Amish Express, Quest for the 11's: Rumspriga Begins!

Network? Shocker? I have no idea what either of those mean. The latter in regards to electricity, or otherwise... LOL
See above, and below:D:poke::hehe:
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The twin parts have made their way to ceramic and thermal coating. I'll try and make this as interesting as possible:

Last week, I met a person who has a passion for what they do. Everyone who's good at their craft or trade usually has some manor of enthusiasm for their profession. This individual tops that by a measure that I don't often see.

Per ED's recommendation, I found my way down to Zoofactory Coatings to have my twins and pipes finished. While Chris or Glenn would have been happy to take care of this for me, I was very specific about what I wanted done and we came to the conclusion that due to the location of his shop, I'd drop off the parts and speak with the guys at the Zoo.

This is where I met the passionate soul mentioned above.
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I spoke with Chris at Zoofactory on the phone several times before we met. He patiently detailed the process and painstaking steps that go into his ceramic and thermal coatings. I don't know how other shops do it, but I can tell you this; this cat believes in what he does and does it to a "T."


The mess of parts I dropped off at Zoofactory:
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Starting with a baking process that removes all oils in the metal, the parts are never touched again by human hands till the coating is complete. After careful masking, the parts go through various media and hand finishing before the series of ceramic and thermal coatings are applied. Once coated to his satisfaction, the parts are loaded into an oven large enough to park a truck in and baked like Tollhouse cookies till the coating thoroughly bonds to the prepared surface. When the adhesion is complete and the parts cool, they are placed in a vibratory polisher with ceramic bead media. After the bulk of the polishing is done, each and every piece is hand polished to Chris's satisfaction before being wrapped and boxed for pickup. I think I can work with this guy. LOL

Parts mocked up in functional position. Chris doesn't often get to see how things bolt together and function. This permitted some insightful ideas for combining his coating offerings.
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What impressed me the most is the degree of owner involvement in the production process. When I stepped in the door, Chris was seated at a table behind the counter with ear buds in, jamming on his Ipod, hand polishing parts for the previous customer. Several times during my visit, he paused our tour to answer the phone or tend to parts in the vibratory polisher. His involvement in his product is by choice, not necessity.

Within the last few weeks, Zoofactory scored a government contract to apply ceramic coatings to the recoil springs of Howitzer cannons for our military. Several pallets of these springs were in the loading dock during my visit. It could have just as easily been coils for 3500 Dodge Ram pickups judging from their size. Apparently the military likes their bling, too.

Every bit and piece I left at Zoofactory.
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So, what did I get myself into? Every piece that touches exhaust will be ceramic coated in black or chrome/sliver to keep the heat energy in and spinning turbines. The charge air piping will sport a thermal dissipant (sp?) coating that encourages any heat generated through compression to be dispelled at a rate greater than that of normal paint or powder coat. While providing this functional benefit, it also offers a bit of a different look and prevents corrosion.

We'll let the dyno see what it thinks.

An interesting factoid I heard while there: Chris (The Zoofactory Chris) has seen this setup offer over the road trucks 3/10ths of a mile per gallon with no other changes. In a performance application like this, he made no concrete claims or attempts to pull numbers out of thin air. With the functional attributes of these coatings, it should play well with Engineered Diesel's goal of a quickly rising, broad power curve.

Some coated parts in process for another builder that will debut at a Kentucky event in a couple weeks. Not quite finished, but lookin' good. I don't know who's they are (wink wink), but it isn't a Cummins.

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I'll be picking up the parts Wednesday morning with hopes of having this beast put back together a week later.

Good thing Glenn has fast hands. :hehe:
 
RUMSPRIGA:rockwoot::rockwoot::rockwoot::rockwoot::rockwoot::Throwup::Throwup::rockwoot::rockwoot:
 
The second gen manifold and spacer for the secondary charger. This open version will be replaced by another of exact thickness on the final build with a few additional changes. Pictures of that coming up in the next few posts.
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Dual port flange I hope:poke:
 
Highfinance97 said:
Dual port flange I hope
Why yes, Mikey. Glad you asked. I have no desire to watch two volutes become one on the charger.

Just got these uploaded. This will be going in place of the mock up flange. Chris had several of these but I wanted something different. Something with a little "bling." Since the ordinary wouldn't suffice, Chris machined up and port matched this special ED divided spacer plate. Now that I think about it, Chris has been making quite a few special ED parts for this build. You'll see more of those later. :hehe:

Notice the thickness of that plate? Strangely similar to another Engineered Diesel product that can be swapped in later should I decide to suckle from a bottle. These guys make it easy.

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Since the above pictures have the backdrop they do, lemmie' give a shout out to Jeff (Snedge) at Mumau Diesel. Jeff said, if I tore up anything Cummins or if he could help to give him a call. Probably just being nice, I thought. So I called him on it. LOL

I rang Jeff and pulled him out from under a truck to put up with my endless BS and take my order. (Jeff, good 'convo'. We should do it again. I'll have my people call your people. :hehe:) I hung up the phone and the UPS man handed me my order. (Ok, not really. I sent Jeff on a thankless goose chase for I-don't-know-what that took a day.) It was fast shipment, and cost less than my local Cummins Dealer to boot. Giveemacall.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, I had a necessity for a connector tube. Apparently they are not dual purpose devices and cannot safely be used for air drums to rock out, as I do frequently. (jk) Glenn may be fast, but he does not work miracles nor heal components. (Damn your weak superpowers, Glenn.) Since we had to do one, we might as well do em all. One less thing to worry about. While we were at it, we ordered up the upper and lower rocker box gaskets. That should keep the oil in the engine nicely as opposed to on it as illustrated earlier.

Mumau Diesel Cummins replacement parts. Not pictured: Gaskets

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Besides the parts, I got some cool Mumau stickers. (Not sure traditional phonics works with "Mumau.") I no more than got them out of the box before Flash grabbed one and had it festooned across his tool box and was clapping vigorously like a kid at the entrance to Disneyland. Way to go Jeff, you made Flash's day. Apparently I'm not the only one who has the kid-at-Christmas syndrome? LOL Good thing he sent extra. Merry Christmas to all! :rockwoot:
 
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Well Yeee F'in hah, we made the funny pages.:hehe: !!!!!!!!!! Good show Amish.
Glad to be of assistance in your quest.
In all my dealings with the Pennsylvania Dutchman I have never known one as enlightened as yourself. :thankyou2:
 
Festooned? You sure are well versed in your literature Amish.:hehe:
 
While being more descriptive of decorating with draping or curved hanging, I figured it was applicable when I saw the precision with which it's predecessors were placed. Better than "sticked" or "put-ed" I guess. LOL (No worries, Jeff. He got the Mumau placed perfectly next to the cockeyed logo beside it.)

As to the rest: :doh::hehe::hehe: Thanks!
 
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While Chris or Glenn would have been happy to take care of this for me, I was very specific about what I wanted done and we came to the conclusion that due to the location of his shop, I'd drop off the parts and speak with the guys at the Zoo.

Translation:

I am easily distracted by shiny things. I did not want Glenn or Chris to have the pleasure of seeing the shiny stuff if I did not get to also have said pleasure.
 
Thanks for the comments, guys.

Translation:

I am easily distracted by shiny things. I did not want Glenn or Chris to have the pleasure of seeing the shiny stuff if I did not get to also have said pleasure.

What was that? Sorry, I was distracted by the chrome on my key chain. LOL

I'll buy your truck when you're done with it Amish. This one is being put together right.

I'm not sure you'd want to pay what my wife would demand I ask for it. :hehe:
Man, we're trying. It'll be as good as my budget allows. Functionally, I'm not worried at all; Engineered Diesel has that covered. Aesthetics to my (impossible standards of) satisfaction on the time line we're trying to be on is proving challenging. We've had to simplify some creative ideas that would have taken more time. We lack not for innovation, just time and in some cases money.

Lot of heart going into this project: Mine, Engineered, and otherwise. I go from loving it like a child to wanting to set it ablaze. LOL In regards to loving this truck like a child, I guess we'll just apply a spin to the saying, "A mothers work is never finished." I know some folks on here can identify.

I picked up the parts from ceramic coating yesterday afternoon and shuttled them up to Engineered. Wrenches turned on them last night.

Pictures of the shiny stuff coming shortly.
 
Parts picked up from Zoofactory Coating Systems!

I gotta throw a shout out to my boy Chris at Zoofactory; that guy rocks. Without his extra efforts to shorten his lead time, there is no way we could have finished this in time.

Normally his process has a 10 day turn. After mock up, I dropped the parts on his counter and asked him to do the best he could to shorten that lead time if possible. He flipped those parts in a little over five business days! As the pictures indicate, quality was not sacrificed in the least. Tuesday night he called me at 8:30 pm to let me know they'd be done by Wednesday noon. He didn't leave his shop till after 1:00 Wednesday morning to make sure he kept his word. I didn't ask for that, didn't hound him, didn't guilt him into it; he just did it. Further, his invoice didn't reflect that sacrifice and dedication to long days on the project.

I'm sure there are others out there that may be able to beat Zoofactory on price. But I highly doubt you'll be able to find anyone who can give you more for your dollar in service and quality of finished product. Anyone who could use a company like this in their corner, PM me for contact info. I have no reservation about giving them my personal recommendation.

My sincerest thanks goes to Chris and Zoofactory for doing what they could to help us out.

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Both the manifold and the turbine housing went through a triple coat process. I usually don't care for chrome ceramic on cast pieces. Had I known it would have been smoothed and polished to this degree, I would have likely reconsidered.

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Couple pot shots of the Howitzer Cannon recoil springs he processes along with a similar model utilizing said recoil spring.
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Notice the tape measure, lower right. As I said, these things could likely suspend the front of our trucks given their mass.
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Similar model with spring in action:
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After all that reading I have to keep up with this on a daily basis....
 
Busted? Nah. Thats just a drunken ASU fan. :hehe:

you last name wouldnt happen to be stoltzfus, stoltzfoos, esch, beiler, lapp, or fisher would it:hehe:
thats just the amish dudes i pick up milk from over in lancaster county pa
i never asked them about rumspriga but im tempted to.
 
Dude...you're getting awful geeked out over some shiney stuff......oh wait.....let me go shut up now. LOL
 
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