Roman

Another sidetrack - back to the sump. 
Looks like will try machine it entirely out of a single 32mm plate, as 25mm wasnt going to be quite enough. 

This might help solve my oil filter situation.
On the bottom of the front timing cover is the outlet of the oil pump, which feeds down into the sump for the oil filter, then goes back into the sump, back up into the front timing cover.

I've been tossing around a few ideas for how to address this, maybe running some internal AN lines or a welded in pipe that does a U turn so I can have some AN fittings come out on the top face of the pan. 
Then run a remote filter.
However since it will all be a single piece now, maybe it can be drilled like this so it comes out the front. 





Or, drilled but then a plug screwed in, and other holes drilled on top so the fittings face upwards. 
Will need to see what sort of clearance I've got to the swaybar in this area. Poking out the front might not work.
I might also not have enough clearance to the front pulley for this to work.
Anyone else got any good ideas for how to address this, that I might not have thought of?
Sometimes when staring at the same model for so long, there are some obvious ideas smacking you in the face that you cant see. 
The factory sump does it like this. EDIT: Gosh I could tap that line for the oil pressure sensor as well, like factory one does. Sweet.

Alright sooooo.  It's been a case of:

tack pipes. test fit. cut pipes back off. test fit. tack pipes again. scratch head. 
And so on, for about 30 iterations until I've run out of bends and argon.
However I've now got something that clears everything. 
Doing some checks on lengths, they're within about 40mm of each other. Which is about 5% variation - happy with that.



However, a few problems. 

Firstly, I've chopped and changed everything so much that it's a bit of a mess. Partially due to being short on patience from redoing everything a lot, and not having totally flush surfaces. 
So welds turned out more pooey than needed. I should invest in a linisher I think.

Secondly, This is all great that everything's past the steering column, and 10+ mm clearance to everything. 
However everything is on some tricky angles to try stuff into a collector.

I havent made a collector, because it seems hard. Or I need to buy some. 
The only purchasable collectors that fit my budget look like baked bean tins that have been stood on. So I will try make something instead.
As I think what I really need to do. Is to start the pipes from the collector, then work back towards the head from there. 

Welding a collector is tricky, because you end up with a bit in the middle that you cant reach to weld when it's together. 
One way is to cluster the pipes together tight. Then weld a little triangle piece in the middle before it goes together, on the collector and 3 pipes.
Then weld the remaining perimeter to finish it. (Idea stolen from @kpr - thank you) 
So hopefully something like this.



To choose where to slice the bottom part, I've drawn a circle the size of a 2" pipe, then just cut it shorter till it roughly matches this.
I could go bigger or smaller though I guess? Currently has inside area equivilent to a 1.75" circle.



My plan is to print some cutting templates like this. If I had a band saw I'd do it a little differently so the outsides are flat so it sits on the right angle on the table.
Actually - yeah might do this and see if I can use bandsaw at dads. Assuming it's happy cutting stainless.



Fingers crossed it works out alright.

Something else to think about. 
As per oldschool.co.ng project tradition, 3" exhaust pipe. 
However - I've got two banks that need to eventually merge into a single 3" pipe.  
I'm not sure if there's any useful tuned stuff happening in the 2-1 part of a 6-2-1 setup. 
If I was trying to keep the "secondary" pipes to half the cross sectional area of a 3" pipe, then it's about 2.1" per side. 
I definitely want to merge all 6 pipes, because otherwise it'll sound like I've got a pair of triumph motorbikes in the engine bay rather than a 6 cyl.

Started pooing together a manifold.

Too tight damnit. Will have to tighten the bends a bit with a few angled cuts.

Also, the only way I will ever get these off or on is by lifting the motor. And all of the studs in the head need to come out or its impossible.

A bit of a hassle but better than having the shitty standard log manifolds. 

New manifolds turned up, and hooooly hecka they are amazing! 
No infill, no layer lines - fully solid so they feel really strong.
The dividers have a super sharp leading edge on them, and all the details are great.
I think from now on, I'll keep using my printer mainly for PLA based prototyping, then will have final parts made this way.

Much better! Will be fairly easy to get this to work around the steering column i reckon. Fingers crossed.

Will probably change the front runner to two 45s spaced apart, so it matches the shape of the rest a bit better.

But will order some pipe soonish.

After some IRL lego time.
Back to the model to try replicate my best plan, and see how even it is.
Answer - not very.
I've been trying a few iterations back in the model, just brain storming ways to arrange the pipes that keeps them even lengths. 
And hopefully doesnt look derpy and is also easy to make.

A few non starters... Too complex and also quite ugly.



Not sure what to do, so went to google images for some ideas.
Decided I need to go back to basics.
So make the #1 runner with fewest bends and shortest length possible - then for the others, remove straights and add bends until they're equal. 
Ha! Works quite well. And each runner is on a flat plane so they're easy to make on the bench.
These are within 22mm centerline length of each other. sweet. 
I hope there's space to make it work.

With the smaller mounts theres definitely much much much better room for exhaust activities! 
Before I get too carried away though. I really need to get an alternator mounted on the block, and get the engine mounted in it's final spot. 

I'm making good progress on those topics but was a relief to see how much more room there is anyway. 
Will be worth the trouble. 
It's a tricky job even just with the lego bits, definitely takes some skill and experience to fabricate exhaust manifolds decently! 
Currently the #1 runner is the trouble child, needs to be longer (Can see that runners #2 and #3 have 3x 90 deg bends, vs only 2) 

However I cant swing it forward too much because stuff's in the way.
Then I also need to make sure that the manifold can physically be removed, but again that's much easier without the giant mounts.
The aim is to have a mostly decent plan before I start chopping any expensive bends up.

The lasercut parts turned up. 
Holy moly I cant believe how good the finish is! 
I was expecting raggedy sort of edges but they look amazing.

The mounts all just slotted together perfectly, before there's even a single tack weld. 
This would have been really fiddly without the tabs added.
It holds all of the angles etc perfectly.
(Another good Idea from Stu - thanks)




So, while I was busy congratulating myself, I decided would plug weld the bejesus out of the back of the tabs instead of tack welding them and test fitting...
I put the mount on one side together inside out, so the lower bolt holes dont line up. Woops. 



With some effort I could probably cut the welds back out, but I really did choose the worst place possible to weld them together initially. 
Since the finish is sooooo nice from the laser cutter, and I'll only make a mess of everything trying to fix it.
I'll pay the dumbtax and get the parts for this side recut. 
Regardless, it feels like I'm making good progress on things at the moment.
Dumb to put it together inside out but I'm happy.