John's EZ36R H6 818R Build

[Hobby Racer]

Very nice looking! I love how simple and clean it is. So you are saying that the oil pump in your transmission had a tap into the discharge and that it was is going up to your cooler? That is super slick. Do you have any insight as to how much flow can be safely diverted? I remember talking about your scavenger pump you had to slow down which I guess was on your 5 speed. My first thought on these pics was how do you pick up oil half way up the case? A 'free' oil cooler, so much easier than adding a pump with the plumbing and wiring.

Its not that there is tap, its even better than that! In the pre 08 transmissions with an internal oil pump, 100% of the fluid from the pump exits the case and is routed through an external steel line. It re-enters the case near the front. In the pic below you can see the external line pointed to by red arrows. So hooking up an external cooler is super simple. Just remove the external line and replace it with the correct sized banjo bolts and plum in your cooler.

I have never use that style of AN connector. It looks like barbs, but I do not see anything holding the hose onto the barbs like a compression ring....Are they pressure rated or are you just banking on very low pressures?

The connectors are called push lok. They are great, push on and reusable. They are rated for 400 psi, no compression ring needed, I use them for everything. You do need the correct push lock type hose though. Summit Racing has a great selection.

Also in looking back at your open trans picks I do see the circular oil router piece in the left over output shaft race. It looks like that is the same idea as the piece that is behind the gear bolted into the tail housing. It puts oil into the shaft center. The lower one for the pinion shaft we both cut off handles the needle bearings (no longer in play). I think my output shaft was solid but I'm thinking your must have had something on it with a bleed hole or two. I looks like that is probably unnecessary now unless you think the size of the orifice actually holds some back pressure providing flow elsewhere. I would think behind it looks very similar to the same size hole, which is what mine has.

My shaft was hollow for oil flow. But, behind that plastic ring there were drilled oil passages that diverted flow to the left and right sides. Yours did not seem to have those passages. If I removed the diverter and the race the oil flow would have never gotten to those left and right passages so I left it in.

These are some of the reasons people prefer the older 6 speeds. The built in pump and ease of adding a cooler make it a better trans for hard use.

[jforand]

Oh heck yeah, easiest oil cooler ever. You don’t even have to sweat reducing flow. You simply put an exchanger in between the to existing ports. I’m jealous!

[Hobby Racer]

My first cable was a choke cable and had too much internal friction to work. My second cable was a tractor PTO cable. It worked but was large and clunky. My final cable is from McMaster-Carr and is a braided cable like a bicycle brake cable and lever. It works super smooth and the return spring built into the lockout mechanism is more than strong enough to return the lever when you let go of it.

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Hope my early mistakes help someone get there in one step

[jforand]

Nice setup.

Man, that shifter is a heck of a lot more robust than the plastic thing in my kit.

[Mitch Wright]

Nicely done.

[Kurk818]

I had a custom length cable made to fit the reverse lockout. The cable was made to mimic what subaru used but longer. I can post the manufacturer of it if anyone is interested. I cut off the OEM 6 speed upper portion of the shifter that includes the reverse lock out ring and welded it onto the FFR provided shifter.

This is the best photo i have of the transmission side at the moment.


and shifter

[Hobby Racer]

Finishing up some odds and ends.

Finally got around to installing the carbon fiber canards.







Added a new digital dash that pulls data directly from the ECU.



And lastly, added a pedal stop for the clutch pedal. This allows me to make quicker shifts as the pedal only travels the needed distance to disengage the clutch and not all the way to the firewall.

[flynntuna]

Can't see the pictures.

[Hobby Racer]

Are they fixed now?

[Ajzride]

Are they fixed now?

I can see them.

[Hobby Racer]

I need to extend my oil pan to fit over my new swing arm oil pump pickup. My design parameters are simple.

1. Extend the pan so the swing arm clears the bottom and moves freely
2. Keep the bottom of the pan above my diffuser
3. Make it as simple as possible

Given the complex and odd shape of the stock pan I decided to keep the mating surface of the stock pan and build on that.



I made a wooden pattern of the pan sides so I could bend up some 16 gauge steel to fit nicely.

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Next I cut the bottom off the stock pan with a 4 1/2 grinder and a cut off wheel. Everything seems to fit up very nicely. Next I need to cut out the new pan bottom out of the sheet of 16 gauge steel and TIG weld it all together.

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[Rob T]

Some fine surgery with that angle grinder. Very resourceful. I always learn a lot from this forum.

[jforand]

Very nice on the pedal stop. Mitch Wright was commenting on his need for a stop as he would over extend and blow out the slave cylinder on the clutch. I imagine this is in my future as well.

Nice camera work! How do you fit those ARMS in the car?

[Hobby Racer]

How do you fit those ARMS in the car?

Ok, that went right went right over my head. What do you mean?

[Hobby Racer]

This is my second attempt at an oil pickup swing arm. This version uses a standard shielded ball bearing instead of needle bearings. With this design I was able to make the swing arm a press fit into the bearing race, eliminating any slop that causes binding when it swinging. The arm is made from simple schedule 40 black pipe from Home Depot that has been turned down and press fit into the inner bearing race. The bearing mounting block is machined from an extruded piece of aluminum flat stock.

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Test fitting in the car showed a nice fit and decent swing range. Now I need to finish the pan by welding on a new bottom piece with a drain plug.

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[aquillen]

Very nice - should be "the solution".

[Mitch Wright]

Beautiful work.

[Hobby Racer]

I completed the pan this morning by welding on the bottom piece and adding a drain plug. I have to say, the pulse settings on modern inverter TIG welders are amazing. I welded the bottom without using any filler rod, just dialed in the pulse setting and melted over the corner. It came out excellent. Tonight I will fill it with water and let it sit overnight to check for leaks before painting it.



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[jforand]

HAHA, sorry about going over your head. It has been a few days and I honestly had to go back and figure it back out myself! I was commenting on your above picture in post 678 (the last one) . I am pretty sure I could not take that picture. You either have me really beat on flexibility or have REALLY long arms!

Really beautiful work. I wish I had access to machine shop equipment. I find myself still struggling to determine the best way to cut metal stock....

[Hobby Racer]

HAHA, sorry about going over your head. It has been a few days and I honestly had to go back and figure it back out myself! I was commenting on your above picture in post 678 (the last one) . I am pretty sure I could not take that picture. You either have me really beat on flexibility or have REALLY long arms!

Three words, removable steering wheel!

Really beautiful work. I wish I had access to machine shop equipment. I find myself still struggling to determine the best way to cut metal stock....

There is really nothing you can't cut with a cheap 4 1/2" angle grinder and a cut off wheel. Better tools might do it faster and or straighter but with patience you can do it with simple cheap tools.

[jforand]

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I was wondering about the swing and then you posted these pics. I was thinking that a full 360 swing would be cool as that is what the oil itself is going to be doing. If the pan was square it would facilitate that better with a circle being ideal. I don't believe changing the pan makes a lot of sense, I think you nailed that. The only other thing to facilitate a full 360 swing would be to shorten the arm. The downside of that is the pickup gets further from the front and back of the pan which is not ideal at all.

I'm thinking with the keyboard here a little so forgive me:

1) As the swing arm hits the sides of the pan I see two things potentially happening. 1) Impacting and wear. Over time I can see a wear pattern developing and possibly starting to outwardly dent the pan (death by a thousand paper cuts type thing). You seem to have a a pretty substantial interference angle at this point (versus swinging in at at more of a tangent to the side). As it wears or outwardly dents it will become more tangential. That will lead to potential binding and getting stuck over to a given side. You might want to put a bit of thought into welding in a little perpendicular stop on each side of the pan to keep it from trying to wedge into the side of the pan.

2) It appears to me that you have the arm pointed forward. I was wondering why you picked that orientation? To be clear, there will be a ton of lateral loading and that is what the swing takes care of. I am purely considering the fore/aft loading at his point to pick the best swing arm orientation. At first it seemed natural to me as I believe that you pull more G's under braking than acceleration (at least I do in the Mustang ~2:1). So put the pickup where the oil goes right? Then I kept thinking and I believe that the majority (with respect to time) of the longitudinal G loading will be to the rear. The thought is braking is most extreme and very compressed, whereas, the acceleration is more spread out and time consuming. All of the neutral loading just factors out for this exercise. I think I would give consideration to orienting the pickup in the rear facing direction. Of course, if you had data to say that oil pressure never wavered except under braking then that would change things.

3) You have picked differing materials and are relying on press fits. I am pretty sure that there are interference fits that will be just fine, but I am also certain that too loose could cause problems. Your aluminum piece will grow with heat more than the steel which will work to reduce the interference fit. There is a temperature out there where the bearing will fall out, which would obviously be the end of your engine. You might want to consider fashioning a retaining plate to close off/retain the bearing in your aluminum housing. Just a ring that goes around the pickup tube and has a couple ears that bolt to the aluminum flange. If you really wanted to be ultra safe, you could tack in a small steel collar on the pickup tube just outside the press fit into the bearing that would also be retained should that press fit start to walk on you as well.

Super clean and Super efficient. Just thought I would throw out a few considerations as they are easy to contemplate and incorporate at this stage. If anything is unclear feel free to ask for clarification.

[Hobby Racer]

1) As the swing arm hits the sides of the pan I see two things potentially happening. 1) Impacting and wear. Over time I can see a wear pattern developing and possibly starting to outwardly dent the pan (death by a thousand paper cuts type thing).

I don't think the arm will swing that violently as it is cushioned by quite a bit of oil and is not that heavy. I will however check on it after a season to see if there are any witness marks being made in the pan. If I find any I will come up with something to limit travel at the extremes.

2) It appears to me that you have the arm pointed forward. I was wondering why you picked that orientation? To be clear, there will be a ton of lateral loading and that is what the swing takes care of. I am purely considering the fore/aft loading at his point to pick the best swing arm orientation. At first it seemed natural to me as I believe that you pull more G's under braking than acceleration (at least I do in the Mustang ~2:1). So put the pickup where the oil goes right? Then I kept thinking and I believe that the majority (with respect to time) of the longitudinal G loading will be to the rear. The thought is braking is most extreme and very compressed, whereas, the acceleration is more spread out and time consuming. All of the neutral loading just factors out for this exercise. I think I would give consideration to orienting the pickup in the rear facing direction. Of course, if you had data to say that oil pressure never wavered except under braking then that would change things.

I do in fact have data to back this up, but the two places I lose oil pressure are under heavy braking and hard cornering. I never lose pressure under acceleration because, like most cars, we do not have enough power to pull real G's in acceleration so there is always plenty of oil around the pickup, no matter where it is in the pan. So it makes the most sense to have the pickup face forward and swing left to right.

3) You have picked differing materials and are relying on press fits. I am pretty sure that there are interference fits that will be just fine, but I am also certain that too loose could cause problems. Your aluminum piece will grow with heat more than the steel which will work to reduce the interference fit. There is a temperature out there where the bearing will fall out, which would obviously be the end of your engine. You might want to consider fashioning a retaining plate to close off/retain the bearing in your aluminum housing. Just a ring that goes around the pickup tube and has a couple ears that bolt to the aluminum flange. If you really wanted to be ultra safe, you could tack in a small steel collar on the pickup tube just outside the press fit into the bearing that would also be retained should that press fit start to walk on you as well.

It might be hard to see in the pics but there is a shelf machined into the aluminum mount that the bearing rests on when pressed into the mount. Once the mount is bolted to the bottom of the oil pump the bearing is trapped and can not come out. The swing arm is steel as is the bearing race its pressed into so they expand at approximately the same rate. However I am still thinking of either staking the top or putting the tiniest of tack welds on it to ensure is can never come out.

[jforand]

OH, I got you. The bearing pressed in the aluminum from the top. I saw the step but figured that was the top of the mount, but your pic does define that as the tube is already facing the other way.

Glad to hear you have data. So it is the extreme of braking....good to know, I knew cornering was a definite issue.

Sounds like you have it nailed. Very elegant solution.

[Hobby Racer]

While not strictly build related, I will be using this in my build. Its a bit rough around the edges but it was still being used in the machine shop I got it out of and everything works. I'll be doing a complete tear down and rebuild in the weeks / months to come while racing is on hold due to COVID-19. It will be nice to have something to do in the garage.

Mill_Pic.jpg

[Ajzride]

That would take up my entire garage!! Very nice, be sure to document the rebuild somewhere, I find that stuff fascinating.

[aquillen]

My little mill would fit in the vice alone. Nice grab!

[Brd.Prey]

On my list that and a lathe, just need to free up the capital.

[q4stix]

Nice score on the mill. I did the same thing and while the head on mine was recently rebuilt, the base had paint chipping off because it was sitting in a coolant bath. I went to town with a needle scaler, wire brush, and lots of degreaser after disassembling the whole mill. I'm just starting to put together a small paint booth to get DTM primer on it.


Have fun and be safe, these parts are heavy!

[Hobby Racer]

I went to town with a needle scaler, wire brush, and lots of degreaser after disassembling the whole mill. I'm just starting to put together a small paint booth to get DTM primer on it.

Wow, I did exactly the same thing. The needle scaler was amazing at stripping the paint, rust and especially the body filer/puddy they used to smooth out the rough castings. I used about a quart of acetone to get all the coolant and cutting oils off the castings before I primed the base.

I'm not going for a show finish or anything, I just want it to look nice and keep it from rusting. Using Rust-Oleum primer and paint. I sprayed the primer but I think I'm just going to roll / brush on the rest. I'm not looking to turn this into a long project, I'd rather be making chips

[Hobby Racer]

I needed a custom air duct to direct air from the side vents to the transmission cooler, so I decided to try my hand at making a custom mold for a wet fiberglass layup. I have never really done a complete fiberglass part, from mold to finished part. I marvel at the skill of some of the people here like aquillen who make entire manifolds in carbon fiber! But here is my simple part.

I mocked up what I needed in wood as the sizes were easy and I have lots of scrap laying about. I then used automotive body filler to fill the gaps and sanded it out to get a smooth finish. To make it easier to get the mold out I separated it into two sections so in theory I could just pop each piece out.


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After waxing the mold twice and then coating everything in PVA release agent I laid up a total of three layers. First layer was cloth followed by mat and a final layer of cloth. When it came time to pull the mold out it would not come out, even after unscrewing the two separate sections. I ended up destroying the mold by digging out the wood layer by layer. I drilled many large holes with a large forstner bit to hog out as much wood as I could before going at it with a wood chisel. Eventually I got it all out and the part was actually a great fit.


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Once I get it mounted to the cooler and the air piped to it from the side vent I'll post more pics.

[FFRWRX]

You probably know that you can use styrofoam for something like that instead of wood. Cover it with packing tape so the resin won’t dissolve it. When done, dissolve out the foam and pull off the tape. I’ve done a lot of small fibreglass pieces like that. I use the pink foam as it doesn't get beads everywhere as bad as the white stuff. But what you made looks very nice!

[lance corsi]

Hobby, I had the same problem and have since found that wrapping the mold in Saran Wrap works very well for separating the part from your mold.

[Hobby Racer]

You probably know that you can use styrofoam for something like that instead of wood. Cover it with packing tape so the resin won’t dissolve it. When done, dissolve out the foam and pull off the tape. I’ve done a lot of small fibreglass pieces like that. I use the pink foam as it doesn't get beads everywhere as bad as the white stuff. But what you made looks very nice!

Hobby, I had the same problem and have since found that wrapping the mold in Saran Wrap works very well for separating the part from your mold.

Great suggestions. I'm going to try these methods when I do the mating piece that bonds to the inside of the side vent, thanks!

[FFRWRX]

Great suggestions. I'm going to try these methods when I do the mating piece that bonds to the inside of the side vent, thanks!

Do one or the other. I think the resin may go through the Saran Wrap and attack the foam. It won’t stick to packing tape, so you don’t need another release agent. I seem to recall a guy at a fibreglass supply place telling me that Saran Wrap was very similar to release agents (PVA maybe, but I don’t remember) so that is a good suggestion to try if you want to stick with a wood mold.

That is a very nice duct you are making. More pictures as you progress please.

[aquillen]

When I wax, I use about 8 to 10 coats, not just a couple, PVA also needs to be well coated. A couple tricks to de-mold include warming it up so the glass can flex away from the mold surface, and figure out how to blast high pressure air down between the parts while pulling - sometimes that really works well. In your case you (could have) drilled through the center of the wood, or a tiny hole in the back of the new glass, and put HP air in that to pop the thing out. But you are there.... so happy now!

[Hobby Racer]

... blast high pressure air down between the parts while pulling - sometimes that really works well. In your case you (could have) drilled through the center of the wood, or a tiny hole in the back of the new glass, and put HP air in that to pop the thing out. But you are there.... so happy now!

High pressure air piped through channels in the mold . . . that is a great idea . . . wish I had thought of it before, I could have saved the mold.

[mikeb75]

fiberglass resin doesn't stick to duct-tape. Which just reinforces my opinion that duct-tape is is magic. I've wrapped the plug with duct-tape to very good success, before I even tried using mold-release wax & PVA. Regardless, that is a very nice looking part!

[Frank818]

This fabrication is insanely awesome! Too bad molds are a one time use.

[Jetfuel]

This fabrication is insanely awesome! Too bad molds are a one time use.

...not always...
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Foreground Kevlar top...background cardboard mold

Jetfuel

[Hobby Racer]

I completed the transmission cooler ducting that grabs air from the driver's side vent and forces it through the transmission cooler. I trimmed the short ends of the fiberglass duct so that the long edges seal up against the cooler body forming a tight seal. The end caps are short and only need a small piece of foam to completely seal the edges. I made two small aluminum brackets to affix the duct to the cooler mount and then routed the hose.

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I ended up using a 4" hose made for dust collection systems in a wood shop. I'm not sure about it's heat rating but it is not real close to anything hot, fingers crossed that it holds up. If it doesn't I'll have to use automotive silicone hose, but that's $$$.

Until I get a chance to take the body off again and mold a nice piece to fit the driver's vent, I made an aluminum arm that holds the hose end in place just inside the side vent. That should suffice for now.

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All in all I'm happy with how it turned out. I'll do testing next week at my first track event this season. I'll report back on how it works.