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‘91 E30


KaiserRolls

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Harness showed up today so I figured I’d get it tossed in before the rest of the coolshirt crap shows up. 
ordered a harness from superbrightleds, they had a bunch of offerings for pre-built stuff with weatherpack connectors/relays for like $17. 
connected it under the firewall cover, snagged power from the distro block, grounded to strut tower. 
the switch they provide is a gross rocker style switch for a 248” brolightbar. 
I ended up repurposing the AC button to turn the pump on. Figured it kind of made sense because “ac.” I couldn’t figure out illumination on the switch so I said screw it and just use it to trigger the relay. The switch stays in the down position anyways, so it’ll be obvious when the pump is running. 
power to the trunk runs under the console/carpet/rear seat and comes out under the ski pass. Just long enough to make it to the coolers location. 57D6DBAB-5808-4BC4-9CFE-7A85DED54418.jpeg

waiting on a few things to show up, the tube insulators will probably be the last thing to make it here and they’re kind of holding up the show at this point. 
goal is to make this as hidden as possible, going to try and hide the tubes under the seats

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1 hour ago, m42b32 said:

Ive been meaning to do this, can never be too careful. How easy is it to reach on the passenger side vs. having it on the driver's side? 

Joe you’re like 6’4” you’ll be ok lol. If you can reach the glovebox you can reach where I have it. I also do not want anything in the drivers side just in case 

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Just now, KaiserRolls said:

Joe you’re like 6’4” you’ll be ok lol. If you can reach the glovebox you can reach where I have it. I also do not want anything in the drivers side just in case 

Fair enough haha. Good point on things on the floor in your way too, hadn't considered that

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Finished A5F7C06F-905E-42B9-B995-52F439998AC1.jpeg

velcro loops to keep the hoses from flying around

A628B675-A575-49B4-BD66-886BDA9127FB.jpeg
 

ignore the air bubbles in the line, had a spare hose cobbled together to make sure the pump worked/cooler didn’t leak

 

 

fairly well out of sight in the cabin 

372F6CEA-7D24-4582-A26B-51C49EE2553D.jpeg

Hopefully this makes a 14.5 hour drive less miserable. Figure I’ll have to get a small bag of ice every other gas stop depending on how hot it is

next project is slapping the new PS pump in and getting that bled. 

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New PS pump is in, just need to slap the pulley and serp belt back on. 
Decided to make some ducting for the radiator.  
started by adding adhesive backed foam in between the core support and the rad, trying to block all the openings I could. 

E5ED62ED-E9E0-47FA-B1FD-3937E9FFE480.jpeg

you can see how wide open everything is in front of/on the sides the radiator

632FCB0A-A49F-458C-8D6A-0A8BE793C177.jpeg

then moved on to dr. Pepper box templates. 
654E6C0C-E24A-4BE6-BA66-0AFA69892A69.jpeg
 

transferred to some thin aluminum sheet 

15C20FAC-DDC1-40C1-A2AA-CD68CD4DD531.jpeg

there were existing holes in the core support that I had to enlarge a bit to use 1/4-20 rivnuts

E102EC3F-48AD-45E9-A44B-30110AE9A897.png

 

here’s the basic idea - it needed a bit more trimming to clear a wire harness1BBBDC26-9ACF-43BA-8FFC-DEB388E05997.jpeg

holes drilled and installed. I added aluminum foil tape to the corners to better secure the 3 pieces together. Also used some adhesive backed foam in certain areas to eliminate vibration

42C85A76-0FF6-4D72-A8C8-9CEA378E2B0B.jpegE63EBCE6-0940-4494-95B1-6AF4B2BB48B8.jpeg9E41A480-D7FD-41E2-9D3C-445A8EE58ED8.jpeg

08D151B6-3D29-4878-B82E-302E2FC363F7.jpeg68E1C997-5059-4945-8540-8326C73D3840.jpeg2845B70E-A84F-46F8-BA06-85A86529332C.jpeg


fairly well-hidden once the grilles and valence plastic pieces are back in

 

i was not having any issues with the cooling system, I just got bored. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to try & it might be beneficial once I start bringing this to more hpde type events 

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Cruised around a bit tonight. Coolant temps seemed slightly cooler, probably more related to ambient temps than any ducting 
 

also tossed the new PS pump in and bled the system, which ultimately cured the whine 

new grommets showed up for the fender trim pieces, the DS was basically falling out and the trim is NLA

C8D69727-BBC4-4BBB-A26A-C88A3CC659CC.jpeg
 

all fluids are fresh and the car is ready to go the mountains (hopefully) 

 

in an attempt to keep the Miata cabin cool we added a turbo heat shield. Used DEI Floor and tunnel ii adhesive heat shield in the inside of the turbo shield and some reflective tape on the exterior. Also lined the entire firewall behind the down pipe and trans tunnel with the stuffC54BB289-D48E-4CE3-9DE7-94381B8B2E1E.jpeg
F5659EF6-2BF4-40D5-BDFE-CF605A540EEE.jpegAD53358C-000F-46D0-9D84-94598A533916.jpegE1D7E604-1299-4F76-8365-AC2CAEC81DFA.jpeg
 

only posting Miata content because that DEI heat shield stuff is awesome, an aftermarket product that actually works worth a crap. If your floor/tunnel gets too hot, I’d recommend this stuff. 

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14 hours ago, YoungCR said:

Beautiful! How much ice did you go through?

1 to 2 ten lb bags per day. On the way home I got a bag every time I got gas

 

pulled in home at like 12:30am, car was smoking/steaming. Looks like I get to do a thermostat housing gasket, maybe if I’m lucky it’s a water pump. Couldn’t have failed at a better time though 

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Ok so found the leak, radiator apparently bit the bullet 429BCDC2-0315-42F8-869D-0EE40BB4DC9F.jpeg

really odd spot, right in front of the tstat housing, which is why I thought it was the tstat housing 

 

not going to mess around having it fixed, went ahead and ordered a z3m mishimoto xline rad. Thicker core and more coolant capacity. Also got some more adhesive foam so I can better seal up some remaining gaps from my first go around. 

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5 minutes ago, Nick_08 said:

Was the radiator shrouding needed? Have you found this to be worthwhile? New rad will be nice, might not be a bad idea to replace the thermostat or pump since you're in there. 

thermostat is like a year old, gasket is about a year old, waterpump is a Stewart unit that @B C installed. should be good on that front.

on my trip i never saw temps higher than middle of the gauge on the cluster.

VDO coolant gauge showed a max of like 205 during some of the beat runs in 90 degree heat

proper shrouding is always worthwhile

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