Somethings gotta change.
It seems that this time around, working on the car is much harder. Every single time I go down there with some plan, that plan becomes a joke. I don’t even get close to what I was hoping to be able to do. When I start it’s usually non-stop after that. I’ll go from the moment I pick up a wrench, till I’m so tired I can barely drag my ass out of the garage 8-10 hours later. Yet, despite the work ethic, every single thing I do is a struggle.
And I usually have to do it over.
Take my oil pan for starters. The last time I filled it,, there was dripping oil coming off the front corner of the rear sump. After going through the process of removing the engine so that I could weld the leak shut ( but mostly because I forgot the baffle), I weld where I thought the leak was. I fill the pan with solvent to check it for leakage, and it doesn’t leak. I put the baffle in, I bolt the pan on, I reinstall the engine,...I wait a few days to be sure the black RTV I’m using for a gasket sealant has dried, and I fill the pan back up with oil.
And it’s leaking in the exact same spot. Only this time, the leak is coming from much higher, not on the bottom corner.
Heres an epiphany: It was always leaking from much higher. The leak was just dripping off of that corner. When I checked the pan for leakage after I had it off the last time, I only filled it a couple of inches higher than where I thought the leak was.
That was the very first thing I started with yesterday....... Defeat. I drained the oil, but I ain’t pulling the engine. I’m not pulling one damn thing. Once that leak stops completely, and after I brake clean the piss out of that area, and after I check it several times after that to be sure there’s no seepage,.......I’m gonna use knead-able epoxy to seal the leak from the outside.
Summit didn’t ship the fuel cell foam from Atl, so I didn’t get it in time. Consequently, finishing the fuel cell had to get put on the back burner. Summit also missed including the aluminum fuel line in the order that I did get, so I couldn’t finish the fuel lines either.
None of that matters, I never would have gotten to it anyway.
This is what I did get done:
The two little radiators that were in Old intercooler Monster, are back in New improved intercooler monster. The SBC electric water pump that was in old ford engined Monster to cool the engine , is now repurposed in new Toyota engined Monster to cool the intercooler. The frame you see holds the 15 gallon Chinese fuel cell, and is welded to the frame of the car.
That will look like this when it’s installed.
Yet to be determined is whether or not I put that little fuel cell that will hold the water for the heat exchangers where it is in the pic, or way back in the left rear corner.
the fuel cell needs hold down straps, but because it sits so far back, I have to come up with something on each end that will do that. Should be a simple piece of angle with tabs that will allow me to use threaded rod bolted through the frame on each end.
The floor that is in front of the fuel cell is a piece of .032 aluminum. Really flimsy sht. That’s why there are straps under the floor in the previous pic. I figure once it’s riveted in, it’ll be good enough to serve it’s purpose.....covering that big assed hole.
Which brings me back around to the start...My hands hurt from all of the hose building. I pretty much ache all over. The build time I have amounts to a day,...maybe a day and a half a week..At the rate I’m going, I can’t even see the tunnel, much less the light at the end of it.
