Mk3 Supercharged ABF Track Taxi.....2012... a new beginning :-)

Thanks mate,

yes chopped then TIG'd

 

Grill mounted Airbox Part 1.....Moving the Rad.

Im snowed in!!![:^(] .....Track taxi 1, R888s, and snow, dont go well together so there was no way I was going to work, and therefore no way I can work on Dads taxi this evening so I figured Id update the thread.



OK...The Big Cs taxi progress:

The ethos behind relocating the alternator in order to mount the supercharger at the top of the engine bay was to build an airbox that directs air straight into the charger inlet over a short distance from the front grill. The benefits for doing this will be:

• minimal intake airflow losses,
• Air fed to charger is taken from a high pressure point at the front of vehicle
• minimise up-heat of intake air
• And most importantly......BECAUSE IT WILL LOOK COOOOOOL

Unfortunately the supercharger mounting is the easy part. With the supercharger in its new home the front grill is blocked by the front panel and radiator. The Mk3 clearly had enough space to drop the rad but I would need to make sure that I use similar techniques to 12Valver (many thanks Martin) to increase airflow with the rad in its new position. The bulk of the cooling air will come from the lower portion of the front bumper.





front panel cut




Charge cooler concerns.

In addition to the standard radiator, I needed to find a suitable radiator to use for the charge cooler whos position ill need to consider during the main rad move. For the Charge cooling to be successful, I needed to find a radiator thats:

• Preferably an engine coolant radiator as their cooling effectiveness is proven.
• large enough to maximise water heat rejection,
• large enough to help increase the overall water capacity which helps to slow the build in water temperature
• that will fit tightly in front of the standard radiator in its new location so has to have its inlet and outlets on the edge of the rad rather than conventionally.

Hours of searching the bay I found the perfect partner to my main rad.



Pic of lowered rad from behind dummy positioned,



Pic of rad from above with charge cooler rad in front




The front cross member has been modified as seen on 12valvers Mk3 with the addition of the brackets which will secure both rads. At a later date I will modify the front bumper so that in during track use the number plate can be removed to provide additional airflow.









Part 2 to come.....

 

Nice update Tim. Top work

Its coming along nicely. What Throttle Body have you decided to use?

 

top work dude, very detailed.... can't wait to see the finish product

 

Thanks Mate,

Current plan is to use the std MK3 ABF throttle with a large high flowing recirculating dumpvalve for throttle bypass. Hopefully I can eventually replace the dumpvalve for an electronicly controlled bypass.

 

Grill mounted Airbox Part 2......Making the mould

OK....so the space has now been created for the airbox with the charger intake able to get clean flowing high pressure air. Next task is to make the Former (PLUG) from which a Mould will be made from fibreglass from which the Fibreglass (Carbon....i wish) Airbox will be formed......Hope that made sense.

• Step 1 make the plug which represents the final size and shape of the airbox
• Step 2 Use the plug to make a fibreglass mould (basically a negative of the Plug)
• Step 3 use the Mould to make the Airbox

The easiest and quickest way to explain the process I went through is via a set of pictures which should be self explanatory.













Time for some filler













Final preparation

Before the plug can be used to create the mould it needed to be smooth like glass so took it to the body shop to be covered in two pack and polished.





Next update....Mould making time!!!!

 

Good job mate

you need a flexi bellows type pipe to allow for engine movement, lorrys often have some interested moulded airbox parts

 

good work fella

 

That air box turned out great!

 

that's the mould

 

dude you do like making things hard for urself!!! lol

Keep it up, giving me ideas for my beast

 

Yet again some nice work T!

 

My bad still looks good tho.

 

thats how ive made loudspeaker enclosures in the past male plug, make a female mould then get a exact copy of the original part out of teh mould. also means you can make loads and sell them

Collinite 845 works great as a mould release wax!

 

Thanks for the tip mate, Ill give that a try next time.



This is the wax im using.

1 coat down, 4 to go!!!

 

Any more updates for us Tim?

 

Hey Hari, never fear updates to come very soon. Been busy trying to finish the Airbox and sorting the belt-run and pulleys on the supercharger. Watch this space

 

This car is looking f good ! Can't wait to see updates when its running !

 

Grill mounted Airbox Part 3......The Finale

so.....where was I???

Months have gone by since my last post but happily progress has continued behind the scenes to get this car ready. Pictures always are worth a thousand words so I'll quit the rambling and attempt to bring you up to date.......LE AIRBOX: up to this point I had made the plug which was going to be used to create a mould which would theeeen be used to create the final airbox:

Plug mounted to a smooth board and covered in gel coat





resin mix







this was then left to cure over night and the plug was pulled from the now solid fibreglass. I applied the wax to the mould then used black gel coat which would become the outside of the final airbox







Left to dry overnight, pulled from the mould and trimmed:







A quick call to some friends at ITG, I had a filter made to my specification:

 

Very nice MrT