, although not as much and as well as I probably should, I go to about 200F. My welder is a 400 amp machine but the torch I used (W20, water cooled – you want a water cooled torch if you don’t already have one) is only good to 300 or 350 depending on which brand….mine is supposed to be 350 but that must be under ideal conditions because it’s looking pretty melted these days.

For the block I had the welder set to 325 and had the pedal to the floor a good amount of the time and that requires a 1/8” tungsten. The trans is not as thick, I’ve got the welder set at 300, but almost never have the pedal all the way down. With more preheat you can use a lower power setting but you have to watch over heating the weld zone, aluminum weld best when you put the power to it and go fast

The more you pre-heat the less distortion you should get…at least in theory but any time you weld anything the only thing you can count on is that it’s going to pull in the weld zone. The block is out .010” down the main bearings and will need to be fixed by either oversize bearings or welding up and re-cutting the journals. Also on the front face of the block it’s pulled in around the bores and I’ll need to weld up the surface and re-cut it. I think the trans is ok so far because the precision stuff is far enough anyway from where I’ve been working, but I won’t know for sure until I get it off the jig and check it.

 

LOL

Lou, for all my big brain I was still stupid enough to start this project in spite of very sound advice not to.

Also it never occurred to me that you could put a flow restrictor on the intake of centrifugal blower to help flatten out the boost curve…..I designed a set-up with a continuously variable transmission between the drive pulley and the blower and decided it was more trouble then it was worth.

 

Any time a project involves a lot of heavy welding it's a winter project. Welding in the summer is just horrible.

I’m not sure about the electric bill honestly because Lana pays that, but I know the meter really spins when the welder is on. I’ve got about 3 hours of welding time in the trans right now and I’d guess another 2 before its done with the piece I still need to add on the left and I need to weld up the top of the rails on the right I think because it looks like they pulled a little more than I planed on. I think I’ve got 12-15 hours of welder time in the block so far.

 

I've heard 10%-20% helium helps but I've never tried it....mainly becasue I never wanted to pay for another tank and regulator.

Did you get my email on the crank situation? PM or email me.

 

It’s no illusion they’re bent, the rear one in particular. It was hot when I took the pictures so I didn’t measure it but it look like about .060” give or take.

My plan was to have an 1/8” to cut do deal with stuff like that but the front rail already used up almost all of it by sucking down along the case weld. I'll measure everything to see if I can cut it, but the easiest thing might be to simply weld across the top 6-8 inches on the right and cut it back flat. It looks like the flange pulled in as well along the bottom so I may weld that too depending how much it is.

 

Weld doesn't penetrate aluminum worth a damn so it's all about the fillet for corners or cutting on a generous weld prep for butt joints. Where the flange meets the rails for example I ground in a ¼” from all 4 sides so the ½” plate is completely through welded and going nowhere. The ¼” fill panels got a 1/8” weld prep along the seams so they are also through welded. By doing it that way I can grind all the welds flush and smooth so it will look like it’s all 1 piece without losing any significant amount of strength.

If it's a little weld it will only have a little affect but if it’s a big weld you can just about bet things will move. You don’t have that problem with a mechanical fix, but it will look repaired vs a weld that can be ground and hidden.

That's what I say, it's just metal.

I've done a few stupid things over the years. A few supercharger set-ups for 308s, the manifold in the picture is a weldment that used 71 separate pieces welded together and ground smooth. A harely XR1000 engine de-stroked to an 860 then converted to wet sump, fitted with a kawsaki 6 spd trans and installed in a 1-off frame to fit a roadrace class. The fiadillac, a fiat x 1/9 fitted with an eldorado drivetrain and subframe. A couple formula SAE cars with a couple other guys in college. Those are the big ones off the top of my head.
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I measured the rails and as Paul pointed out they pulled down just under 1/8” so I’ll weld the end up the next time I’m welding. These things happen, no worries.

Today’s project was making the semicircle piece for the left end. I was too cheap the bandsaw it out of a big expensive piece of billet so I took a piece of ½” x 2” and bent it into shape in the press. After about 45 minutes of back and forth I got it to where it looks like it’s within .015” everywhere. I made it about 1’8” undersize so there is material to machine after welding. Hopefully I’ll get it welded in tomorrow or the next night.
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Plus I wanted to make sure ernie knew I'm willing to work for that Stooge title....why cut up a $200 piece of billet when a $5 piece of bar stock will do with just a little work.