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Horse Power, Track Shit, Torque, Cubic Inches, Liters, Run What Ya Brung, Auto or Cycle

Definitely more kers and hybrid tech. I’m sure it’s also a bunch of weird material development also.

Unfortunately the materials race got halted a couple decades ago in the name of controlling costs. That same logic is suckung much of the fun and technology development out of motorsport, and the OEMs are still burning truckloads of money.
 
Unfortunately the materials race got halted a couple decades ago in the name of controlling costs. That same logic is suckung much of the fun and technology development out of motorsport, and the OEMs are still burning truckloads of money.
I guess in my limited attention to F1 I haven’t heard of any exotic materials other than the obvious carbon fiber and titanium. I do know the exhaust is made from inconel but that’s not super exotic any more
 
@rjacobs you’re leaving my dream man! I picked up an ‘03 nb with the 6 speed a few years ago with the intention of doing everything you’re doing (down to the xidas). I got deployed right after I got the car and then moved to the middle of nowhere with no track nearby and it just sat and sat and I eventually had to get rid of it. Keep posting so I can live vicariously!
 
I guess in my limited attention to F1 I haven’t heard of any exotic materials other than the obvious carbon fiber and titanium. I do know the exhaust is made from inconel but that’s not super exotic any more
Well when people advertise 6061 and 7075 aluminum as aerospace grade and developed for nasa it still is. Until most machinists, the average Fudd or normal person has heard of it inconel will always be a super exotic.
 
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Ducati desmo valves. 2 cam lobes per valve, with 2 rockers per valve. One pushes valve down (open) and another pulls up (closes) valve. No springs, and it's not pneumatic. So legal in MotoGP.
 
Well when people advertise 6061 and 7075 aluminum as aerospace grade and developed for nasa it still is. Until most machinists, the average Fudd or normal person has heard of it inconel will always be a super exotic.
Inconel is good at 1 thing.
Resisting heat.
It is NOT strong, it is NOT light.
Titanium is light, and strong.
Aluminum is light.
01, A2, W1-W3, M2, 1045/1085/1095, are strong, but heavy.
Aerogel weighs near nothing, but is weak and won't handle heat, at all.

You have to choose the correct element or alloy for the purpose.
To say inconel is superior shows a serious flaw.....in the person that said it was superior.
 
I guess in my limited attention to F1 I haven’t heard of any exotic materials other than the obvious carbon fiber and titanium. I do know the exhaust is made from inconel but that’s not super exotic any more

This is from the 2026 rules (similar wording has existed for 15+ years):

Screenshot_20230210-054525.png


Screenshot_20230210-054650.png


It's fairly limiting in terms of one's ability to really push the limits of technology (think of an engine that is mostly non-metallic), but yet is open enough to allow huge sums of money to be spent pursuing marginal gains.
 
Inconel is good at 1 thing.
Resisting heat.
It is NOT strong, it is NOT light.
Titanium is light, and strong.
Aluminum is light.
01, A2, W1-W3, M2, 1045/1085/1095, are strong, but heavy.
Aerogel weighs near nothing, but is weak and won't handle heat, at all.

You have to choose the correct element or alloy for the purpose.
To say inconel is superior shows a serious flaw.....in the person that said it was superior.
He didn’t say it was superior. He said it was super exotic.
 
Inconel is good at 1 thing.
Resisting heat.
It is NOT strong, it is NOT light.
Titanium is light, and strong.
Aluminum is light.
01, A2, W1-W3, M2, 1045/1085/1095, are strong, but heavy.
Aerogel weighs near nothing, but is weak and won't handle heat, at all.

You have to choose the correct element or alloy for the purpose.
To say inconel is superior shows a serious flaw.....in the person that said it was superior.
The better term to call it would be a superalloy or exotic superalloy. I used the term @The D used.

As a machinist I have worked with more materials than most. Previous place I made bolts mostly out of astm a453 grade 660 which is a close cousin of a286. Current place I have ground aluminum, 4140ht, s7, 420ss, 440c, nitronic 40, 15-5, 17-4, hastelloy x, inconel 718, inconel 909, udimet, Mar m 247. Most I also turned including the last 4. What I mostly work with these days is grinding the inconels and the Mar m.
 
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Inconel is good at 1 thing.
Resisting heat.
It is NOT strong, it is NOT light.
Titanium is light, and strong.
Aluminum is light.
01, A2, W1-W3, M2, 1045/1085/1095, are strong, but heavy.
Aerogel weighs near nothing, but is weak and won't handle heat, at all.

You have to choose the correct element or alloy for the purpose.
To say inconel is superior shows a serious flaw.....in the person that said it was superior.
You just said inconel is good at resisting heat. It’s not just good at that. It is, in fact, superior at that. Because of its superior heat resistance, it is a superior(albeit expensive) material for use in exhaust systems. Specifically exhaust valves and manifolds. Since it is so superior in heat resistance, it can be made much thinner than traditional 304 stainless. Which, incidentally, makes it much lighter as well.

BMW even has an entire rear exhaust section made from inconel for the E9x M3(there may be other models too, I’m just more focused on the V8 M3). It’s expensive as shit but it is quite a bit lighter. IMO, they should also have made a set of headers but I get why the rear section was prioritized.
 
I’m always down for an argument
 
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Could yall ever see a rifle barrel being able to be made from inconel?
@Frank Green talked about the .mil experimental cobalt barrels the Army had him make. Wore out quite a bit of $$$ in tooling just making a few of them so the idea was scrapped.
 
Did they ever shoot anything out of the cobalt barrels?
 
These adjustable push rods are an absolute pain in the dick!!!

View attachment 8072264
I'll tell you a quick story about an awesome "period 2 - historic" engines.. and how to cheat.

Instead of running a pushrod in the guide tube, and the cam being and the bottom near the crank, pushing the rod and rocker....
Turn it into a taper gear on the crank, and have the "pushrod" have a taper gear on each end. The pushrod now rotates and DOENST go up or down. And machine the head to have "over head cam".

Bam.. free HP, and free rpm. At the cost of a lot of money. Like... Lots and lots of money.
 
Adjustable push rods are good for one thing... measuring the proper length of a real push rod... It dont matter the motor... They are only good for 1 single thing...
 
New engine for this summer.

427 LS on a Dart tall deck block.
Billet Callies Magnum crank
Oliver rods
CID LS7 heads
Jesel stuff:
  • Belt drive for cam
  • Shaft rockers
  • DLC'd solid lifters
Peterson 4S dry sump and tank
Aeromotive 12GPM fuel pump
MSD 600 Pro ignition
Holley Dominator engine management
Billet Atomizer 700lb/hr injectors
Whipple 8.3L blower
Diamond slugs
O Ringed/TF hoops and copper gaskets for heads
Zoomie headers
Solid roller with .780" lift and something around 240* of duration. shaky shaky...lol.

Stuff we made here at the shop:
  • Oil pan
  • Valve coves
  • Oil pan rails
  • Fuel distro manifold
  • Blower drive hubs, pulleys, belt guard
  • Motor plate
  • Fuel rails
  • Motor plate adapers for block
  • Block coolant adapters
  • Splined crank snout*
  • Splined crank hub*
*not done yet; tooling just showed up to broach the new hub I'm making

We went 5.4 last year on an IRS suspension (2005 GTO) with the old motor. That was a 6.0L truck block that split apart in less than ten passes, bent a rod, and killed a new crank. (dammit!) 12.5:1 static on methanol and 35psi doesn't leave much of a tuning window. All it took was a 3% "fatten up" on fuel when the DA dropped one night. It hydraulically prison-sexed a cylinder, and that was all she wrote.

The Gods took their pound of flesh. (Fuck those guys)

We estimate that the 6.0L motor made around 1,500 tire. Shooting for 2K on this new one.
 

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Speaking of developmentally delayed, I did some basic repairs on my diesel Econoline last weekend, and as always, it sucked. Replacing the thermostat and blower fan motor was probably a solid 4 hours of work. At least the transmission mount R&R was straightforward.

Next up is swapping heads and blower on the ZL1 for something that breathes a bit better, and then it might be time to close the book on that chapter and start looking for a new project car. Given the age of my sons (8 & 12) and my usual project cadence (taking years to do a few weekends' worth of work), this might become a family project.
 
Speaking of developmentally delayed, I did some basic repairs on my diesel Econoline last weekend, and as always, it sucked. Replacing the thermostat and blower fan motor was probably a solid 4 hours of work. At least the transmission mount R&R was straightforward.

Next up is swapping heads and blower on the ZL1 for something that breathes a bit better, and then it might be time to close the book on that chapter and start looking for a new project car. Given the age of my sons (8 & 12) and my usual project cadence (taking years to do a few weekends' worth of work), this might become a family project.
Maggie 2650, 2.7L, 3.0?
 
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Not as cool or fast as a lot of stuff here, but this is my homemade, stand back and squint, sorta Lotus 7. I built it for a fun street/autocross toy, and it does that pretty well. Unfortunately I don't have any autocross events anywhere near me anymore, so it's just a streetcar now. It's like driving a gokart on steroids, conservative estimate would be about 200 hp and it weighs right around 1350 lbs with a full tank of fuel.

K3__0175_PhotLemur_copy_2048x1362.jpeg
K3__0168_PhotLemur_copy_2048x1362.jpeg

Kristian
 
Not as cool or fast as a lot of stuff here, but this is my homemade, stand back and squint, sorta Lotus 7. I built it for a fun street/autocross toy, and it does that pretty well. Unfortunately I don't have any autocross events anywhere near me anymore, so it's just a streetcar now. It's like driving a gokart on steroids, conservative estimate would be about 200 hp and it weighs right around 1350 lbs with a full tank of fuel.

View attachment 8091358View attachment 8091359
Kristian
Shit yeah, these are awesome. Moar details!
 
Not as cool or fast as a lot of stuff here, but this is my homemade, stand back and squint, sorta Lotus 7. I built it for a fun street/autocross toy, and it does that pretty well. Unfortunately I don't have any autocross events anywhere near me anymore, so it's just a streetcar now. It's like driving a gokart on steroids, conservative estimate would be about 200 hp and it weighs right around 1350 lbs with a full tank of fuel.

View attachment 8091358View attachment 8091359
Kristian
That is awesome, agree more pics!
 
Not as cool or fast as a lot of stuff here, but this is my homemade, stand back and squint, sorta Lotus 7. I built it for a fun street/autocross toy, and it does that pretty well. Unfortunately I don't have any autocross events anywhere near me anymore, so it's just a streetcar now. It's like driving a gokart on steroids, conservative estimate would be about 200 hp and it weighs right around 1350 lbs with a full tank of fuel.

View attachment 8091358View attachment 8091359
Kristian
Is that the Spences Bridge area?
 
Is that the Spences Bridge area?
Close, it's between Wallachin and Cache Creek.
Shit yeah, these are awesome. Moar details!

That is awesome, agree more pics!
Thanks guys. It's fun, but my first and only real car project, so lots of things could have been done better. Lots of things I'd change if I were to build another. More details, how much time domyou have? The engine is a 3.0 pushrod V6 from a Taurus. I converted it to a Holley 4 barrel with a homemade upper intake that uses the stock lower. The top half of the distributor came from a Ford 170 inline 6 so I could use an MSD ignition and not worry about the original TFI and computer controlled stuff. Transmission is a Mitsubishi 5 speed from a Hyundai, I made an adapter plate and 9lb steel flywheel to mate the two. Rear axle, front spindles, brakes, mastercylinder, etc. are from an early 80's Corolla, steering rack is from a Tercel. Rear suspension is 4 link with panhard bar and GAZ coilovers, front is double wishbone with matching coilovers and my own design a arms made from 3/4" x.065" tubing, the uppers are adjustable with a couple aluminum links with right and left hand threads on either end. Body is mostly .040 aluminum screwed to the chassis tubes. The hood is a bit thicker. Nose and dash cover are fiberglass. I built the exhaust from mandrel U bends and straight bits. The collectors for the headers I made from 4 pieces and welded together. I used a steering column from a 77 F-150 because it was free and I wanted self canceling turn signals. Mirrors came from probably a 90's sportbike. Here's a video from an autocross, I think the first time I ran it on slicks.


And another later on. I never did get it to not stall in the stop box with the slicks, it would certainly run better with a properly tuned EFI setup.

Some early build photos.
HPIM1059.jpg
HPIM1068.jpg
HPIM1096.jpg
Chassis4.jpg

Adjustable upper arms.
_IGP8546.jpg

Homemade pedal assembly plumbed.
_IGP8560.jpg

First test drive.
_IGP8489.jpg


Kristian
 
Ah, Gen 5 ZL1!

Yep. It's a tank, in both good and bad ways.

I'm replacing my 1.9L with a 2.3L. Should be here in a few weeks. Once I swap it out, it shouls put me over the 800whp mark.

I might be right around that point on E85 - we'll see what shakes out during the running process. Regardless of the dyno numbers, I've covered the "easy" mods, I'm past the capabilities of the cooling system for a 20-min lapping session, and it's more than powerful enough for a fair-weather commuter.
 
I got the trunk of the woman's Olds started. It's all boxed in and waiting to find a match to the interior upholstery to finish. I found a shop that has some of the original vinyl from the 60's but not enough to do the job. One more place to check and it'll probably be ordering new stuff that's close enough.
PXL_20230304_211048682.jpg

Also getting the body work done on the Monte Carlo. Removed the vinyl top and cut out some bad rust.
PXL_20230210_201946231.jpg

PXL_20230220_225418812.jpg

I took it yesterday to have the rear glass removed so I can fix the glass channel.