Powder Coating Batches #1 & #2

I finally picked up my second batch of parts from the powder coaters today! The first batch, well I've had that for about two months now.

The first batch was entirely made up of intercooler plumbing. When I got it however, I was only able to install so much because batch two included the throttle body (can't really bridge that gap with it). But, now that I have everything back, I can finish installing almost all of my induction stuff. I had a long drawn out self-debate on the final finish for batch one. Originally I had envisioned color matching them to my cam cover, however I struggled to duplicate the color in mind with a powder. Many color samples later it was looking like, to keep the color of choice for the cam cover, I was going to have to turn to paint. So, wanting the durability of powder, I finally chose to separate the finish of these pieces. That still left me at the will of my original problem. After looking at a few different builds a certain look started catching my eye; wrinkle black. I was still a little uneasy; I've got a lot of flat black going on in my bay already and couldn't picture sticking a flat black blow-off valve to a black intercooler pipe. But after seeing the color in person I was sold. The wrinkle finish gives this black its own contrast and is dazzling in person.

Batch two was a whole lot of (more) flat back. I had to bring back my EGR block-off and wastegate housing as the finish was flaking off. A bit of a problem seeing as neither of these pieces were seeing action since I first installed them. My powder coater was generous enough to redo these bits at no cost, seeing this as an error in prep on their end (Powder Coating Alternatives, great people to work with!). As mentioned one of the other pieces was a throttle body.

I do have a GSi unit, but for the sake of getting the car running I cobbled together a modified Saturn throttle body. This unit is a taper-bored piece I used to run on the car, though I did open it up a little more on the back side to match the intake porting I had done. I took the opportunity during disassembly for a cleaning and detailing - aside from the powder coating I prepped and painted the cable side of the throttle shaft. Also for this set up I'm dropping the idle-air-control so I fabricated a quick block-off out of some scrap 1/8" aluminum. To ensure a proper seal I dug a plastic cap of the appropriate diameter out of the parts bin. This cap will act as plug, seating the o-ring from the IAC unit. A spring fills the gap between this piece and plate.

The other bits of batch two are my oil filter relocation adapters. These two pieces started life as Trans-Dapt adapters. When I first purchased them I was instantly disappointed by the finish quality. With room for improvement, I first did some porting to smooth the transition of the oil inlets. After roughly opening these areas up, I centered each part on the lath to machine out the backsides, ultimately removing casting marks and flashing for a smooth uniform surface. My set up wasn't the greatest so I did find myself with some blemishes created by bit chatter. I did my best with the finish work to remove these, but got them only so perfect. I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much. The areas I reworked are going to be submerged in oil after all. Additionally I had some material added that I machined, drilled, and tapped for an Auto Meter shallow oil temperature sensor.

I'm going to try and make quick work of getting things assembled and back on the car. The oil filter relocation is going to take a little bit longer as I need to do some mock up for a bracket when I determine the filters final location.