The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Rally! → Opel Prep for West Coast 2017
This makes more sense to me than whatever pseudoscience carburetors use.
heh...the neat thing about carbs is that the magic doesn't matter. Give them a supply of fuel, and they work.
They never seem to work that way for me.
Carbs are the best!!! May need a sacrifice to make them work or pray daily, depends on which one you got.
Everyone has their favorite type of magic.
This was my temporary air cleaner when I got the MPFI setup installed, just the bits I had laying around leftover from other projects. It's actually 3" stuff squished to fit the 70mm/2.75" throttle body.
Amazon delivered with a cheap air cleaner, some silicone bends and an aluminum tube. With a little trimming, I was able route the intake through an existing opening. Filter had to be installed from the front, but it fits great!
It's practically a Hellcat now.
I didn't think the original turn signal would fit, but thankfully the back of the housing sits right inside the center filter element. Super stealth!
Front suspension is done. Poly bushings and new KYB gas shocks.
I don't think it's any more likely to kill me than it was before.
Also, the battery is now securely bolted to the car. Allstar battery tray fits a sideways Optima. Had to go sideways to clear the cargo tray.
I also just installed a stereo. My car was not equipped with one originally and had a blank panel covering the mounts. I tried to find a suitable shaft style deck, but decided just to zip-tie a universal housing under the dash. I got a digital media deck, so it's short and lightweight.
I used the original stereo location to zip-tie my USB and 12v plugs.
August is getting close.
There are plenty of questionable shaft style stereos on ebay. If you shop well, you can get one that accepts 8 track tapes.
This $32.99 Amazon Chinese seat beat can't be worse than the originals, right?
The specs say this fan is only 2.11" thick, so it SHOULD fit. I'll have to pull the radiator to get it in place though. Also pictured is the external IAC block. Now the car starts and idles like a proper EFI car should.
NOPE! Guess I should have measured the core height, not just the width. Ordering a 12"er.
that's a tiny radiator! although the oil cooler in my Corvair is even smaller...
that's a tiny radiator! although the oil cooler in my Corvair is even smaller...
Yes, it is a small radiator. I've been thinking of adding an oil cooler to supplement the system, and slightly increase my oil volume. This car only takes like 3 quarts. My 12" fan should be here tomorrow, in time to install before my weekly Wednesday highway run. We'll see if it makes a difference.
I'm also considering doing another flush, there is still visible scale in my radiator, but it is not horribly obstructed anymore. Maybe use something more aggressive than the Prestone radiator flush I used before. Maybe CLR? Then running distilled water with water wetter. The bottle says 20º cooler, and the reviews say it works.
if it's not boiling over, don't worry about it. It's just a LeMon, after all
Fired up the $500 Explorer, hitched up the trailer and loaded up the Opel for a shakedown tow. Whoops, wrong Opel. This Opel goes to the DMV to get it's title sorted out.
The Kadett has been down most of the week waiting for me to have time to sort out the electric fan. Turns out my original water pump was defective. The flange wasn't pressed on all the way, so replacing the water pump bought me a little clearance, and solved a belt alignment issue to boot. I got some 2-1/2" long 6-32 screws and put some heat-shrink on them. I used rubber washers when sandwiching the radiator. Worked way better than the other fan mounting kits I've used. The fan is mounted on the radiator solid and tight. It even JUST BARELY slides into the car with the fan attached, and mounts in the factory position. I may still tweak the mounts to buy just a little more clearance, but I was pleasantly surprised that it fit as-is. I also switched to the automatic radiator, hoping that it will have greater cooling capacity.
This is only an 800-something CFM fan (Spal 30100375, 12" straight blade) because it is so slim at only 2 inches thick, but this thing moves some air. I set the megasquirt to fire the fan at 190-degrees, and with a 180-degree thermostat it cycles the fan just like it should, and it really throws some heat off. I think this combination of automatic radiator and properly shrouded electric fan is going to do way better than the original radiator with the solid unshrouded fan.
Well, I decided to chase down an intermittent noise. I thought it was internal to my transmission. But it turns out my fuel return line got loose and was introducing itself to my transmission yoke. LOL
that could get exciting after a while
that could get exciting after a while
Indeed.
I took the Opel to a job about 100 miles from home, the drive back was in 106-110º heat. Engine stayed cool enough, warming up to the point that it used to just maintaining 65MPH on the interstate (220-ish). I don't think it would have managed this heat before I did the radiator swap and electric fan.
But, even with the engine temps within reason, the engine started cutting out. The car stalled when I pulled over and I could hear gurgling in the fuel tank. Fuel boil. I let it cool down for a few minutes, then started down the road again. Thankfully there was a gas station just around the corner. My tank is less than ten gallons, and I put in six, so I only had a few gallons in the tank. Bought some ice to pack around the tank, and it ran fine the rest of the 80 miles or so home.
too bad we're not going through Death Valley this year, you'd be all set!
too bad we're not going through Death Valley this year, you'd be all set!
Central Oregon can get pretty toasty too.
True, but you can't count on it being 115 every day, all summer long.
Is there no room to front mount that fan and wire it up as a blower? I always preferred the extra 2" of engine room space that config gave me on the Alfas.
bs
Is there no room to front mount that fan and wire it up as a blower? I always preferred the extra 2" of engine room space that config gave me on the Alfas.
bs
There is no room up front to mount a pusher fan unless I break out the sawzall. I did wedge a small fan in there to supplement the mechanical fan before I worked out the 12" setup.
I didn't take a picture of it, but I did re-drill the lower radiator mount to tilt the radiator away, and it is a much more comfortable distance now.
True, but you can't count on it being 115 every day, all summer long.
Well, according to the forecast...
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Rally! → Opel Prep for West Coast 2017