Ford/ Saab Cologne V4 MFI + EFI conversion projects

[melle]

Got my machined parts yesterday. I had them made in China through jiga3d.com and my expectations of the quality and lead time were very low for the money (£200 incl shipping). To say they exceeded my expectations would be a gross understatement, well pleased with what I got. The quality of the machining and anodising is excellent, and the parts are free of any blemishes, machining marks or burrs. There are some intricate details in the design and they're all perfectly executed to spec. Quoted lead time was a month, the parts were delivered in just two weeks. (I sound like an influencer now don't I!)

I'm tapping all threads manually as it saves me modelling them and reduces the chances of error (it's not something I do every day...). Perhaps it makes the machining a little cheaper as well, but I haven't tested that as I would still need to model them (you can get instant quotes on the Jiga website, so it's really easy to compare different designs).

[peteh1969]

May 18, 2021 16:21:06 GMT melle said:

Got my machined parts yesterday. I had them made in China through jiga3d.com and my expectations of the quality and lead time were very low for the money (£200 incl shipping). To say they exceeded my expectations would be a gross understatement, well pleased with what I got. The quality of the machining and anodising is excellent, and the parts are free of any blemishes, machining marks or burrs. There are some intricate details in the design and they're all perfectly executed to spec. Quoted lead time was a month, the parts were delivered in just two weeks. (I sound like an influencer now don't I!)

I'm tapping all threads manually as it saves me modelling them and reduces the chances of error (it's not something I do every day...). Perhaps it makes the machining a little cheaper as well, but I haven't tested that as I would still need to model them (you can get instant quotes on the Jiga website, so it's really easy to compare different designs).

The Machined parts look very good, but I would be interested to see have they are when fitted and if they do the job they were designed to do?

As not everything that has come from China has been very good over the last twelve months.

[melle]

I'm not sure what kind of issues you're referring to peteh1969 ? Did you have any parts machined in China in the past year? The fit and finish of these parts is excellent and I don't suppose there's much that can go wrong with them really. They're nothing but machined bits of 6061 aluminium and they're made by an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer. The reason my expectations were low was the price; in my experience machined parts from China are usually of good quality.

[stealthstylz]

Think they must be investing some serious dosh into tooling and machinery over there. The quality of the Chinese stuff I've used recently has been through the roof, as if they've listened and learned from people's complaints

[melle]

I don't think it's fair to compare the Chinese B2B custom machining market with the run-of-the-mill consumer wibblepoo you can buy on AliExpress, and even there you get what you pay for (curious to hear details from Pete). They can make everything in China, to any specification, you ask and they make it as you want it (ask Apple etc.). You'd be hard pressed to find a company in the UK/ Europe who are willing to do any of this type of prototyping/ one-off work at all, unless you're a regular customer.

[stealthstylz]

It's all mass produced stuff. We use a lot of Chinese cylinder heads and other engine parts, at one time they needed a bit of fettling to make right but in the last 6-9 months they've really improved, to the point they're nicer than the OEM stuff. Much better quality material, the castings are super clean and come fully deburred etc. Compared to the other main country we use for parts *cough* America I'd get Chinese bits every time.

[peteh1969]

I personally have not had any parts made for any of my products or itemes I have designed for any of my cars but an OEM supplier whom I design for had some several items produced for durability testing, about this time last year mainly due to the fact that we were closed this time last year and deadlines for contracts still had to be met.

The parts that were received with full CMM reports for each parts full metallurgical analysis for each as well including the finishes and all were fine considering there were 40 parts produced within a month of the order being placed all was great, so the testing started and within 5 days of the testing starting 25 of them had failed and after another 5 days there was a further 5 parts had failed leaving 7 parts at the end of the test.

So the design was reviewed and FEA checked to make sure the design was not the problem with the customer all was good, so the customer requested the failed parts be lab checked and none of the parts were of the requested material and it was found that they had been hot metal sprayed with a 8 micron costing of the requested material and then finished.

That's as much as I know other than the supplier, I design for has taken legal action against the company who supplied the parts but they don't expect anything will come of it as they maintain they have done nothing wrong.

They won't be getting any more orders to supply parts.

This is only what I have been told that others have experienced.

Hopefully you will be lucky as your items are only one off items, but time will tell.
You should know more when you tap the threads.

Sometimes things are just too good to be true.

[melle]

That sounds pretty bad Pete. I have no way of testing what alloy is hiding under the nice finish, other than as you say tapping the threads and finding it's cheese. Other than that (worst case I'll fit helicoils) there's not too much that can go wrong with them I suppose. Of course some alloys will better withstand heat cycles than others, but since there are no real loads on the parts I think they should be OK whatever they're made off. No chance of these parts getting used in anger any time soon anyway, next time I go to NL is probably late summer, but I doubt I'll have time to get a K-Jet conversion engine running by then.

[etizz]

I love this. I have a saab v4 i did an efi conversion that was very primitive in comparison. I've always wanted to 3d design an "intake lower base" that has the coolant passages and injector bosses and then have an upper plenum that bolts to it that would flow much better . i have a 3d printer but no clue on how to get the intake base designed to properly match all the angles for the block/heads/valve covers so i would have giant leaks haha. if you ever get around to this let me know because i would love to have a better design for mine.

heres a video of mine running.

[melle]

Wow etizz , love your project! I have ideas for a manifold, already have a rough wire model in CAD, but it still needs a lot of work. Would be good to discuss ideas, PM me or join my thread on the UK Saab V4 forum (essentially a clone of this thread, but with V4 nerd discussion). Also very interested in your coil near plug ignition set-up.

[melle]

Tapping the threads went just fine (apart from the fact I'd forgotten to bring my NPT taps from the workshop so I couldn't do all of them). Now I need to find someone who can turn the final injector bosses for me and TIG weld them in.

Coming together nicely!

[melle]

If anyone's got a spare Volvo 240 K-Jetronic fuel metering device bottom, please give me a shout!

[melle]

Found a Volvo metering device bottom!

Now looking for a reasonably priced outfit or individual to turn four injector bosses for me, tips welcome. They're pretty straightforward, but I don't have a lathe available at the moment. It's basically a matter of cutting threads, chamfering, and parting off; no boring or OD machining required as I use the stock diameter. I can have the material (6063-T6 aluminium tube) posted to any address in the UK if they/ you don't have any stock.

(And before anyone notices: yes, I know 1" is too small a diameter for 3/4" BSPP threads, but it'll do fine to hold an injector retainer nut in place. )

Here's a couple of pics of a test piece I made earlier. The design is OK, but I need the final product to look a little more presentable and the hand-cut threads are just too crude to my taste. They will get welded into the manifold, then the holes get reamed to size (the 1/2" hole in the stock is just under size for the injector seal), and finally the inlets will get ported, so part of the bosses is sacrificial.

[melle]

Got the injector bosses machined (plus a spare):

[melle]

Some small things happened. This summer, my friend welded the injector bosses into the K-Jet manifold for me. I bead blasted the manifold and cleaned the hell out of it with acetone, but the alloy still was a right pain to weld. Ignore the washers under the brass caps, they're to emulate the height with injector seals fitted so we could make sure there wouldn't be any interference issues.

It's tight, but everything fits, which is a relief.

Next time I'm in the workshop I'll get the die grinders out and do some porting. The excess from the new bosses will be removed and the ports will be opened up to Saab Sport and Rally spec. If required, we'll then touch up the welds with a little more TIG.




I made coil-on-plug brackets from aluminium angle for the EFI engine the other day. Will bring them to the workshop next time I go to bead blast them and fit rivnuts for the COP fasteners.




Happy with how they came out, hope the angle of the boots isn't too acute though, as this is obviously not how they are supposed to be fitted.




Ignore the COP/ oil filler cap interference, the green rocker covers are just for mock-up purposes, I'll be using shortened and modified 2.9 V6 ones for the final iteration. I'll use the filler cap that is currently fitted to the right hand side rocker cover in the photo, I think it's off a Fiesta. I will of course fit a slightly more useful inlet manifold as well (see earlier in this thread).

[biturbo228]

Glad to see this is getting there! Always one of my favourite threads 👍

[melle]

Thanks biturbo228 !

[jelmerv8]

Looks great again! I really like the idea of upgrading and old carbed engine to EFI
.

[melle]

Thanks jelmerv8!

[Brigsy]

Great updates, good to see its making progress.