My EFI Conversion

[the_engineers]

Well, I dropped the plenum pattern off at the foundry tonight.  He thinks it might be cast as soon as tomorrow!  I'm as anxious as a new daddy.

[hemiken]

Well, I dropped the plenum pattern off at the foundry tonight.  He thinks it might be cast as soon as tomorrow!  I'm as anxious as a new daddy.

Would you be able to do a new post and go through the whole process with a little more detail explaination of the process please.... i am interested to see the outcome as i have some stuff here i would like to do myself like you have.

[the_engineers]

Hemiken,
I am not an expert at this by any means.  I did some reading on the internet to educate myself.  I talked, at length, with the guy who is doing the casting about what he needed (from me) to make this work.  Here are a couple of articles that got me going...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost-foam_casting
http://www.buildyouridea.com/foundry/lost_foam_howto/lost_foam_howto.html
http://www.plansandprojects.com/My%20Machines/lostfom1.htm

Let me know if this still leaves a lot of blanks...

[PlumCrazyChris]

I agree, this casting your own parts tech info really needs its own thread.  Great info and really cool.  I hope it comes out the way you want it.

Its amazing what you can do with foam.   I college we used foam to build our forms for the ASCE Concrete Canoe contest, a first.  Where other colleges were building wooden forms that took months, we could finish a form in a couple of days with 20'x3'x2' block and a hot knife. 

Feel free to copy these posts to a new thread if you want.  I'm sure other guys would love to be aware and see this stuff.

[PlumCrazyChris]

 
EFI-Cuda wrote:

The Aeromotive A1000 is a big pump and according to Aeromotive needs to be mounted below the tank so it can be gravity fed.  And, the pump doesn't like being used to suck fuel.  It only likes to push it. 

Given these restrictions, I'd try the Walbro pump if I had to do it again.  Or, maybe I could mount the pump in the tank.  For right now, my fuel set up has given me no problems and works great.  The pump can be heard, but I don't think that the pump is too loud.  Besides, the engine and the blower whine drown it out.    :-)

And, there is no where on an E-body that I can see mounting this big pump below the gas tank.

That is quite an extensive system, love the pickups in the tank, but like you say its feeding some serious HP.  Way overkill for my needs, but really awesome in any case. 

I wonder if I even need the low pressure tank, with my sump, the hi pres pump intake is below the level of the tank.....

What I really need a chemically stable foam block insert and a modified factory fuel sending unit to mount the pump, and I'd be all set.   
   Maybe thats how I can make my $Millions.  Retrofit EFI fuel system for the masses!

[the_engineers]

Maybe thats how I can make my $Millions.  Retrofit EFI fuel system for the masses!

...is XV's plan, $900 at a time?

[PlumCrazyChris]

Do you mean your system was designed by XV?   They are great engineers over there....

I hope they weather this economic down turn and sell enough to start getting used parts on the market.   I'd love to get some of their stuff, but its a bit too pricey for me.

[the_engineers]

No, not designed by...but it's hard to do this and not take cues from their lead.

No doubt their stuff is great (and pricey)...

[hemiken]

Hemiken,
I am not an expert at this by any means.  I did some reading on the internet to educate myself.  I talked, at length, with the guy who is doing the casting about what he needed (from me) to make this work.  Here are a couple of articles that got me going...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost-foam_casting
http://www.buildyouridea.com/foundry/lost_foam_howto/lost_foam_howto.html
http://www.plansandprojects.com/My%20Machines/lostfom1.htm

Let me know if this still leaves a lot of blanks...

Thanks for the links i will have a read.

[ShelbyDogg]

Those are some great links engineers!   Thanks for those.


Now, what can I make?   

Anybody have a foam mold of a 426 hemi block and heads?

[the_engineers]

Well, the first attempt at casting the plenum went yesterday and there's good news and bad news.

The bad news...I built the form "floor" out of 1/2 foam, figuring I'd grind/sand/machine the excess away to get what I needed.  Unfortunately, the base ended up consuming too much material and the 16 lb pour came up short.  I'll be removing material from the floor and from the throttle body mounting flange on version #2.  Also, the foam structure was a little weak, so I'll need to add some supports or sprues to minimize warpage and pre-pour distortion.

The good news...it was SO close.  Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics, but the pour went very well and it was amazing to see something that I had created in foam reproduced in aluminum.



Also, I thought it was really neat that you can actually see the flow/fill pattern in the side of the casting.  All of this is getting covered in black wrinkle paint, but, nonetheless.

[bb71challenger]

Very nice. You should find success with your next cast. Is it just a deceiving angle or does the throttle body mounting base require a lot of aluminum as well?

[the_engineers]

It is not the angle, you are correct.  That is another area that we'll be moving metal out of for version 2.  We should be making another attempt tomorrow.

[hemiken]

It is not the angle, you are correct.  That is another area that we'll be moving metal out of for version 2.  We should be making another attempt tomorrow.

Can you post pictures of the new foam piece you have made please, and is there any chance of you taking pictures as you are going through the process when you are pouring also... Thanks.

[the_engineers]

Can you post pictures of the new foam piece you have made please, and is there any chance of you taking pictures as you are going through the process when you are pouring also... Thanks.

I will take a few tonight and post them.  As for the pour, the plan is that I will be present for this one, so "Yes" I'm hoping to take some pics.