2006 Argo Avenger with T20

[Mike]

Today I worked on the fresh air intake some. As I'm swapping the liquid cooled motor with an air cooled one, I wanted to build some ducting to allow the motor to get the coolest air possible. I debated using metal vs plastic. I think metal would be the easiest, using prefabbed duct work, but I decided to try my hand at some plastic welding and I went with HDPE. I purchased a full sheet of HDPE to use for this as well as, eventually, a firewall. I had previously measured and modeled the duct work. Today I cut out the pieces. I've got a couple of adjustments to make and then I will start welding.

I debated over which plastic welder to choose and ended up with a cheapish one from ebay. The main reason I purchased it was for the "high speed" tip. This allows you to feed the plastic rod down into the welder instead of having to work the material by hand. In the photo you can see the green welder, most of the pieces I cut for the fresh air intake as well as the plastic welding rod on the left hand side in the long bag.

[thebuggyman1]

Progress update Mike??? We are all waiting to see how this thing performs

[Mike]

You and me both. Unfortunately there are no updates. I haven't even seen the Avenger since the last time I posted in this thread. How sad is that? I've been out of town a lot and am actually typing this on the plane over Phoenix right now as I head home. Hopefully I will get some time to work on it next month.

[Model Citizen]

[Mike]

Over Phoenix? Hope you're waving hello, Mike. How 'bout having them shove you out with a parachute over our house for a few hours? We'll have coffee.

Bridget

I was looking down for a dust cloud behind a springer

[Moosetalker]

Heres hoping you get the time Mike.

[Mike]

So, three months later and I am finally back at this project again. I started working on a template for a split shifter and today I started plastic welding the HDPE I had previously cut for the fresh air intake. The cheap welder that I purchased is working better than I could have expected. Here are two pictures. The first one shows the plastic welder and the high-speed tip that helps to feed the welding rod. The second one is a photo of the first of several beads I did today.



The welding itself is very easy once you have the right heat setting dialed in. The difficult part was keeping the plastic straight. I had to use a ton of c-clamps and measure multiple times to set up each weld. Even after a lot of careful measuring / planning, the plastic still moves and warps with the heat. I spent a couple of hours today on it and only got three sides welded together. The good news though is that the welds are very strong and on two scrap pieces that I practiced on, I couldn't break the weld.

[LarryW]

Neat build Mike! Your doing a great job. Its going to be one cool Argo when your done!

[Mike]

Thanks Larry.

Today I got all of the fresh air intake plastic-welded on the inside. I have one last piece to weld on but I have to put it in the Argo to position it correctly first. Later I will come back and plastic weld the seams on the outside as well just for extra strength. This intake turned out to be much more rigid than I even imagined.

The only thing I am a little concerned about is the airflow. The engine is only inches from an abrupt 90 degree turn in airflow through this intake. I may end up needing to install some turning veins in the duct but I'm going to wait and see how it performs first.

[Mike]

Lately, I've been working on the shifter for the T20 when I get a free minute here and there. I test fit it today and with a couple of minor adjustments, it is close to being finished. I still have to plug and drill the tubing for the right hand shifter rod. In the fist photo, it's just laying on the ground where it needs to be mounted.

The shift linkage is working out really well. I was going to bend the rods going to the shift knobs to fit them side by side but I think I'm going to go back and remake the left shift linkage to spread the shift knobs out a little further so that I don't have to bend the rods. I ordered a couple of shifter knobs with the shift pattern:

R
|
N
|
F

on them. Once they arrive, I will finalize the placement of the shifter rods and be ready to paint everything.

[Don]

That is some really nice work, Mike.

[Mike]

The shift knobs for my split shifter arrived last week. That allowed me to finalize the separation between the shifters and finally finish up the split shifter itself. I just have to clean up some welds and paint it. I ended up having shift knobs made by a company called House of Speed. I chose their Custom Engraved Shift Knob and went with the smallest diameter they offered of 1-7/8" diameter. I cut 1/2"-20 threads on the shift levers and had them match that with the threaded insert in the shift knobs. They turned out really well.

[Noel Woods]

This build is really looking great. Mike are you an engineer?

[thebuggyman1]

Just went back to the beginning of the thread......You do great work Mike, but isn't it time to be done and riding? ....I don't have anywhere near that much patience. How much is left to do?

[Mike]

This build is really looking great. Mike are you an engineer?

Thanks. I am an electrical engineer.

Just went back to the beginning of the thread......You do great work Mike, but isn't it time to be done and riding? ....I don't have anywhere near that much patience. How much is left to do?

It was time to be done and riding over a year ago. There really isn't much left:

-Bend some exhaust pipe and weld it onto the existing exhaust to get it out of the engine compartment.
-Cut some sheet metal for an exhaust duct to direct the heat out of the engine bay.
-Wire the motor.
-Bend and plastic weld some HDPE to create a firewall and a floorboard

Other than some miscellaneous things to wrap up, that's about it. So I should be done in another 8-10 months.