You Sir, are F'ing awesome for that find, great job!
You Sir, are F'ing awesome for that find, great job!
Yesterday I wanted to take a break from wiring so I decided to match port my new 58mm throttle body to my intake. After I get the mouth opened up I look inside and think, "That looks awfully narrow in there." I take my 52mm throttle body blade and stick it down the runner and it gets stuck. So there is no point in putting the 58mm throttle body on there if the runner isn't any bigger than 52mm. I think my best bet is to cut the restrictive elbow out, weld a flange on the intake and then weld a new wider elbow to replace the restrictive one. http://www.mandrel-bends.com/catalog...-bend-274.html
I've been plugging away at this. I was on vacation for a week and a half. Here's some pictures of my progress.
MegaSquirt is all wired up. The rolled up orange wire is for a flex-fuel/E85 sensor. I don't need that yet since I'm going to get it tuned for 91 octane first. I have it all coming through the firewall at one location. I drilled a hole next to the grommet on the passenger side where the electrical for the blower motor goes through. Then along the top of the firewall and down to the engine in one spot. I really focused on keeping it clean compared to the spaghetti and connectors Chrysler had over the transmission.
I got all my coolers mounted. I had to down size my engine oil cooler (passenger side) and my transmission cooler (drivers side) because things are getting tight up front. The trans cooler sits higher because the water pump for the intercooler is below it. I'm not worried about the bumper cover blocking so much of the oil cooler because my new radiator is twice the size of my old one. I also boxed in the radiator and condenser with left over aluminum from my fan shroud build to keep the ram air from going around the rad/con. I haven't done the passenger side yet because I haven't routed the oil cooler lines yet.
I had to relocate my horns. If it doesn't have to do with the engine or transmission I don't want it in the engine compartment. The horns are relocated, one on each end of the bumper.
Looking good brother
I really like the Ford filter set-up, looks like it was made to fit there, same for the L/A intercooler, though you'll have to fab up a nicer bracket before I can give you a gold star on that one...
Function before form though and so far, everything looks very "FUNctional"
Mike
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
- Edmund Burke
I finally found low cost plate heat exchangers: http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchangers.php. I think I'm going to go with this one for $60 with 1/2" NPT: http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchangers.php. I just need to talk to my AC hose builder and see if he prefers male or female pipe threads for hose adaptors.
I had drilled a hole through my SMEC case and through the side of my van to get more air into my larger Ford V8 air filter box. Well that hole didn't line up with where my air box is going to sit without the SMEC. So I had to make a plate to cover the old hole and relocate my new hole.
I used 3" ABS plastic drain tube from ACE as my air duct. I cut 1/2" strips, cut them, slide them over the pipe, and screwed them in place to keep the pipe from sliding into the fender area or further into the air box.
I rushed my upper intercooler support bracket to completion because I was afraid Mike was losing sleep over the incompleteness and ugliness of it. It's been done for a couple days, I just haven't had time to post the pictures. Sleep well tonight Mike.
Since I had the rattle cans out I painted my intercooler plumbing. It's a far cry from the 12' of intercooler plumbing I had when I ran an air to air cooler. I don't think I'll ever run an air to air ever again on one of my own vehicles. It's so much easier running rubber cooling hose than steel pipe.
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
- Edmund Burke
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
- Edmund Burke
I got the gaping hole on the passenger side of my condenser/radiator assembly closed up. I'm painting the aluminum black but I took pictures of it unpainted so you could see what was built. I figured I'd state that so I don't attract any un-necessary critiques from Mike.
I only had to use one piece of foam to fill in the gap.
Noticed not all the fins on your heat exchangers aren't uniformly straight... Just say'n.
Mike
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
- Edmund Burke
Since there is no pleasing Mike because he's too nit-picky, I'm not even trying anymore.
I got my upper radiator hose done. I wasn't as lucky the first time around to find a one piece hose. One of the criteria I set for myself was I wanted to be able to remove the fan shroud without having to open the cooling up. That's why I built that tube to wrap around the opposite way. I then used a 2.5' universal hose to connect everything.
I gotta say I like it! Nothing to complain about here... well, not without being nit picky.
Seriously though, I really like the way the universal hose lays right in there like it was "factory".
Mike
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
- Edmund Burke
I'm really trying for the "factory" look. I don't want to piecemeal things together, I'm really concerned with appearance but not at the sacrifice of function. Sometimes I just don't have a choice and have to use a "universal" part. I want it to look like it could have come that way. The upper hose bend might be gradual enough where I can take the spring out of the universal hose and put it in a straight hose to keep it from kinking.
I admit i am too lazy to read back far enough to be sure but it looks like you are using a radiator setup from a 2nd gen van? They had several different outlet locations. One of the radiators (either 3.0 or TBI or both?) actually has the outlet over on the passenger side which would be an easy shot to your water outlet. Another radiator might seem expensive up front but it is probably only twice the cost of that upper universal hose, which seem to be pretty pricey.
Anyway, here's a pic of the radiator outlet in question from when we put a 4" core FMIC in Strax22's 1995 van back in 2011.
Dont push the red button.You hear me?
There are 3-4 different 2nd gen radiators available. I asked for a 3.8 with towing package (towing package didn't make a difference FYI) and they asked me if the filler neck was on the left or right side. I said send me the more common one. Whether or not they did and just sent me what was sitting on their shelf the longest and they saw as an opportunity to get rid of it I'll never know. I knew I had the option of the upper inlet to be on the left or the right and I prefer all the coolant coming in one side and leaving the other. I have no idea if that makes a difference. I would imaging when they're on the same side there is a divider in the tank half way down that forces the water across, then down, then back across and then out like in AC condensers. As far as price, the radiators were about the same. The only difference was how long I wanted to wait. The mandrel bends were about $20-$25 for the two and the hose might have been $15. The receipts are at the shop and I can check on Monday. As far as having to replace the radiator with another just like it, if I'm on the road and it goes bad, if the upper inlet is on the drivers side I'm set. If it's on the passenger side, I'm sure I can get a hose to work to get me home since it's on the same side as the outlet on the engine. BUT I don't think I'll ever need a radiator again since the one I removed is nearly ten years old and doesn't leak. I think the thing that made my radiator with plastic tanks and an aluminum core last so long (other than changing coolant regularly) was the cooling fan timer I installed. We all know engines heat up after we turn them off and in a cooling system with heat comes pressure. With my 9.5 minute defrost switch/cooling fan timer http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/sh...itch+fan+timer that heat and pressure aren't there so that's why I think my radiator will last forever.