Money Pit - Phase III

[Howard2x4x4]

Great story telling and pics and super capable rig! Thanks for taking us along!

 

[KyleQ]

Great story telling and pics and super capable rig! Thanks for taking us along!

Thanks, glad you like it. I can't wait to wheel this thing again in about a month, it will be down for over a year at that point...

 

[KyleQ]

Getting ready for the aluminum welding so I figured I would make some room.

While I had the grill off I nutserted it so re-installation will be a snap. It was in rough shape so I had to weld some washers on the back side, worked great.

While I had everything apart I pounded out this winter wheeling dent which also lets my hood close nicely. It's the small things-

 

[stout22]

Just read back in your thread to 2018 and forward - had to get caught back up. All looks like fun.

 

[KyleQ]

Finally got my Champion radiator installed, needed a bit of custom mounting due to my core support.

A friend helped me weld on some mounting tabs, real simple.

Made a custom fan shroud extension to get more of the fan in the shroud.

Nutserts installed, radiator bolted in.

Everything fits perfect.

The mechanical fan pulls really good being full depth in the shroud. I got a piece of cardboard 8-10" away and it pulled it out of my hands and slapped against the radiator. It cools amazingly fast, but it should with that Explorer fan and complete shroud, it isn't even sealed yet!

I'd like to move my trans cooler from under the rear seat and put it up front and running it through the radiator to help heat the fluid up to operating temp. I'm going to run it through the rad and then into the cooler, potentially using the thermal switch to control the fan, but I'm not sure I trust it at this point.

I got new spark plug wires and some wire management stuff on the way to clean things up a bit.

 

[KyleQ]

Plug wires replaced with some nice looming, looks SO much better!