OK I need to catch up on some updates! Last time I checked in I had a running engine but a TON of little loose ends to tie up.
I used my very limited fabrication skills to whip up some brackets for both my ignition coil and my heater diverter valve. For the coil, it's a very awkward and relatively heavy piece so it was tough to find a good spot for it. Like I've been trying to do with most things on this car, I wanted to keep it looking neat under the hood but not so neat that I can't access or work on things when I need to. So, I found a spot on the backside of the driver's side fenderwell and made a little bracket to hold the coil there. It took me a couple tries to get it right and it's definitely not perfect but I think it'll work.
Here is the coil:
The other very awkward thing I needed to make a bracket for was this heater control valve. Decided to mount it to the back of the AC compressor bracket. I'm not super happy with it and the fact that I had to use zip ties, but should hold up for now:
For my fan wiring, I wanted to keep the stock strategy of having one fan come on with the AC and the high temp switch while the other comes on with the low temp switch. Having installed a 180* thermostat I used 195* low temp fan switch. The problem is that on the front of my intake, I now had to have the temperature sender for the computer, the temperature for the gauge, the fan switch and also have a way to attach a heater hose to the diverter valve I showed in my last post. There are only 3 outlets on the front of the intake, so you do the math! I ended up using 2 of the ports for the computer and gauge senders, and then some plumbing tubing I picked up at Home Depot (I know, I know... not ideal!) to combine the fan switch and heater outlet. After I painted it black I don't think it looks too bad:
The radiator I am using comes from Cold Case and I picked up the matching shroud and dual fan setup. So far it looks like a nice piece, the only issue is the connectors on the fans. They look like the universal fan connectors you can get online but one of the pins is a bit offset, which forces you to by their matching fan wiring kit. I didn't want to do this, so for now I wired up some female terminal connectors that are working for the time being. The proper permanent solution will be cutting the connectors off of the fans and soldering if some different 2-pin connectors. I mounted my fan relays to the side of the radiator core support near the battery but can't find a picture!
My next little issue was a coolant leak coming from the back of my intake manifold that I could not figure out for the longest time. It turns out, one of the bolt holes for the TPI runners was leaking coolant. Now, this bolt hole is not supposed to thread into a coolant passage but it looks like at one point someone used too long of a bolt and cracked a hole in the bottom of the bolt hole. So after figuring that out, I put some thread sealant on the bolt threads, re-assembled the intake and thought I was good. Unfortunately though it didn't work... and I wasn't happy! I started the car back up and was greeted with a big puddle of coolant on the garage floor. Taking apart a Super Ram takes some time! The second time, I cleaned the threads out as good as I could with a tap, filled the bottom of the hole with a bit of grey RTV and then added a bit more grey RTV on the threads. This time, instead of installing the whole intake manifold, I rented a coolant system pressure checker so if it was going to leak, at least I wouldn't waste a day putting the intake back together. Luckily, the system held pressure over night and seems to be doing ok so far.