If any of you would like to come by my house and shoot me this evening, that'd be great.

So I've been putting off installing the damn oil cooler for a while now, and recently started the project. I originally had the bright idea of getting a filter plate with two pairs of "ins and outs" - one for the oil, one for the gauge senders. After much head banging I arrived at the right mix of fittings to get the lines in and leak-free, and the senders installed. Oil on one side, senders on the other. Sounds great, right?

Not really. VDO tells you to NOT use teflon tape on the threads - if you do, you dont get a good ground. So I put the senders in clean of tape and tightened them up. Start car...and they're leaking. Stop car, tighten them more...they're still leaking.

These sending units are allegedly "self sealing" so I continue to tighten one last time...and "pop!" The temp gauge sender's hex "head" strips catastrophically. It looks as though I will not be able to get it out now. Which means I now have a filter plate that doesn't leak from the oil lines, but does from the now-busted sending unit. I think my only option is to punt and get a new plate, and new sending units. Great.

Of course you can't just go to AutoZone and get any of this stuff, so I'm stuck until Monday. At which point, if I'm *really* lucky, Racer Parts Wholesale will mangle my order AGAIN and I'll get the wrong stuff. That would kick ***.

The other things I have to fix on the car (windshield and header both cracked) require taking the car somewhere. Taking the car somewhere of course means I have to drive it up onto the trailer. Driving it up onto the trailer requires a car that will not **** all its oil out of its stripped sending units.

Sorry...just had to get that off my chest...

--Karl, who is going to drink a couple s now...

 

Ah yes, the joys of racecar ownership...

Ever think that if you use some thin teflon tape on only part of the threads that you can still maintain a ground while having something in place to prevent leaking? You can buy the stuff like a 1/4" wide if you shop around enough. Good luck

 

Shultzy... my boy.
Have a 40, relax, and do the following...

1. Remember that you didn't go through two adapters, 3 days, and 100 cuts and bruises to get your spin on adapter installed.
2. Do not order the parts through RPWs website. Call them. The online ordering seems to be the problem with them sending incorrect stuff.
3. Use teflon tape. You have to.
4. Call one of those mobile glass places to fix the windshield at your house. It might cost a bit more, but it's one less headache.
5. Take the header off the car and ship it to somebody like Walt Puckett. If you ship it to Walt, he'll likely turn it around for you quickly if it is a simple job. Dropping Adam's name couldn't hurt either.

Never stop pressing forward. Plan B, plan C,... whatever.

 

Wait... nevermind that previous post.

Do this instead...

1. Plug the leak with a wad of duct tape.
2. Cover the windshield crack with duct tape. Lots of it. Don't worry if it obstructs your view.
3. Put the stock manifold and exhaust back on the car.

There. Much better stuff.

 

hah dude the pains of modifying

 

sounds like another money spending binge for karl... time to hit up the money tree again

Here's what i think he should do...

Since the header's busted, order a pimpy new one from SMSP.
Take it to K&E for the oil cooler installed so you can spend twice as much as you already have
Have the mobile glass shop fix the windshield there

 

damn Karl
hopefully will fix your problems.

how did you crack you windshield and header BTW?

-jeff, who bets it was catch22 sabatoging him

 

Ryan, there's very few leaves left on the tree. Especially with the Dow being down damn near 400 on Friday .

I must admit that I do feel a bit better...

Windshield: a rock at Summit.

Header: Truth? I think I broke it when I took you WAAAYYYYY off track in T4 at CMP last year. The break is at the bottom where it mounts to some brace on the engine. Ever since "the off" the car has been making a rather nasty noise...which I have determined to be this header crack.

See...aren't you glad to have been a part of not only my biggest-ever off, but an off that broke my car for a whole year? That's good stuff. Resume-level stuff even.

--Karl, who truly, genuinely hates his car right now...

 

OT: why the **** are there so many mosquitos in the damn house?!?!?! Ow, this really hurts

Use teflon paste or teflon tape. Screw the instructions.

Warren

 

Well if you'd popped the header off and brought it up with you to the Tarheel event, I could've welded it on Monday and worked out a way to get it back down to you through one of the NC people that'll be at the VMSC event the next weekend. Bah.

 

why couldn't you just use tape and run your own grounding wire between the two metal pieces? clamped or soldered or maybe just wrapped very very tightly

I would just put the tape on and do a continuity test, chances are something is going to ground out well enough on the threads that you dont have to worry about it

**Disclaimer**
I'm speaking from a purely electrical point of view, as I really dont know exactly the reasoning behind it all

 

either solder,
or the quick cure,
hose clamp a wire to the sender hex nut portion, the other end to a lucky screw that is grounded.

also teflon paste or, pipe dope.
You don't need much.


[Modified by Mista Bone, 6:09 AM 7/21/2002]

 

Pimpy new SMSP header's are nice... Other than Yack's POS, the 2 Cars with his header also had the most straight speed... Order one And they arn't funky looking like Scott's

 

Can you use a screw extractor to get out that hex bolt?


I don't know if you're interested in trying it, but I have a catalogue from Por-15 that has a manifold repair high temp putty. I scanned the ad (I embiggened the print a little for easier reading)


I think their website is http://www.por-15.com

 

Hey. Don't be bustin' on my funky header.
It's all about being "original." NOBODY has a header like mine. It is absolutely the only one out there... so far.

Scott, who wishes he had dyno'd the car with the funky header on it before he zinged a valve (or two) at Summit.

 

Hrmmmm, that Panoz is a Funky Looking car . . . That VW W8 is a Funky Looking motor . . . ITA CRXen and ITS Ludes put out some Funky Looking HP numbers with that header. If Scott's header looks Funky, I guess mine does too and that's ALRIGHT by me baby!

Adam



[Modified by phat-S, 4:09 PM 7/21/2002]

 

karl.....when we installed my oil cooler....the fitting that goes where the oil filter does so that it can feed the new oil filter and cooler well....the hole wasn't deep enough.....we dumped 6 quarts of oil on the garage floor....so we took it off....ground it out some more...put it back on.....that should fix it.....NO....6 more quarts!!!! dammmm this is 4 dollar a quart oil!!!! finally we got it done....was a pain in the ***!!!

 

Hmm... Super glue, duct tape, & bring some gum to the track for some last minute fixes.

Pete

 

Hmmm... its a day late, but is the offer still up?

Pete

 

Congratulations Karl (and Chad)! It sounds like you have earned your rite of passage into the "longest, most expensive oil cooler installation EVER" CLUB. Glad to know it is not just me who is mechanically inept with this type of installation. I would be willing to bet, though, that I wasted more quarts of Mobil 1 than either of you on my driveway and garage floor, not to mention on the road in front of my house where I mistakingly found out that I had used the wrong type of hose. Oil cooler installations are a tricky thing for the first-timer. I had no idea that such a seemingly simple install could be such a freaking bear. My only advice is to use the teflon tape and tighten the hell out of all the fittings.

 

Hey Chad, bet it was a B&M kit, right?

 

the block is BSP not NPT.


Yack - who's oil cooler is trouble free

 

mine was,

Permacool block adapter, Ford filter.

 

I cheated. I went to SGT's and we had it knocked out in a few hours. The only 2 fittings that leaked were the ones I tightened

Don't use tape on the AN fittings. Only on the pipe threads. And we used teflon paste, not tape. Grounds fine w/ paste (pushes aside).

Warren

 

Grounds fine with tape too, as long as you don't go crazy and put 4 layers on the stuff on before you quit. 2 layers is plenty, the tape fills the gaps in the threads, and is cut through on the edges, completing the ground.

Harry - just relaying what works on the electrical troubled British and Italian cars...