Then the back side of the cover was scanned. Now Nikita has all of the vehicles digital data so he could design a scoop for the cooler. Nikita considered the styling lines of the original part and maximized the size of the duct to best feed the oil cooler.
Now the part can be designed in CAD and the geometry optimized. For more money the flow can be optimized via CFD as well but were were not into being that anal!
Then the printing path was figured out, time to print our part!
In a few days we had a 3D Printed duct! What is amazing is that it fit better and more securely than the OEM part!
First we had to get the part ready for paint. As printed it has heavy grain like wood but worse! We block sanded the part with 220 grit open coat sandpaper to knock the high points of the print lines down.
11 comments
The trouble with the Aesub spray is it is pretty pricey at $40 a can. Back when I last did a scanning project a couple years ago it was closer to $60. I ended up using Magnaflux SDK-S2 developer which was a little better at a little under $30 a can, but still expensive. It doesn’t evaporate on its own, but leaves behind a chalky residue that is easy to clean up.
That said, it seems the real budget option is to go for talc, corn starch or baby powder mixed with rubbing alcohol. I haven’t had a chance to try this myself, but plan to use it at the next opportunity.
The disappearing feature is pretty good for me and worth the price to me especially when doing stuff like suspension, brakes and inside of the the core support, the cleanup would take a long time.
Im sure there is a decent market for that part for subject owners/lovers.
*subie owners
That’s really cool, what a great use of 3D scanning and printing. I’m really glad you guys showed how much work goes into finishing a printed part to an OEM level finish. The finished part turned out great!
> This is really cool and we will probably have to run the stock cover for winter driving to avoid overcooling the oil!
Is there reason not to run an oil thermostat sandwich to the cooler to avoid overcooling?
Great article!
I don’t like them as they can restrict flow, however, the Greddy cooler uses one. I am not sure what temperature it opens at.
On Project S2000, I had to cover up some of the front bumper airflow opening in winter taking the highway to the track to reduce airflow to the oil cooler. Even though I had a Mocal thermostatic sandwich plate, it still always flows some oil. If the oil in the oil cooler were completely cut off, then it would be very cold when the thermostat opened up and could thermally shock hot components it comes in touch with.
What polymer was the component printed from? Fantastic work on getting the fitment and then surface finish so good.
ABS.
Really interested in that brake duct, would you guys make another set for both sides of the vehicle?