Quote:
Originally Posted by KiokenM3
cant wait to hear this thing
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Me either!!
We were able to get together again tonight to work. We were hoping to finish today, but had some trouble with the welding in such tight spots. Looks like we'll have to get another type of tip to reach some of the spots behind where we can see. Sam had to weld blind in some spots.
Onto the pics!
These are the two valve ports that we're going to weld in today.
Sam is cutting out the access ports on the bottom of the exhaust now to gain access to the underside of the tubes for welding. We chewed through four cutting disks to get them open. The M3 exhaust is tough!
Just a test fit and view from the bottom side. Note we'll have to do a little bit of filling in there against the outer wall - not a big deal but doesn't make for the easiest of welds! We had to widen this hole because the valve tube wouldn't slide in after we welded it together - it was just hitting one of the interior tubes and wouldn't let us rotate it in. We'll do a little "bridging" here to fill it, but hey now we know for next time...
After marking around the tubes, Sam starts plasma cutting the interior stock tubes.
We turned the plasma torch way down to avoid over cutting. The walls were very thin as you can see. After this, we cleaned up the holes in preparation for welding.
The is the driver's side aligned, taped up and ready for tacking into place.
Tacks are done.
Passenger's side too
Looking good!
This is just a final test fit with the valves before welding. We aligned the gear reduction and motor to the back so it is less noticeable. I'm still deciding what to do about tips for the valves. Part of me wants to leave them without tips. It might look cool - you'll be able to see them from the rear perhaps when opening. If we do make a tip, it will be very shallow and point as downward as possible.
This is the driver's side. Note that the valve motor and gear reduction enclosure points the wrong direction. I will be taking this apart to flip the valve 180 degrees. Race Ready Performance says this is OK to do as long as I use Loctite when putting it back together.
Now Sam is welding the tubes on. We're in the final throws now.
You can see how tight it is in there between the pipes. This is why we need to get a different tip that is angled and will allow us to get into those super tight areas. Sam said this is one of the more difficult weld jobs he has done - he cant move, he cant see and the angles are weird!
He commented he also liked to weld this sort of thing with Argon gas so there is less slag inside and it generally makes welding easier. This would be hard to do because the muffler section of the exhaust is not sealed and thusly we could not pressurize the tubes with argon.
Sam is welding up the outside to make it air/water tight again. This was sort of tricky to weld because of the double wall and the gap we needed to bridge. Sam was not too happy with the results, but I think it looks great.
Tacked and ready to go..
Looking good!
This is where we had to fill the gap. Looks pretty good considering. It will look a lot nicer after we clean it up with a wire brush.
Sam's well worn gloves appear to be caressing something as they lie on the table.
Thats it for now. Enjoy!