Andyrews Progress Thread, 1/16/22 A Trip to The Red Barn - Lets fab a Firewall! Options

[JRust]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) Andrew I gotta say. My head hurts just reading about all that wiring (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

I don't have the patience to do all you are doing. You & Mike are "Nuckin Futs" man. My kind of people of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/evilgrin.gif) . Watching your thread to see this come together. Going to be sweet. Can't wait to go for a ride in it

[Mike Bellis]

You & Mike are "Nuckin Futs" man.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[Andyrew]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) Andrew I gotta say. My head hurts just reading about all that wiring (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

I don't have the patience to do all you are doing. You & Mike are "Nuckin Futs" man. My kind of people of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/evilgrin.gif) . Watching your thread to see this come together. Going to be sweet. Can't wait to go for a ride in it

I think Mike is a bit more nutz than I am to be honest! His wiring was way more difficult than what mine will end up being, and his whole car is just way more off the wall (In a good way)!

My wiring will be limited to plug and play. The MOST difficult thing will be figuring out the lights and a solution to the headlight relay. It WILL take a while for me to run the wires and eliminate the non essentials but the whole system can run with pretty much everything I am not going to be using removed.

The more difficult bits here will be the ABS fabrication, brake line fabrication, and figuring out the correct position of the stability control sensors and possibly tuning that code (Never heard of anyone doing it... so that will be SUPER difficult.. Luckily it can be switched off until its sorted out).


However all of that relies on someone actually buying the current v8 engine setup... I am at the point where I am getting anxious to put the 4 cylinder engine in place and start mocking everything up.. I can do a lot of wiring research in the meantime for what does what on the wiring harness and I still need to get my hands on a body harness....



I grabbed this and some other bits from my dads place.. This water pump should make a nice air to water intercooler pump. Pretty sure a lot of guys use this type of pump for this function.

[Mike Bellis]

I don't yet know what your donor car will be to get the body harness... When I did mine I went here: https://erwin.vw.com/erwin/showHome.do, paid a $35 for 24 hour access and downloaded every document VW ever made for my donor VIN. Well worth it. Full body wiring diagrams, tech articles, manuals, etc...

I don't know if Audi has a similar website but this was the best $35 I ever spent. I bet I downloaded 100 files or more.

[Andyrew]

Hmm.. Very interesting. This is what I've been looking for..

Mind sending me an example of one of the wiring harnesses so I can see what they have?
Or just posting a pic of it here?

[Andyrew]

I've been downloading some diagrams from the parts book, but there is no wiring charts or anything...
http://www.partscats.info/audi/en/?i=cat_v...567890&hg=9

[Andyrew]

One hour later and I've downloaded all there is to be known for the B5 A4 chassis.. Thanks Mike! This surely will be a help.

[Andyrew]

Been reading up on the stability control system and its requirements for the past 30 minutes... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Its doable! Requires more bits than I thought but still doable!

[Andyrew]

Had a couple weeks of no progress due to a vacation but I am back on it slowly!

Got an oil cooler and fan, currently have it hard mounted, but am debating putting some rubber in between the metal.

I still have one tab left to weld but ran out of time tonight.




I have the smallest SPAL fan behind it that fits nicely in the cubby I made. I will be using some foam between the oil cooler and the body to make a nice seal to the area below the headlight and cutting slits in the front of the fender well (directly behind the oil cooler) for the air escape and finally closing off the area under the headlights so air passes through cleanly.

Lines will be run basically straight back to the engine, likely in either the center tunnel or possibly in the dr side rocker.

Since I am keeping the factory oil-water cooler I dont need much of an external oil cooler. Still debating on line size but I might try to run 8-an if anyone knows of a pressure loss calculator for AN lines let me know.

[Andyrew]

[Andyrew]

Finished the mounting of the oil cooler and added a little padding.



Here you can see the beginning of the radiator mount, 1/8" bar makes up the radiator vertical support, the bit holes in the floor will be tig welded later to bring the strength back. Thats where the lower radiator mounts sit. There is a steel 5/8 x 5/8 U channel (commercial window glass stop....) that the lower portion vertical portion of the radiator sits in allowing for no air flow past the radiator. The floor is 16ga steel fully welded. Then everything is hit with zinc galvy.


And the weld joints hit with calking.


And painted rattle can.

[Andyrew]

Finally the upper section is built. The vertical radiator supports are joined by another piece of 5/8x5/8 U channel steel (glass stop). for the radiator to sit on. We have some bulb seal on the radiator and some foam seal on the radiator support. Vertical gaps are taken up with foam seal (weatherstripping).

The upper section is more 16ga steel and I am debating on tack welding it, but I most likely will bolt it down with bulb seal underneath.

Vertical gaps have not been taken into account yet as I havent bought my AC condenser yet.

And I am testing with using the strap in the middle to hold everything down or build straps on each side that connect to the factory mount tabs that I hacked off a bit to much. Still more thinking to do here.

[Chris H.]

Good start. That's gonna work well for you. I like how close you put the rad to the front of the trunk. Question...When you drilled the holes circled below did they go all the way through the trunk floor or not? It doesn't look like it. When I set mine up it looked like there were 2 layers of metal there with a gap in between but was too chicken to try drilling them out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) .

[Andyrew]

The goal was to put it as close to the front as possible. Yes I did drill through both layers which is why I want to tig the holes.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[Chris H.]

So could I theoretically drill through ONE layer and have enough space to drop the rad mounts and hold the rad in place or are the two layers of metal right on top of each other?

On the bottom of mine I have a piece of sheet metal with mounts in it similar to the renegade setup but it doesn't get the radiator as low as yours so I can't get it as close to the front. I'm going to slightly trim the top mounts which will give me a bit more clearance.

[Andyrew]

They were within about 1/8" of each other(I'll take a pic tonight), If you cut the bottom of the radiator tabs down that much theoretically yes you could, but I dont think it would realistically work especially with how much you have to tilt the radiator at that point to make it fit.

[Chris H.]

Interesting...good to know.

Here are some pics of my setup in case it gives you any ideas to use. Ignore the wires taped to the floor. I'll move those later this year but it requires taking the entire system out which I don't feel like doing yet.







On the bottom There is a piece of sheet metal that is attached at the front to the former stock valance mounting holes. At the radiator there is a 90 degree lip bent upward about a half inch or so across and the radiator is bolted to it. at the very ends the metal extends another couple of inches and I installed rubber mounts to them which the radiator sits in.



It's a '75 so at the very front of the car there are a couple of nubs that dictate where your side panels that funnel air to the radiator can be. Since I was pretty sure I'd be playing with the setup I bent a couple of u-shaped pieces and attached them with the stock bumper shock bolts. That way no holes drilled or welds. They're in there good and there's downward pressure on the bottom piece. Most important thing is to get ALL the air to go through the rad.



The top piece which you can see in this pic slides in just underneath the hood seal channel pretty tightly. The back edge is bent so that is can be attached to the radiator at the mounting holes. When it's fully in place the radiator doesn't move AT ALL, but my plan is to put some fasteners in the channel and small bolts on the attachment points on the radiator to make sure it doesn't work its way loose over time.

I'd still like to get the rad setup closer to the front, but for now I'm gonna start driving it.

[matthepcat]

Looking good. Fabricating radiator shrouding is annoying....the fine balance of some flex but not too much flex....and how to keep the aluminum from rubbing holes into each other.

[Chris H.]

Right, loose enough to flex a little, but not too loose. Andrew's got the right idea.

Matt, what about that Subie car in the classifieds? If you're looking for one there's not a better deal out there.

Good point on the rubbing...last thing on my list is to trim the side pieces where they touch the rad and insert some foam or rubber to keep the metal on metal thing from happening.

[Andyrew]

This is the bulb seal that I bought from Home depot. Really flexible stuff and dirt cheap. The adhesive is very sticky as well which is a plus.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Frost-King-E-O-...V25BK/202844545

Chris your setup looks really nice!

What is the small air bleed line going to, a heater?