My recycle bucket

[ScottRS]

I'm curious what the temp change is across the cooler.

Now that it's running again, I got it hot (enough to boil the belly tank) and checked: about 5 degrees at 90 ambient. Which, considering return fuel is coming back to the hot side of the fuel cooler at about 115, is actually pretty respectable IMO. Still doesn't do much to help my realty, but because I was curious and had the temp gun out anyway, figured I'd circle back and answer this with numbers.

 

[The Freeak]

EDIT- DERP. I already suggested this earlier in the thread, but with less detail. As did MobilSyn.


Re your continued cooling struggles - Can you seal the front of the radiator from below? Perhaps apply a shield/ panel to the bottom face of the frame rails (side to side, and from just behind the winch to just behind the radiator) with a short leg kicking down at the bottom/ rear edge of the radiator? This would (in theory) prevent warm engine bay air from being recirculated through the radiator at all, but especially slower, speeds.

I realize you're doing the best you can with the limited real estate under the hood... holy crap it's tight in there.

 

[ScottRS]

Re your continued cooling struggles - Can you seal the front of the radiator from below? Perhaps apply a shield/ panel to the bottom face of the frame rails (side to side, and from just behind the winch to just behind the radiator) with a short leg kicking down at the bottom/ rear edge of the radiator? This would (in theory) prevent warm engine bay air from being recirculated through the radiator at all, but especially slower, speeds.

Yes, probably can do that, I'll look over what material I have and see what I can use to make something like that. Because of the radiator tilt there's already very little space between the winch and the radiator that isn't grille now, but might not be a bad idea to change that.

It also occurs to me, as ineffective as the fuel cooling is proving, I can probably eliminate it and relocate trans and PS cooling to where the fuel cooler is, which would free up some airflow for the radiator. Probably not a big difference, but every bit could help.

 

[mobil1syn]

got to let the heat out

 

[Im4yotas]

I seem to remember JR having to machine some slots into his boatside skids on the Bronco for the same thing.

 

[Lincoln]

Yes, probably can do that, I'll look over what material I have and see what I can use to make something like that. Because of the radiator tilt there's already very little space between the winch and the radiator that isn't grille now, but might not be a bad idea to change that.

It also occurs to me, as ineffective as the fuel cooling is proving, I can probably eliminate it and relocate trans and PS cooling to where the fuel cooler is, which would free up some airflow for the radiator. Probably not a big difference, but every bit could help.

The plastic cardboard is cheap and works pretty well for testing.

 

[ScottRS]

got to let the heat out

You are not wrong (again), but I left out a tidbit that makes my possibility of counter-arguing even worse: I haven't put the wing skids back on yet. It's boiling the belly tank with the boat sides wide open, the only skid plate still on it is the flat bottom square-ish section under the trans/t-case. I think that pretty well nails the coffin shut on the belly tank concept in this vehicle configuration. So... yep, you told me so (pages ago) and I've leveraged stubbornness to prove you right.

 

[ScottRS]

I got about squat done this weekend, spent yesterday sick and half-ass working from home, but barely left the couch all day.
Did get my rock lights and dome lighting wired up so there's that at least. It's silly I know, but when you're in and out a bit in the dark, being able to see without digging into a pocket for cellphone/flashlight is nice.
The dome lighting is sticky back LED flexible strip lighting, 16ish feet for $15ish off Amazon. Cut to fit various places, soldered on some wire leads, I like the red because it lights "enough" without totally blowing out night vision.
It's stuck to the underside of the roof panel, so to directly see it, you have to be more or less within about 3-4 feet of the vehicle (the cage shields it).
I was originally planning on using trailer taillights, but they're really bulky.

 

[ScottRS]

Necrothread!
The cooling is substantially improved-upon, it is what I'll call "acceptable" at this point. Still gets hotter than I'd like, but it's really not running much hotter than a stock newer vehicle, so I guess I should be content. The fuel boil is still a lingering issue but has been minimized for now.
In my quest for more cooling, I've added a 1L RZR radiator to the back with a 12" fan, the Dedenbear electric water pump out of my buggy from back in the day, running a giant fuel cooler (powerstroke trans cooler), three actual trans coolers, a PS cooler, and it all seems to be finally content. The RZR radiator is plumbed as if it's a heater core as far as the engine is concerned, and seems to be working pretty well without being overly obnoxious.

I had some tire issues at Trail Hero last year, specifically, one of my vintage TSL's sidewall cracking made it all the way through. I plugged it, and then spent the rest of the week chasing it and stuffing more plugs into it next to the previous plugs. It was pretty hideous, but it survived (ish) the week to come home with 40ish plugs in the sidwall. Obviously, not a longterm thing, so I got with Woody and got a set of Milestar black label 42's, then Chris at Battleborn for a set of wheels. The Milestars are a dramatic improvement in road manners over my TSL's, but to be fair to the TSL's, they were bought to run KOH the last time I did that... in 2009.

So I'm now getting back around to engine tuning with the HX40's and some higher RPM, heavy throttle, see what happens, and while I've never had a performance turbo gas engine to compare to, this is pretty happy, it's making about 7psi around 4k RPM at WOT, about 8-9psi at 5.5k RPM, injector duty cycle around 75-80% at 5.5k RPM, so things are balancing out nicely. I have it boost-limiting at 5.5k currently as i don't need to find out what RPM a stock 351W bottom end actually disintegrates at. Probably room to load it a bit harder for more boost and/or RPM and still have enough fuel to handle it, but not by a lot. I am also finding that if I shift at WOT, the second gear engagement in the transmission is weak at boost, have to lift to shift or it slips and tries to smoke second. To a race guy, I'm thinking the turbo spool time is pretty slow, but to me, it's very smooth, no "here comes the boost hammer" behavior like my Cummins had.