Remote Thermostat

Rain again so I got to spend a little bit of time getting started on my remote thermostat setup. This will be consisting of an F22A PT3 thermostat housing and the F22B P0A thermostat cover. I will be using welded AN fittings on the block, upper rad hose housing, thermostat housing and the radiator.

Doing this will allow me to use the appropriate length of SS braided coolant hoses in place of the steel tube usually used on the back of the block. As well as using it for both the upper and lower rad hoses.

Here are a few pics of the cleanup.

Started off with a dirty rusty A6 housing with all of the coolant hose nipples intact.

Within minutes I was down to threading the old 1/4" nipple outlets for plugs and removing the 3/4" inlet hose fitting to make room for a welded -AN bung.

1/8" NTP 27 threads, both of these ports will have plugs in them. Considering I am not going to be using the IACV or FITV. However I decided to thread them just in case I ever need to run a couple -AN coolant lines in the future.

Here are a few shots of it all cleaned up ready for some bungs and plugs!

Mated with the P0A thermostat cover and fan switch. I will probably be replacing the fan switches with plugs as well. I am going to be using the ECU to control the cooling fan along with the electric water pump.

This isn't the -AN fitting that will be welded on, it is only there for representation. ;) That will be a 12-AN fitting and the inlet and outlets for the block, head, rad and housing will be 20-AN. As you can see I am also a few 1/8" plugs short. I used up the ones that I had on my -AN fuel setup. Updates on that to come soon!

Back at it again!

It's been a while since I felt like digging up dirt. So here we go. Seems as though my good old friend at Gen5 is trying to suck more people into buying another light weight crank pulley. Posted on the websites front page is a writeup about how the last one ran into some unforeseen difficulties. More like lies lies lies and poor business ethics is what it really ran into!

On another note, I like that the members forum has been down for well over a month for maintenance that was supposed to be completed in just a few days. Hopefully people will start to see through the BS and opt for quality over quantity.

Go to a shop that has a reputation for doing good work, not just cheap prices & parts. In times like these it's sometimes hard to go with quality. Every dollar goes a long way. However, Don't let this guy take your hard earned money and run with it. You could probably do the work better yourselves.

Just wanted to remind those frequent viewers that this is what the BBB gave their automotive store for a rating.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Have a great weekend.

More rain in the forecast, more work on the car is a definite possibility.

Stay tuned for more updates soon!

F22A6 Port Cleaning Take 2

Rain Rain Rain and more rain....... so I decided to spend the afternoon working on my exhaust ports.

I opened them up at the outlet about 2mm, didn't touch anything else other than cleaning up the casing shift lines with a 180 grit cartridge roll.

The valves for the exhaust are going to be 1mm oversize, 30mm. I will end up having to blend the new valve seat again after it has been replaced and cut to the new size.

For now I am content with the way the ports are shaped so I went ahead and polished them. After the initial carbide bur shaping/enlarging and the 180 grit cartridge roll, there were a few more steps to get to this;

 

Another 220 cartridge roll on the die grinder then it was on to hand polishing. Wet/dry 320, 400, 1000 then 2000 grit. Finished off with a hand buff with green rouge then finally a white rouge.

There are a few light spots the could use some touch-ups but I think this should do.

So now in addition to having the intake ports with a rough textured surface to promote good flow. I have the rest completely polished to promote cooler combustion chamber temperatures. Heat will be reflected out the exhaust ports. Polished pistons and combustion chambers in conjunction with the exhaust ports will help maintain the temperature of the exhaust gases further out the exhaust track. In turn hopefully increasing the exhaust velocity and increase the scavenging effect. We'll have to wait and see..... Also it will reduce carbon buildup.

Piston Tops

Combustion Chambers

Exhaust Ports

Stay tuned for more......

PCV Air Pump

Well I took some time off from the porting to let some of the aluminum dust settle. Also to give my compressor a little bit of a break.

A rainy day and all I decided to fix the $20 Denso smog pump that I bought a while back. My thoughts are to use it as a mechanical crank case ventilation system. Considering there probably isn't going to be enough vacuum to do it as per usual.

Used a puller and got the thing opened up, it was a little rusty around the edges. After a bit of cleaning it was as good as new.

Pulled it completely apart to give it a thorough going over.

Gave the inside a quick wipe down. Didn't want to use anything to abrasive and remove any material. I wasn't able to find any way to adjust the clearances of the impeller blades.

All cleaned up!

Found that it was the front bearing that was a bit messed up.

I don't think it was the original one ether. Looks like it was a quick fix. The seal on the back side of the bearing was dented. I removed the seal and a few of the retainers were slightly crushed. So I'll pay the $5 for a new bearing and press it in. Hopefully that will be the fix to my $20 PCV pump.

Mounting this pump under the alternator using the A/C bracket will be the next step for this system.

F22A6 Port Cleaning

Today I spent a few hours cleaning up the F22A's intake ports. They really look a bit on the angry side and just a little bit cleaner than they were.....

Before;

After;

I didn't do much re-shaping work to them other than widening the injector valley for the DSMs wider V spray pattern.

Even the valve guides are tucked up in there nice and neat.

There was quite a bit of work to do to blend the seat and get rid of the casting marks running down the sides of the ports. There was also one in the center of the short turn just before each valve seat??????............. Gone now!

Hope to get at the exhaust ports tomorrow. I'm thinking that they might be a bit small. Might open the port up a mm or two. Nothing to big...... get some flow numbers and then make any real adjustments....

Stay tuned! 

Individual Throttle Bodies V2

Well it's been a while and I figured that I should update this blog. During this recent absence my build has taken a slight deviation. I was finally persuaded to go with an F22A head when I had this given to me.

It is an F22A6 with a P12 intake manifold on it. Not a big deal as I really don't need the A6 intake secondaries anyway. ;)

The head had 1 bent valve. Turns out that there was no other damage to the head.

 These intake ports look a lot more inviting than the B2 ports ever did.

The exhaust ports need a little bit of work but with the straight through design they don't need 1/4 the time the B2 head needed. The B2 head with all of the work done. Still wouldn't have had the flow that these will have with a mild port cleanup.

The F22A6 block on the other hand.......

It had a broken rod and some damage to the underside of the cylinder bore and the crank rod journal. Nothing that a little bit of work can't fix. A weld here and an offset there, next project ;)

For now it will be used as an empty mock-up engine for arranging hoses, fittings and wires in the bay.


Now onto the V2 throttles.........
With a new F22A head comes the need for a new F22A intake flange for my throttles.

It was with great sadness that I marked........

........and then cut my old manifold.

However, It was with great excitement that I cut up the F22A (P12) intake to make the flange for the new head.

That is as far as I was able to get so far.

TIG welding and port cleanup coming soon!

An update on the worst customer service

I posted this on the Gen5 web forum and have yet to receive any form of reply from Kevin or the staff at Gen5.

"He won't answer my messages or my phone calls. So I'm back to contacting him via public means. As I am unable to make comments on the Gen5Alive facebook page anymore. I must resort to the Gen5 site.

Kevin you said my parts were being shipped out by the 15th of October.

Remember?

Just wondering if there is any word on there whereabouts?


A valid USPS tracking number would work.

Cheers"



Well at least the Better Business Bureau has finally caught up with him. They have given his store the lowest rating it could possibly have, an F

BBB Business Review of Gen5Alive - Automobile Parts and Supplies Retail - Norwalk, CA

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to make any difference in the way in which he conducts his business.

Time for some shaving!

Shaved Doors
Finally took some time on a rainy day to get some work done. I started by removing the door handles from both the front and rear doors.

The front was a wee bit harder to pull out than the rear as it had what seemed to be a safety mechanism around the lock cylinder.


Once both of the handles were removed it was time to swap the opening mechanisms.

The one on the top is the rear door handle and the bottom is the front. You can see that the rear door handle uses a metal plate to push down on the rear door opening mechanism. Where as the front handle operates with a rod that is connected to the handle.

This is a better picture of the two different operating mechanisms once they were removed from the handles. The handles themselves are identical, so swapping the mechanisms was fairly easy. Here is the rear door handle with the front handle opening mechanism swap completed.

The actual mounting holes in the doors for the two handles are not the same. I forgot to take pictures. What I had to do was weld a small tab on the existing mounts to extend the surface area. Once welded on I drilled the new mounting holes and it was easy sailing from there.

Now with the front door lock, technically shaved it was on to shaving the rear door handle.

There was a bit more work to do here than there was on the front. Cleaned up the paint around the opening so I would have a good clean weld.

I then proceeded to make a paper template and traced it onto a piece of sheet metal. Cut the shape out and contoured it to the existing body lines.

I took a few trips to the grinding wheel to shave off a little here and a little there until I got it fitting flush with the existing door panel. Once it was sitting pretty it was time to weld it in place.

Now it's time to do the same to the other side.