RTz

Very nice!

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/119468-site-outage/

Click.... http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/119468-site-outage/

All, Our host had a major crash. The good news is that they were back on line shortly. The bad news is that we've rolled back a couple weeks, losing all of our most recent data. SuperDan pays for daily back-ups so this shouldn't have happened, but unfortuantly it has. He is currently pursuing action with the host but the end result will likely be the same - lost data. That said, you all have our sincerest appologeis for the inconvinence and I can assure you that Dan is taking steps to keep this from happening again. Again, sorry. HybridZ Staff

Oedipus

Seriously? See above.

Who cares? This is not a publicly owned forum. It’s privately owned, much the same as your home or residence. What on Earth says a privately owned, freely provided service MUST mirror every other? I don’t see what’s so tough about it. If you don’t like it here, simply leave. You’re not captive. You’re saying we’re scum because someone was banned for ignoring rules that they voluntarily agreed to? Someone buy this man a cigar. Will do. I'm sure your cars will reflect your disposition.

Enough already. Posts have been deleted. This is a technical forum, not a chat room. A little is fine - most of us do to some degree, but we don't need post after post of social networking.

Possibly. Keep in mind the engine isn't completely sealed to the tin work. There's about a 1/4" gap all around. I was expecting some air to migrate in from below as it is higher pressure underneath (relative to cabin pressure). I'd guess I'm spilling air downward around the engine instead of through the radiator.

Got around to doing some testing with a Mag. And the results are… nearly zero pressure differential at 40 & 50mph. Got a tenth of an inch or so of water column at 60mph (fans were off). I was expecting to see a small differential, but I wasn’t expecting to see practically nothing. Frankly I’m amazed at how well it’s doing on just fans and a quality radiator. I tied a streamer to the upper intake vent to make sure airflow was from the top and downward and not the opposite. Went for another drive (fans off) and the streamer confirmed the correct airflow direction.

I finally got Tony to curse me. Mission accomplished! The Fury looks way cool. Engine size a little on the little side. Is there room for something meatier? Maybe the Chevy Cruze 1.4 Turbo motor? Or even a Suby? Oh heavens. Looks like his issue was trapped air in the heater core & plumbing. I’m not running a heater (yet) and have absolutely no issues getting mine burped. Still, after he figured that out, he’s idling at a higher temp than I am running down the road at 60. I just got back this morning from an 80 mile round trip on the freeway with about a 400lb payload and never broke 200 degrees (oil temp was around 220). His idle temps are higher than that… with his fan on. Mine does nothing evil or inconsistent. It’s very stable and predictable. It’s never come close to actually getting *hot*. The thing that I’m wanting to address is having more margin for failure, i.e. I’d like to rely less on the fans and more on natural airflow.

I'd rather see it go this direction...

I would like to hear more about that. I believe I’m getting a good bleed and a good seal. Curious though, can you point me where you are seeing this, please? Will do.

I assume you mean upstream side of radiator and downstream side? If so, then yes. The Mag. will measure the relative difference, which is mostly what I care about.

I looked at the Evans stuff a while back and seem to remember higher boiling points, better surface tension, etc, but I may have overlooked the heat transfer properties. I'll take another gander. I've got an idea that I think will meet my needs/wants. Going to do some experimenting with a Magnehelic first to see if its plausible or delusional.

There's more than one way to skin a cat

Made a little progress today. I was running 50/50 anti-freeze which is about a 20% penalty in heat transfer. I purged the system and refilled with distilled water and a 12oz bottle of Red Line Water Wetter. Took it for a drive up Mt. Hood and my temps are around 15 deg. cooler. I live on twisty hilly mountain roads and on the way back I drove it like a wannabe race car for about 5 miles, loading it heavily on the hills and coming out of low speed turns. The hottest it got was 203. Not sure what it would creep up to if I dropped a fan, but those numbers are livable for a summer day. This means I may end up running a summer and winter coolant, but I may end up finding a fair compromise over time. If I can get about 20 to 25% more airflow through the radiator I think I’d have this nailed for anything I’d want to do with it.

500cfm each I have not found any 8” fans that deliver substantially more than 500cfm. The only fans I’ve found advertised for more I don’t trust (too many CFM @ too little amps). I don’t believe the answer is more radiator. I believe it’s a matter of getting more air through. You are probably right, but I’d rather have a belly mounted radiator than to do that. I have a few ideas rattling around in my head. I just need to settle on which one I want to pursue.

The most diplomatic way to explain the way I feel about Jake is to say that I’m not his number one fan.

Thanks guys! It doesn’t look like my cooling strategy is going to play out. On 90-ish degree days the coolant temp is creeping up to around 210 at 60mph (with all 3 fans running). In some fairness the drum brakes are binding over extended driving time. Still, there isn’t enough headroom to make me warm and fuzzy.

Took it to its first show on Sunday, the 57th annual cruise-in at McKinnon Airfield...

Wrapped up the rest of the chassis and instrument wiring, installed new retractable seatbelts (original belts were non-retractable and when I started installing them I was suddenly reminded of how often I cursed them in my other Bus’s. Life is too short to screw with fixed belts), repacked the CV joints/new boots, changed the transaxle fluid, adjusted & bled the brakes, and a handful of other miscellaneous maintenance items. I put about 30 miles on the Bus. A couple issues have surfaced... the left front brake caliper is retracting the pads too much causing significant pulling to the right while braking. The alternator is looking to go belly up. It’s charging fine until it gets hot, then shuts down. When it cools down it starts charging again. And my WBO2 sensor is reading artificially lean. Need to get a new sensor coming. I’ve been tuning with my butt for now, just to get it drivable. I’m debating on picking up an NGK AFX controller. Anybody have experience with the NGK? I suppose you want to know how it runs? It runs FANTASTIC. I’m very pleased with the power. Even with the hobo tuning its coming around nicely. It’s geared a little too low (it’ll take off from a standstill in 3rd) and goes through the gears rapidly. As far as cooling goes, it’s probably too early to tell. Ambient temps have been hovering around 90 degrees and the highest coolant temp I’ve seen is 201. That was when leaning on it HARD at low speeds and then stopping, idling, making some adjustments, and repeating. Most cars would struggle to keep temps down to the stat in this scenario. With more normal driving it typically wants to run around 190 degrees (thermostat is 173 degrees). And I guess I should post a pic of the G37 electric pedal. It fits reasonably well. Stock vs G37… I’ll post another video soon.

As I hinted at in a previous post, I was getting E-Throttle errors that kept me from having control of the throttle. After working with Vi-PEC, they provided updated firmware & software and this appears to have cleared up my issues. Thursday evening was the first time I had proper control of both the throttle and idle speed. Friday night my Wife and I both drove the Bus for the first time... on our long driveway. Put big smiles on our faces. It showed all the signs of being lively and responsive with almost no tuning time. Even left four foot long 'scratches' with very little effort. Now the bad news. I started up my laptop to make some adjustments and... no screen. Black. plugged in an external monitor and it's black as well. It was booting up and allowing me to log in, but wouldn't run a monitor. My assumption is that the video card has gone belly up. Anyhow, I ordered a new laptop yesterday, but it's a custom build and will probably be about two weeks before it arrives. There's plenty to do in the meantime though. I still need to wrap up the rest of the wiring... lights, gauges, etc., as well as see to a few mechanical items like CV joints, brakes, and so on. Guessing 4 to 6 weeks before I take it out on the road.