Jretal

This was mainly sparked after the muffler fell off as I was driving into work last week, but that's neither here nor there :-P

But while I was in there, I decided to start cracking on some issues I came up with that were probably the reasons I had issues at Watkins Glen in Aug (blowing my heater core and popping the pressure relieve cap on the reservoir several times).

After doing some long and painful testing of the coolant system and the motor, it was determined that I did not have a bad head gasket and no coolant was leaking into the cyl head... which means I think I truely did overheat the car, which subsequently caused the HC to blow, etc.

So after talking a bunch w/ Joe @ Axismotorsport bouncing ideas off eachother, a few things needed to get addressed.

The biggest was radiator shrouding! Ever since the turbo swap, I never installed any lower radiator shrouding since the oil cooler lines and IC piping are really in the way. This shot me in the foot when pushing the car (as Joe pointed out to me several times), as all the air went under the radiator instead of through it, and the fan wasn't able to flow enough air to keep the car cool when living at redline for 30 min track sessions :-P

I had the top and side plastic shrouds installed, but not really secured, so they kinda flopped around. I also had a half a$$ed shroud I bent up for the engine side, but in reality that really wasn't doing too much...... so the only option I had was to start from scratch and rebuild everything.

It started off w/ a template of the lower plate:

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgCvxTW5kI/AAAAAAAAAVY/k1RGjB_mo98/s800/IMG_3411.JPG">

Yes, that's a coors light box... sush. I had a party last weekend so I had a few extra beer boxes laying around, which make perfect template material


Since the area was far from flat, the piece needed some coaxing to fit properly... so out came the hammer, a large C-channel, and a couple clamps... resulting in:

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgCwlFOLNI/AAAAAAAAAVc/bOAyYemTVq0/s800/IMG_3412.JPG">

And roughly installed so I could start looking at fab'ing up the side pieces:

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgCxLRwPzI/AAAAAAAAAVg/iYFWmkdP284/s800/IMG_3413.JPG">

This was my "break" system for the metal... that and a 2lb shot filled hammer that you can see in the background

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgCxu7G9vI/AAAAAAAAAVk/nB2vBDqQS2Y/s800/IMG_3414.JPG">

Here's the side bottom piece for the engine side of the radiator.

<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgBwIpyEII/AAAAAAAAAUM/oaZBFJ1oFss/s800/IMG_3415.JPG">

<img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgBwshh4vI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/xNeU8KK_Gu4/s800/IMG_3416.JPG">

This piece was tricky b/c I had to clear the motor mount and oil pan, while still making it so I could attach an upper piece to it... but a bit of creative bending and cutting and it worked out well

And installed:

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgBxQNPlcI/AAAAAAAAAUU/pxhYmJWa1mQ/s800/IMG_3417.JPG">

Underside w/ fender side shround installed:

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgBx6hmv6I/AAAAAAAAAUY/E3OOvp3dAzQ/s800/IMG_3418.JPG">

Lower plate installed:

<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgCyKbGPvI/AAAAAAAAAVo/rN9_TEUKI3g/s800/IMG_3420.JPG">

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgByRsg6LI/AAAAAAAAAUc/cmdIfqoeJZU/s800/IMG_3421.JPG">

And here's the start of the upper piece for the engine side... first, take plate and measure off where you want to bend:

<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgBzCwi4mI/AAAAAAAAAUg/3N0aBieIDFg/s800/IMG_3422.JPG">

Bend, cut, hammer, tweak, and trim... and install (yup, just that simple too &lt;rolls eyes&gt:

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgBzugvM5I/AAAAAAAAAUk/0E1wsob8iAY/s800/IMG_3424.JPG">

Here's everything 'built' and out of the car:

<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgB0RJd2eI/AAAAAAAAAUo/GpmyCB7leXA/s800/IMG_3426.JPG">

Once I got everything mocked up, I decided to sandblast everything to give it a nice dull finish (no bling bling under the hood for this guy... though I did contemplate polishing it all up).

<img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgB14FEVGI/AAAAAAAAAU0/xIsJACiIP_s/s800/IMG_3430.JPG">

Unfortunately, it was a lot rougher than I was expecting, and if I left it to the elements it was going to get REALLY nasty since the roughness was basically a magnet for dirt. So after digging through the garage I decided to use 3m underbody coating on it vs paint as it'd be a bit more durable:

<img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgB2rWVsiI/AAAAAAAAAU4/zjjmyFEwWUo/s800/IMG_3431.JPG">

And the final product:

<img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/jretal/SPgB3a7Cs3I/AAAAAAAAAU8/mpOqftAImps/s800/IMG_3432.JPG">

So part 1 is officially done. Took WAY too much time to come up with this, but I also work at a slow and steady pace. There was a fair amount of head scratching and staring during this process as well while I figured out what I wanted to do... but it's done! I'm sure my neighbors are also grateful as there was a fair amount of banging involved w/ this project... haha.

But this shrouding is step 1. Next step, I'm going to recore the radiator. I talked to a local radiator shop, and they're able to recore my radiator w/ a better core that will give me a min of double the current capacity, if not more (the 4000 cores are so old they're no longer in the book... lol). So when I pull the motor to install the new tranny (putting in a 200 20vt torsen tranny ), I will yank the radiator and bring it to him to make pretty again.

Hopefully once that's done, I won't have overheating problems again w/ the car. I also picked up an aftermarket coolant temp gauge as I'm sick of guessing w/ the stock piece. I will keep the stock one functional since I don't have anything else to put in that spot, but otherwise I'm tired of 'guessing' what my temp is... I want to know! If I would have known it before, I might have avoided some of the issues I ran into at WG.

But that's it for now... hope ya enjoyed the pix. Won't be motor pulling for a few months, but I'll keep ya in the loop once I do Need to save up and buy a cherry picker to get the 'ol girl out as I'm tired of renting out, and we're going to need it up north when it comes time to start tearing down the UrQ.

Fairfax 4.0T

I also have Dean's engine stand and hoist. They are just sitting around, and you are welcome to have them. I don't think Dean is going to be doing an engine pull on the East coast in the near future.

4Rings::G2 boosted::

good job on the fabrication btw

Jretal

I did notice on the highway that my fan was actually kicking on while doing 65mph down the road, which it really shouldn't be doing... so hopefully this fixes that issue. haven't taken the car for a ride yet to test, so we'll see I guess.

As for the hoist... will it fit in the back of my A4? lol. Crazy question to ask, I know... but that's the only "hauler" I have. Also, I'd probably need it for a 6+ month period... not sure how big of a deal that would be or not.

Dean, if/when you read this... lemme know whatcha think.

Jretal

beast...

and thank you

arob

...and if you need a garage to do the work, bring it up to Jimax's place. He's got room for two cars. He'll even board you for a weekend or two.

Just let me know, and I'll set it up. P

Okay, back to trail.

Jretal

&lt;ducks and runs&gt;

have fun at trail

Fairfax 4.0T

Tony delivered the engine hoist in his A6. It dissasembles to be fairly small, but it sure is heavy thing.

Don't know when you're going to be in the area next. If you're going to November VIR, it would be easy to have someone bring it down. Alternatively, Bobster who frequents NOVA often lives in Richmond which would reduce your travel 90 miles in each direction.

nadrealista

during the event before your heater core exploded?

EDness

LOL! nice!