@D_Barnes Thank you. I will be keeping an eye out for a copy state side. Where the block cracked makes sense given the description. Below is a link to a YouTube video of a company that manufactures 2jz blocks for high horsepower applications. The detail and description he gives for reinforcement is interesting. He also states, depending on design, the weight savings can be negligible due to the extra reinforcement but you end up with a stiffer block.
Steve Morrison Racing, link below is a US engine manufacturer that puts out a lot of great videos. Extremely knowledgeable and explains engine design concepts well. I found his piston sleeve video below really good for learning about engines.
I appreciate this group sharing advice with me so I will try to share from time to time my inspirations as well.
The month of August will be dedicated to finishing the jaguar front clip. Front passenger fender coming along nicely.
@montauk1989 Dave, thanks and great question. I will try to do better in the future with sharing the software I am using. The application is called Polycam and can be download for free for your phone from the Google store. In the free version you receive 5 free scans before they ask for you to pay for them. So far I have been impressed with the results. I use Blender (free) to read the output file and to clean up the mesh a little. I have then been importing the .stl meshes into Fusion 360 (free version) to start to design the CAD and tooling profiles.
Abebooks is always my go-to for finding rare used books. They have 3 copies right now, including the same seller David mentions from eBay, but his shipping is cheaper if ordered on abebooks. His copy is by far the cheapest currently available, and sounds in the best condition too.
You have an interesting project. Casting an aluminium block is relatively challenging and hopefully if i could share my experience casting aluminium blocks in Rhodesia 40 years ago, my learning mistakes might help you.
I cast an Aston DB4 replacement block on our farm. It was a process of trial and many errors but we eventually produced a couple of aluminium cylinder blocks that drove hundreds of thousands of km.
We made wood patterns easily enough but we found out the hard way that the casting pour must be achieved seamlessly with many pouring pots filled from three burners running flat out. We modified the water jacket and made the fire face an open deck which simplified the core making and placement. That required us to machine a huge cast iron monosleave containing all six bores. The cast iron monosleave overcame the constant overheating problems we had with the standard engine. An O ring groove was machined into both the top & bottom faces of the monosleave to seal water. We cross drilled the monosleave to improve water flow around the bores which helped cooling.
Sanctions against Rhodesia meant that we had to develop local fixes rather than simply importing vital parts from the UK. We only ever made aluminium castings and the following bullet points hopefully help your project.
1). Calculate and double check you have sufficient melting capacity. Theres nothing worse than completing 95% of a pour and running out.
2). We set up core boxes on a dry, flat, clean concrete floor (Mums carport). Important that the whole area is dry, ventilated and sheltered. Casting can be dangerous and our home made pouring laddles weighed a tonne. Modern health and safety professionals would never allow us to cast using the same methods today.
3). We did not try to make the machining allowances too small. Our castings were neither as accurate nor was well finished as factory castings from a proper founday. That necessitated
generous machining allowances.
4). We had significant leakage of moulton aluminium due to our amaturish moulds.
5). Runners and risers had a big impact on porosity and we no doubt made cylinder blocks that were not as well finished as factory made
6). Pouring needs to be swift but not hurried. I think we had about 8 people working on melting and decanting into our laddle and 2 of us pouring the part.
I cannot remember how many blocks we made in the learning phase but think we melted about 6 down before we made a workable sample.
I also use Fusion 360 for concept layouts of our structure and suspension. It has huge capability, I’ve barely scratched the surface. I leave the detail shapes and dimensioning to the professionals.
I use Creality for small 3D printing jobs, another forum member told me yesterday about their Lizard scanner. He plans to use it to scan his front suspension. CR-Scan Lizard 3D Scanner - Creality 3D
Here’s some more information from Peter re casting methods:
"an excellent YouTube clip showing by far the easiest casting method. Make a disposable Styrofoam model of the finished aluminium casting. Must be scaled up to allow for shrinkage as the casting cools. It’s a great and safe way to make a more detailed casting, excellent if you’re only going to make one.
Another approach if their 3D printer is big enough is to print the block in wax and bond the pieces together to make the whole block. The wax is the shape of all the voids that will become metal. Wash the wax mould repeatedly with a fine sand slurry until the slurry has hardened and is around 8mm thick. Then put sand mould in an oven to melt out the wax. Place the 8mm wall thickness mould shell in a cope and drag (casting boxes) and gently tamp down to surround and support the refractory sand shell.
Then pour molten Ali into the mould cavity that was created by wax impression. Surface finishes are usually superb. Casting this way will create the best result"
Not really related to the topic of this thread but I just got back from Techno Classica Essen where I stumbled across this price list binder from Peter Lindner’s dealership. Was not much $$ so I picked it up to use for a couple of my parts catalogs. His car is my favorite of all the Lightweights so I am happy to have a small item from his place back then .
Rick, I was just looking back through some old topics and thought I know a couple of guys who I know could do this and in fact I think Mark had an aluminum Etype under construction…2 of the most skillful panel beaters I’ve ever seen…I knew Mark and Steve well, Mark was an apprentice with Mulliner Park Ward in London and Steve with Aston Martin in Newport Pagnell, I bought my old Series 2 from them.
Small world!!!
Sandy.
Sandy, you do know that you can edit out any boo boos before anybody else see them theres a pen icon lower right of your post, just hit that and it takes you back into the post.
Sorry to the group for my lack of updates. I started last fall building a new workshop. I quickly ran into issue with contractors and planning permissions and had to dramatically change plans several times. Needless to say the new garage is up and nearly complete but much smaller than I had originally wanted. My new plan is to use it more for storage, freeing up space in my current workshop, as well as renovate the old workshop with better lighting, tool storage and electrical outlets. Up until this point I was sharing my old workshop with my wife’s car, children’s toys, lawn equipment and everything else you can imagine requiring me to move 5 items to access one. The new setup should elevate this and give me some dedicated space.
Well the new workshop is up and running and I have been making new progress on the hood. Attached are a few workshop and car photos. I now have a full three bay garage dedicated for project space.
The added space and not having to shuffle around cars has really made working in the garage more enjoyable. Below are some photos of the hood scoop. It had been a little while since I had used the English wheel but it quickly reminded me how much I enjoy it. It’s such a smooth and satisfying process building panels from scratch.
None of the hood is what I consider a final fitment. My goal is to get the panels all close and begin to work then more once I have the group together. The original hood I am using has a little twist in it and fitment problems itself so I can only get things so close using it as a template.
Anyways, more to come and thanks for following along.
theres a pen icon lower right of your post, just hit that and it takes you back into the post.
