Finally registered with Pelican- Introduction

[Mitch Leland]

tshebib,

Another good insulator is take a piece of clear hose and slit it the long ways, then use tie wraps or safety wire to secure the hose to the S/S hose.

[tshebib]

Thanks Mitch, excellent tip. I'll drop into Canadian Tire on the way home from work tonight.
Tom

[Garth S]

Tom,
Just flying by to update on your progress - excellent work; however, a real bummer on the '97 DME!!
If you have not yet sent the '96DME out, give me a call or email: I thought there was a NA source for 'chippable' boxes ... may be incorrect, but worth checking into.

[tshebib]

Thanks to Mitch's tip, I found some closed cell rubber insulating pipe. They wrapped around the SS lines perfectly and have self adhesive tape built right in which simplified the whole process.

[Mitch Leland]

tshebib, nice job... Let us known the results of the addition the oil cooler has made.

[tshebib]

I made good progress yesterday, finishing the passenger side cooler install. Today I'm going to complete the drivers side (hopefully).

I used a dremel cut-off wheel to create a scoop to pick up some air from underneath.



Next it was time to fabricate some side pieces to act as a mounting place for the rubber air scoops





Aluminum top bracket is next



And finally, designing and fabricating the rubber air scoops.

[tshebib]

Final pics of passenger side

[Reiver]

Looks very good. I just put a used factory Carrera unit on my 83 SC (live in Arizona) with the block off and the running light scoop. You really need a fan for it to be effective unless you are constantly 'at speed'. I wired the factory fan to a switch and can really control the oil temp.
In hot weather stop and go the rad is not much more effective than my old trombone...the fan makes the dif.

[tshebib]

Originally Posted by Reiver

Looks very good. I just put a used factory Carrera unit on my 83 SC (live in Arizona) with the block off and the running light scoop. You really need a fan for it to be effective unless you are constantly 'at speed'. I wired the factory fan to a switch and can really control the oil temp.
In hot weather stop and go the rad is not much more effective than my old trombone...the fan makes the dif.

I read a number of threads on this subject (I think one may have been from you). My car is mostly used for B-road runs and track duty so my thoughts are the fan may block some of the air flow "at speed". Plus, we're a little cooler up here in the "Great White North". If regular driving causes my temps to be a little high I can always add a fan later. I'll keep you posted

[tshebib]

Front oil coolers are finished. Lots of trial and error on designing and fitting. It may not be pretty but should quite functional.
There was lots of grinding and bending of aluminum.





Top bracket/air deflector installed. Again, not pretty but definitely functional



Lots of trial fitting before the final install



Finished product with view of lower scoop







Here's a shot of my brake cooling scoops re-installed. They definitely work, I had brake fade during a session mid season last year. I came in to the Pitts right away and sure enough, one of the hoses had come off at the A-arm junction. I went with central scoops so during street use my Euro license plate hides them from view so it still looks somewhat factory looking.

[tshebib]

I have completed restoring the donated Euro headlights (thanks Greg). They even came with 100w bulbs. Relay kit is on it's way. I put some screening in my sugar scoops. Hopefully I won't have to use them, but I'll definitely be bringing them to the track this year as insurance.

[gtihop]

I look forward to seeing this!

[scotiagreg]

I love the Euro H4's. Nice job on the reconditioning. The whole project is coming along nicely. You got somewhere around 75 days before the season starts and I predict you will be ready long before that.

Gotta get that brain re programmed because when you fire up that 3.6 all the blood gonna run directly south out of yours.

Greg

[tshebib]

I'm still waiting for the DME from Germany. I decided it was time to put the car back on the ground today, however I ran into a potential problem. The front tire looked really close to the cooler so I turned the wheel and sure enough I had 1/8" clearance between the tire and the cooler. So, instead of putting the wheels back on I ended up spending the day remounting the coolers more forward.

[tshebib]

Here's a little tip for all you DIYers out there. Just when you think you know what you're doing, that's when you'll pull a "rookie" move. I didn't bother bracing the fitting on the cooler end As I was tightening the SS line fitting onto the cooler. Luckily, Larry knows someone who can weld/solder aluminum. I guess it's a good thing there's 40+ days before track season starts.

[LCorkum]

Tom,

What progress have you made in getting your DME and you Aluminum Welding completed? Curioius if your startup date is closing in!

Cheers,
Lloyd
3-25

[tshebib]

Just got back from Turks and Caicos. I have a little story to tell all you "car" guys. Being a British Isle they drive on the left side of the road. I was really looking forward to terrorizing all the locals (or at least my wife) with our rental car. Unfortunately the nice lady at Hertz was kind enough to inform me that I had unknowingly let my drivers license expire! So, for 8 days I got to play "back seat driver"to my wife. She thought the whole thing was funnier than I did.

Now for an update on my conversion. I ended up having to order a new oil cooler, so, here I am finally with the reprogrammed DME in hand but can't fire it up until the replacement cooler shows up (hopefully tomorrow). We're getting close. That over-tightening of the cooler fitting was a $400 mistake. Lesson learned.

[gtihop]

So now you're rested and back at it! Should be on the road by next weekend?
I just got my new airbox, just waiting for some gaskets to come.

[tshebib]

Eureka!! Took my first run in my new "super car" today. I only went half throttle and still couldn't believe how fast I had to row through the gears. No ticking noises so far and no leaks.



On first start there was a tremendous amount of smoke which lasted about 15 minutes. The lifters pumped right up and the engine immediately settled into a nice idle. The throttle seems to be very touchy- I have to learn how to heel and toe all over again. Oil pressure is excellent and after 20 minutes of driving the temperature Gage was perfect. My only concern is the tach won't go over 2k and when I rev the engine the tach actually drops off. Seems O.K. at idle. I can see how easy someone could trash the tranny. It's really tempting to just mash the throttle off the line but I gotta tell ya you certainly don't have to to get that push into the seat. The power is so linear with the rush of power so instant and just keeps climbing from there. Thanks to all you Pelicans, I wouldn`t of even attempted this project if I didn`t have this forum as a resource.

I`m also really happy with the new look in the front end. The Euro headlights are awesome and the bumper grills turned out great. There will be lots of direct air flow to the two oil coolers





With advice from this forum, I put 1 litre of Seafoam and 10 litres of 0w30 dino oil in for the initial start up. I`ll now drain this and put some Mobil 1 in. I`m going with 0w40 first and switch to 15w50 for track duty.
Thanks again everyone!!

[gtihop]

A BIG congrats to you. All that's left now is to enjoy it.