‘91 E30

KaiserRolls

Took the car on a small 3hr road trip over the weekend as a quick shakedown. No leaks, diff is good, ps pump still whines like crazy.

ordered a new pump this morning, hoping that gets rid of the heavy feeling steering and pump whine.

during the road trip it was hot out and I got hot. decided I’m going to DIY a coolshirt. Parts are showing up later this week. Going to try and keep the install clean.

YoungCR

Assuming that's south of EC? I crossed the river at Nelson/Wabasha earlier this week. I miss the western Wisconsin views and roads. Curious to see your cool shirt contraption.

KaiserRolls

YoungCR said:

Assuming that's south of EC? I crossed the river at Nelson/Wabasha earlier this week. I miss the western Wisconsin views and roads. Curious to see your cool shirt contraption.

Yep, along the Mississippi. Alma/Maiden rock/pepin

KaiserRolls

Harness showed up today so I figured I’d get it tossed in before the rest of the coolshirt crap shows up.
ordered a harness from superbrightleds, they had a bunch of offerings for pre-built stuff with weatherpack connectors/relays for like $17.
connected it under the firewall cover, snagged power from the distro block, grounded to strut tower.
the switch they provide is a gross rocker style switch for a 248” brolightbar.
I ended up repurposing the AC button to turn the pump on. Figured it kind of made sense because “ac.” I couldn’t figure out illumination on the switch so I said screw it and just use it to trigger the relay. The switch stays in the down position anyways, so it’ll be obvious when the pump is running.
power to the trunk runs under the console/carpet/rear seat and comes out under the ski pass. Just long enough to make it to the coolers location.

waiting on a few things to show up, the tube insulators will probably be the last thing to make it here and they’re kind of holding up the show at this point.
goal is to make this as hidden as possible, going to try and hide the tubes under the seats

KaiserRolls

Made a bracket

KaiserRolls

Coolshirt progress

currently waiting on the marine adhesive to dry

B C

KaiserRolls

Lines routed, had to take a die grinder and open up the hole below the ski pass and remove a bit of rear seatback foam to ensure the lines don’t kink

m42b32

KaiserRolls said:

Ive been meaning to do this, can never be too careful. How easy is it to reach on the passenger side vs. having it on the driver's side?

KaiserRolls

m42b32 said:

Ive been meaning to do this, can never be too careful. How easy is it to reach on the passenger side vs. having it on the driver's side?

Joe you’re like 6’4” you’ll be ok lol. If you can reach the glovebox you can reach where I have it. I also do not want anything in the drivers side just in case

m42b32

KaiserRolls said:

Joe you’re like 6’4” you’ll be ok lol. If you can reach the glovebox you can reach where I have it. I also do not want anything in the drivers side just in case

Fair enough haha. Good point on things on the floor in your way too, hadn't considered that

KaiserRolls

cooler is ready to go, just need to add the female ends to the hose in the car

KaiserRolls

Finished

velcro loops to keep the hoses from flying around

ignore the air bubbles in the line, had a spare hose cobbled together to make sure the pump worked/cooler didn’t leak

IMG_1472.MOV

fairly well out of sight in the cabin

Hopefully this makes a 14.5 hour drive less miserable. Figure I’ll have to get a small bag of ice every other gas stop depending on how hot it is

next project is slapping the new PS pump in and getting that bled.

KaiserRolls

New PS pump is in, just need to slap the pulley and serp belt back on.
Decided to make some ducting for the radiator.
started by adding adhesive backed foam in between the core support and the rad, trying to block all the openings I could.

you can see how wide open everything is in front of/on the sides the radiator

then moved on to dr. Pepper box templates.

transferred to some thin aluminum sheet

there were existing holes in the core support that I had to enlarge a bit to use 1/4-20 rivnuts

here’s the basic idea - it needed a bit more trimming to clear a wire harness

holes drilled and installed. I added aluminum foil tape to the corners to better secure the 3 pieces together. Also used some adhesive backed foam in certain areas to eliminate vibration

fairly well-hidden once the grilles and valence plastic pieces are back in

i was not having any issues with the cooling system, I just got bored. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to try & it might be beneficial once I start bringing this to more hpde type events

KaiserRolls

Cruised around a bit tonight. Coolant temps seemed slightly cooler, probably more related to ambient temps than any ducting

also tossed the new PS pump in and bled the system, which ultimately cured the whine

new grommets showed up for the fender trim pieces, the DS was basically falling out and the trim is NLA

all fluids are fresh and the car is ready to go the mountains (hopefully)

in an attempt to keep the Miata cabin cool we added a turbo heat shield. Used DEI Floor and tunnel ii adhesive heat shield in the inside of the turbo shield and some reflective tape on the exterior. Also lined the entire firewall behind the down pipe and trans tunnel with the stuff

only posting Miata content because that DEI heat shield stuff is awesome, an aftermarket product that actually works worth a crap. If your floor/tunnel gets too hot, I’d recommend this stuff.