Determination, the Devil and the Details

It was the first warm summer evening after a long cold spring. The national weather institute even promised a mild night at latitude 57. As a consequence a Saturday night barbecue was fired up.

For some sloppy souls that scene would mean a shut down. To turn off the milling machine, wash off the dirt and go grab a beer.

For the determined, it's all different. When they have flow there's nothing but Go! 

Magnus The Determined, in deep DYI mode. Prepared to burn a barrels of midnight oil to make a mayor breakthrough.

Why? When a Ford FE V8 is in need of a port fuel injection (PFI) system there's normally no time to spare.

  

Sunday morning at Salt Slush workshop. The PFI FE inlet manifold is a done deal. Looks good. Even great.

 

Admiration was in the air. The DIY PFI Ford FE common rail manifold is soon ready to reach the target. A 1970 Ford F100 pick up truck.

The only way to outsmart the Devil is to go for the details. Then there's no room for Beelzebub anymore. When Magnus have manged to position injector adapters perfectly through treads in obscure angle and tailor make every injector position perfectly we know that he had to go. I'm talking about the Devil who had to seek shelter in other details.

Obliviously JB Weld is a good equipment for Exorcists. 

Remark: A more detailed PFI FE engine post will follow. In a while. Sure as hell.

Persistence is king. Or should we say Queen?

Let's start with a warning and a general advice. 

Warning first: There's not a trace of turbos nor superchargers in this post. That's not good since boost pressure is what makes most of us happy in our search for a safe, secure way to satisfy our crave for speed.

Moving on to the general advice; Don't do this at home! Especially not if you're the restless type in constant search for fast feedback.

Instead, this article is all about persistence and the ability to change state of mind. To get a new perspective. To move tedious to time-to-think-treasure.

Here's what we're talking about... 

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The original plan: Sandblasting. Instead: Car archaeology. 

Carina grabbed cheapest possible paint remover and discovered layer after layer of car fashion. All the way back to the Cadillac Lucerne Green. 

A really nice Cadillac color from 1949.Google it and you'll find out.

 

After endless hours and continuous contemplation; 

Bare bone sheet metal celebration.

Primer applied.

From another angle in a different light.

 Paint it black. In a two component kind of way.

Dry paint and worn hubcap.It's all coming together....

...and  step by step, new tires are finding thier way to the old Cadillac wheels.

'

 While, eventually, these wheels reach their elegant, art deco appearance.

Meanwhile,in another part of our speed shop, Carina creates momentum and take the opportunity make Jeep driveshafts great again. 

Scissors Paper Rock 'n' Roll

New grand things being laid out. Is it the plans for a new traffic intersection in Gothenburg? No no no it’s not that bad. On the contrary this is supposed to aid a flow not stop it completely. It’s the Hillbilly SketchUp beginnings of an air box. This will increase our chances of lightning fast top speed, it will provide a great flow of filtered air and bring Unicorns to tears. Well maybe no Unicorns will cry, I have heard they are much tougher than it seems. But according to my calculations, and I know math, this will increase the magic of our land speed race with 3-5%. Yes almost as much as was added by the gold flake steering wheel and every bit of help is needed blasting thru the desert.

OK it’s only the humble beginnings drawn on a stolen piece of Masonite board. But a needed exercise to see if it will fit the front of the car. To be honest I don’t know that much about air ducting nor filtering. I don’t even have a filter or anything on my hot rod and that seems to work just fine. But having compressor wheels spinning at 200 000 rpm being blasted with salt can’t be a good thing. With some luck and a few educated guesses this will work fine. If really lucky the air will enter at a aerodynamic high pressure point in the front and cause some ram effect. Time will tell. Flow and filter area will be sufficient at least.

Is this thing theoretical beyond practical use? Yes probably. Would it work with just a reasonably sized hole and a straight pipe? Most likely. But there is the factor of trying ideas, think, design, execute. Also there is an element of elegance in this solution.

After this mockup is done I'm looking forward to the 3 dimensional game of Tetris we have in front of us. It is, for the time being, not that cramped in the engine compartment, but many of the parts needs to be in the same general area.

I'm very happy with the new Hillbilly SketchUp application.

 I like curves

 Mockup air filters... High flow.