BMW V8 dry sump from billet

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AdeV:
Thanks lads, for all your encouragement and praise - if it weren't for this site, I probably wouldn't even be attempting this.... and if I were I'd barely have a clue what I was doing.

One thing.... so far, this is only in wax, which is really rather soft & easy to drill/mill.... whilst I don't have any particular worries with the aluminium, I do know it'll take longer. And Stilldrillin' (David) - I would really baulk at having to do this in steel! I think the mill would fall over with the weight!

Darren - there are three holes because there are three (separate) oil pumps - all in one unit, but each oil stream doesn't meet the other. The idea is, if one pump ends up sucking all the oil away & is pulling on air, it doesn't affect the other two, which might still have oil to deal with. At least, I assume that's the theory...

I'm not sure how much oil is actually going to be coming down these pipes; but the current sump has 5/8" ID fittings, and three outlets, so I'm assuming the hole size is good for the oil volume. Of course, if the engine blows the sump off the first time it's used in anger, we'll know that bigger holes are needed! :lol:

I also need to come up with a way of turning the holes through 90 degrees, so they exit from the side of the sump instead of the front. I think a bolt-on block with some kind of press-fit tube fittings will be called for. At least I won't need the long drill for that one!

AdeV:
Just a quick update, I did a trial hole in aluminium today. Using the first "woodruff" piece I cut some 20 days ago (blimey!), I bandsawed a corner off, mounted it in the same way I had the sump yesterday (and yes, I can clamp it much more firmly, which is a big relief!), milled a flat spot, then plunge milled (horizontally, feels weird) a 16mm starter hole for the drill bit.

That done, I proceeded to drill... after the first 60-70mm, it was 10mm of cut, withdraw clean & lubricate the bit, back in, 10mm, rinse & repeat. All the way to 485mm. It took a LONG time - thank goodness for power feed! - but, we got to the bottom of the hole without incident, no nasty noises, and no broken drill bits.

Special swarf shot for those who like such things... :) :

Incidentally, I'm using WD40 as my coolant. As I'm being told by every man & his dog that paraffin is a brilliant Aluminium cutting fluid, I thought I'd try some out, to see if I could get more than 10mm depth of cut. Well, I couldn't, and the drill bit squeaked worse than an angry mouse.... so, back to the WD40 for me. I'll try the paraffin again when I'm making more open cuts.

So... how good was the hole? Full of confidence, I predicted its end point & drew it on the ali:

Aaaargh! Missed!:

WTF, etc.? :scratch: :smart: Bugger..... when I measured how far across the hole is, I used calipers & measured from the edge; and forgot to add in the cutter width. Eejit. So, added 8mm, and drilled again. Much better.... It's about 2mm off target horizontally (which means vertically when I drilled it; so the drill was pointing up by 2mm over 485mm... possible I suppose, though the wax holes seemed to be more accurate than that) and 1mm out vertically - which of course was horizontal when I measured it. That's entirely possible - I used a ruler to check it, not a caliper or micrometer...

Upshot is, I'm happy enough. That drillbit should do the 3 holes I need of it with ease, and given how accurate it's cut even with my real agricultural setup methods, it should do much better when I come to do the real thing.

Right, back to the mill for another hour or so... :thumbup:

Rob.Wilson:
AdeV :bugeye: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: that is some drill bit , well done ,you have some balls :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
Looking forward to the next instalment .

Cheers Rob

AdeV:
Thanks Rob - must admit, I was puckering a few times during that drill, especially towards the end...

Only a brief update tonight; milled the slopes into the bottom of each pocket, so there's some kind of gradient for the oil to follow. I have to be careful to leave enough material to not break through into the adjacent drain holes (otherwise I'll have to cut & cover). Managed it, although Mr Accuracy stormed off after I accidentally dropped the metric calipers (buggerit, now I need a replacement).... so some of the cuts are too deep, and some are just plain wrong... Come the real thing, I'll probably mill the slopes in before I drill the holes, while I'm doing the side slopes.

I also made a bit of a path for the head drains; I need to mill those deeper, however, got to figure that out. I also need to mill a bit of an angle on the front & back portions; although there's not a lot going on there, there's enough to warrant a bit of a drain... I was going to do it tonight, but I've got to spin the angle plate around, and that's a ball-ache of a job. So it'll get done tomorrow...

Current state of play (it looks a lot better in the photo than it does in real life...):

As you can see, I've accidentally bumped a couple of the ribs with an end mill. One day, I might actually learn which way to turn the handwheels. :doh:

DMIOM:
Real top-banana for your "lets get it done" !

--- Quote from: AdeV on March 05, 2010, 04:13:02 PM ---......As you can see, I've accidentally bumped a couple of the ribs with an end mill. One day, I might actually learn which way to turn the handwheels.doh:
--- End quote ---
Just melt her down and start again !

and :nrocks: - from this to George's stunning micro-engines ....

Dave

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