‘91 E30
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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
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.
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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
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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.
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Added to my list. I know the E28 rubber/foam firewall insulation is NLA, I'm sure its lighter over oem too.
It is pretty light for what it is, just buy a bunch of brake clean to prep/clean the area-the adhesive is pretty sensitive to grease
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then moved on to dr. Pepper box templates.
How dare you not use diet doc 360!
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Coolshirt has been the MVP of the trip
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Beautiful! How much ice did you go through?
1 to 2 ten lb bags per day. On the way home I got a bag every time I got gas
pulled in home at like 12:30am, car was smoking/steaming. Looks like I get to do a thermostat housing gasket, maybe if I’m lucky it’s a water pump. Couldn’t have failed at a better time though
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Time to buy a lotto ticket. Did the temps get high dangerously high when that happened? That is amazing luck! Gotta make a coolshirt for the engine
Nope temps were in check the entire time, small leak, but it was enough to spray coolant every which way
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Ok so found the leak, radiator apparently bit the bullet
really odd spot, right in front of the tstat housing, which is why I thought it was the tstat housing
not going to mess around having it fixed, went ahead and ordered a z3m mishimoto xline rad. Thicker core and more coolant capacity. Also got some more adhesive foam so I can better seal up some remaining gaps from my first go around.
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Was the radiator shrouding needed? Have you found this to be worthwhile? New rad will be nice, might not be a bad idea to replace the thermostat or pump since you're in there.
thermostat is like a year old, gasket is about a year old, waterpump is a Stewart unit that @B C installed. should be good on that front.
on my trip i never saw temps higher than middle of the gauge on the cluster.
VDO coolant gauge showed a max of like 205 during some of the beat runs in 90 degree heat
proper shrouding is always worthwhile
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Radiator showed up. Ended up buying a mishimoto xline z3m rad. It’s a 3 core setup which should help. The outlet showed up slightly flattened so I got like $40 back from amazon, will just tap that back out.
Figured I’d go with mishimoto because it has a lifetime warranty and was one of the few all aluminum 3 cores I could find for a reasonable price.
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Picked up a long term project over the weekend
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Nice! Plans?
Slowly get it ready to drop in. Car is currently fun to drive, just wanted something to do on the side
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Slowly get it ready to drop in. Car is currently fun to drive, just wanted something to do on the side
You stole my idea! I am sort of, kinda looking to do the same.
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Confirmed radiator was the issue lol
must’ve hit something during the trip that made the fan push into the rad at a funny angle.
ordered a new 14” curved blade pusher fan To replace the 16” straight blade pusher. The fan will now be able to fit in the opening of the core support without hitting the top or bottom of the support (the 16” fan shroud hits the top of the core support by like .5”)
here’s a different in core sizes
I have some hoses on the way that I’ll be trying to make work
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