Project car - 1989 75 3.0 V6 [Updated 12 November 2021]

[shiny_car]

Monthly update time! This time, fitting air/vacuum hoses.

These are silicone plenum joiner hoses, with new stainless steel hose clamps. I've used Norma (made in Germany) clamps throughout. Silicone joiners are available through hiperformancestore.com (from whom I bought all the other hose sets), but they are considerably cheaper through International Auto Parts, US.





Plenum refitted to engine.





The Cold Start Injector was bolted back to the plenum, and Bosch plug reconnected. Throttle Position Switch Bosch plug also reconnected.



New set of ignition leads (from Centerline, US).





The rubber boot fits nicely over the original plastic distributor cover. Cable clips were used to keep the leads tidy and in position.











Silicone air hoses, as part of a kit from hiperformancestore.com, come as long hoses, which require cutting to length with the supplied (cigar!) cutter. These two hoses supply addition air to the plenum from the AC solenoid, and Auxiliary Air Valve.



These parts are from the hiperformancestore.com air intake kit. A nice silicone elbow piece with metal joiner replaces the original concertina plastic piece. The 3 ports on the original piece connected 5 hoses, requiring a couple T-pieces. The new joiner has 4 ports, so only one T-piece is required. I polished the joiner to a high shine.







These are original small air hoses, which were replaced with silicone. These include an air supply hose (top hose in photo) which passes from the air intake pipe to supply additional air to the plenum if a large vacuum exists. The vacuum is detected by a small hose on the plenum-side of the throttle body (middle hose in photo), and sucks open the vacuum regulator valve. Off this same vacuum hose is a branch to the distributor. The last hose (bottom hose in photo) supplies air to the plenum when the regulator valve is opened.



The vacuum hose featuring the branch to the distributor has a small barbed T-piece. This was reused, and the original hose replaced with silicone.







The vacuum hose activates the vacuum regulator valve. Suddenly lifting off the accelerate slams closed the throttle body butterfly valve; this results in a sudden large vacuum on the far side of the throttle body. The vacuum hose sucks open the regulator valve, to allow air supplied from the air intake hose (near side of the throttle body) to pass into the plenum. The air passes via the fuel vapour canister for cleansing, designed to reduce emissions; waste vapours return to the fuel tank.









Air hoses connected to the air intake plenum: air supply for idling (tightening the brass connection compresses an internal O-ring, altering its calibre, and thus altering the air supply), air supply from the vacuum regulator valve, and vacuum hose to the fuel pressure regulator (higher revs/vacuum creates increased fuel pressure).



Silicone air hoses connected to the metal intake joiner: air supply to plenum for idle (top right hose), intake from oil vapour sedimenter (bottom right hose), air supply hose to T-piece to AC solenoid valve + fuel vapour canister (bottom left hose), air supply to Auxiliary Air Valve. Totals 5 hoses, including 2 via the T-piece. The vacuum hose from the throttle body connects to the distributor and vacuum regulator valve.







Fitment of all silicone air/vacuum hoses completed. Air intake filter and Air Flow Meter will be fitted once I receive and fit a new exhaust manifold.



The original air intake snorkel was cleaned and refitted. The lower edge of the opening was slightly warped, so was tethered with a bolt to the chassis.









Thanks for looking; see you next month!

[GTVeloce]

Hi Richard

Inspiring as always! Thanks.

I was interested to see the V6's (yours at least) had an air inlet snorkel on the intake side of the engine bay. The TS 75's have a long air intake that goes right behind the radiator to the exhaust side of the engine bay to pick-up air. I have often wondered why they did this given the heat that would come from the radiator. When I get a chance I wanted to modify the intake to pickup from the intake side and this snorkel could be perfect!

Cheers
Julian

[Duk]

Yep, more awesome work  .

Gunna have a little gloat  . Glad I have a programmable computer, it lets me get rid of a lot of those hoses  .

[shiny_car]

Thanks guys!

@ Duk: yeah, jealous of your aftermarket computer! It will be some years before considering a major engine upgrade, so I'll enjoy what I have for now. 

[gergory]

shiny
as always a brilliant update...........see you at spectacolo

[ARQ164 Shane]

Hi there shiny,
I noticed the bolt to hold the air inlet open , I folded a small strip of aluminum to do the same job .

[shiny_car]

December update: added some bling to the engine bay in the form of an aluminium radiator. Beautifully handcrafted in the US, bought through alfissimo. It's about twice as thick as the original, and all-metal; the old radiator cracked its plastic inlet opening.

However, its thickness meant some fettling was required to make it fit.

Aluminium radiator built by Ron Davis, US, individually serial-numbered.











I polished the top brushed-metal panel to a mirror finish.





Self-adhesive closed-cell foam rubber stripping stuck around the edge to seal against the car.



Radiator fan was disassembled for refurbishing and modification.





Plastic fan sprayed with high temperature (tolerant) yellow paint.





First fitment-issue related to the fan frame. The lower 'arm' was obstructed by the chassis crossmember, so a small section of frame was cut and removed, replaced with an aluminium bracket formed from 3mm x 19mm stripping.





Bracket and frame sprayed with primer and test-fitted before cutting.





Cut, then sprayed with satin black before assembly.











New fan thermoswitch, which screws into the radiator to monitor coolant temperature. As stamped into the brass, this switch activates the fan when the temperature reaches 86 degrees celcius; then switches the fan off when cooled to 76 degrees. Roughly, this keeps the engine operating at around 90 degrees celcius.



Modified and refurbished fan bolted to the radiator. Thermoswitch screwed in position, bottom right; silicone used for a seal.



3mm aluminium stripping was again used to create a bracket to secure the top of the radiator. Bracket was polished. Neoprene rubber cut to size for a cushion between bracket and radiator.





New radiator fitted into car. Black AC condensor will eventually be replaced with an aluminium parallel-flow version of similar style to radiator.







Bracket bolted into the original position. The original radiator bracket did not mate with the new radiator.





Second issue requiring fettling was the power steering cooling bars. These needed to be set back about 3cm to make room for the thicker radiator.







The PS cooling bars were secured using P-clamps, screwed into the original retaining holes, with the addition of plastic spacers. You can also see how the modified fan frame clears the (red) chassis crossmember.



Final pic is a sneak peek of the new CSC stainless steel exhaust manifolds, imported for me by Wal of Euro Exhausts. Big thanks to Wal for his excellent service and pricing, again.



Thanks everyone for following my progress throughout the year. I'll keep posting after New Year, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[ARQ164 Shane]

shiny,
How am I supposed to have a marry christmas when you have the awesome parts mate lol
I have tried to buy a set of plenum hose's. But no one will get back to me by email. it's very anoying.
I like the radiator but the headers are fantastic mate. I have put my request into Santa, We will see what comes of that.
Cheers
Shane.

[festy]

Is that bent aluminium strap the only thing holding the radiator in? When it's full of water it will have a fair amount of inertia/momentum, it might be asking a lot for that strap to hold it's shape.
Could you fit similar straps or brackets to the sides, where the fan frame mounts to?

[shiny_car]

How am I supposed to have a marry christmas when you have the awesome parts mate lol
I have tried to buy a set of plenum hose's. But no one will get back to me by email. it's very anoying.

Thanks alphie!

Are you trying to buy from IAP or someone else? If IAP, just 'buy' and they'll turn up; though at this time of year, they could be a little delayed.

Is that bent aluminium strap the only thing holding the radiator in? When it's full of water it will have a fair amount of inertia/momentum, it might be asking a lot for that strap to hold it's shape.
Could you fit similar straps or brackets to the sides, where the fan frame mounts to?

Hey festy. Could be a good idea.

As it is, the radiator doesn't seem to require much 'tension' to hold it in position, as the bottom 'pronged feet' stabilise it nicely. The top radiator hose will also help hold it in position. But I understand what you're saying, and it would be easy enough to add brackets either side, secured with new holes into the car's sheet metal (albeit quite flimsy either side). So I may just take up your idea, thanks. 

[shiny_car]

First update for the 2013. 

One small job was changing the terminals on the wires connected to the thermoswitch in the radiator. The thicker aluminium radiator positioned the switch closer to the chassis crossmember, resulting in insufficient space to fit the old terminals. They were replaced with right-angle terminals; crimped, soldered, then heatshrink.









For the next photo, the radiator was supported with some wood to show the terminals connected.



With the radiator fitted into its final position, there isn't much space and only a few millimetres clearance; perfect.



I took on board your suggestion, festy: I constructed an identical second bracket to secure the top of the radiator. It was polished to a high shine, together with a new groundwire bus bar (see later). Two of these brackets should be more than enough to secure the radiator.





The first bracket was bolted where the factory bracket was originally mounted, offset to the passenger side. I wanted the second bracket offset to the driver side, the mirror image distance from the centre. A new mounting point was required, so decided to fit a rivnut (rivet nut). Rivnuts follow the same principle as normal rivets, and require compression which causes the metal to bulge out and lock the piece in position.

An M8 rivnut was used, to fit the same size 8mm bolt as the first bracket. The slam panel was carefully measured and marked, then a 10mm hole drilled, finally enlarged slightly using a Dremel/grinder to accommodate the 10.8mm diameter rivnut. I subsequently added rustproof primer.



Rather than buy a dedicated rivnut tool (I eventually will if I repeatedly fit rivnuts), I saw photos of a simple DIY approach using a bolt and nut: these are screwed into the rivnet, then the nut is 'unwound'. With the nut pushing against the surface of the rivnut, the bolt is forced outwards, compressing the rivnut.







I experimented using a steel rivnut, but I could not generate enough force to compress using this method. So I have fitted an aluminium rivnut. This shows a successful trial using a scrap piece of aluminium as the 'panel'; the first attempt was slightly crooked, so the 'bulge' is not even circumferentially. The rivnut fitted to the car is nicely compressed!



The result is an M8 bolt hole in a bespoke position.



Following advice from Duk, I took the opportunity to add a rubber seal (small pinchweld seal from Clark Rubber) around the inner edge of the radiator fan frame, to seal against the surface of the radiator. The frame is designed with a gap near the bottom, interestingly offset and centred at the 5 o'clock position; I'm unclear of the exact function of this gap, whether to draw in air from underneath or allow debris to fall out.





Rebolted in position, the frame now seals against the radiator fins for improved fan efficiency.



I then refitted the radiator, now secured with two brackets.





Next major job was upgrading the engine bay groundwires. I wanted a combination of improved reliability, additional groundwires from various points in the engine bay to hopefully improve the power supply to the electrics, and add some bling. Narva tin-plated copper lugs were continued to be used throughout; all wires were carefully cut and fitted for show purposes (ie: orientation of 'Stinger' labelling, etc). Conductive carbon grease was used wherever lugs were bolted. Everything is overkill, mind you!

I started by replacing the original short grounding strap between the air plenum and L cam cover using Stinger Pro 8ga (~10mm^2) black wire. You can make out the original strap in the first old photo.







New groundwire bus bars were made from aluminium angle-bar. I determined how many groundwire attachments were required before carefully measuring and drilling. The passenger side bar has been drilled and polished, then bolted to the slam panel, using the original mounting hole plus enlarging an existing unused hole.





All the factory small gauge groundwires plus two new headlight relay groundwires were combined into a group of 5 wires and 3 wires, and were terminated with hex crimp lugs and bolted to the bus bar.







The main groundwire connecting the bus bar to the chassis was built from Stinger Pro 0ga black wire and Narva lugs. It was bolted to the chassis adjacent to the alternator groundwire, where a pre-existing hole was enlarged and paint removed to bare metal.







Three 'groundwire upgrades' were added on the passenger side: from the thermostat housing + L cam cover + mounting bracket for ignition coil/module.









These all converged on the bus bar, and were fastened using more titanium M6 bolts. The wires were neatly grouped using plastic cable clips, same as the ignition/spark plug leads.



The remaining bus bar hole is for the headlight globe. To measure and fit the wiring and new H4 globe plug, the headlight was temporarily fitted.





The original H4 plugs had perished (brittle plastic), the remnants of one seen in the photo. New plugs were built, with a Stinger Pro 8ga black groundwire, and Stinger Pro 12ga black figure-8/speakerwire (spare wiring I had; conveniently provides two wires, for low and high beam). 12ga (3.3mm^2) is rated to 30~40A 'continuous'. Factory wiring is 15~16ga (1.5mm^2), 15A. Bear in mind, the 65W highbeam filament draws around 5A current.







The passenger side groundwire bus bar completed.









Onto the driver side groundwire bus bar. As with the other side, I calculated the spacing for holes to be drilled; this was penciled onto masking tape, and the sharp tip of a screw and hammer were used to punch the centre of each hole. Pilot holes, then the final size holes were drilled; 6mm for the smaller lugs, 8mm for the main groundwire lug.





Similar steps to the passenger side were taken, and the factory groundwires were fitted as two groups.





Pre-existing chassis hole was enlarged, and paint sanded away to bare metal for the main 0ga groundwire.





Another three 'groundwire upgrades' were added on the driver side: near the distributor + AAV groundwire point; later, I fitted one from the airflow meter.





New headlight wiring was built, with the headlight temporarily fitted to measure the wiring lengths. For this side, the powerwires were longer, to pass from the headlight relays on the passenger side. Stinger Pro 12ga blue speakerwire was used.







The wires connect to the headlight relays, then pass over the radiator tucked behind the radiator brackets, ending in the H4 plug. The relays are dual output: from the highbeam relay are a black + blue wire for L + R highbeam power; lowbeam relay also has separate black + blue wires for L+ R lowbeam.











The final groundwire fitted was from the airflow meter. I temporarily fitted the AFM, supported by a box, to measure the wire.





Driver side groundwire bus bar completed. The new additional wires are grouped with cable clips.





The airflow meter and air filter will not be permanently fitted until the exhaust manifolds are ceramic coated and bolted in position; something I will arrange over the coming months.

[Al Campbell]

Great works as usual. I hope the alloy parts of that AFM get polished before it goes in for good!

[ARQ164 Shane]

WOW look very nice .
But it's going to be a bitch to clean mate .

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Better start again, one of those lugs on the passenger side doesn't line up....

Stunning work as always, congrats.

[shiny_car]

  Thanks guys!

AFM will need cleaning, and I think polishing the metal is a good idea. 

Hey Alphie: you can come over and help clean it for me.