Operation IDIocracy: Right Snail

Operation: IDIocracy continues with physical placement of the turbos! So the left snail was actually quite easy once all was said and done, since it lives straight down from the exhaust manifold. The right hand side, however, was going to need some… creative hosiery.

Since the engine and transmission is displaced a few inches rightward (towards the passenger side) in the van chassis, the same convenient location didn’t exist under the right side exhaust manifold, which exits almost over the frame rail. There is, however, a pocket of space next to the transmission that I was going to take advantage of:

Like so. This photo was extremely awkward to take, by the way. The exhaust path would need to make a very tight 90 degree turn to enter the turbo here. I spent a while looking for things I could buy, and found that these 90 degree fittings do exist. However, that’s another $30-50 and few days of waiting. Instead, I decided to just slam something together using one of my spare flange plates…. and the plumbing aisle.

That’s a 2″ steel pipe elbow. I was just going to chop it down a bit and weld it to the flange plate.

First, a bit of sketchy turning to reduce one of the ends to a 2.25″ diameter to fit the 2.25″ downpipe adapters. This was when I really wondered how “steel” these things really were, because the process made droppings that looked more like cast iron, with chips of an almost powdery, filing-like consistency. Well, we’re gonna find out if it welds soon…

Next, I sketchily set it up in the bandsaw to cut one end off to the start of the external radius.

I made another sketchy hole adapter plate as well, and this is what the setup is going to look like!

Well, it didn’t crack instantly, so I think it’s at least “Steel” in nature. Note that if you (somehow) are going to do this, make very sure to grind and sand all the galvanized coating off your weldment area, because zinc vapors are bad for you.

Like the left adapter, I welded this more on the inside than the outside to join the Hole Adapter plate to the flange, though I still welded the pipe fitting around the outside to the degree I could. The observant will notice that I maybe should have welded the pipe to the elbow first, then the elbow to the flange.

Because I did it the other way around, there’s just a little bit of the arc in the “armpit” that I can’t reach and will just have to be an exhaust leak. Oh well.

The manifold on the passenger side has its flange set at around a 30 degree angle from the chassis, as measured with a digital angle finder. This means I had to make a downpipe which went down to slightly below the frame top in the area and then turned 30 degrees to level out. I just did this by cutting a 45 degree exhaust elbow at the 30 degree mark.

Notice the “Oops” height adjustment edit to the ball flange adapter – my first measurement was too high, so I had to re-add the part I cut off.

This view is from imemdiately behind the front right wheel, looking up at the transmission bell housing and starter motor.

From here, I measured a chunk of pipe to roughly where I think the turbo should be.

The turbo needs to mount at a 30 degree from vertical tilt, so I brought out the digital angle gauge again to make sure this flange sits at the correct angle while the downpipe was straight vertical.

And here’s what that result looks like!

The turbo is now in place with two dummy bolts. The downpipe itself is not tightened here – once it tightens, the assembly moves up a little but and sits just a little above those transmission pan screws. This orientation lets me exit the charge air hose pretty much up and into the doghouse area directly.

I probably could have brought it forward a few inches to sit in the wider hollow area next to the starter motor bump, but that’s for “Revision 2”.

And here we are, looking at both of the Chongqing Crankshaft Crushers. For this dirty prototype, I’m just going to sling on some conical mesh filters.

For Vantruck’s eventual fitup, I see a geometric path to link the two with hoses under the transmission bell housing and leading up to the front, but I’m not out to spend that much money on fancy silicone pipes for now.

I only wanted to make one edit to the right side pipe. After tightening everything down, the turbo sat a little further towards the transmission that it let on initially. I wanted to put a jog or kink in the pipe to shift it around 1/2″ rightwards, closer to the frame. That I decided would wait until everything comes apart again when I install fittings, hoses, and other final integration parts.

Next step being prepared while all of this was happening was all the little odds and ends to bring the whistling sound into the engine.

3 thoughts on “Operation IDIocracy: Right Snail”

  1. I’m curious how well you are liking the MX-210V lathe. I’ve been debating with myself for a few months whether I should get a cheap lathe (and which version: 8×16 with 750W DC, 8×16 with 900W BLDC, 8×24 with 1.1kW BLDC, etc.) then strap a pair of stepper motors on it to try making some fairly low-quality parabolic and ellipsoidal mirrors. Good mirrors are <100 nanometer (or much, much better) surface roughness, but we would not be using these for imaging (only rough focus of light sources into spectrometers or sample holders) so can probably get away with ~100 micron surface roughness as long as the rough profile is fairly close to correct. The company made a batch of very small compound parabolic concentrator mirrors a few years ago for combining light from multiple LEDs into a single 4~6mm diameter light pipe, but it takes the better part of a day on the big Haas mill just to make a single mirror (in two halves that get screwed together) which is way too long/expensive for my taste.

    Also, looks like you've upgraded with a 0XA or AXA quick change tool post. Ebay version or littlemachineshop?

  2. I have the 900W BLDC version and it’s a very capable machine. No closed loop spindle speed unlike the LMS specialty ones, though. I put maybe 2 hours of hand fitting work into it (mostly cleaning up the gibs and ways, and actually lubing stuff) and it’s been fine since. I could probably dial out the cross feed backlash a bit at this point.

    Yeah, I upgraded to a 0XA size QCTP. It’s an Amazon Special! I’d not wish it upon anyone else, of course….

  3. Thanks for the details about the lathe. I’m hoping you avoided damage from the storms over the last few days. Luckily the tornado stuff died out before the storms reached us in Athens.

    I was leaning towards the 1100W 8.7″ or a fully custom thing based around an ebay/ALY BT30 spindle, but think I’m just gonna go with a 750W 8″x16″ and some half-decent tooling from Shars (AXA toolholders, carbide insert tools, and two DROs). Since the 8×16 is not total garbage there is a decent chance adding two stepper motors will let it completely process short 6″-OD aluminum rods into usable parts. I might have to resort to some workholding terrorism during initial processing unless I shell out for a heavy 6~8″ chuck and adapter plate.

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