Bracket 3 – I think we have a winner
I made good progress this last weekend and think I’ve solved the fitting, mounting and fabricating of the new bracket, version 3 as I call it, to support the Oil Filter, Oil Thermostat and the Radiator Overflow Tank. Last time I showed you the new overflow tank and the template. Below is the test fit of the template in place, checking it for shape and clearances. And here is the new sheet of aluminum that I will craft the new bracket from. I’ve also had some questions as to how I’ve been crafting, cutting these brackets out of the sheet. I took some pics through the process to show everyone how I go from this sheet to the final bracket. I start out with a combination of the template and measurements. I then layout the bracket on the sheet using...
Set Backs and Do-Overs
Over the last 2 weekends I had hoped to wrap up the cooling system and the remote oil filter, oil thermostat and oil cooler and thus be ready for first start. Well that’s the direction I was headed until I ran into a few issues which resulted in the set back and a do over or two. But let me start you at the beginning. Last week Saturday I started working on relocating the oil filter. This went pretty smooth. In the pic below you can see the stock location of the oil filter on the driver side of the engine under the alternator. I want to relocate the oil filter for a couple of reasons, one being that I can run a larger filter and two being that since I’m also going to run an oil cooler I need to run oil lines anyways so I might as well move it. In this...
Final Assembly
Well I’ve started final assembly and am permanently attaching things to the car. But let me bring you up to speed since the last time I rambled. After wrapping up the electrics and testing what I could and then finishing the parking brake, Destinée and I started the tear down and pulled the engine. I needed the engine back out for a couple of reasons. First and foremost there was no way I was going to be able to mount some of the foot box panels with the engine in. Another key reason was that I had to pull the transmission off and change the flywheel bolts. Turns out the the original flywheel bolts are what are called torque to yield bolts which translates into one time use bolts. I had removed the bolts to install the backing plate for the bell housing and...
We have Power
Electrical power that is. But first to finish up the garage heater upgrade details as promised from the last post. Cause I know how many of you are just itching to know all about my garage heating! As I mentioned last post I was adding a digital thermostat to the heater so it didn’t run all the time. To accomplish that I had to add a few things, 1) A digital thermostat 2) a 24V transformer and 3) a single pole 24v controlled contactor/relay. Originally, I was going to add the additional contactor and the transformer in a separate J-Box on the wall but after looking at the space in the bottom of the heater I figured out I could move the wiring tap and then I would have space to fit in the transformer and the contactor. In the pic below you can see the...
Heat Part Deux and More Wiring
First off, I finally have constant heat in my garage. Last time I mentioned I was putting an electric heater in. It arrived from Amazon, only $400 and I hung it. I was contemplating wiring it my self but it needed a 240V line on a 40amp breaker and while I don’t mind running it I just really didn’t want to. So I called around and found an electrician to do the job for a reasonable cost. So last Tuesday he came out and ran the line and breaker. Boy was it cold in the garage while he was working and I was really glad I paid someone else to do it. It may look small put this thing puts out a ton of heat. As I’ve been playing with the thermostat the garage has been hovering around 70º since Tuesday. One modification I’m going to make is to add...
Heat
Well it’s been cold and warm here but either way it’s still cold in the garage. The garage is on the North side of the house so I don’t get the benefit of any heat from the sun. It makes it nice during the summer but not so much during the winter. I looked at having a gas heater installed in the garage but it was a bit more than I wanted to pay. Since it was a natural gas heater it was going to require a power line, a gas line and then a vent. For now I’ve gone with a propane heater. It works, takes about 2.5 hours to get the garage to a nice temp, so nice in fact that I was working in my t-shirt on Saturday. Problem is it has a little bit of an odor and I have to leave the garage door cracked a bit so I’m not overwhelmed by carbon...
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