It's been a while since my last update mainly because I have been doing alot of small things to 379 and hunting specific parts. Little things have bothered me which I have remedied a few of. The Driver side door plastic had one part that wouldn't stay down so I got a new one. A few of the switch panels wouldn't stay in place so I got new ones. I needed some interior plastic trim parts I was able to find. Lots of little random stuff. The big thing I worked on was removing the AC and swapping the alternator to the rear.
I got the Jay Racing swap kit which arrived in 2 days even with a holiday. The kit looks nice and goes in fairly easy. I had to buy a new soldering gun as mine was not up to the task.
So this is it basically. The manifold is missing still however I already extended the wires at this point. The grinding on the block took a bit more time than I expected honestly and like most things, when you think it's been ground down out of the way, you reinstall and find out you need to take off more.
Just a more open picture of the same thing. Fortunately with the manifold off I was able to move alot of wires out of the way.
So here is the new found room I got with the alternator swap. I have considered swapping on an Evo manifold and Evo turbo but I will look at the logistics of that later. There is enough clearance for an intake to fit in the new opening but the DP would have to be custom which isn't a huge problem honestly.
Last I left it, the hood pins were about 1/2 way done. Well they are finished now. They look pretty damn good from the top but the underside is going to need some work. I am going to cut some aluminum covers for the bottom and hopefully not make it look like butt.
**Question Alert** (See bottom)
New JVT fans. Used the old school zip tie through the fins method of attachment. I also got an extra fan side plug from the junkyard so I could easily remove any wiring.
It is amazing where rust goes. These are the front speaker grills. I didn't like the rust so I taped them up so I could paint the grilles.
The result. The front speakers appear to be 5.25 which is a shame because my car came with some MTX 6" screwed into the factory plastic speaker mounts. What this meant is, the grilles won't fit on the door panel. After I painted them, I put the grilles back on the door panel, removed the factory speaker plastic mount, and screwed the 6" speakers directly to the door with a piece of foam between them and the door. The result? I could put an 8" speaker back there now if I wanted.
So this is a project for the near future.
What this is, is the factory oil cooler off a early-mid 90's Volvo 740 turbo. As you can see it has some thickness to it and is still compact. It looks to be at least as good as many aftermarket cores I have seen and the single sided inlet/outlet will make install fairly straight forward. It is going to go behind the removable grille piece where the vertical hood latch support used to sit. I'll make custom hoses to complete the kit. Cost for this nice little number you might ask? A huge 13.01.
Alot of work you can't see here. Many junkyard trips as well. I didn't have the felt dish bottom so I got one of those. I got the dual din radio bezel, radio brackets, etc. Installed the stereo which works incidentally. The shift boot is a leather one I found which I mounted to the factory boot holder. I had to remove the entire interior to achieve all of this which kinda sucked it. The shifter is off a 1G turbo, the knob I have no idea. I got the new brackets for the panel under the steering column and a new replacement plastic part to mount them too. New covers for switches, new coin holder to replace the open unused slot which was missing, tons and tons of stuff. Little things no one but me would care about.
**Question time**
Now the question. The sensor on the radiator is the signal to turn the fan on normally and the sensor in the back of the T-stat housing is the emergency switch(Above 210-215). Is this statement correct? My fan is installed but never turned on. Two issues. I don't have the radiator sensor installed and I don't have the rear T-stat sensor installed.
Anyway, Lots more to do. I'll be ordering a new PS rack since my ghetto fix didn't stop the current one from leaking. I might hunt down the FAQ on rebuilding it and see if I can fix it first though. Other than a bolt I need to fix, the fan, the rear brakes and the PS rack, she is right as rain. I am building some custom enclosures for some 6x9's in the rear deck area tomorrow. Hopefully I'll figure out the fan problem and be able to get it on the road in a week or two. As soon as it is road worthy, it is going for the custom FMIC, pipes, intake and brackets for the new oil cooler. Should be a good update then.
/brox