I love the fall - and this year has proven to be a great season for a number of reasons. New house in the Halloween-loving Hudson Valley (Sleepy Hollow just erupts Halloween - it's like ground zero for the holiday!) coupled with beautiful autumn weather and it's hard not to get swept up in the whole vibe. Living in NYC you tend to lose the seasons, of which there are two: it's either hot and completely miserable, or snowing with 50mph winds - the transitions are immediate and come without warning. We are all really happy to be somewhere where you can notice earthly things like leaves falling, winds becoming gradually cooler, and the nights a little blacker.
It's also amazing driving weather. Living in Croton has introduced me to roads I have only dreamed about. Endless serpentine ribbons cutting through the woods with quaint bridges over protected watershed lakes, all perfectly manicured and completely empty... going to the Verizon store has never been this much fun. Every turn reveals a new perfectly composed balance of nature and landscaped manipulation, and enjoying it all from the cockpit of the flat six is really just too good. Such an indulgence - it's amazing.
Now that I have sufficiently expressed my gratitude, I think it's time to update the blog with my most ambitious project to date (save changing the oil... which is a whole thing in and of itself. It's as simple as taking out the plug and draining it, but to do it correctly, you must maintain enough engine heat to keep the oil-cooler manifold open so all of it will drain. This temp is just shy of 200 degrees. Releasing the plug on 15 quarts of scalding hot oil is pretty dramatic...), which is the addition of a front fender mounted oil-cooling radiator and fan assembly provided by Elephant Racing.
 |
| elephant racing carrera oil cooler. it gets a whole lot uglier from here on out. |
I was hoping to avoid this job, as it involves breaking loose connections that haven't been touched for over 30 years. I tried to have a porsche garage take it on, but they informed me it's too difficult working on these old cars, and didn't want to open up a can of whoop-ass worms should something give way - so I was left to my own devices, once again in the streets of Brooklyn.
The first step beyond assembling the cooler with the requisite stone guard, gasket, and fan assembly is removing the stock trombone cooler piping (literally just a loop of pipe, kinda resembles a trombone) and relocating the horns. This was a fairly simple task as I purchased new, functioning Hella OEM horns which fit the space well and tucked up into the front of the fender-well nicely.
 |
| inside fender: new horns, old backside of headlamp bucket. what's all that bracket...? |
This revealed my first snag: what to do with the mysterious bracket on the backside of the lamp globe. This isn't supposed to be there, and serves only to confuse. If I wasn't on the street, I could have left it alone, walked away and worked out some custom fabricated hanger piece that could incorporate this sturdy piece of metal into the install, but I can't just leave a jacked-up, oil-less 3-wheeled car on the street in Brooklyn, so I did what any other hack mechanic with a location constraint would do: I beat it flat with a maul.
From here the install went fairly smooth. I got the lower bracket mounted up with stainless sheetmetal screws and sealed the whole area with clear silicone to prevent road detritus buildup and eventual rust. I love silicone... did the same with the upper bracket - if these areas collect grime and rust out, it won't be because of the silicone seal!
Working the short and very sturdy connector hoses was a pretty aggressive wrestling match, but I eventually worked them on. I was able to work out the twist on the return line evident in the photo below, so don't worry - everything is straight in there now.
 |
| oil, with a twist |
This was done at the end of July, and has proven to be VERY effective at keeping engine temps down, especially in stop and go traffic. Where once I was climbing up to metal-shearing temps greater than 250º f, I am now under 180º - barely operating temps, and this without the fan hooked up yet. I'll update this winter when I get that happening.
No comments:
Post a Comment