Planning on a 3.6 conversion for my ‘81 SC this summer required me to decide what I wanted to do about cooling the beast. A big part of the decision making was my desire to keep the exterior of the car looking completely original. This eliminated the options changing the bumper/valence or cutting the valance for a front mounted cooler. I decided that a Carrera cooler in each front fender would be the best way to have both good cooling and retain the stock look. I went w/ two Elephant Racing Widemouth coolers and an aftermarket fan for the right side cooler. I bought one installation kit (for the right side) and two rock guards. The left side was going to require some custom made brackets.
I started the project by taking off the front bumper. I couldn’t imagine doing this with it on now that I’ve done it.
Then I removed the windshield washer reservoir and the fuel evaporation tank from the right side fender. These things are huge!
Next were the horns on the right side. I removed the two horn brackets and took them over to the trusty vice. After a little modification they were able to be installed facing forward and the horns fit beautifully. I even took this time to replace them since they haven’t worked as for the last 6 years of owning her. Man they are loud when the front is jacked up and the bumper is off in the garage.
I looked at all my parts, then scratched my head and kicked the tires for about two days. I didn’t know what I was suppose to do w/ two of the three brackets on the right side and I didn’t have clue where to even begin on the left.
I started to see how the left cooler was going to fit since I was going to have to do more custom fabrication on that side. It ended up not dropping in like I hoped, realizing that the space between the chassis and the bumper/valence is much narrower on the left due to the battery. I planned on installing the cooler upside down and backwards compared to the way it would sit on the right so that the fittings would be down and facing forward.
A few modifications to the cooler were going to be needed. I started by cutting off the forward inboard edge so that it would clear the reinforcement for the bumper shock mounts.
Then I had to remove all but the center of the upper mount (normally lower) so that it would clear the inside of the fender.
To be continued...