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| Blooze Own: An F355 Six Speed N* Build Thread (Page 113/126) |
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Bloozberry
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OCT 04, 05:07 PM
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I'm not sure what they're called specifically, but instead of the normal spring loaded center pin, these ones are more cumbersome because you need to screw and unscrew a nut which draws the pin in and out, but they have a much deeper grip (about 1.5") for thicker parts than standard Clecos. which have maybe 1/4" to 3/8".
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Sage
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OCT 05, 11:51 AM
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Will
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OCT 06, 09:45 AM
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Bloozberry
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OCT 08, 07:46 PM
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With the bumper bar welded up and installed, the next step was to install the stock honeycomb bumper material:
If you recall, I needed not only to recess the bumper bar, but also to trim back the honeycomb to fit under the F355 rear fascia. From drawings posted earlier in my thread, I created a template for the amount needed to be trimmed from the stock material:
At first I was sure the easiest way to carve the honeycomb was going to be by using a carbide bit in my die grinder like so:
It was easy, and fun to do because I'm used to trying to carve aluminum with that bit, which is much harder! I found that I couldn't get a nice finish on the cut edge though so I looked around for a better method. That's when I spotted the band saw.
It was so much faster and cleaner, that I did all of the remaining cuts with it. Here's a close up of the center honeycomb blocks after they've been cut with the band saw:
And here are the six finished blocks reinstalled on the bumper bar. I got rid of the webbing between the blocks since it doesn't contribute anything to the crashworthiness, and it got in the way. I believe the webbing is there only as a convenient way to hold all the pieces together on the assembly line.
How much the honeycomb contributes to safety on my car is certainly debatable but again, I decided to install it to look good for my provincial inspection.
So what's next on the agenda? Mounting the radiators!
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Bloozberry
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OCT 11, 10:43 PM
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So then, onto the radiators... or so I thought. As I've found, anytime I want to start something new, there are always a few nit-picky things that need to be done before I can move on. To start designing the radiator installation, I needed a level car, and to do that, I needed to reinstall the suspension, stick the wheels back on, and level the car to ride height again. Why couldn't I just lower the chassis onto blocks without the wheels? Well, that's because I needed the wheels to gauge exactly how much clearance I'd have for the rear-mounted radiators. Sounds easy enough except that the next dilemma was to get the chassis at the correct ride height without the weight of the engine and transmission to compress the springs. So out came the welder, some big washers, a couple spare rod ends, and some threaded rod cut to measure 14.5" eye to eye.
I only had two spare spherical joints so I welded the big washers to one end of each threaded rod, and screwed rod ends to the other. The benefit of having these installed is that the suspension is locked at ride height, and my nice polished aluminum shocks can be stored away from the sparks and grinding dust of the remaining work that needs to be done in the engine bay.
Then I realized I needed to move the rear wheels out to where they're supposed to be if I wanted to take advantage of every cubic inch of room for the radiators. That meant ordering up some 1" wheel spacers as I had discussed earlier on. I bought them from adapititusa.com for a very reasonable price. They're made of 6061-T6 aluminum (the same alloy most wheels are made of) and for a modest $20 per adapter more, they machined them with a 57.1 mm centering bore on the inside to mate with the Fiero hub, and machined an integral centering ring on the outboard side to mate with my 72.6mm Motegi wheel bores. I'm very happy with the quality of adaptitusa products... I've had a set of four adapters on my Stinger 308 kit for many years and they work just fine.
With those things out of the way I was finally ready to start figuring out how I would install the radiators. I knew from the get-go that I wanted them ahead of the rear wheels like the real F355. Having door scoops as big as the F355's and not having them actually do something is kind of a waste in my opinion. The concept is pretty simple as long as there is enough room for everything needed. Cold air enters the door scoops, flows through the radiator, and hot air gets exhausted into the wheel well through louvered wheel well liners. The louvers open downward so debris flying off the rotating tires doesn't get thrown into the radiator.
I plan to change the flow a little on my car. First, I plan to duct the airflow from the rocker panel scoops so that it merges with the door scoop airflow and helps cool the radiators. Next, because of the intrusion of the Fiero's B pillar well down into the area where the radiators belong, there isn't enough room for the fans to sit behind the radiators (like the F355) and still have enough space in front of them for the necessary plumbing. So to solve that problem I plan to install blower-style fans upstream of the radiators rather than suction-style fans behind them. Lastly, because I worry about being able to exhaust enough airflow into the wheel wells, I want to route some of the hot air up and over the wheel well liner and exit through the "Challenge"-style grill between the tail lights. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll let this drawing do the talking:
To get everything to fit in this space, I researched many different radiator sizes and found two that would work but decided (as many before me) to opt for ones for the 1992 Honda Civic:
These are all aluminum and have a "cooling capacity rated at 200 HP each". I had to chuckle at the rating units although in all my research I couldn't find a single website that described how to calculate a suitable radiator size for a desired cooling rate. But I suppose even that wouldn't have given me much since I would have also needed information about the rate at which the Northstar produces heat, and the flow rate of the pump too. Then I would've had to pretend that I knew what I was doing. I guess one way to judge whether I've got ample radiator capacity is to compare the combined surface areas of mine to the area of one from a Seville. Or not. For now I'm relying on "200 HP each". 
I also had a couple high tech isolators kicking around that I plan to use as the mounts. They're multidirectional isolators capable of damping a large range of vibrations for items between 5 to 12 kg each. I figure the weight of the radiators with fluid in them, combined with the weight of the fans, will be in that range.
I haven't decided on any particular fan yet, though I've narrowed down my search for ones that are 12" dia, are about 2" thick, and are either reversible or are blowers. The company SPAL makes one that fits the bill perfectly but I'm not done looking yet.
Anyways, here are a couple photos showing the car back on it's wheels with one of the rockers mocked up to show the width of the car, and a radiator in the planned location.
From these views you can see how there'll be lots of space up and over the rear wheel to vent some of the hot air out the back fascia:
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Yarmouth Fiero
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OCT 12, 10:13 AM
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This is going to look very cool Blooz. Its a shame you have to cover this all up with body work. I wish my added chassis reinforcement don't prevent me from doing this as well. Do those radiators have a prefered air flow direction ( ie: an in and an out).
Two other items.
1. No more jokes about colored drawings
2. I have to ask..... do you get disorientated like me when crouched in the engine bay?
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Danyel
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OCT 12, 08:24 PM
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Bloozberry
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OCT 12, 09:10 PM
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LOL! I tried to think of a witty reply but couldn't. Those marks are from when I was welding up the cradle so as not to mix up the right and left cradle rails. I should have wiped the marks off with some lacquer thinner before priming but didn't, and within an hour of priming, the words bled up through the primer. I hope they don't bleed up through the paint.
Edit to add: I looked closely at the radiators and the fins are symmetrical so I don't believe they will flow any better in one direction than the other.[This message has been edited by Bloozberry (edited 10-12-2014).]
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ericjon262
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OCT 12, 10:13 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Bloozberry:
LOL! I tried to think of a witty reply but couldn't. Those marks are from when I was welding up the cradle so as not to mix up the right and left cradle rails. I should have wiped the marks off with some lacquer thinner before priming but didn't, and within an hour of priming, the words bled up through the primer. I hope they don't bleed up through the paint.
Edit to add: I looked closely at the radiators and the fins are symmetrical so I don't believe they will flow any better in one direction than the other.
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you'll want to take the primer off, chances are that it will bleed through, happened to me before.
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Bloozberry
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OCT 13, 07:08 AM
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Thanks for the advice! 
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