And, still have hydraulic leaks on winch circuit! I disturbed the only hose that wasn't leaking when fixing the others, now that last hose is weeping under pressure, als found the drip source on the tank, lowest point screwed connection, of course, so have to drain the tank of 40L, going to be fun. Think I will use a gear pump I have and draw as much down as possible before cracking the final fitting. It's been a long path to success is all I can say.
Also, almost forgot, wired up a set of yellow, 3000nm LED fog lights, can only run on low beam and able to be isolated. Looking forward to testing these out.
Bit of a muck around over the last 2 days. Chased down and resolved the radiator leak, its an aluminium radiator crack, so used a combination of different products to clog it up, ultimatly it needs to come out for repair, but I am heading to the sc=npw for camping in minus 5 and it can wait,
Also resolved the leak on the fuel injection side, i think!. Th chev has a dead end rubber cap to close off the return passage of fuel back to the tank. I found the rubber end plug has a crack and was leaking onto the exhaust manifold, not great, anyway, took 2 hours to find, but now all dry and the radiator is nit leaking, so off to Mt Selma for 4 days to sit and do fuck all, except drink and feeze the balls off! Gwendolyn Camp-ven is going to deliver with Pizzas and then slow cook chicken dinner the second night, looking forward to the the break.
mudnut (20th July 2025), poindexter (21st July 2025), Touses (28th July 2025)
OK, will post some pics tomorrow, but the Mt Selma trip went well, a couple of bee stings to keep me on my toes. First one, about 2 hrs into the trip the power to the aux gauges and lift pump died. The driving was pretty tame and i didn't need a load of grunt so pushed on into camp. Pulling into the camping area, jumped out to hear this screeching noise from under the car and found the circulation pump for the roof mounted radiators had decided to crap out, its maybe 500klm old, AeroFlow brushless pump, rated at 40LPM, bought to replace a Davis Craig rated at 32LPM that lasted about half that time. I run a flowmeter at rooftop to confirm flowrate and neither pushed more than 8LPM thru 19mm hose, 1.8M vertical head, system volume about 15L.
So sat and drank whiskey with my brother for 3 days, then had a look at the issues. The electrical issue was a large spade connector on an 80Amp relay had snapped between the crimp zone and the connector section, like WTF is that about, anyway, had a spare or two so swapped it out and power restored. The pump turned out to be cactus, zero flow to the roof as witnessed by the flowmeter, so i cut power to it and drove the car the 3 hrs back home without this water circuit inoperable. This did result in higher water temps in that circuit, but driven carefully I was able to maintain a max water temp of 90degC on that intercooler circuit, whilst the interchiller circuit has happily sitting around 2degC.
So back home emptied all the soaking gear into the garage to dry. Friday I dropped the hydraulic fluid from the winch reservoir and removed the leaking fitting, off to Pirtek in the morning for a new one. I did a bit of review on the Davis Craig and Aeroflow pumps and decided they just were not worth the effort. I have instead installed a marine rated diesel/oil gear pump, positive displacement, self priming, 7amp draw and with some mods to the mounting plate had it installed in 4 hrs. refilled the system with new coolant, and sitting at 10LPM constant after burping the system, happy with that.
Apart from that all went well. I did some reading about operation of lithium batteries in sub zero temps and they dont like it. We had overnight temps in the minus 5-7 range. I did make up a 12V heater pad with a voltage controller, used a 200W Lenova silicone pad, ran it at 15% after finding out what 200W of energy feels like heat wise - roaring hot, and slide it down the side of the battery bank in the rear pod. The location is an open slot but the batteries were above cold to touch all the time and able to accept a charge and hold a float voltage of circa 13.3V. The draw from the batteries to the heat pad was not detectable on the battery monitor, maybe its an accuracy issue, but 3 days without starting the car and heater on the whole time, have to be happy with that. I have read if the cells freeze they will become terminal and wont take a charge. Anyway, my brother has a lithium in his for the camp battery, didnt use the heater pad, and his charge and operation was fine - maybe the info is too conservative, but too much money involved with 400a/hr bank to risk it.
Car runs well in the main, pretty happy where it is and has proven to be reliable aprt from unexpected component failure. The journey continues!!
I don't like reading bad news about Aeroflow pumps because I have a brushless 40 lpm in my W2A system but it has the 25mm barbs and doesn't have to push very hard.
No flow meter but I can keep an eye on inlet temps to see if anything goes wrong and it wouldn't be terminal anyway.
John
2001 GUII TI 4500 - Now converted to TD42T auto with Nomad valve body
John, I used to run Aeroflow lift pumps and found them reliable until they started dying after a short period. I switched to Carter Black and have not had any problems. I switched to Aeroflow for the priming pump after the Davis Craig unit crapped out, ran fine and easy to swap over, but didnt last long as mentioned. Time will tell with this new unit, should be better, certainly its heavier and larger than the Aeroflow , which is a lot heavier than the Davis Craig unit. Both of the smaller ones are now in the bin. Noise wise there isnt any change and I used HD rubber isolation mounts to dampen the noise - but then again this car make a lot of noise with the s/c and lift pumps and interchiller pumps and fans, so all good.
jff45 (29th July 2025)
OK, installed the new fittings on the hydraulic tank, of course they were dimensionally different, so an hour on the grinder opening up the clearances on the tank mount brackets. Apart from that a simple swap over, used the Pirtek 702 liquid sealant, similar the Loctite white teflon stuff but stronger and sets quicker, nightmare to break the seal once the threaded components are hit with this stuff. Left it to go off for 6 hrs then re-filled the tank, managed to put 1L of power steering fluid on the garage floor, what a mess. I will leave the sealant to set completely for 2 days before putting it under pressure and temperature, but looking forward to no more leaks on the ground.
Based upon this success, I moved onto an oil change, straight forward, used a MolyQuip oil flush product first, then refilled with a new filter. Using a 10W-60 Penrite semi synthetic, with the aux oil cooler the sump capacity is boosted to 9L. I also use a teflon additive in the oil. The very first thing I noticed on first fire up was how quiet the engine ran, I really must have been well overdue on the change, think somewhere around 7000klm from memory, or the oil has been worked too hard, anyway, all the clacking and tapping noises just about disappeared, so made a note that 5000klm is the limit.
What's this teflon shit!!
Seriously Phil, you ain't being paying attention.
Two stroke oil will give you same results.
Check with the legend cuppa.
I AM NOT STUBBORN.........I prefer the term, Singlemindedly independent !
I think you are on a different train to me. I use a mineral based two stroke oil as a fuel additive for fuel pump lubrication. Are you suggesting I use a grade oil oil for a 2 stroke engine in place of the 10W-60 Penrite or am I misinterpreting this?Originally Posted by Touses
The teflon product is an oil additive. It is a suspension of teflon particles that fill the 'roughness voids' that are evident from any machining process, unless you get into the realms of electron polishing as utilised in medical grade devices - a GEP 500 engine aint in that class!!! Further, 'I believe' based on my industrial applications of additives like this in high temp high duty point drives, that it gives a higher level of confidence when the oil gets very hot and does not expose the situation of metal on metal rubbing, its a lower friction surface, and that goes for the mains and conrod bushes as well. The additive does not make any miraculous change in engine sound or improve fuel economy from what I can tell.
Trust this completes the picture for you from my side.
Hi Phil,
Yep read additive and completely skipped oil.
You have indeed completed the picture for me. Now I am intrigued.
What brand is you are using and where do you source it?
I AM NOT STUBBORN.........I prefer the term, Singlemindedly independent !
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