I haven't had much of an update lately, but have a bit to show for work that's been done over the last couple of months.
This is still all cooling related.
Back in October i took it to meet a buddy who's a freelance tuner. This drive was without the hood but put the bumper back on. it didn't take too long to find out that the airflow to the radiator with the bumper on was lacking. 20 miles into the 50 mile trip, temps started climbing. low speed with the Taurus fan wasn't keeping up so i had to run the fan on high just to get the temps to drop back in the 200* range. However, i made it without any issues. We were able to get some good off boost tuning done. Car felt pretty damn good while doing so. Here's a shot with his C7 Vette, such a smooth driving car that's making 490whp.
On the way home is where things started getting interesting.
running the fan on high the entire time eventually took it's toll. Alternator fuse ended up blowing and voltage dropped to 10v. Pulled over and called a tow truck to come get me and to continue brainstorming.
Once home, i planned to focus on 2 things:
1. ducting between intercooler and radiator
2. add some bumper vents to get air directly to the radiator
I recently picked up a new TIG welder. nothing special, but should do everything i will need for a long time. AHP AlphaTig 200
I welded up some ducts to force all air going through the IC directly to the radiator. I used some .060" alum sheet for my ducting. First time welding alum so go easy on the criticism
This helped a lot on it's own, but want to do some bumper work as well.
I got a spare bumper that i used to cut up for testing. I added a duct in the bumper that was right above the intercooler that fed directly to the top 6" of the radiator. I had to cut up the hood to fit the relocated radiator, which included cutting the stock latch. I went ahead and added a set of AeroCatch hood latches.
I took it for a drive last week, 100+ miles and the temps never got above 185*. Felt pretty damn good to drive without fear of overheating.
Now i'm planning to rack up some miles and hopefully get it tuned in the next couple of months.