Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

gbrettin

I found a short-term solution for making pies. An engineer buddy of mine said he uses a miter saw that has a carbide wood cutting blade to make pies. Sure enough, the miter box made life easy; however, it can not be used for stainless (I need to wrap up the hot side too).
The 12’ pipe was cut into 4 manageable straights so that I could easily deal with the pipe. I then changed the blade to 9deg, made a few test cuts, marked the size I wanted to cut all the pies and then cut 6’ of pies down.

All the pies needed to be deburred and leveled out after using the miter box. Let me say this… The cuts were pretty dang good so the clean up wasn’t bad. Cleaning up 6’ of pie was mind numbing. I just put my headphones in and listened to music.

Building out the pie path was relatively straight forward after visualizing the path. Making the pies follow that imaginary path is slightly different. Let me rewind a bit. If you notice lines on the tube, I used that to cut the pies. A cut would be made and then the tube would need to be flipped over 180deg. The line going down the pipe would let me know where to flip. Fast forward back to laying out the (imaginary) path. I would use the same lines left on the pies to know how far I was clocking the pies and to line up a smooth radius.

An “X” pipe is needed for my boost setup for one major reason (and I think I’ve said this before, but it will make more sense at this point). The Holley twin intake has no common plenum. Ports 2,4,6,8 and 1,3,5,7 are completely independent of each other which means I need a common point somewhere in the system to balance boost pressure. I cannot have half of my engine receiving extra boost because that makes for some bendy rods. With that said, the driver’s side boost tube was mocked up and then I mocked up the passenger side to mirror. The passenger side was done up 50% until the driver’s side could be tacked up. (This is the end of one night and I went home)

Next day I was at this shop waiting on my buddy to tack the boost tube. During in the wait, I decided to see if I can tack up the new boost tube. The first attempt… I didn’t have the settings correct at all. The TIG was set to DC (WRONG) and the gas was not on (MORE WRONG). Come on man… I was excited and nervous. After remembering my YouTube academics and channeling Rusty’s Zen, I was able to do some tacks on scrap. I called my buddy Dave in (owner of Auto Dynamix) to do the actual tacks. Let’s be honest, I don’t want to re do a section of the pie snake. Best let the pro do it. Dave also required me to hold the pie snake together so it was a 2 person job. Putting heat into the aluminum makes the adhesive on the tape let go.

One last thing.. If you guys actually read this far… The pictures are in order. The last few pictures shows a complete passenger side and then it is tore apart again. That is by design. I took a few pies and then rebuilt the path again. The driver’s side was removed because the boost tubes cross paths so that I can make an “X”. I’m hoping that the passenger side will give the illusion it is independent. I’ve wrote enough for one morning.

If you have any questions let me know. I’d be happy to make up answers and bull$hit on the fly. lol

Edit --

I apologized to Dave in advanced for the time investment to weld my cold side. It's like 34 linear feet of welding. We both agreed it will look amazing when finished though.

Ghostvette

Wow....

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gbrettin

Happy New Year everyone!

Worked on getting the merge to actually merge. Coping pretty much sucked. I had to take pies on and off 50 times. When it was off I would massage some of the metal out with an aluminum sanding disk. That was the passenger side large section. I coped one pie for 4 hours on New Years Eve. Well, it wasn't one pie. It was like 5. It gave me night terrors.

The first few pictures are of me making a transition between 3" to 2.5" for the turbo. An exhaust flare was used to make an aggressive transition. When I start posting the turbo to intercooler pictures it will make a whole lot more sense why that quick transition is needed.

My vision must be starting to make sense to people. I posted the intake on FB and it was generally well received. The biggest hang up was trying to explain the necessity of balancing out the boost in the X pipe vs running a straight shot from the intercooler. Trust me, I would have loved to do that. WAY less pies and WAY WAY less welding.

madwi

Little baby Jesus in a hand basket floating down a river, you are glutton for punishment.

Rusty

That's a can of worms. That will give you nightmares. The next question. Once all welded up. Will you be able to install it and remove it without to much hassle?

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gbrettin

That's why I have four high quality vbands. I should be able to drop it in.

gbrettin

Guess what.... From the turbo to the IC has to be ALL pies. ERRRRR MAHHHHHH GERD.

I will say this.... After stepping away and then seeing it with a fresh set of eyes the next day. IT LOOKS AMAZING.

madwi

There is no question about that!

Hotrodz

Haha, talk about death from 10,000 pie cuts!!!

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gbrettin

50% of the the turbo to IC completed. 3" boost clamps were going to be used but the down turn and transition would have ran into the headlight. The 3" to 2.5 reducer I made yesterday will be welded directly to the IC. I need to purchase a 2.5" boost clamp for the turbo OR use a coupler.

jchammond

2yrs. into the build today
Haven’t started on mine yet & though will be using Nissan Engine/Transmission, I’m realistically gonna be pushing a year on mine
Loads of supporting mods to do & lots of oem parts to replace
Will be primarily working on weekends when I start, so could easily be 12-15months
Not putting a time limit on it; but I was hoping to have it up & running by my next birthday

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gbrettin

Actually... Technically I started in in Aug 2018.. I didn't start the build thread here until January because I was unsure about sharing a swap/build because I've never done anything like it before. Fortunately, I'm glad I did. I'm certain someone will find it very helpful if they are considering a swap for their 370z.

Being on the downhill slope is such a welcomed feeling right now.

I'll definitely be watching your build. Anything major has its twists and turns.

gbrettin

2 LONG years into the build. lol Apparently engine builds are hard and expensive. Who knew?

But...

Silver lining today. The cold side has been completely mocked up today.

Rusty

Getting closer.

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浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

jchammond

Definitely One of a kind
Looking forward to seeing what kinda power you throw down after breaking in
With the Bore/Stroke of your LS, should really spin up some R’s

I almost went that route, but after seeing Spooler get his last build at an Extremely Reputable Shop & knowing the fitment of Fastintentions Twin Turbo kits ...... I started writing checks
And more checks
Still a few more chunks to go

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MazWorx built long block | FI-TT-100 Stage 2.75 | IPT built 7A/T

http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...s-musings.html