Cooling system upgrade started on 81, Dewitts, SPAL, Stewart
01-12-2003, 04:38 PM
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Cooling system upgrade started on 81, Dewitts, SPAL, Stewart
Finally got all my new cooling system parts together (Dewitts aluminum radiator, Dewitts SPAL fans, Stewart stage 2 aluminum water pump, Robert Shaw 180 degree thermostat, Dr. Rebuild radiator surround foam kit, new hoses and belts) and started the upgrade install yesterday. :D A couple of my buds from Mountain State Corvettes, Brian Estep and Mike Reiser, come over to lend a hand, which was great. :thumbs:
Thursday afternoon I got the cooling system flushed and just running clear water. The OE radiator was seriously crud filled. I originally wanted to use Dexcool but afer reading some posts on the C4 area I'm not so sure now.:confused: Might just stick with the green stuff.
We started getting everything removed around 10am which took about 2 leisurely hours. The only removal problem (other than there's just too much useless stuff on the engine) was the long bolt that goes through the water pump as the threads had seriously corroded. The bolt cleaned up well though. The plug in the top of the OE water pump was too big to fit the Stewart pump so I sent the wife "on a mission" to NAPA for the right size plug which they had.
While we were taking everything apart Mike noticed that one of the wire connectors on the alternator was looking kinda flaky so I put on a new connector.
Putting the water pump back on and all of the new belts was pretty straight forward (with the exception of trying to loosen the power steering pump to get that belt off...almost no wrench clearance). That was a real PITA.
Getting the new radiator installed was not nearly as easy as the removal. The Dewitts aluminum radiator was supposed to be an exact size match which was not exactly true... close but not exact. We made the mistake of mounting the fans to the radiator first and it wouldn't fit between the control arms. If you do this upgrade check the fit of the radiator first and then position and install the fans. Once we removed the fans from the radiator we found that there were several problems with the radiator 1. The spinning drain petcock had no clearance and would not let the radiator seat into the bottom mount 2. A radiator cap would not fit because Dewitts had put the fill opening too close to the top radiator mount 3. The Dr. Rebuild side foam was way too thick and wouldn’t let the radiator seat in the bottom mounts.:mad We "modified" the clearance for the drain by cutting away some of the metal on the shroud where the bottom mounts are with a pair of tin snips. I'm going to get a plug at NAPA and do away with the spinning drain petcock. One of my buds, Mike Reiser, is going to do a clearance modification to the top mount for me so I can get a radiator cap on. The Dr. Rebuild side foam just needs to be cut widthwise to fit and reattached with some weatherstrip adhesive. Around 4:00pm we said the heck with it and Mike’s going to help me finish Tuesday night. That's one nice thing about it not being a daily driver...you can just walk away from it at any time and let it sit.
Today I'm going to piddle and get the foam cut to the correct size and mounted, mount the fan relays and install the temperature sensor in the head.
We'll get the radiator installed and the fans wired up Tuesday night. One thing we're going to do is wire the fans to the starter instead of the battery as the instructions say. They will get the same power and less wiring has to be done so it's a cleaner install.
I'll report on the final results and post some pics on Wednesday.:seeya
Thursday afternoon I got the cooling system flushed and just running clear water. The OE radiator was seriously crud filled. I originally wanted to use Dexcool but afer reading some posts on the C4 area I'm not so sure now.:confused: Might just stick with the green stuff.
We started getting everything removed around 10am which took about 2 leisurely hours. The only removal problem (other than there's just too much useless stuff on the engine) was the long bolt that goes through the water pump as the threads had seriously corroded. The bolt cleaned up well though. The plug in the top of the OE water pump was too big to fit the Stewart pump so I sent the wife "on a mission" to NAPA for the right size plug which they had.
While we were taking everything apart Mike noticed that one of the wire connectors on the alternator was looking kinda flaky so I put on a new connector.
Putting the water pump back on and all of the new belts was pretty straight forward (with the exception of trying to loosen the power steering pump to get that belt off...almost no wrench clearance). That was a real PITA.
Getting the new radiator installed was not nearly as easy as the removal. The Dewitts aluminum radiator was supposed to be an exact size match which was not exactly true... close but not exact. We made the mistake of mounting the fans to the radiator first and it wouldn't fit between the control arms. If you do this upgrade check the fit of the radiator first and then position and install the fans. Once we removed the fans from the radiator we found that there were several problems with the radiator 1. The spinning drain petcock had no clearance and would not let the radiator seat into the bottom mount 2. A radiator cap would not fit because Dewitts had put the fill opening too close to the top radiator mount 3. The Dr. Rebuild side foam was way too thick and wouldn’t let the radiator seat in the bottom mounts.:mad We "modified" the clearance for the drain by cutting away some of the metal on the shroud where the bottom mounts are with a pair of tin snips. I'm going to get a plug at NAPA and do away with the spinning drain petcock. One of my buds, Mike Reiser, is going to do a clearance modification to the top mount for me so I can get a radiator cap on. The Dr. Rebuild side foam just needs to be cut widthwise to fit and reattached with some weatherstrip adhesive. Around 4:00pm we said the heck with it and Mike’s going to help me finish Tuesday night. That's one nice thing about it not being a daily driver...you can just walk away from it at any time and let it sit.
Today I'm going to piddle and get the foam cut to the correct size and mounted, mount the fan relays and install the temperature sensor in the head.
We'll get the radiator installed and the fans wired up Tuesday night. One thing we're going to do is wire the fans to the starter instead of the battery as the instructions say. They will get the same power and less wiring has to be done so it's a cleaner install.
I'll report on the final results and post some pics on Wednesday.:seeya
