Little project I did

So as we all know even though our car might be done, they are really never finished. There’s always a new part we want, weather it’s to make us go faster or look better. Well hopefully this one will dress up my engine bay a little bit. Here’s a couple of pics of my homemade radiator cover.

Here’s the rest of the pics. I still have to drill the holes and permanently mount it, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks! So I would say I have an above average home shop with welders, lathes, mill, etc. Among the etc. I built a cnc plasma cutter that I was able to mount a dremel tool to to do the engraving.

I dont know I never really thought about it to be honest. I do do fab work as my day job as well as on the side but everything automotive I've done has been for personal projects.

Thanks for all the complements . 2Blue2 I was thinking the exact same thing!

Lol. Now the engine bay looks like it needs to be cleaned up to match how nice the radiator cover looks.

I wasn't sure if I should start a new thread or just keep everything contained in this one. Anyway, I have some updates on the car you guys. Not much progress though Lol. I have been toying around with two different ideas and have finally settled on one.

Idea #1: Keep the current 5.0 in the car and add an on3 turbo kit to it. Goal is to shoot for approx. 400 rwhp
Idea #2: Swap in a 351w that I have from an E-350 van and add a turbo kit to it.

I chose idea #1. I'm not really looking to build a racecar and I feel that the 5.0 with the turbo will be pently for the streets and possibly a few trips down the 1/4 mile.

As of now I have purchased the turbo kit, on3 y pipe, and an sve aluminum rad. from lmr. I still need a boost controller, fuel injectors, and a new fuel pump. I'm not sure which boost controller to get, I was thinking of getting the turbo smart manual boost controller. I don't know if that a good one or not, it seems to be over priced. I know I've seen donny b, justin91lx, and house of dula use it on their installs. The car has a microsquirt if that makes a difference. As for the fuel injectors and pump I've seen the lu47 lb and walbro 255 recommended.

I started installing the sve aluminum radiator today and i have a few questions. Not on the radiator, that pretty basic, but on the cooling system itself. When I took a tuning class with Steve we noticed the car running pretty hot. It reach 220* while it sat and idled for a decent amount of time, not sure but probably close to an hour. Steve had thought that the fan clutch could be bad. That seems reasonable because I believe it's original to the car. I have a fan clutch from the 351w, mentioned above, and noticed that it is much harder to turn by hand. The clutch from the car spins very freely.

Looking ahead to the turbo install I was thinking of going with the contour electric fans. Whats your opinion on that? Would you wire them to be controlled by the microsquirt or use a separate fan controller?

Here's a few pics of the new radiator, I know it's not that exciting but it's progress none the less.

Out with the old



In with the new




Fan clutch from the car is on the left and clutch from the van is on the right

Yes it does.