Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
plenum smoothing
Part of removing the engine again was to clean the intake plenum. When the 24o z came back from TDC it had a white powdery residue all over it. It also didn't have all 12 flange bolts installed.
Remove engine, again.
Remove fuel rail and injectors.
Sit and contemplate your insignificance and why you are having to remove an engine, yet again.
I relocated this operation to the kitchen, it was more comfortable inside. Still playing with the camera settings and editing software. Don't mind the half finished bicycle build, I'm working on it.
While I had the plenum off one last time, I wanted to try to smooth the inside of the runners as much as I could. I bought this plenum several years ago, and it was obviously a rough casting. Knock-off's have gotten better over the years, but since this one has been modified to fit installation in my car, it would take more effort than not to replace.
The first runner in the pictures, furthest from the throttle body, is the worst. There was a big goober on one side about half way down, as well as a very rough entry mold that I started to remove.
After going through several sanding and grinding bits with the dremel snake, the goober was no more, it's remains ending up in a pile on the kitchen floor.
The problem was that now, this runner was much smoother than the others. I couldn't leave the plenum like that, so I went back and touched up the rest of the runners, which took a while. And no, there are not 7 runners, for some reason I took several shots of the first runner again, as it still needed touching up, starting as the roughest of the bunch.
Here are the final shots after more blending. Again, x2 shots of the first (or last depending on which direction you are counting) runner.
Even more debris on the kitchen floor.
After the plenum runners were labeled DONE (finally), I moved onto the cleaning it. It got pretty dirty over a few years of use, not to mention the residue that now sits on top after the shop was done modifying the throttle body port.
This is where the sensor goes on the now underside of the throttle body. I wish I tried to mount the sensor while the plenum and TB were off the car. I should have known the mounting plate was set incorrectly for a Nissan sensor and avoided several hours of disassembly and re-installation at the 11th hour during a late night of wiring, but who knew.
Remember this for a later entry of the joy's of working with TDC Auto, or better still, the little gifts of joy they left behind.
Cut to back outside again, and you'll see my first attempt at cleaning the plenum out. The hose was frozen solid it's entire length, and then some!
I used this break to remove the throttle body. Surprisingly, there was a lot of RTV holding it on.
Back inside at the kitchen sink, I started cleaning the outside, and inside, of the plenum, making sure to remove all the grinding dust that had been produced during the blending of the runners. I also cleaned out the coolant passageways until the water ran water-color, which took a while because there was a significant amount of rust colored flakes inside.
And no, I wasn't being sneaky working on car parts in the kitchen, or in the kitchen sink for that matter. KK helped.
Final shots of the plenum, main tube, and clean flange ready for install - no more weird unknown white powdery substance, most of the dirt from use removed, and the runners significantly more smooth than the original casting.
Remove engine, again.
Remove fuel rail and injectors.
Sit and contemplate your insignificance and why you are having to remove an engine, yet again.
I relocated this operation to the kitchen, it was more comfortable inside. Still playing with the camera settings and editing software. Don't mind the half finished bicycle build, I'm working on it.
While I had the plenum off one last time, I wanted to try to smooth the inside of the runners as much as I could. I bought this plenum several years ago, and it was obviously a rough casting. Knock-off's have gotten better over the years, but since this one has been modified to fit installation in my car, it would take more effort than not to replace.
The first runner in the pictures, furthest from the throttle body, is the worst. There was a big goober on one side about half way down, as well as a very rough entry mold that I started to remove.
After going through several sanding and grinding bits with the dremel snake, the goober was no more, it's remains ending up in a pile on the kitchen floor.
The problem was that now, this runner was much smoother than the others. I couldn't leave the plenum like that, so I went back and touched up the rest of the runners, which took a while. And no, there are not 7 runners, for some reason I took several shots of the first runner again, as it still needed touching up, starting as the roughest of the bunch.
Here are the final shots after more blending. Again, x2 shots of the first (or last depending on which direction you are counting) runner.
Even more debris on the kitchen floor.
After the plenum runners were labeled DONE (finally), I moved onto the cleaning it. It got pretty dirty over a few years of use, not to mention the residue that now sits on top after the shop was done modifying the throttle body port.
This is where the sensor goes on the now underside of the throttle body. I wish I tried to mount the sensor while the plenum and TB were off the car. I should have known the mounting plate was set incorrectly for a Nissan sensor and avoided several hours of disassembly and re-installation at the 11th hour during a late night of wiring, but who knew.
Remember this for a later entry of the joy's of working with TDC Auto, or better still, the little gifts of joy they left behind.
Cut to back outside again, and you'll see my first attempt at cleaning the plenum out. The hose was frozen solid it's entire length, and then some!
I used this break to remove the throttle body. Surprisingly, there was a lot of RTV holding it on.
Back inside at the kitchen sink, I started cleaning the outside, and inside, of the plenum, making sure to remove all the grinding dust that had been produced during the blending of the runners. I also cleaned out the coolant passageways until the water ran water-color, which took a while because there was a significant amount of rust colored flakes inside.
And no, I wasn't being sneaky working on car parts in the kitchen, or in the kitchen sink for that matter. KK helped.
Final shots of the plenum, main tube, and clean flange ready for install - no more weird unknown white powdery substance, most of the dirt from use removed, and the runners significantly more smooth than the original casting.
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