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This article was first published in 2007.
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If you’re the sort of person who delights in
visiting garage sales, secondhand shops and even the tip in search of useful
stuff, read on. Especially if you expect to be modifying cars over the long
term, where items you pick up today might be useful not for your current car but
maybe the one after that – or perhaps even the one after that.
Each of the following items pops up only
occasionally – they’re not the sort of thing you’d expect to immediately come
across. But you will find them – the trick is to recognise their
usefulness to car modification when they appear.
All of the following items have been acquired by
me cheaply – often at zero cost – and put aside for later use. Many such items
that I have collected in the past have been incorporated in cars, or have been
used to work on cars, and invariably they have been successful in the roles
they’ve been put to. And over the years and with many similar items I have saved
literally thousands of dollars over more traditional approaches...
Item: Aluminium drink bottles, fire
extinguishers, soda syphons
Car Uses: Either as they are, or with some
fittings welded on – fuel swirl pots, over-boost pressure reservoirs (reducing
wastegate creep), water injection reservoirs, catch cans.
Notes: Soda syphons and fire extinguishers
are designed to hold pressure.
Item: Fisher and Paykel washing machine 12V
water solenoid valves
Car Use: On/off valve for water injection,
on/off for pressurised intercooler water spray, potentially able to be pulsed at
varying duty cycles.
Notes: Most washing machine solenoid valves
use mains power (eg 240V) and won’t operate on 12V DC, so you need the Fisher
and Paykel ones. They have ‘12V’ written on them (arrow).
Item: Late model mufflers
Car use: Obvious...
Notes: Most recent cars use stainless steel
mufflers that will last for nearly ever. Making a note of the power output of the original
car and then using the muffler on a car with say half that power will get you a
very free-flowing, quiet and cheap muffler.
Item: Flexible large diameter ducting
Car use: Cold air intake to airbox
Notes: Very easy to find as short length,
discarded off-cuts but often hard and expensive to buy new
Item: G-clamps
Use: Obvious
Notes: You can simply never have too many.
When buying secondhand, make sure the clamp butts up square against the stop
when fully closed. A wirebrushing and some paint will make this one look like
new.
Item: Turbo boost control valves
Use: Controlling turbo boost in aftermarket
applications
Notes: Any factory turbo engine of the last
15 years has one of these. If you’re using an aftermarket ECU or something like
The Independent Electronic Boost Control, Part 1 to control turbo boost,
having one of these valves is invaluable.
Item: 240V AC pulsing pump
Use: Ultra high pressure intercooler water
spray
Notes: As shown in
World's Best Intercooler Water Spray, Part 1 it’s possible, with
the use of a 240V inverter, to use one of these pumps as an intercooler spray.
You’ll find them in industrial equipment.
Item: Hand files
Use: Obvious
Notes: Files can often be picked up for
nearly nothing, especially if they are a bit worn. However, a worn file works
very well as a final finish file. Look especially for half-round files as they
are very useful.
Item: Brass fittings
Use: Connecting to pumps, valves, pressure
regulators
Notes: Brass fittings are used in manual
boost controls, when plumbing-in fuel pumps or water spray pumps. If they’re
cheap, worth picking up irrespective of thread and size.
Item: Heat exchanger cores
Use: Water/air intercooler
Notes: Rare but a worthy pick-up. Jacket
the outside of the tube stack and weld on fittings. Run water around outside of tubes and
intake air through tubes. Suitable for smaller turbo cars.
Conclusion
I don’t think that these ten things are
groundbreaking. But I do know that they’re each very useful in modifying cars,
and that if you keep your eyes open, they can be picked up for near zero
cost.
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