Saturday morning my wife and I took our puppy out to a park, an hour away. During the driving there and back, I was testing Hydra firmware revisions:
v68 - two 1hr driving segments, no problems at all (from Thursday's commuting)
v69 - 5 minutes of idling and 5 minutes of driving and it started misfiring quite badly. Showed AFRs in the 15s and timing advance in the 40s. Ambient temps in the high 30s
v71 - 30 minutes of driving and it started misfiring badly, AFRs in the 15s, timing advance in the 30s, ambient temps into the 40s
v72 - This idle was pretty bad right off the bad, spitting and choking like it was way rich but with AFRs hovering in the high 14s. I drove on it anyway, and only got 10 minutes in before it started misfiring, didn't check AFRs / Timing at that time, ambient temp into the 50s
v73 - 1hr 15m of driving with only a single misfire felt, idle was a bit rough though not as bad as v72, ambient temp in the 50s
I sent this off to FM, and got a response requesting me to move back to v68 and just stay on that to see if the problem ever surfaces there.
Then, mid afternoon, I got started on the main project.
I test-fit the donor hood I picked up. There was some concern that as this was a '99 hood, the shape around the headlights would be slightly different and cause problems. Perhaps there is a faint difference, but not anything that bothers me. Fits just fine:
I also think I'm going to skip any repainting. The green is dark enough that it isn't a glaring contrast.
Assembling the SPAL fans onto the shroud, Crossflow sits in the background waiting:
Assembled all together, waiting to be installed:
Stock set out in one piece, will be selling this off:
New 180f thermostat and gasket installed:
The hole that the new stuff is going to fit into, I think the AC condenser is already moved forward at this point.
The AC condenser was a serious PITA for me. The prior owner had installed an aftermarket set of horns that were directly in the way of moving the condenser to the front side of the upper brackets as recommended. So I removed the horns and the little air compressor that it uses. Then the next problem was that the vertical AC pipe that runs across the AC condenser was hitting my intercooler. So I disconnected the couplers and rotated the intercooler forward. Then the H labeled fill pipe on the condenser was hitting a flange on the frame rail. I took a hammer to that. I finally got the condenser installed, only to find out that the horn couldn't possible fit there any more. So I drilled and tapped a hole for the little compressor, and moved the horn itself to behind the passenger side fog light. Only temporary, I'm going to ditch them for something else as I don't like the noise it makes anyway, and will get something compact enough to fit.
That is how I left it Saturday night.
Sunday morning once it warmed up a bit outside I got back to work. Getting the Crossflow in was the next challenge, as I had to get it in place then remove it a few times to get the power steering lines in a good enough spot that they didn't rub or interfere with the radiator or the water hoses.
But I finally got it in and locked in place. I used a strip of thick foam between the radiator and the upper rail to seal that off. It's compressed by the brackets and really held in place.
I then had to re-mount the intercooler and charge pipes, which showed that my intercooler is still slightly rotated forward, and within millimeters of making contact with the vertical AC line, as well as actually making contact with the PS lines. I secured some foam in between each to isolate them to prevent rubbing. I will be moving to a different dimension of intercooler at some point in the near future I think, probably a 6" tall one to improve some of the available space there.
I fabricated a little bracket for the upper FM intake mount to offset it. Radiator cap clears fine now. SPAL fan wiring also completed:
I later wrapped up the connections and wiring and tied them out of the way. I left them open initially in case I needed to re-do anything.
I then filled it up with ~1/3rd coolant, 2/3rds distilled water, burped it, and set the trigger fan speeds in the Hydra. I first set them both to 44f, just to make sure I had the wiring right, then set them up to main on at 187, secondary on at 192. I then swapped to Hydra firmware revision 68, and took it for a drive. I almost immediately discovered that power felt low, and sure enough , only 5psi and an audible hiss. Shortly after I couldn't make boost at all and idle shot to 2,200rpm. Took a look and I hadn't made sure the intercooler inlet coupler was securely in place before tightening the t-bolt band, so it just popped off under boost. Fixed that and made full boost again.
Some pushing it around back roads as well as some sitting there idling, and the main fan appears to keep the temps under control in mundane driving, keeping the temps too low to trigger the other fan. I'll probably play around with the trigger points, but I'm fine with only having to use one fan for every day stuff, leaving the other at a temp where I certainly will be when i flog the car harder or hot summer traffic temps will demand it. Will also be making sure that the trigger point is high enough for both that neither is running on a normal highway cruise, no point in that.
I did discover that above legal speeds, the 99's hood seems to have more shake and lift to it than the MSM's hood, so I will be ordering hood pins and pinning it for peace of mind. I will figure out a method to be able to not have to also pin my MSM's hood.
In my driving around, I also picked up some sheet tin, 26 gauge in thickness, and will be starting work on the radiator shrouding this week. Also swapped the black mica hood back on and took the donor hood to the basement for that project after lots of measurements and marking. I made the first cuts last night before my wife reminded me that the Grand-Am race was starting
