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Tedious, yes that’s exactly the word I couldn’t spit out.
I added a big fat washer to the hood hinges, made a little over 1/4” opening at the cowl, hopefully an effective heat escape. It’s way more temporary than the tape lines I layed out.
Next week I’ll prolly check the two shops in town to see what they’d charge to flush my radiator. I feel it wouldn’t hurt, but also not the lowest hanging fruit.
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There is a weather strip at that same edge, but it’s quite short in height and sits below the cowl/wiper motor cover. Removing it will only net 1-2 mm, and introduce a new rattle at the base of the windshield.
Still trying to avoid holes in the hood; fresh air scoop, heat vent, louver, etc.
Won’t get much of an apples-apples comparison today, daytime high is 20 degrees lower than Tuesday was. Should make for good cruising temps though even with a craptastic fan.
I’ve started PB Blasting the front bumper mounting hardware, it’ll have to come off to replace the primary rad fan.
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Teaser. Impatiently waiting for the delivery man.
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Last night I took Redee for a tour, and my temps were much improved, On average all my temps were 20-30F colder….but so was the ambient temp. So not much learned there.
What I truly noticed was the lower under hood temps. I didn’t leave skin behind while trying to pop the hood, as everything was much less heat soaked.
Planning to pressure wash the rad from engine bay side to blast dead bugs and dirt out.
I put in a solid three hours today cleaning the rad, picking 20 years of dead bug remains from the fins, and straightening about 500 bent over fins.
When I was contempt there, I threw in a new set of H4 sealed beam bulbs I grabbed off RockAuto for $6 ea as part of a “warehouse closing sale” a few months ago. I still have to re-align them beams once it gets dark enough to do so.
Got a lot completed last night in the shop before it looked like a crime scene (ATF puddles).
I mounted the 16” pusher fan offset to the drivers side, got the trans cooler clocked and mounted to the bulkhead on the passenger side, and a 9” puller fan mounted offset on the passenger side mostly aligned to the trans cooler.
Then I replaced all the trans cooler lines, I cut about 2-feet of hard line out in favour of appropriate rubber flex lines. The hard lines were running through the steering linkage, now it’s routed around the linkage. It was here that I made lotsa ATF puddles on the floor.
Today I just have to make the electrical connections (and test them), trim one mounting foot on the grille, reinstall it and the front bumper.
That looks WAY tidier and much more efficient. The old location of the TA cooler was probably a small part of the overheating problem – blocking airflow to the rad.
Thanks Steve! I completely agree, a factor but no way to tell how much it was hurting. I got the bumper and grille off in 10 mins, then took a couple hours to ponder and cut tamplates and such to un-ghetto the install. That pipe strapping really bothered me, almost as much as the location of the cooler.
My trans cooler is roughly 8”x10”, I wanted to buy one that was 6”x12”, as it would have fit the space better, and not overhang the bulkhead….but an unecessary $75 purchase since this one works just fine, and has a larger surface area than what I was considering.
The new fan is an inch thinner, so it should make re-mounting the bumper and grille a little easier. Everything was pretty crammed together.
tom, if it weren’t for you, evan n slick, this board would be as dead as the old barn boards on my fence. thanks guys
you’re certainly gettin’ $h!t done on redeeThanks Mark, trying to keep new content coming in.
Tonight I finished the electrical work for the new fans, trimmed one “foot” off the grille, and put the bumper back on Redee. By far the easiest night of this project. My favourite part is that there are no more load bearing zip ties in this arrangement!
Tomorrow it’s gonna be scorching hot out, great day for a road test. Gonna check out a swimming hole under a bridge about 15 mins down the road from me. Hoping to keep Redee under 195F….fingers crossed.
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Redee’s temp is more controlled on paved/gravel roads at any speed, but still runs @ 225F under 20km/h. It seems like the temps take longer to come up, and come back down more quickly…but still the same peak temps on the same stretch of road.
I want to run that same route with the hood removed and see just how much lower the temps could get. If it shows a further drop in temp, I want to get a VERY cheap hood and cut huge holes into it.
I also plan to get the rad & cooling system flushed, hopefully that’ll improve heat transfer.
I also aimed the headlights in the shop, but still haven’t driven her in the dark to notice any improvements.
Well aint summer just treating us well, too busy enjoying the days outside to keep my thread alive.
In the last month, I flushed the rad and cooling system using a bottle of “Hy-Per Cooling System flush” from Canadian Tire. I got a lot of crud and grimey brown coolant to come out, but I wouldn’t say all my troubles are resolved.
Cruising the temps are down, going slow they are more regulated, but the peak temps are still high. On Wednesday we were almost beaten by a slow drive-thru line, building up to 222F.
Not sure my next course of action, but it prolly consists of a much colder thermostat, followed by a new and improved Radiator. But for now, no action. Let it ride.
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