28/4

JtC came up to check for himself the exhaust leak and my efforts with the shroud/fan.

Puttied-up exhaust leaks where the pipe enters the muffler and between the face of the muffler and the body. Holds, but seems temporary.

Fuel leak at carby wasn't fuel inlet as suspected, but it was a 0.25" welsh plug right next to the inlet that was leaking. A few taps with a punch looks to have sealed the leak.

Ooo... and the previously purchased Impala badges are on! (After a lot of cursing and squeezing an arm between the inner guard and the guard).

Finished with a clean.

Thanks Joe!

sent from my Telstra NEXTG™ handset

Exhaust Leak

From: John
Sent: Thursday, 26 April 2012 2:04 PM
To: Joe "The" Driver
Subject: Exhaust Leak

Hi there,

Been clocking up the miles on the Chev; went out to the beaches yesterday and to work today.

Near the driver’s door, you can hear a flutter from the exhaust. At lunch just now, I checked with a mate and blocking the tail pipe makes it louder.

The front of the muffler has slightly separated from the barrel of the muffler creating holes.

New exhaust time; or at least a weld patch-it job.

J

Radiator & Shroud Info

http://www.antechlabs.com/K0GFM/6566RadiatorsSpacers.pdf

Melting and Moulding

Rather than trim down the fan fins, we decided to try heating the shroud to soften it and mould it to give a bit more clearance to the fan.

I had a Holden Commodore 6-cylinder shroud lying around, so it became the test mule to see what was/wasn't achievable. The shroud was clamped to the workbench and the kids' mini skateboard used as a moulding tool.



A butane torch was the heat source and - after a bit of trial and error - I got a bit of a technique down on how to heat and mould the plastic.

The test also showed it was easier to clamp the skateboard to the workbench and bring the shroud to the modifying wheel like so...



If I was to do it again, I would have had a 2nd person heat while I worked the shroud over the skateboard wheel as it was hard to heat, then quickly work the softened plastic.

But, I got there!



The fan sits low in the shroud, so there is a larger gap a the top than the base, but it should be an improvement over no shroud at all.

Fine-tuning the Fan Fitting

With the shroud mounted-up, it was time to fit the fan.

It was decided to use the universal fan I got with the shroud.

Without a spacer, it fouled some of the ancillaries. A measure showed around 0.75" placed the centre of the fins along the entrance to the shroud.

As the water pump can accommodate two different fan mounting PCD's and the universal fan is slotted to also take a variety of bolt patterns, I tried a 1" spacer for a Holden Red Motor.

Of course, I completely forgot about the water pump pulley and it DOESN'T suit the Red Motor water pump bolt pattern <slap forehead>. 1" also looked like it was going to push the fan too far into the shroud and foul on the tapered section.

Back to Rare Spares.

Plan B was to try an aftermarket, universal 0.5" spacer.

Bingo!

Once it was all bolted together, the fins of the fan juuust skimmed the shroud. Time for some modification... another day.

Fab it up

During the day, I salvaged a piece of 2 mm gal sheet.

JtC came up in the evening to see what we could conjure up in the way of bracketry. Thank goodness he brought a decent hacksaw!

Bending begins...



After bending...




After a series of trial fits and trims with the angle grinder, we ended up with this...





Bewdiful!

Driver's side was enough for one night. I finished off the passenger side on 6/4.

Shroud Mount Bracket Design

With the shroud modified and made to fit, it was time to attach the sucker. Design time...


Final Sketch...


May the fabrication commence!

Lets. Get. MODIFYING!

OK, so the HQ radiator shroud isn't quite a perfect fit - didn't expect it to - but for the price, the plan was to grab it and see if we could make it work. If it works, it turns out waaay cheaper than buying a +$100 one from the states + shipping.

So to work...



My little compressor quickly gave up the ghost, trying to supply air to JtC's die grinder + cut-off wheel.

Time for plan B... angle grinder with cut-off wheel. Bingo!

(Though being sprayed with molten plastic while holding the shroud as JtC ground away isn't a hobby of mine - I think the phrase "toughen up princess" applies here)

And this is the result...



Factory!

The inner face was relieved to fit it past the power steering pump, water pump, etc. and the outer (radiator side) face was notched to ensure the shroud sat hard up against the radiator core.

Now to make up some brackets to mount it.

New Fan + Shroud

Picked these up off eBay:

Shroud off an HQ Kingswood...

Universal fan...

They are both basically brand new; immaculate condition. I have to start measuring and see what we can get to fit. The fan is just short of 17" diameter. The shroud looks like it could take a 19" fan (with tight clearances). Perhaps my 18" fan will fill it out pretty nicely?

Big thanks to Andreas and Violetta from work for picking these up for me this morning. Thanks guys!

Everything old is new again

So off came the defective new water pump and the old pump was tidied up before being reinstated...




And new gaskets made up...



All back together (I am getting pretty good at this now), coolant in, test drive. All good.