Garage Changes

So while I was not spending time on the car over the last two years I did put some time into the garage...

The company i work for moved to a new building that was previously owned by an oil company. They left tons of heavy duty filing cabinets behind, I work for a tech company, we dont have much use for paper... so i was told i could take some home... cant argue with the free price tag. I have hundreds of pounds of tools in the drawers and they still roll smooth. I then took boardroom tables (also free) and cut them down the middle to create the counter tops. Each filing cabinet is bolted to the wall and to the cabinet next to it. There is also a slab of marble at the bottom of each filing cabinet. This all makes for a very solid bench that is at the perfect height for me.

If you look close you can see all the magnetic labels, these were made by taking magnetic white boards (left behind by the oil company again) and sticking label maker labels to them then cutting them out. Now i can find any tool fast. I then mounted an all in one computer to the wall for bringing up the GTM manuals and searching the internet for wisdom.

To mount tools on the wall i found a company that was going out of business that had painted slatwall in their space that they had to remove at the end of their lease. I did the work removing the slat wall for free and used the best sheets in my garage. I found that slatwall hooks are easy to find at most hardware stores and many specialty hooks can be found online for things like drills or paper towel, etc. 

I built some shelves at the end of both sides to house my larger tools and a mini-fridge for some beverages. I'm not sure if you can see them very well but i also added some hanging retractable systems from the roof that include an air hose, 2 power cords and a trouble light.

I added an Amazon Echo, and wired her into the roof speakers for some tunes and quick unit conversions.

Some car photos taken today... Kooks Exhaust

Fuel pump mounting, the wiring is temporary until my fuel pump controller comes in 

Today was seat day... this proved to be more challenging to do alone then i though so i had a friend come over to mark bracket positions while i sat in the seat while working the peddles. I am a little over 6 foot 2 and found that no matter how tried to position the sliders they took up to much valuable seat height. On top of that my legs require the seat to be as back as far as possible anyway... so i ditched the sliders and used the brackets i bought (i think i got them from Shane) without the sliders. now the seats sit perfect all the time. I don't plan on letting anyone drive my car anyway 🙂

You cant see it in this photo but we also got the AC Accumulator bracket bent, painted and installed.

Last month i finally got around to buying my own welder, its a small gas MIG, should be good enough for what i need to do.

So I had some time today to run the engine long enough for the coolant to start pumping, everything seems to cool just fine. Engine maxed out at about 210 degrees while idling, the fans never kicked on but i think that's because it didn't get hot enough. I also routed the shift cables further away from the exhaust, melting those wouldn't be good.

I have to say, i have never actually seen a finished GTM, never heard one run until yesterday... The LS1 with the Kooks exhaust sounds amazing, youtube videos do not do the noise justice.

Mini Van Toad

I have a 2010 Dodge Caravans as our family vehicle, I want to tow this behind our RV when we go on trips.

I was able to pick up a BlueOx tow bar, mounts and Brake Buddy all used over the last few months but the one piece i cant seem to find used is the lube pump system that circulates lubricant though the transmission while the van is being towed.

I took a look at the Remco system and it seems overly priced for what it is. I can handle just about anything mechanical and have gone so far as to build a car from scratch in the past so these things don't really scare me.

So here's my idea. 

1. Tap the oil pan with a standard fitting like this.
2. Attach a standard lube pump like this
3. Potentially add two solenoids and a Y fitting for the return line.

now the Remco pump has an alarm in the cab, this will easily be accomplished by adding a simple oil pressure sensor like this. It is possible to buy static pressure sensors that short the terminals together when a specific pressure is met. Simply wire this into the 7 way plug and up to a light and buzzer on the dash.

I bought:

• 3 way tap https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• 2 of these packs of 5 fittings https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• this oil pressure switch https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• 10 or so 3/8 hose clamps
• 10 or so feet of 3.8 hose
• this buzzer https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• This dash light https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• this remote cooler (way to big in hindsight but that only helps) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/EPMA...708.0.0.v1MJeo
• A Toyota MR2 power steering pump (used from a guy parting out his car online.
• two one way valves, i found these after, i bought more expensive ones https://www.amazon.ca/Non-Return-Pet...+way+oil+valve
• A fitting for the pump high pressure side, not sure what size, i got them for free from the bins at my local autoparts store, they never charge for anything from the bins.
• this charger https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also had to buy a tap and die to put the pressure sensor into the 3 way fitting and I had to use a chunk of steel i had lying around to make a bracket.

Creation of the cable that goes between the RV and the car. At first i made it the full length of the wire i bought knowing i would have to make it smaller when i knew the proper length. All of these parts came from princess auto.

This is the 7 way plug that mounts on the van. Its from princess auto, the light portion of the plug goes to a 4 way plug after about 6" of wire.

This is the 4 way plug that i connect to the back of the 7 way plug to run the lights. The spool of wire snakes under the car to the tail lights

This is the fitting that comes on the pump. I assumed it was threaded and would come off so i put a wrench on it.. DONT DO THIS, it was a big mistake. The fitting is pressure fit in, once it comes off there is nothing threaded that you can use.... So i had to take the pump apart, drill a larger hole, tap and thread it with an NPT thread then put in a new fitting. It would have been easier to get an adapter that adapted the larger hose from the fitting to a smaller 3/8 hose... lesson learned 🙂

This is a 3/8 NPT fitting that i got for free that fits the pump perfectly. I sealed it with Teflon tape on the threads.

I bought two of these one way valves from amazon. In hindsight i would have bought the cheaper versions that i linked to in yesterdays thread.

Bolting on the towbar, all of these holes had to be drilled.... This is very hard to do, the steal you are drilling into is the vans structural support, its quite hard and thick. All of these bolts are put on with lock tite red.... they will never come off.

These fit into the tow bar, but mine wouldn't fit on the driver side, i had to file off a very small amount of the top of the T to get it to fit and turn smoothly. I bet a piece of the interior weld is left in the tow bar side.

Tow bar installed and bumper trimmed.

I made a simple mount for the pump.

I needed a way to monitor the function of the pump from the RV cab. I drilled a hole and tapped with a 1/8" NPT. This is where the pressure sensor will later mount.

Taps and tools i used

The assembled one way valves. Fittings and valves came from amazon

This is the 3 way setup with the installed pressure sensor, this sensor was later replaced with one that has a ground lead.

A dry run test of the pump to see how much it would pump at idle

if you look down at the transmission through this hole you can see two lines, the one on the driver side is the line you need to tap as its the output line. I cut about 3" from the transmission side. followed by the first one way valve, followed by another 2" of 3/8 hose, then the 3 way, then into the factory oil cooler. The other side of the 3 way heads to the new cooler then to the pump, from the pump it then heads to the oil pan pickup (in reality the fluid starts at the pan and works its way to the 3 way valve)

This is what the pump looks like with two fittings.

Removed the oil pan from the transmission, I bought a new filter and seal because now is a good time to change them. I will try and get a picture of where i put the fitting. Its on the passenger side, toward the rear of the pan as low down as i could get. I tapped the pan with a 3/8 npt tap and then put JBweld on the fitting threads before screwing it in. i then covered the inside and outside in JBWeld so the fitting will NEVER move again.

Final pump installed and living in its new home.

Bought a battery charger box from amazon that will slowly charge the battery, wired that into the trailer plug on the van, included another diode so the pump can pull power off the RV but not off the van. (30 minutes)

There is a factory cooler on my van, disconnected it and ran the engine for 5 seconds to see which side pumps out fluid, put the first one way valve on that followed by the 3 way with the pressure sensor. The new side of the 3 way goes to the 2nd one way valve then off to the cooler and then the pump. The other side of the pump goes to the transmission pan, you will need to take off the pan and tap it low so it picks up oil.

Now we need an alarm to know if things fail. I wired the spare pin on the 7 way plug on the van to the pressure sensor I installed into the 3 way. I then picked that wire up on the RV side and ran it back to the drivers area and wired it into the buzzer and light. So if the pressure sensor stops detecting pressure the buzzer goes off and the light goes on. I also wired that into a switch so i can turn the alarm off when i am not towing the van. Thats where I sit today. Next weekend i will tow it out for its first camping trip, I leave for a 10,000K trip that will last a little over a month in about 20 days..... so that will be the true test

So all in it was around $1500 CAD... or about $1130 USD... My amazon prime account covered almost all of the shipping charges.

I was a little worried that the pressure might be a little bit to high so i added a pressure gauge. The pressure that the Van creates on its own is within 2 PSI of the MR3 Power steering pump that i used (at idle)

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Working out the Home Automation interface.

At the drive in at deer foot mall

They do this every Wednesday for 5 weeks in the summer, this is our second time out. A little more rain then last time. 

  

Quad is fixed again

brakes and cooling system are fixed. Not sure where all the coolent went, doesn't seem to leak, doesn't seem to be burning it.