Harrop 2300 supercharger to Optimiser 6500

[PeeBee]

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!!