Drivetrain Swaps With Rear Upper Crossmember Mods

Dr.Jeff said:
Is your header completely fabricated or are you referring to the rest of the system?
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The header is the usual shorty, but modified. The flange was cut off and re-welded to mount the header upside down. The rest of the system was fabricated to utilize as much of the available space as possible. The purpose was not related to any performance gain, but to provide as long a path as possible to hopefully reduce drone. Trying to shoehorn everything under the trunk floor requires very close bends and short runs, but since the rear trunk is of no concern on this build I decided to take advantage of the space. The build has stainless mesh between the tail lights, no trunk partition, and no rain tray to hopefully try and reduce the heat load. Everything is theoretical - when the time comes to hit the road I'll see if it all actually works as planned.
 
jimmyx said:
The flange was cut off and re-welded to mount the header upside down.
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That makes sense, I didn't recognize it otherwise.


jimmyx said:
The build has stainless mesh between the tail lights, no trunk partition, and no rain tray to hopefully try and reduce the heat load.
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For my turbo build I've done the same, also hoping to draw some heat out the back. In addition I've enlarged the side scoop openings and added bigger scoops to the outside, hoping to push more cool air into the bay.
 
jimmyx said:
The build has stainless mesh between the tail lights, no trunk partition, and no rain tray to hopefully try and reduce the heat load

^ This would be a good addition to "Turbo Systems for X1/9s" or "Side vents/ducts, snorkels, and now..." or maybe there is a thread that I'm not aware of.

When X #2 is acquired (hopefully very soon - stay tuned) I wish to explore these options and a couple of other air flow changes.

Turbo systems for X1/9's

EDIT: This thread started out talking about air flow and a intercooler. But it has grown as there is a lot more really great turbo related information to be learned from our members. So I changed the title and want to open up the discussion to any/all things relating to a turbo on a X1/9. In...
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Side vents/ducts, and now Snorkels!

RJ, nice job. That appears to be roughly the proportion I described; 1/3 above the upper body line, 1/3 below the lower body line. Looking at your actual mock-up it is a little bigger than I imagined. But I think by the time it gets some contour added to match the body profile and the finishing...
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Sorry to walk on your thread, Hussein!
 
Hussein, this is where I cut mine. I will be sending you more pics as promised…
 

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This is how Abarth did it on their car back in the day.

That said, I think you could cut out the section of the existing structure you need to, leave the hinge pickup points and either box it into the trunk or add sufficient structure to the ends left to carry the loads into a tube.

I think you may end up very close to the front edge of the rear trunk lid with one of the tubes of the header which may neccessitate some changes there. Going back to the steel lid may be desirable in addition to carrying the load of the rear wing…

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kmead said:
This is how Abarth did it on their car back in the day.

That said, I think you could cut out the section of the existing structure you need to, leave the hinge pickup points and either box it into the trunk or add sufficient structure to the ends left to carry the loads into a tube.

I think you may end up very close to the front edge of the rear trunk lid with one of the tubes of the header which may neccessitate some changes there. Going back to the steel lid may be desirable in addition to carrying the load of the rear wing…

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Would love to see this with the spare out of the way. Looks like the right rear frame rail is MIA?
 
jimmyx said:
Would love to see this with the spare out of the way. Looks like the right rear frame rail is MIA?
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Actually, I doubt it needs either frame rail past the rear crossmember. I've seen other race prepped Xs with them removed to save weight off the rear of the car.
 
These pics a re from way back in 2006. I believe it was an early Honda swap from the UK?? It seems all you need is some rebar. At least it looks like rebar, the pics are not very detailed.
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Design wise I'd do similar to how the Abarth is, with a cross bar on top and a "V" from each end of it down to the middle of the lower crossmember. But that might depend on how your K20 mounts are laid out. If there is a main engine/trans mount somewhere along the bottom then I'd try to make the diagonals meet close to it.
 
jimmyx said:
Would love to see this with the spare out of the way. Looks like the right rear frame rail is MIA?
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It does look that way. If you look carefully through the straight on pic you can see they extended it below the spare given they didn’t need to dump exhaust on the right side.
 
kmead said:
It does look that way. If you look carefully through the straight on pic you can see they extended it below the spare given they didn’t need to dump exhaust on the right side.
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Now I see it through the spare wheel opening. Figured there had to be something I was missing. Thanks for the eagle eye, Karl!
 
I'm leaning toward the Abarth style layout, but with the trunk (modified) reworked (thanks for the crisp pics, Karl). I like the tie-ins on each end - Cleaner than most of the others. I ordered some 1.75" tubing from Summit - but now I'm thinking most of the examples use around 1" tube...

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