Mick's 70 Lowlight

Managed to have a marginally productive day today. Also made a decision about the cooling for the new motor (well the next incarnation of the current motor). After chatting with rustyovali I've decided to remove the doghouse cooler and just run my fan assisted remote. Nick runs this setup with his big Type 4 motor and a Cali cooling setup in both his bug and bus with no cooling issues at all so I figure that it will work fine for my little blown 1600. I've been pondering this change for some time as it will help get a little more cooling air to the heads, which is a good thing in a blown motor.

So today I got a 36hp shroud down from the pile and started offering it up. The wider late cooling fan fits with no issues but does require that the alternator is spaced out by about 5mm. I've got a spacer plate here somewhere but will have to find it. Another part of the conversation I had with Nick was about the 'venturi' he runs on the inlet to his fan shroud. Just like a velocity stack these help smooth the air flow into the fan helping the cooling by improving the fans efficiency. Reading thesamba people reported mixed results but Nick said that the noted a definite difference. So with some Aussie road-testing proof I decided to make one myself. I initially thought I might try to knock one up from scratch but when I was looking through the cooling tin pile I noted that a fan has pretty much the exact shape I needed. So I disassembled an old fan and then metal shaped it a bit to create a nice rounded entrance like a velocity stack. I also cut about 10mm off of the lip to bring it in closer to the shroud. I'll weld it in place once I've finished cleaning up the fan shroud.

I also dug out a later style kombi engine bar from the scrap pile. Offering it up to the 'mounstache' bar it has a good 15mm more clearance in the centre and maybe 20-25mm at the ends. There is still that same amount of clearance over the top so the vintage speed exhaust that I have will still clear. All I need to do is make up some ends to marry up with the engine mounts.

Whilst digging around under the bus I noticed that the rear nearside shock top bolt has come out resulting in a little unwanted panel beating at the top of the wheel well. Was a bit surprised to find this as I had not noted any knocking or handling issues. The guide that the bolt goes through is cracked where it mounts into the frame so I'm guessing that the bolt may have been loose for a while. I'm wondering if this might have happened the same time that I fractured the oil supply line when I hit a massive pot hole on North Terrace. There's not too much damage so it cannot have been like this for too long. Good job I noticed it.

Got a few other small jobs done, like porting the EFI manifold that I made up. Just need to make another for the other side and get some 3mm stainless so that I can make some injector hold downs. Still so much to do.