The Oil Cooler (or whats left after "Austin" happened to it)

The 15 row oil cooler I purchased for a thrifty $50 presented me with a problem. The fittings were, as expected, size 10 AN (Army-Navy) performance automotive fittings (they originated in the military, so they cost a pretty penny). Nearly worthless to me, because I'm using standard plumbing sizes and common 45* flared tubing connections instead of AN's weird sizes and awkward 37* flares (even though AN looks WAY cooler). Reason(s) being, AN fittings are ridiculously expensive, and you can't buy them at the hardware store.

As fate would have it, the inside diameters of these giant AN fittings were the perfect starting size for my 1/4" NPT (National Pipe Thread) tap. For the sake of space, I beheaded both the fittings, then tapped them out.

I then went ahead and plumbed an aluminum line from the oil filter to the forward side of the oil cooler. Not too bad.

Tune in next time.

The Re-birth of an Oil System...

I'm sick today, and had some time to get back to the engine. My first oil pump, a Fimco Gold series multi-diaphragm pump, was an agricultural pump, and simply wouldn't supply the viscous oil at any amount of pressure. I have a sneaking suspicion that this complete lack of oil pressure led to the death of my last attempt at building a gas turbine. As not to repeat the mistake, I've purchased a gear-type oil scavenging pump, meant to return oil from a low-mounted turbocharger, or to operate a separate oil system for the turbocharger. It's allegedly rated 2.5 GPM at 60 PSI for oil.

That is, of course, for a car. We'll see how it does.

Here's the engine with the new pump all mounted and plumbed up. I've replaced the pump feed line with silicone tubing which is larger than the original aluminum line. This is to avoid an effect called cavitation which would put air-bubbles in the line, depriving the turbocharger of a steady flow of oil.

 The pump will be a great fit with the engine. I have also installed an automotive ignition coil, which will be driven by a 555 timer circuit and amplifier.

Till next time, cheers!