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Yesterday afternoon, I'm sooo close to the finish line I can smell it. I am installing the lower radiator hose, leaving just attachment of the power steering reservoir, air intake ducts and filling with coolant to go. My left elbow hits the cap for the air pump air filter housing and the cap goes flying into the engine bay. No problem - I make a mental note of where it went (somewhere by the passenger side cam cover) and finish installing the radiator hose. And, guess what, now I can't find the friggin' air pump air filter cap anywhere!
You have got to be kidding me. I have the car on my 4 post lift, so I lifted it up - looked around from underneath, looked on the lift runners, but it's nowhere. I had my son come out and look with me. This is a fairly sizable part, but unfortunately made out of black plastic so I suspect it has fallen into some dark crevice. I will take another shot at looking for it tonight with a rested set of eyes. I guess at some point I'll give up looking for it, but I'll bet it can't be purchased by itself, which makes me wonder if the air pump air filter housing can be purchased separately - which means I'll probably end up either buying the entire fan shroud or fabricating some sort of cover for the air filter housing.
I lost an 8 mm deep socket also trying to get the driver side distributor back into place (the last screw/bolt on the right hand side next to the ignition coil is a bear to reach when installing). But, I'm not too worried about losing a socket and it is out of the way of moving parts over against the driver's side fender. The black plastic cap I'm concerned about as it might be resting somewhere that will interfere with the belts or up against the exhaust manifold making it a fire hazard. Hopefully I'll locate it tonight.
Boy hope you find it, although it's not a deal-breaker of a part. Reminds me... I have never lost or dropped so may tools/nuts/bolts before. That 928 engine bay just seems to suck those small items into it, some never to be found again.
I have found stuff many many feet from where I thought them to be, so check the rafters!
I'd strongly recommend against this procedure. Plastic brushes and gas don't mix at all. Plastic will build a static charge and spark, igniting you, your car, and most likely your garage. I know this from experience; my grandfather darned near burned off his arm using gas and a plastic brush to clean his tractor.
Just say no.
Oh ****ing hell, once again, it was not a recommendation. It did not read as such, and was not written as instruction. I use it. Once again, I don't recommend you using it.
Having just removed the crossmember to do mm opg job I can tell you with much certainty that it and all other things consumed by the engine bay will be on top of the cross member. It will sit there invisible and will never be an issue until you try and remove the crossmember and it wedges against something not allowing you to wiggle it out
Good News is that the pump filter cover is an available part last time I looked.
I'll echo the idea that the crossmember is a magnet for Things That Fall. After a few projects where I promised I'd go find the dropped part or tool "later", I've learned to go find dropped stuff immediately. There's a good case for keeping the floor under the car clear of parts and pieces, since new dropped parts and pieces will ricochet off the other parts and head for places unknown. Having a nice clean hard floor makes it easy to find stuff, but also allows stuff to go a long way when dropped, like under a toolbox or behind that pile of stuff over there. So the floor under the car gets a big piece of indoor-outdoor washable carpet these days during projects, once all the fluid removal is done of course..
There are certain work practices I follow too, like not putting parts or tools on the car when working on it. My one concession is a towel covering the top of the intake, with a plastic dishpan there for parts I'm removing. Tools always go to the tool table, never on the fenders or the oh-so-tempting top of the radiator. The fenders are too fragile to risk a dent from leaning on a tool even with the fender covers. The radiator paint is easily damaged and impossible to repair with the original stickers in place. The crossbar gets a wrap of accordian electrical sleeve, takes seconds and does an awesome job protecting the original paint there from nicks and scratches. Some may sound like Stupid Stuff, but it really does help avoid dropped parts and tools while minimizing casual collateral damage to the car when working on it.
Thanks for the tips everyone. Really appreciate the help so far.
OK, I got everything back together this morning. I was unable to find the air pump air filter cap after looking last night and this morning, so I fashioned the following until I can order a new one (no laughing please):
Spent about 20 minutes filling with coolant per Dwayne's instructions and got it to take about 3 gallons. Started the car up, let it idle for about 10 minutes and it took a bit more (but not much). No leaks anywhere, everything looks and sounds good. Put the coolant reservoir cap on and took it for a spin. After about a mile, it overheated. Darn. Back into the garage. I loosened the coolant reservoir tank a little to release pressure, but released it a little too far and gave the floor of the garage a coolant bath before I could tighten the cap back up (I know, never release the coolant cap when the car is hot, but I was trying to speed up the process so that I could get into the office).
Anyhow, re-reading Dwayne's procedure and searching Rennlist on overheating after a WP change, I realize that I didn't turn the heater on. I had it completely off when I started this project (back in October), so I figured I must have air in the system.
I filled up the coolant reservoir again with the engine off. I removed the water temp sensor on the water bridge near the intake and water came out of the sensor hole so I tightened the sensor back up (which as I understand it is the high point in the entire cooling system). I read that some people will fill with coolant there to get rid of air pockets.
I then turned on the heater full hot with fan full on, started the car and let it idle a few minutes. I think it took a little more coolant in the reservoir at that point. I put the cap back on and back out on the road for another test drive. This time the coolant temp went to the 3rd white mark (last one before the red zone) and stayed for about 10 minutes as I tooled around the neighborhood. The car drove and sounded just fine. I did notice some steam escaping from the area of the coolant reservoir though. Then, I saw the temp gauge started creeping back up again and into the red zone. Back into the garage, where it sits now. Both the upper and lower reservoir hoses are hot, BTW.
I need to get to work at this point, but thought I'd seek some advice. Does this sound like still an air pocket and it just needs to cool down, add coolant if low and go for another drive? The car wasn't overheating prior to the teardown, just leaking a lot of coolant (again, nice and dry now, no leaks). With hot upper and lower radiator hoses, I wouldn't think the thermostat was bad. Other thoughts?
Lastly, while looking for the air pump air filter cap, I found this little piece of wood mounted onto the lower air intake. I assume it was a platform for a radar detector, but any other thoughts?
The crossbar gets a wrap of accordian electrical sleeve, takes seconds and does an awesome job protecting the original paint there from nicks and scratches.
OK, quick update. One last time to the garage before getting ready for work: I take the coolant reservoir cap off (car has cooled down by now) and the tank is empty. Add another half gallon of coolant and start the car (heater on full blast). It didn't really take any more. I noticed the temp gauge stabilized at halfway between 2nd and 3rd marks (basically the temp gauge needle is horizontal). I put the coolant reservoir cap on and take it for a drive. After a couple of hard runs up the tachometer and sitting at a couple of stop lights, the needle hasn't moved from horizontal. So, looks like it was just air in the system. Wow, the cooling system is a bit finicky - not having the heater on when starting for the first time really did upset the whole system!
Here's a couple of pics of the car at the Kansas City Region PCA Oktoberfest car show before the surgery. Thanks again for all of the fantastic help!!
12-01-2014, 12:30 PM
