dimlight65 Posted October 2, 2023 Report Share Posted October 2, 2023 20 hours ago, dimlight65 said: But, full disclosure, I do have a water choke unit on the way that I might install. It is currently sitting at the UPS Store where I may or may not have a mailbox. Also, I'm totally going to install it, but I will probably set it up fully open, all the time. It will totally be an affectation. Some gearhead, "Hey, what's that on the side of that Elderbrock carb? I ain't never seen't one like that." Me, going "Full Hipster" on him, "Oh, that's the super rare water choke option." *Snorts derisively* "I'm not surprised you have never seen one." 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted October 2, 2023 Report Share Posted October 2, 2023 Somehow, I missed the pic of all the new gauges in place on the dash. They look very nice. I have an Edelbrock carb on my Ford, and it has an electric choke on it. I really dislike it, and I wish it had a cable-operated unit. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 3, 2023 Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 1 hour ago, Duncan said: Somehow, I missed the pic of all the new gauges in place on the dash. They look very nice. I have an Edelbrock carb on my Ford, and it has an electric choke on it. I really dislike it, and I wish it had a cable-operated unit. The Dark Lord Bezosabub has the conversion kits for $15 or so. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 5, 2023 Report Share Posted October 5, 2023 The Weber water choke is slightly smaller than the electric choke unit on the Elderbrock. It fits, but the 3-bolt ring from the Elderbrock won't retain the Weber choke and the 3-bolt ring from the Weber won't bolt up to the Elderbrock. However, by using the Weber ring under the Elderbrock ring, everything is hunky-dory... I know how I'm going to tee the water lines, but I'm not ready to drain the coolant just yet. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 5, 2023 Report Share Posted October 5, 2023 (edited) I realized I didn't post pictures of the purple seatbelt holes after John reinstalled them yesterday... I think they turned out pretty good. The match to the dyed Recaro embroidery is much better than I expected. I also added some retainer bolts to hold the hood pins... Then "added lightness" by removing the factory hood latch equipment... And did the final adjustment of the pin height... John surprised me when he didn't bust my balls over this mod. Apparently these, "Really tie the room together..." for him. Edited October 5, 2023 by dimlight65 1 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 9, 2023 Report Share Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) I installed the driver's side Recaro yesterday. Started with some brackets... Then some magic time dilation occurred... And it was in. I would continue with the tale of yesterday, but Ratsun has decided that I can only load three pictures. Edited October 9, 2023 by dimlight65 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 9, 2023 Report Share Posted October 9, 2023 After I got the seat in, I went for a test drive. I made it a mile and a half down Forest Hill Rd to the I-20 access rd to Wichita St before the temp got higher than I liked... I limped back to the shop and popped the hood... That's the overflow puking on the ground, and this... is the surge tank showing the level maxed out. I started feeling around to get an idea of what was happening. The top right corner of the radiator (water inlet area) was very hot to the touch. The middle right (halfway down below the inlet hose) was also very hot to the touch. The bottom right (all the way down below the inlet hose) was just hot. The top left corner of the radiator (well above the outlet hose) was just hot. The middle left (just above/even with the outlet hose) was warm/hot. The bottom left (below the outlet hose) was barely warmer than ambient. After a very few minutes (five to ten max) the radiator cooled enough to begin sucking water back from the surge tank. I quickly got the overflow hose into a jug of water and watched the sight glass turn clear(er) as the system sucked water back in. The entire radiator was just above ambient again within 20 minutes of shutting off. This was without the fan running, by the way. So, I am now 99.83725641% convinced that I do not have a 28"x16" radiator. I have essentially a 28"x12" radiator because the bottom 1/4 does nothing. We are going to run a couple more tests before I run over to Summit Racing to buy a 31"x19" radiator with the outlet pipe at the very bottom of the tank, where it should be. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 15, 2023 Report Share Posted October 15, 2023 When we installed the Recaros (ok, so just the driver's side so far, hang with me) the driver's seat interfered with the TV in the camper. Today I rekajiggered the TV mount to gain clearance. It didn't work, but it's not as tight against the seat as it was before. Of course I forgot to take pictures of that. While sitting in the seat to test the clearance (and make racecar noises), I decided the shifter needed modification. Before... and after... It falls to hand perfectly now and, as I said on my Instant Grams post, "2nd, 4th, and reverse are no longer a contortionist act!" Then I decided to perform a test of the cooling system. I drained the water down to the top of the radiator and pulled the top hose. The thinking being that if we crank the motor and water shoots out of the top hose while the level in the tank goes down, the pump is working. Well, here's how it went... Afterwards, I realized that water probably shouldn't shoot out of the top hose due to (I said doo-doo!) the thermostat. But I still feel like the level should have dropped. N'est ce pas? Quote Link to comment
EDM620 Posted October 15, 2023 Report Share Posted October 15, 2023 True the water shouldn't pump out due to the thermostat no being open, plus the cooling system is intended to be a closed loop so unless there was air in the system, it shouldn't draw in additional liquid. So either temporarily run without a T-stat for the testing or rig a means to pre-heat so it's open. Probably easier to test w/o it 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 15, 2023 Report Share Posted October 15, 2023 6 hours ago, EDM620 said: True the water shouldn't pump out due to the thermostat no being open, plus the cooling system is intended to be a closed loop so unless there was air in the system, it shouldn't draw in additional liquid. So either temporarily run without a T-stat for the testing or rig a means to pre-heat so it's open. Probably easier to test w/o it My other thought was that the starter just doesn't spin the pump fast enough to see any movement. I don't know. 1e4b7226-036c-41f7-8358-15a75e11519c.mp4 We'll grok it some more Wednesday. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 15, 2023 Report Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) 20 hours ago, dimlight65 said: it's not as tight against the seat as it was before. Of course I forgot to take pictures of that. Today I remembered... I wound up decreasing the tilt of the seat a wee bit to make some more room too. And speaking of Recaros... I got the passenger side installed today! It sits a bit further back than the driver's seat, but that's the only way to get any foot room... Then I decided it was time to mount the *ahem* "decorative" hookah in the back... I retracted the BOFA to see if it would be usable... Well, One person sitting right next to it could. I suppose, since I have no friends, I could use it, but it would be a bitch to light/keep lit. I guess it truly is decorative after all. In celebration of these achievements, I fired up some EDM for a bit of a mid-afternoon, one-man, rave... What? What? Edited October 15, 2023 by dimlight65 1 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 21, 2023 Report Share Posted October 21, 2023 (edited) Ok, today I yanked the thermostat and topped up the radiator for another test of the cooling system. As a recap, the theory was if I crank the motor with the top hose disconnected from the radiator, the level in the tank should go down while water shoots out of said top hose. It did not. I suggested to John that perhaps the starter just doesn't spin the pump fast enough. He rolled his eyes at me and said, "If you want to try and start it..." and just left it hanging like that. Well, I did try to start it. Every time it fired and tried to sputter to life, the tank's level sucked down and water shot out of the top hose. I tried not to gloat, we'll see if he comments on the success of that. So, with it determined that the pump actually pumps water, we decided that this radiator is not sufficient... We have different opinions as to why it is deficient, but either way, a Speedway Motors, Big Block Chevy, 31" x 19" radiator should be here Monday. While I had the coolant drained down, I plumbed in the water choke unit. Fitting in the manifold to supply hot water... Hoses connected to the choke unit... And a Tee in the heater return hose to suck the water back into the system... John ordered a cooler thermostat for me, which we should have for next Wednesday. Here's hoping I will be driving this thing next week at this time. Edited October 21, 2023 by dimlight65 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 21, 2023 Report Share Posted October 21, 2023 Here is the radiator I'm getting... I want to convert it from a single pass, to a triple pass by: Cutting slots in the tanks at the red marks. Welding baffles into those slots. Thus forcing the water to take the yellow path. Thoughts? Overkill? Just enough kill? Not enough kill? Quote Link to comment
EDM620 Posted October 21, 2023 Report Share Posted October 21, 2023 On the radiator mods I have no opinion. Now on the hookah, there be a whole other opinion... aquarium pumps are just too weak 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted October 22, 2023 Report Share Posted October 22, 2023 6 hours ago, dimlight65 said: Here is the radiator I'm getting... I want to convert it from a single pass, to a triple pass by: Cutting slots in the tanks at the red marks. Welding baffles into those slots. Thus forcing the water to take the yellow path. Thoughts? Overkill? Just enough kill? Not enough kill? I'm of the belief that you really can't have too much cooling, especially when you spend summers in Texas.. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 24, 2023 Report Share Posted October 24, 2023 The radiator arrived today. John and I discussed it and looked at an article about single, double, and triple pass radiators. We have decided that we are NOT going to modify it into a triple pass at this time. I'm ready to drive this damned thing! Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 26, 2023 Report Share Posted October 26, 2023 The radiator took up most of the interior of the Smart car! If this doesn't cool the thing, I don't know what will! We did a temporary install using the old new radiator's upper mounting bar... It fills the hole in the core support nicely... I have a plan as to how I'm going to mount it, but we ran out of time tonight. Saturday I'll work on getting it really installed. 1 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted October 26, 2023 Report Share Posted October 26, 2023 It looks nice. Size DOES matter. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 28, 2023 Report Share Posted October 28, 2023 (edited) So, John had some of these... laying around. I decided to use one of them to make a radiator mount. I went to the chop saw to cut it in two... and then went to the hardware store for a new blade... With that swapped, I made the cuts... and flipped the bits around to make a U... I zooked them together and had a test fit... Sitting on the frame rail with plenty of room for the oil cooler hoses on the passenger side. And... hanging out in space with plenty of clearance for the steering box. Happy with that fitment, I made some feet and welded them on... Then I attached it to the core support with some 1/4-20 nutserts and bolts and dropped the radiator in... I was a little worried about the weight of this full of coolant, so I did a test. I filled the radiator with water to finger out what kind of weight we're looking at. It held about 1.5 gallons. At 8 pounds per gallon, it's going to have about 12 pounds of coolant in it. I weighed the radiator itself and it is also about 12 pounds. So, we're looking at around 24 pounds (static) cantilevered out on those feet. I gotta admit, that's a lot less than I was expecting. So, I'm going to do another test and hang 30 or so pounds on each one to make sure that they should hold up to the dynamic weight. But that will have to weight (ba-dum tiss!) until Wednesday or next Saturday. Edited October 29, 2023 by dimlight65 pounds for # 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted October 28, 2023 Report Share Posted October 28, 2023 After making the radiator mount, I decided to cover a few holes in the core support... I'm pretty happy with this one... This one is ok, but I'd like to take the heat gun to the angle and get it to tuck a little better... But, of course, the one I pop-riveted to the panel is the one I'd like to go back and trim some more... But at least the jagged edges and bolt-eating holes are gone. 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted November 2, 2023 Report Share Posted November 2, 2023 I wanted to test the strength of my radiator bracket... The catfood wasn't quite heavy enough at twenty pounds... This stage weight and bar from the sheet metal brake however... Clocking in at 55 pounds... Should approximate a 2g load of the radiator... They didn't budge. I guess I engineered it sufficiently. Then John came up with a solution for the top mount... It's a '67 Galaxie upper radiator mount. I think it will do nicely. It and the mount I made the other day are hanging from the rafters while their paint dries. We'll do the final install Saturday. 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted November 2, 2023 Report Share Posted November 2, 2023 21 hours ago, dimlight65 said: We'll do the final install Saturday. Actually, we're going to perform some much needed maintenance on the Smart Car so it doesn't kill me. The rear shocks are a bit terrifyingly worn out. But hey, they only have 80,000 miles on them! Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted November 5, 2023 Report Share Posted November 5, 2023 On 11/2/2023 at 5:18 PM, dimlight65 said: Actually, we're going to perform some much needed maintenance on the Smart Car so it doesn't kill me. The rear shocks are a bit terrifyingly worn out. But hey, they only have 80,000 miles on them! *Shocked Pikachu face!* Go to the Smart's page to see just how close to death I have been for the last few weeks! Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted November 6, 2023 Report Share Posted November 6, 2023 On 11/1/2023 at 8:10 PM, dimlight65 said: We'll do the final install Saturday. Or Sunday, as the case may be. I bolted in John's upper mount... But it flexed just enough, and the lower rubber feet were just loose enough, that the bottom would come right out easily. So, I added a bolt at the bottom... Then, to really lock everything together, belt and suspenders style, I added a strap/strut between that bolt and the upper mount... It ain't goin' nowhere! Then I had a look at my aluminum radiator hoses to see if they were going to be usable... The angles are a bit odd, and the hose sections are nice and short. I like it. The upper just needed to be lengthened by reducing the amount of "choke up" (less pipe shoved in the hoses)... Happy with that, I mounted the fan... And reinstalled the belt... I couldn't find the thermostat gaskets that John bought until I was closing everything up for the day so I didn't get that installed... oh, and they are too small. What we have are for the 5.2/5.9 Magnum. What we need is for the 318/340/360 LA Small Block. So, Wednesday I'll grab a thermostat gasket and more coolant and we'll see if this thing is going to live. Fingers crossed! Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted November 9, 2023 Report Share Posted November 9, 2023 No pictures because y'all have seen thermostats, gaskets and coolant before. So, I picked up... all those things, and went to the shop. I popped the thermostat and gasket in place and filled the system. I stood and watched it for a few minutes to make sure nothing leaked at ambient temp and pressure... it did not. Then Flyin'Pat basically called me a pussy and "dared" me to fire it up. I did and watched all the connections and fittings and such while it warmed up. No leaks! Oh, the water choke worked brilliantly! I'm totes sold on that concept now. When the temp got up to 150° or so, I shut it down and watched it cool off again. Still no leaks! I was just about to pull it out for a test drive when John showed up so I gave him the rundown of the situation. I took it on the same run I did the other day (down Forest Hill to the I-20 access road to Wichita St back to Horton and the shop) and the temp came up to 180° (the temp of the thermostat I bought) and held there. I think we may have licked the cooling problem. We're planning to fix the fuel leak (yes, the temporary hose I used on the filler pipe is leaking) Saturday and put some more miles on it to make sure it keeps its cool. I considered looking for a more modern rear axle to get taller gears (yes, I admit that 4.10:1 is a little too short for this transmission) and disc brakes. Then I remembered mine has an LSD... I can't give that up. Also, I got used to the 4.10s before, I can do it again... not to mention, the theoretical top speed with the 4.10s is over 145 miles per hour. 3 Quote Link to comment
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