Progress Thread HeHateMe gets bent

[droopie85gt]

I also picked up a couple of goodies this week. A MSD power filter for the Digital 6. And the most amazing thing (to me) READER power safety glasses! Because sometimes you have to be grinding AND need to read the instructions or you have to lay on your back with your face about 1 foot from where you need to drill and grind and it helps if you can see the piece clearly!

Getting old isn't for the faint of heart, my 87 year old dad always says that.

And yes, these are SAFETY Crocs!

 

[a91what]

Solder seals....

Do not use, I had many failures and had to rewire all the connections made with these.

 

[droopie85gt]

Yeah, they sounded good in theory...I was reading thru your build thread @a91what when I saw them and said, I have never heard of those. Well, wonder if I can send them back since I sacrificed 2 of the blue one. Too bad...it would make wiring stuff much easier. But I feel confident crimp and solder is good. I probably should have taken the money I spent on the solder seals and bought a good ratcheting crimper.

Speaking of which, I wired up the MSD to the power filter (capacitor). I used crimp on ring terminals. I cut the cheap hard plastic insulators off. I then crimp the out of them and cover with heat shrink. I used the non-insulated side of the crimper which dimples the terminal. Pretty sure that wire won't come out.

I mounted the capacitor to two existing holes in the fender well. I don't want to drill any more holes. I used button head screws to minimize the protrusion towards the tire. I am going to ground it to the bottom coil bracket mount bolt on the strut tower. I also want to get a braided ground cable and run that to the back of the drivers side head to make damn certain the MSD and the coil are grounded very well.

When I first put the C950 EFI on, at first I kept the duraspark distributor (efi not controlling timing) but took out the duraspark box and used an MSD Streetfire box. Mainly because it was cheap and had a rev limiter. I did all my testing and datalogging to get the thing running. Once I got braver about the reliability I started taking it farther from home. One day on the way home from about a 45 mile drive up and down the interstate, it died about 2 miles from home. Had to get it towed. It coughed and sputtered like it ran out of fuel. I thought it was the fuel pump. So I paid $50 to get it towed home and when I got home it started right up. I said ya, the fuel pump is going bad and got hot. So I replaced it. Started to take another test drive and it died 300 ft from the drive way. This time it was like the key was cut off. So I had a neighbor crank it and no spark. I bumped the coil (I had an MSD blaster then and the MSD Streetfire was gounded to the mounting bolt of the coil) and it started firing. I realized the ground was loose. I am not going thru that again. I am going to have ground overkill if I have to!!

 

[a91what]

You can buy the crimp terminals bare metal so you dont have to cut the plastic off.

 

[droopie85gt]

You can buy the crimp terminals bare metal so you dont have to cut the plastic off.

What you say? Dammit man!

Actually I have a plastic case with the little storage slots. Over the last 15 years I have filled it up with butt (I said butt) connectors, crimps, ring terminals, t taps, heat shrink...blah blah blah. But no bare terminals. I've bought enough to fill up 3 big carboard boxes in the back of the 85. I figure I have enough wire and such to redo 3 more Mustangs, so I am using what I have. Use up the existing inventory.

 

[droopie85gt]

Ok, so when I removed the fender to make room to get in there to wire everything up I broke off 2 bolts. What's the easy way to fix this? The one I am concerned about lives in the bottom of the bumper. Looks like it goes thru and is made to a metal brace that runs up and captures the bolt above it. Funny thing, the bottom bolt was almost rusted away. The one directly above looks new. Must be a bad spot to catch road wash. So, does that metal piece come out of the urethane? If so I can just easily drill it out and tack in a new bolt. What says the experience body guys @Davedacarpainter? The first pic is the bolt broken off in the spat or whatever the piece of molding that's on the bottom of the fender to match the airdam. I can just get another bolt for that one. And maybe a nutclip if I have to destroy it to get the rest of the bolt out.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Ok, so when I removed the fender to make room to get in there to wire everything up I broke off 2 bolts. What's the easy way to fix this? The one I am concerned about lives in the bottom of the bumper. Looks like it goes thru and is made to a metal brace that runs up and captures the bolt above it. Funny thing, the bottom bolt was almost rusted away. The one directly above looks new. Must be a bad spot to catch road wash. So, does that metal piece come out of the urethane? If so I can just easily drill it out and tack in a new bolt. What says the experience body guys @Davedacarpainter? The first pic is the bolt broken off in the spat or whatever the piece of molding that's on the bottom of the fender to match the airdam. I can just get another bolt for that one. And maybe a nutclip if I have to destroy it to get the rest of the bolt out.

Yeah Drew, that's all I did with mine was to cut out the old one and spot weld in a new bolt. Nothing real tricky.

 

[droopie85gt]

Damn, I got a lot done today. Just not on the 85.

First my son's 2005 Volvo XC90 had "square" steering...in his words. I finally figured out he meant notchy. I figured the steering U Joint was starting to freeze up. Removed the floor grommet and sprayed some penetrating oil in it. Worked it around and then sprayed some lithium in it. According to him it is fixed. And then it took almost an hour to get that damn grommet back down to the floor. My big ass couldn't get both arms in front of me because that tiny POS is just too small. I am actually surprised and proud that once I explained to my son, there's a lip on the floor, there's a spring around the bottom of the grommet and it's got to go over that lip while you pinch the spring with your right hand and push the whole thing down with your left, he was able after about 15 minutes to do it. So at least he can change a tire and put the steering grommet on his car. And check the oil, trans fluid and power steering fluid now. So not too bad for today's 17 year old teen.

That went so well, I decided it was time to change the exhaust on my Ram. The only thing I didn't like about the V6 was it's not offered with the factory dual exhaust. I love the look. I found out all the exhausts Hemi, V6, Eco Diesel are the same from the muffler back, as long as the chassis is the same. So I found a take off hemi exhaust a few weeks ago on a Ram Forum and finally gave up looking for a used bumper and bought one off Ebay this week. I had my son help swap bumpers and then he had to go to work. I finished the bumper swap and then changed the exhaust. The V6 muffler was a little hard to get out, but other than that, the swap was simple. Maybe 45 minutes top. Now I have a factory dual V6 Crew Cab Ram. I'm happy. It doesn't sound much different. Maybe a little more raspy. But as long as it wasn't obnoxiously loud, I just want the look.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I've already got dual exhaust on my Ram, I also have the hemi though.

If I didn't have this thing for mustangs, that pick up would be one badass truck.

 

[droopie85gt]

There's many a day when I question my decision for the V-6. Then I fill up and it says 600+ til the next and I remember why.

 

[droopie85gt]

I'm off today and wasting too much time on the interweb searching for what should be a simple answer. What's an easy to acquire, OEM cooling fan temp switch, that's inexpensive, 3/8npt that switches on somewhere between 190-205? I am going to have the ECU control one fan, I don't want to waste another output to control the second. So the 2nd fan will just be hard wired to the relay to come on off with the temp switch. Oh yeah, a switch with an available pig tail would be nice.

 

[90sickfox]

I found several gm fan switches that are cheap. There was a thread in a chevy forum... i'll see if I can find it. The temperatures varied by models. Camaros use electric fans on the 305 and 350s. Summit had a few different temperature ranges for them not too long ago. They should be 3/8 npt. I used a bmw high and low speed temp switch early on in my build but it uses metric thread ( had to tap thermostat housing ) ... It uses three wires... one chassis ground...high speed ground and low speed ground. My megasquirt controls my fans now.

 

[droopie85gt]

I may leave the C950 in the car and keep the HP for another project...either way, C950 only has one fan output and the HP only has 4 output 4 input. So I will let the ECU control one fan and just looking for a single temp switch for the other. Something 190-205 that's an oem part. There's some cheap ones on Amazon, but half the review say DOA. I figure something OEM is reasonable quality and GM parts like this are cheap and the pigtail is too. You would think this would be easy to google, but all I come up with is the BMW switch. I may just use it and let it control my fans and save 2 outputs!

 

[a91what]

I cant imagine paying over 1000 for an ecu that has that small an amount of I/O .... what are you using the other 3 outputs for???
I wonder if they make an expansion card for it like i used on my megasquirt. In my case i had used all of the I/O that the DIYPNP had to offer making it semi sequential injection and wasted spark coil pack ignition. so i used an I/O extender expansion card over canbus to increase the potential of the ECU [ I was already asking for more than it was originally designed for ] but it only cost me 500. Now i have more I/O than I know what to do with.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Summit sells the kit,...it's a temp probe that you glue? Onto one of the end tanks, and has an adjustable temp knob to tell it when to turn the fans on.

 

[droopie85gt]

With Holley if you need more i/o it's the Terminator for you. It has a ridiculous amount of i/o but just the ecu is about $1200. I'm going to use one for a shift light and one as the A/C compressor cut out. So if I used both for fans I'm out. If I keep the C950 it only has 2 outputs. 1 of the outputs can't do any temp related i/o so it only has one output. So I am just looking for a 3/8 npt oem type switch that turns on somewhere between 190 and 200. I might just get the BMW one and run both fans off that.

Just did some more reading on the BMW switch. Both sides aren't grounded at the same time, so it can't trigger 2 fans simultaneously.

Does anyone know what size threads are the temp sensor in the heater tubes on the intake? Mine's just a plug right now, so I could put a thermostatic switch there to control 1 fan.

 

[a91what]

Ok gotcha, this is again why I stick with my MS based ECU options.... I just added a $65 i/o card over canbus and gave myself 2 pwm inputs 2 pwm outputs 4 digital i/o and 10adc (analog) i/o.... like I said more than I will ever need.

 

[droopie85gt]

I know...I've already got the HP, so I am not changing now. Just need a 3/8 npt switch that works in the 190-200 range. I see tons of them on Amazon that look like shinee chinee junk. You would think this would be an easy google search. People sell replacement switches for GM products that lower the fan turn on from the 220's+ down to the 190's but I can't tell if those are custom made or OEM from another application.

 

[a91what]

All I can say is buy a OEM option, I tried a cheap one and it worked for all of 3 days

 

[droopie85gt]

I need to find one. If you search for electric fans everyone talks about the volvo relay and bmw dual switch. I could trigger both relays (ground signal) from either Holley ECU, but #1 they spike about 30 amps each before settling into about 14 each. So if they were to cycle at idle, that might cause a stumble, and 2 these fans are some bad mofo's and usually only 1 is needed to cool it and both are very loud.

I have a 180 degree t stat, so I could conceivably have the 'hard wired' temp switch do the low temp OR the high temp fan. I'll run another relay to trip the ground on this fan when the A/C is on. (if I ever hook A/C up again.)
So if anyone knows of a cheap OEM temp switch that is NOT metric thread, just good ol NPT, and turns on somewhere between 180 and 200, that would be most helpful and you would receive a .