Wynona the wagon's resurrection!

[HRH]

So I was going to use my other piece of sheet but it's rather thick and I can't fit this pull out table on the seal case desk anymore since the bolts that anchor the bending brake are in the way. It's a lot dinner but just about perfect for the side pieces on the radiator I think.

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Of course I just realized I have to make it ground so I'm going to actually ground that all off and then retrace it but you get the idea.

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Not my finest cut and these tips get crapped up pretty quickly. I'll clean up the edges though and it should be good enough to make the side piece.

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Threw some paint on it just now and I'm actually going to attach it with three zip ties two through the pan shroud and one through that mounting tap on the back and it should be great!

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Change out the tip on the plasma cutter muuuuuch better.

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And now the other side!

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All right, while the paint was drying I got the oil changed in the truck and the summer tires back on. Woohoo! Changed out the Mazdaspeed tires too. Looks pretty sharp huh? The downside is I didn't even get close to getting the intercooler done but oh well. I should at least be able to get the radiator in tonight and deal with the rest later.

[HRH]

Finally got the radiator mounted. It requires a 1/4 air ratchet and two pry bars to get each bottom bolt from the top, but oh well. I'll cuss myself if I ever have to remove it on the side of the road.

Got the overflow tank relocated also. This would be easier if I had chosen a different electric fan setup, but I do like the Altima fans. Easy to find in a pinch and they move a ton of air. I also can't mount the top bracket for the overflow but I'm not really sure it even needs it.

Next I need to remember how I routed the fan relay wires and I'm thinking about wiring another relay in also. The other thing I'm thinking of now that I've flushed the crap out of the cooling system again is what if the water pump is not moving water efficiently. It has been circulating rust water for a while. Fortunately I do have a spare water pump I ordered a while back.

Hopefully it's not that and this will be the culmination of the cooling system issues.

[HRH]

Have I mentioned I hate wiring? I decided to investigate the Altima fan setup more thoroughly. It has two 30 amp relays to control each fan. Right now I was doing this the stupid way which is one fan relay through the auxiliary wiring specialties harness. It was controlling both fans. When I'm going to do this time is wire only the primary fan through that auxiliary harness. When the coolant switch connects to turn on the fan it grounds the relay and connects the circuit.

I've decided to add a second relay in the engine bay because I found an old setup I had that was also poorly designed but all the wires are still there. So what I'm going to do is wire the second relay to be controlled off the power of the first primary fan relay at the fan connector. What this will allow me to do is have the secondary fan kick on with power. This would be in conjunction with the AC signal as it provides power not ground to energize the compressor clutch. So either way both fans will be on if the AC is on or if the temperature is at the preset level to turn on the relay. The only problem I'll have is if it actually over cools when the AC is on. I don't think it'll be an issue though.

[HRH]

Okay everything is wired and tested and it all works! Now I need to put some loom over it and tidy it up so it doesn't look like a rat's nest.

And the next thing I'm doing is unboxing the water air intercooler and seeing if I have to do a whole bunch more changing of the stuff I just put in because space.

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I just unpacked the box from frozen boost. Not sure where I'm going to mount all this stuff. Especially the 10 electric fans they sent. I'm thinking some dummy transposed a number or just added a zero, lol. Going to contact them and see if they want their 9 fans back.

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So I was just moving things to get the cherry picker out of the way and I realized the good axle shaft I saved from the wagon isn't actually good. Take a look at those splines LOL. The other side snapped just before this side.

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Success! No leaks, takes forever to reach temperature to turn on fans. Think I have the 180 switch in. From fan kick on to fan kick off at idle in the garage is 42 seconds. Goes about 30 seconds then turns back on. I do believe the cooling issues are sorted. This new radiator should be much more efficient.

I didn't get anything done on the water to air cooler. That will be a project for another weekend because it's going to take a lot and I'll probably have to relocate a lot of stuff. But at least I can drive it without worry of overheating now.

[HRH]

Took some beauty shots of Wynona this morning at the shop.

We are a bit slow today so I'm also trying to find out where I want to stick the radiator for the water to air intercooler. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to relocate the battery or run a smaller battery and maybe put it in the spot where the washer fluid tank is now. The only other way it seems to fit is if I cut into the bumper support and put it in front of the AC condenser. That way would actually work but it still has 4 inches of bumper blocking air flow which isn't great. If I do it any other way it's not going to look stock.

You can see how tight the fit is on the radiator in these pictures. And there's no oil coming from the death after the Boss mustang cover so that was a great addition.

[HRH]

So I'm pretty sure the only logical space to put the intercooler is in the fender well. It'll barely fit, but it should save me from relocating the battery or mounting it at the back of the car. The back of the car was tempting as it would add a huge amount of capacity to the coolant. But I'd also rather not have lines running the length of the car.

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Fucker. Fan fuse blew again when I got home. I'm going to have to check wiring. Something is awry. It's popping 20 amps too. Given there have been two sets of fans and I have 2 relays now, either I'm grounding something out, or the relay is getting too hot, or other.

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Have I mentioned I hate wiring? I troubleshot for two hours or so this morning. Couldn't find any bad connections. I was going to bypass the relay and just use it as feed, but decided after some fiddling, to rewire the entire fan setup and run it off constant power so it can turn on for heat soak.. I did find the sub-harness for the relay box has massive wire but the wire to is tiny.

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Ok, finally done! Cleaned up the wiring as well. Wired positive trigger on both relays so I can hook up ac easily later on. Still haven't even started the water to air intercooler project. That's going to take a full weekend. I'm just happy I should be able to drive the car tomorrow and not have to worry about the fans not turning on. If it blows fuses now I'll have bigger issues.