Cooling System - July 12, 2020

Not a great deal of visible progress, but I actually did do a lot on the cooling system and engine (mostly design and ordering parts). 

I got the grill modified for the AC condenser.  I also ordered a long skinny transmission cooler that fits nicely in the area shown.  It arrived on Thursday, but was damaged in the box.  A new one is coming this week:







I made some simple brackets to weld the AC condenser in place, but they won't be welded in until after I get the radiator. 



I was worried about the clearance on the upper AC hose fitting, so I also ordered some AC parts from Vintage Air - AC compressor, mount and hose kit.  The hose fitting confirmed that there is a lot of clearance in it's current position.  




The AC compressor will go back in the same lower position, but it needed a new mount because it's a different type of AC compressor.  Both of those have also arrived and will be installed for the next test fit - to ensure adequate frame clearance.  These AC parts are expensive.




I also ordered an electric radiator fan and shroud.  The fan is high performance, but also variable speed.  I'm hoping that it will be relatively quiet most of the time.  I have to do some custom fab work on the shroud to fit it to the radiator.  This was expensive.



The radiator will be semi-custom because of the special variable speed fan - it'll be ordered tomorrow, and has a leadtime of a couple of weeks, so not much will happen on the grill\fan\AC condenser until the radiator arrives.  I also have to make a custom mount for the radiator.   This was expensive.



I also took my best guess and ordered all of the radiator and heater hoses.  They may not fit, as this is all custom, but, they will be a good starting point. 

On to the engine...I received all the oil pan parts, so those are ready to install. 



I also ordered several new engine parts - water pump, valve cover gaskets, timing chain cover gasket and seal, etc.  While I wait for the radiator, I hope to get all this stuff installed on the engine.  This stuff wasn't terribly expensive, but it adds up.

To make the engine parts install go smoother, I bought an engine stand many months ago.  It was missing the handle and lock pin, but it was still worth the $20 I paid. 



I'm just going to use the handle from my engine hoist.  I welded up a lock pin, beveled the ends on the lathe and painted it red:



YJ Distraction #1:
I copied Mark and installed some nice aluminum Rhino steps on the YJ.  The traction is much better.  
Passenger Side:




Driver's Side:




YJ Distraction #2
The YJ's AC quit working on Wednesday.  The fan clutch is working, so the compressor is turning.  I believe that the compressor has gone bad.  The Jeepster and YJ both use the same compressor, so I will probably just use the new compressor on the YJ.