The fresh air into the cockpit is fed via a 75mm flexible hose that runs from the front extension panel, up and over the front suspension and into the foot wells joining into the sliding vent. The problem I had with this is the misalignment between the entry hole and the sliding vent attachment. The entry point of the hose was about 25mm forward of the sliding vent making the fit impossible however, the stainless steel heat shield had a fair amount of discrepancy with the chassis but in the right direction allowing me to gring out the chassis hole for better alignment with out touching the polished stainless steel heat shield.
Although I only ground out 10mm, it was enough to allow the flexible tube to conform with the vent and slide over the port.I could then do a temporary fit of the flexible hoses.
Fitting the header tank and over flow tank was a never ending pain because I could not get the bits I wanted and when bits did arrive, they didn't even come close to fitting. There was a change in design mid flight and I was told they had a wizz bang upgrade but after months of waiting and some quite terse words I ended up with something I am not happy with and will be one of quite a few things that will be changed as at a later date. The problem I had was mounting the tanks on the front of the block. Problem 1) the mounting plate fouled the throttle body, 2) the mounting holes that were in the plate did not align with mounting holes in the block due to different casting configerations, 3) the bottles are squashed so tight together that getting a rubber insulation strap between the clamps and tanks is very tight, 4) they look wrong. All that aside, I was able to modify the mounting plate and drill and tap new mounting holes and this will suffice until I get it going.
Once the bracket was modified and bolted in place, the tanks were fitted then it was just a matter of plumbing them.
The radiator hook up was the next job to be done. This was a fairly simple job utilizing flexible stainless steel tubing and silicon joiners and bends. Getting to the radiator in situ is out of the question so all mounting bolts and bushes need to be removed to allow the radiator to tilt back far enough to get at the inlet and outlet tube integral to the radiator. Working the flexible tube around the chassis was quite easy and with the silicon joiners made the task straight forward. The only small issue was removing the thermostat housing and filing the inlet port down to allow the silicon joiner to fit and clamp in place. The inlet port had quite large protrusions in the moulding so with these removed it left a barb to clamp the joiner to.
I was not impressed with the general hook up of the cooling system although the system would suffice, I will be changing the complete system from the radiator connection to the engine connection as a winter project once I get this thing going but here is the finished item.
Well, thats it till next time when we fit the catch can and reroute the heater hoses as I will not be running a heater. Waiting for proper Quick Connect fitting to arrive from the good old US of A.
Cheers
Russell
