Ben’s and then Eric's and now somebody else’s V8 CQ

[pkw]

what exactly have you done to make the bay look so roomy? It begs for a turbo. I have never seen one look like it has so much room in the bay.
I am wondering what you gave up and what you converted to make the extra room. Maybe it is all the usual stuff that v8tt guys do but without the snails filling it back up.

[Grillage]

No abs or hydraulic brake assist. Also relocated the battery to the trunk. It would have fit where the V6 battery lives.
Edit- also no ac or charcoal canister
Turbos may end up in there but definitely not for now. I have a lot to sort out

[dana]

Looks like there is room for an HX40 right where the airbox currently lives, and a crossover pipe somethere behind the motor.

[AngryTaco]

Looks like there is room for an S450 right where the airbox currently lives, and a crossover pipe somethere behind the motor.

FTFY

[Grillage]

I've been in Vegas all week for work but when I get back I'm yanking the thermostat to see how the car behaves. This car will likely not see much highway use (except for to and from Carlisle next year if all goes well) so I don't see it really running too cool much

Has anyone let the radiator fans be their temperature regulation?

[themagellan]

I've been in Vegas all week for work but when I get back I'm yanking the thermostat to see how the car behaves. This car will likely not see much highway use (except for to and from Carlisle next year if all goes well) so I don't see it really running too cool much

Has anyone let the radiator fans be their temperature regulation?

Maybe i'm not understanding your question:

Think of the fan as more of a 'Oh shit' than a regulator. Sure it regulates the heat due to it pushing a volume of air over the radiator, but really this only occurs after the thermostat has exhausted it's ability to provide for more liquid volume to the cooling system.

In your situation (No thermostat) you're already at the point where the volume of liquid in the system is at it's peak (No pun intended) so once it finally gets up to temperature, yes you'll be regulating based on Fan only.

When you pull the thermostat, it will just take a long (really long time) to get up to temperature and most of the time will never even get there, unless you are really just sitting dead stuck in traffic.

Which may be annoying for:

1. Precise tuning.
2. Heat /Defrosting if you drive this in the winter.
3. If you're running a cat you may foul plugs/cat since you'll always be running in a warm up mode depending on how you set up vems.

Other than that, have at it haha - this car is a beast.


Tons, and tons of people remove thermostats for this very reason - Especially hotrod v8 guys, who really just want to keep temperatures low and don't mind sacrificing performance in the summer time for a little piece of mind.

I've ran a few 8v's this way, and the only ill effect was running a tad rich on a stock ecu (ie CEL light), and being extremely cold and manually cleaning fog on the windows (Kind of sucked)

I never once had the cooling fan come on, even in stop and go traffic on the way to work over 20-30 minutes. It just never fully warmed up, and anytime I'd get any clean air (Read winter time) it would immediately plummet, especially if I was trying to get warm at all.

If it's a daily, i'd suggest fixing it at some point before it gets cold - if this is a toy and more for the summer weather - I'd side towards ignoring it until you have less important things to fix up.

Need videos!!!!

[Grillage]

That's very helpful! thanks.

I am mostly going to remove the thermostat to see what happens and ensure that I can keep the thing cool without it. Then once I establish that, I'll seek the lowest temp thermostat I can find and install, then tweak by changing thermostats until it keeps temp.

I think what's happening now is that the thermostat is letting a very small amount of coolant into the system before closing again. That's keeping the engine too hot on the other side of the loop. Maybe a 80* or less thermostat would lessen that problem

thanks again! I'll post videos once I really get it running right

[90quattrocoupe]

I had this problem for a while. I had the fans kicking on at the same temp as the thermostat. The car would barely reach 90 degrees, fans kick on the thermostat closes, and temp drops below 90. This burned out my thermostat quickly. I turned up the temp, for when my fans came on to 97 degrees, and this cut down on the problem.

When the thermostat was blown and I was on the freeway, the fans never came on. The car was running at less than 80 degrees. Not good for the motor.

Greg W.

[themagellan]

One last thing based on what you said - can a v8 thermostat be installed backwards?

[Grillage]

Not sure, why?

[Grillage]

Figured our a couple things with Marc's help today. The lack of power before warmup was bad data in the clt/ignition table.

Had a couple great spirited runs today and just now the power steering pump just shat all its fluid. Need to figure out where from before I drive it again

[Grillage]

That was simple, ETKA on the v8 calls for o-rings for the PS pump banjo bolts, really needed crush washers. The o-rings broke and that was my issue. All fixed.

The cooling is behaving better now so I'm going to rethink the no thermostat idea.

On the highway, the car is running at 92-93* so I'm going to replace the 87* thermostat with 80* and see what happens. I'm still getting up to and above 100 in traffic so I hope to start the fans and circulation a little before it gets that hot.

This is really a lot more fun when you can drive the car! I'll try to rig up some video a little later today

[Grillage]

Here's a video of a short drive today - another is uploading now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVA1aLd ... e=youtu.be

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVA1aLdhtE0[/youtube]

[DE80q]

That thing sounds amazing! Thank you for posting a link, and not an embedded video. I can actually see it then.

[Grillage]

That thing sounds amazing! Thank you for posting a link, and not an embedded video. I can actually see it then.

Thanks!

ironically, I just finished editing the post to add the embedded video. I'll leave both

[Grillage]

And here's the other:
https://youtu.be/HRFM0rJ6dj4

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRFM0rJ6dj4[/youtube]

[loxxrider]

Sounds awesome man!

[PRY4SNO]

Good lord that would get addictive.

[the german]

woohoo! just in time for winter

[Lord_Verminaard]

Great build! If you are ever in Columbus, I'd love to see it, haha.

About the thermostat thing, I would verify that it's not stuck but maybe try drilling a small hole in the thermostat, I've done this on a lot of my cars (with stock temp thermostat) and it seems to help even out any "funny business" with the cooling system- i.e. helps bleed air out of the system, helps maintain more consistent temps when the thermostat opens and closes by allowing a small amount of coolant to pass when closed. I suppose it could come at the expense of slightly longer warmup times but in my experience, (1.8 8v crossflow, 2.0 8v crossflow, VR6, 2.3 20v, and a 1.6 TD) I never noticed a difference.

Also, in for screaming v8 AWD burnout videos.

Brendan

[Grillage]

I am in the midst of replacing just about everything on the coupe's front end

Axles
Bearings
sway bar bushings
control arm bushings
tie rods
brake rotors
pads

Anyway, The EMPI axles I bought (part nos 80-8100 and 80-8101) are the correct length but I'm having trouble with the CV joint. It doesn't fit in the backside of the wheel hub.
With the axle bolt tightened, you can't turn the axles because they're tight to the hub.

The part arrowed here is wider on the new part than the old...



I've contacted them about it.

Anyone seen this before?

[Grillage]

Die grinder FTW

This didn't take much at all...


The left side needed to be die-grind-ed out a little bit but not that much at all.
The other side had the ring insert shown below it inside it. I removed that and the axle fits - no need for trimming.

Note that the two hubs are different. The one that had the insert has a gap in the casting near where tje connection to the control arm is.

[85oceanic]

Man, that thing sounds like such a beast! good work!

[Grillage]

Man, that thing sounds like such a beast! good work!

Thanks!

[Grillage]

Looking forward to reinstalling all this stuff below:


Had a hell of a time with the 034 bushings in the control arms and sway bar. Plus I discovered that a PO had replaced the sway bar link bushings in the control arms at some point and omitted the metal sleeves. I also did the strut mounts and just recently did new OEM struts and Stoptech slotted rotors and pads. Eventually I might do a BBK and Coilovers but for now these are a huge improvement over stock. In fact, if I do a BBK eventually, this setup will go on my cabriolet.
I also had a grind on slow turning and I just decided screw it - I'll just put in new axles and call it a day. I however had an issue with the EMPI axles where they were just barely too wide where they go into the wheel hub and when I tightened everything down they wouldn't turn. A little time with a die grinder on the hub and I'm ready to go.
I finally am ready to reinstall everything tomorrow!

Also drained and re-filled my transmission with new oil. It was not all the way to the fill hole when I opened it up and I had some noise in certain gears.
I've had success in the past making noise and grinding go away with Motylgear oil so I am trying that.

One thing that I think would be a big improvement on this car would be a differently geared transmission. Now that torque is not an issue, the 01A is geared too close for the V8. I would assume a 6 speed 01E or even a 5 speed URS 01E would be a better option.