The Bolton Build - 818C

[FFRWRX]

I went through a lot of trouble to make mine so that there was nothing below the car and it was all in the passenger compartment, but I'm thinking it would have been better to have done what you did. Those little bolt heads being under the car shouldn't be an issue and it looks way faster to fabricate.

When I got the car it had the nuts under the car with some excess bolt thread sticking out. Also, the car was lowered down a fair bit. The first time I drove it up onto the lift it stopped dead with quite a bang, like the whole power train suddenly seized up. Couldn't figure out what it was. The car still seemed OK so I backed up and took a bit of a run at it. A more sudden stop and a bigger bang. Finally saw that the protruding bolt thread caught on the joint between the ramp and the lift. It bent the 3/8" seat mounting bolts quite a bit. So it certainly is something to keep in mind with a lowered car.

[FFRWRX]

To mount the evaporator unit a little higher up in the dash, these 2 bars have to be cut out and modified:

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Not too difficult a job. I raised the bar up so the top is about 3” above the other structure, which still gives me about 1 ½” above that before contacting the dash.

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I welded on some small brackets to mount the evaporator and it sits very nicely now up into the dash:

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Doesn’t really show much, but the unit is up under the dash with room above it to run the ducts:

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While I was in the area with the welder, I made up a small structure to raise the rear of the console. It puts it at a more comfortable height for an arm rest. It is just sitting in place here:

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I think I’ve decided to go in a different direction with the center console. Not all worked out yet, but I’ll mock something up and see how it goes……more later.

I mounted the A/C condenser in front of the radiator. The job went well and I was quite pleased with it. When it was in I noticed that the 2 fittings on the side of it are different sizes. Then the tiny light bulb appeared ….very dim though. What are the odds that I have it upside down? Well, you would think the odds are 50/50 that I had it right….or wrong. But anyone that works on cars knows that logic has a strange way of bending with things like this. The 50/50 odds of something being wrong when left to chance change to a 95% chance that you’ve got it wrong. Of course I had it upside down. Not a huge deal to swap it around but it did put a small damper on my enthusiasm for getting a small job done so nicely and quickly.

I really have to tidy up the wiring now as it is starting to bug me how messy it all looks.

Rick

[Jetfuel]

I really have to tidy up the wiring now as it is starting to bug me how messy it all looks.

Rick

Second that thought...and you'll be glad you did

Jet

[FFRWRX]

I decided that I would double-wall the rear firewall. There are of course the thick aluminum panels that go from the inside of the car, but, like others have done, I’ll add panels to the rear of the firewall structure. That way I can add extra sound insulation between the 2 metal panels.

Since the engine is already in, I’m working around that. And for now I’m just doing the part above the fuel tank. I can get the 2 main triangle pieces from the headliner aluminum piece:

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I’m going to put headliner insulation and material on the roof, but don’t see a need for the aluminum panel, so I’ll make use of it here.
A lot of fiddly cutting a fitting, but it looks good. Not fastened in place yet and I'll probably paint/coat the rear of them before attaching them.

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I’m thinking I may put the center triangle piece from inside the car. It does give good access to the belts if they ever need servicing. If I cut and modify the panel that goes behind the seats and make at least the center triangle portion removable without taking out the whole piece, then I can also remove the rear cover piece and access that area of the engine. Sound good? At any rate, I don’t see any harm in doing to that way even if I never use it for engine access. The wires will all come through that center panel so it also might be easier to cut the holes and fit it from the inside of the car. I ran out of aluminum or I would have that piece done now too.

And yes, this is in preparation to tidying up the wiring…..getting there.

Rick

[FFRWRX]

Oh, a couple questions.

What is this hose for and it is supposed to be hooked up? Looks like it attaches to a metal pipe that goes down into the engine/intake area. I don't know if it came off or was never hooked up.

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And this expansion valve came with the compressor. Do I need it? Not sure where it goes if I do need it.

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Thanks,

Rick

[AZPete]

Words to live by: "The 50/50 odds of something being wrong when left to chance change to a 95% chance that you’ve got it wrong."

I'm glad you elected to use the aluminum headliner for your rear firewall because that caused me a lot of time and frustration trying to get it to stay up on the ceiling. For the headliner, I suggest you get some foamcore at an art supply store.

I agree with your idea of mounting the middle triangle of your firewall from the front. You could screw in onto the seat side of the frame and it would save a headache whenever you have to access the front of the engine. You'd have to remove seats and the thick FFR-supplied firewall, but then you'd have easy access. I wish I had done that.
!!!! Hey, future builders . . . Better still, but too late here, is to mount the rear-rear firewall before dropping the engine in. I learned this the hard way which cost me hours of frustration and some vodka for pain relief.

[STiPWRD]

What is this hose for and it is supposed to be hooked up? Looks like it attaches to a metal pipe that goes down into the engine/intake area. I don't know if it came off or was never hooked up.
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That hose originally went to the brake booster on the master cylinder. I capped it off on the intake manifold.

[FFRWRX]

That hose originally went to the brake booster on the master cylinder. I capped it off on the intake manifold.

So that would be a vacuum leak now?

[Bob_n_Cincy]

intake hoses.jpg

[STiPWRD]

So that would be a vacuum leak now?

For sure. There are several places on the intake manifold you may want to double check depending on your setup - there are a lot of hoses attached to it.

[FFRWRX]

Got the aluminum panels temporarily attached. Yes, it can be a pain doing this with the engine in place, but I cheated in a few places to make it easier.

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Where I didn't have clearance for even a right-angle drill, I drilled through from inside the car. Yes, I drilled the hole through the frame and the aluminum, but still put the screw in from the rear. So I have some lightening holes in the frame now!

I used some aluminum angle that the center triangle piece will attach to. They are just in with clecos now, but I'll rivet those in. Not quite decided how to attach the aluminum panel to the angle as they are pretty thin. I could just use some double sided tape and insulation thick enough to be right up against the front panel to trap it in place.

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Rick

[FFRWRX]

Been working on the double-wall panels for the firewall.

Got the rear ones installed and insulated. I used Noico sound deadening mat on the aluminum panels.

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I needed some grommets to pass the wires through the aluminum panels and didn't have any suitable ones, so I 3D printed some. Two-piece design that clamps around the wire bundle and then slips into the aluminum panel.

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Made a couple for the rear panel. This is the one that mounts in from the front side to allow access to the engine belt area.

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Then added Noico Red sound insulation.

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All buttoned up! If I need access to the engine belts, I can remove the center triangle piece, then the second triangle piece behind that. Probably don't even have to take the seats out.

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A great way to cut the aluminum panels (especially the 1/8" thick one) is with an air body saw with a piece of hacksaw blade in it.

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I mounted the rear fuse box and fuel pump relay to that panel. There is room behind the passenger seat and I might need access to it, so it seemed like a good place to put it. While I was in a 3D printing mode, I made a cover for it.

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I printed the sliders separate so I could glue them on in the correct place on the fuse box and the cover. This lets the cover slip down from the top over the fuse box and relay that is tucked under it.

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Really pleased with how it came out. I left just enough space for the carpet that will be on the aluminum panels.

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Rick

[AZPete]

Very nice work. especially the grommets and relay box cover. This is another for the "wish I had done it" file.

[FFRWRX]

I recently bought the E-Stopp parking brake system. This is an electronic system that eliminates the usual parking brake handle and mechanism that would otherwise be in the center console.

Spoiler alert…………….it is really cool!

I’ve been working on a center console design for a while now, using a custom shifter with rear cables. With the cables running out the rear of the console and the large wire bundle, I was concerned with having room for the parking brake cables too. Turns out that with the wiring tidied up it really isn’t an issue. But I didn’t want the parking brake handle taking up so much room at the rear of the console. So the E-Stopp seemed like an ideal solution.

I’m not the first one to use this in an 818. Brd.Prey did a very nice installation putting the unit at the front of the console where it is under the dash area and does not show. The unit is fairly long with it’s cable, so putting it at the front of the console works well.

The main unit itself can be mounted in the car or on the outside somewhere. The electronic control box is not weather-proof so it goes in the car. Since the main unit (a linear actuator in a very solid package) does not need to be in the car, I was looking for a place it could go behind the firewall so the parking brake cables would not enter the car at all. That would be one less thing (2 actually) running through the rear console area.

I did not want to modify the cables, so that makes it a bit trickier to find a place for the unit. The cables are the same length, so if the unit is mounted to one side, one cable has a very short run and one has a long run. I also needed to keep them away from the hot exhaust. As I mentioned, the unit is fairly long with the cable coming out of it; something like 21”. It has about a 2” stroke which is more than enough. After trying many different places and almost giving up, I found a good spot for it. I bolted it to the outside of this frame rail.

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I put together a video that shows a little better (hopefully) where it is mounted and how it is connected so I won’t show a lot of pictures here.

But, I needed the 2 parking brake cables to come into one to attach to the unit. There is a stock equalizer piece that the cables hook into that does this job, but it has about 6” of cable on the end that normally goes to the parking brake handle. That made it a bit too long for where I wanted to mount it. That is this part here:

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Several options here. You can buy a bent metal piece that basically duplicates this unit, but without any cable coming from the “single” end. If my local auto place had one I would have gone that way. But I’m impatient and didn’t want to order one and wait for it. Option 2 is to make one from a small bar of steel. I almost went that way but figured I had nothing to lose in trying to modify the stock unit first.

The cable coming out of the actuator has the same threaded piece on the end as this stock one. So you need to find a way to get this unit to attach to the threaded piece on the actuator. If you have room you can basically get or make a longish nut to couple the 2 together.

I figured that all I needed to do was shorten the cable part of this stock unit. And while I was at it, make a threaded piece (female thread) that would attach to the male thread on the actuator. All clear? It will be later. Oh, the bent metal one I saw that you can buy does not have any cable, but has a hole that would be used to attach to the threaded end on the actuator. So that would probably be the easiest way to do it.

The cable coming out of this stock bracket has a plastic covering on it, so I cut some of that off and then cut the cable with a thin grinding wheel. Oh crap!

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I found that the end did sort of wrap back up to what it looked like before I hacked into it, but I couldn’t get it in the hole in the mating part. I had already made the piece that the cable is going to go into and this definitely wouldn’t fit since it kept expanding as I tried to get it into the hole. A bit of puzzling and cursing, then a solution. I have some silver brazing stuff I bought for joining broken bandsaw blades. I coated the cable end with flux, heated it with a torch, and used some of the silver braze on it. Worked very well to hold the strands together. A bit of work on the grinder and I had a nice slightly pointed end on the cable that fit in the mating part just fine.

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I put more flux on it, added a bit of silver brazing foil, and stuffed it into the hole in the part I made. The part is just a short length of steel with a hole for the cable in one end and a female thread in the other end to match the one on the actuator.

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My original plan was to either silver braze the cable into the piece I made, or crimp it together. I wasn’t sure which would be better and if I could do a good enough job with either to be strong enough, so I decided to do both.
I borrowed/stole aquillen’s idea of using parts of a tap handle as a crimping fixture. Worked very well. I clamped the part I wanted to crimp into the square part of the black blocks and squeezed them in a press.

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I probably went overboard with it as I really squeezed the living daylights (whatever they are, other than the James Bond movie, they are gone) out of it. Better too much than too little I figured. Then I heated it with a torch to melt the braze too so I had it brazed and crimpled….belts and braces!

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This was a lot of description for small part, but it was really the only fabrication I had to do with this parking brake installation. The video will show how this part fits into the actuator cable, and how everything is mounted.

Before we get to that (don’t you hate a chatty introduction!) a few more details. The unit has a stroke of about 2” and you will see that I have about ½” left after the parking brake is fully engaged. The cables are a little looser than they have to be when it is not engaged, so I could probably adjust things to cut down the travel needed. Apparently, it pulls to 600 lbs and then stops. At that point it does not use any power so it is not draining the battery. There is also a wire on it that they recommend connecting to the ignition switch that disables the actuation with the ignition on for safety reasons. Weird then that the unit says right on it “emergency brake” when it only supposed to be used with the ignition off. You can eliminate this extra wire if you like. Also, there is a small trigger wire near the switch that I think can be used to light the brake symbol in the cluster to show the parking brake actuation.

So it is not all complete and tidied up yet, but without further ado…..



I still need to tidy up where the parking brake cables run, but they are pretty close to where they will end up. Just a few zip ties here and there.

This shows where the passenger side cable runs:

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And this one shows where the driver side one runs. Hard to follow it in this picture so I'll take some better ones. It sort of runs up into the engine area as it goes back, then loops down to the connection point.

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I’m really pleased with this system. Any questions or comments, let me know.

Rick

[aquillen]

Slick job - detailed writeups make my day, as you probably have already figured...

[AZPete]

Very nice writeup. I enjoyed following what you did.

[FFRWRX]

Thanks guys. I look at other writeups, like the ones you two have, and pick up little things to keep in mind later. Even if someone doesn't want to do the exact same thing, there is maybe something they will see that helps them later. I always take a lot of pictures whenever I am making anything, so to show them may help others at some point.

The 1/4-20 machine screws I used to attach the unit came from my box of hardware left over from my Factory Five Cobra build back in 1998. See....don't throw anything out! Only when you trip over it 3 times; and then just move it somewhere else.

[Ajzride]

Sidebar question:

When I did my mustang build thread, I was meticulous, sometimes posting 50 pics a day. I got the feeling these days that the preferred medium is youtube, so that is where all my details are on this build. Do you guys still prefer the write ups?

[FFRWRX]

Good question. I always read the build threads and really enjoy them. I sometimes look at videos, but not always. I suppose some things are better shown in a video though. For me, pictures show something right away. A video I have to go into and get to the part where I want to see a particular detail. Not that I'm so busy I can't spend the extra minute for the video.

But it is a very good question. Those of us that are doing build threads want to help others, so whatever format most people want to see we could be doing. I really haven't been into making videos, but after this one, it is kind of fun and maybe I should be doing it more. There are certainly times when it saves a 1000 words. Wait, a picture saves a 1000 words so a video must save more than that!

Rick

[FFRWRX]

Been a while since I’ve shown some progress. I took time off for other projects but got back to the car recently.
I’ve secured the parking brake cables in place so that pretty much finishes the work on that system. A few pictures to show where I’ve clipped the cables to the frame members. I made one small bracket for the driver side cable, but otherwise just used the frame members directly for attachment.

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The next job was to install a remote master cylinder. As most know, the position of the “factory” unit is pretty much buried under the panel in front of the windshield. You either cut some access holes into that panel, move the master cylinder, or install a remote reservoir. I chose the remote reservoir option.

I used a 3 chamber unit (brakes front and rear and clutch). It has the outlets aiming to the side, not the ground, which is very good. I bought brass barb adapters to use rubber hose on them and then just needed a way to connect to the master cylinders.

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First thing was to drain and remove the brake master cylinder reservoir. To avoid making a mess, I wanted to get as much fluid out of the reservoir as possible before removing it. I found that it couldn’t be sucked out since there was a filter and float arrangement in the filler port. So maybe this isn’t the best way to get all the fluid out, but since I wasn’t going to use the reservoir again, I sacrificed it. I took a piece of pipe, heated it with a torch, and pressed it into the plastic reservoir. Did this on both chambers to remove a disk of material so I could get the turkey baster thing in there to get the fluid out.

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I machined some aluminum pieces to basically simulate the part of the reservoir that goes into the body of the master cylinder; they use the existing seals and have hose barbs screwed into them. Then I needed a way to keep them in place. There is a hole in the body of it that has a pin to retain the reservoir. I used that to retain a yoke that has a cross piece bolted to it, and that in turn has the 2 adapters bolted on. Much clearer with some pictures.

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Made a similar bunch of parts for the clutch master cylinder.

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Attached a bracket to the remote reservoir and attached that to a frame rail. All installed and hooked up. I think I have it in a position to be accessible and clear the hood.

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Another task done.

[FFRWRX]

I’m putting a fair bit of detail into this write-up, as I tend to do. Many people won’t be interested in so much detail for one small part of the build, but some might, so here it is.

I’ve been playing around with various ideas about which shifter to use. My car came with the standard Factory Five shifter (from a Corolla?) with the long cables running forward. It actually worked pretty well, but I didn’t like the cables starting out in the wrong direction and running all over the place to get to the tranny.

First idea was to swap around the stock unit and have the cables run to the rear. I modified the shifter shaft to do that and it looked like a pretty good way to go. Then I saw a video on Gordon Murray and his T.50 he is designing. He mentioned that the shifter looked so good that people asked him why he covered it up. He was also trying to minimize weight, so not covering it up saves some weight. That got me thinking…..if it is good enough for a $3M car it might be good enough for mine! Pagani also is big on the exposed shifters, but I didn't want something so fancy.

I didn’t actually see what the shifter mechanism looked like in the T.50, but I started designing one that I thought would look good, without being overly complex looking; clean on the top and the mechanism mostly underneath.

I modelled up the console frame, the gas tank, part of the dash, and the rear firewall to get an idea of what I had to work with. Then added a shifter. I call it an open gimbal design.

shifter a.jpg

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The orange thing is the wiring harness bundle just so I don’t forget I need room for it. The blue will be an armrest since there won’t be a parking brake lever. The power window switches mounted on the shifter panel I also borrowed from the T.50 design.

The idea is that the front-to-rear action of the shifter moves the one block in ball bearings, and the side-to-side action moves the larger open frame piece in its bearings. The side-to-side movement needs to move a cable front-to-rear, so that is what the ‘L’ shaped bell crank is for. The side-to-side movement seems to always have a spring to center it in shifters (not sure why when the front-to-rear never has one). I roughed in some springs on the side-to-side movement without much detail on how I would do that.

The concept seemed pretty good to me, so time to start making metal chips.

I started with an aluminum plate (1” thick) and left it maybe a little oversize; I can cut it down when I see what it looks like with the rest of the console. I do have a small CNC mill so I used that to cut the pieces out.

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The next pictures give a better idea of how it is supposed to work.

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The ball bearings are pressed into the 2 parts and short rods slip in holes and are locked in place to retain the 2 parts.

The ‘L’ bell crank converts the side-to-side shifter movement to back-and-forth for the cable.

shifter f.jpg

At this point I puzzled over how to incorporate a spring to center the side-to-side movement. Then I realized the spring from the stock shifter would work in this design without too much adapting. A couple more pieces needed, but it should work OK.

I'm happy with how it is coming along so far.

Rick

[Ajzride]

Looks very promising. I started down this path but without a CNC I didn't get very far, especially when I realized I could get a knock-off K-tuned billet shifter for $150 on fleabay. Mine will be exposed along with the mechanical shift linkage, so I like your style.

[aquillen]

You may have looked at the shifter I made from scratch too. Mine came out very compact, but I have to say that I really like your design too. I think you are going to be very pleased with that.

[FFRWRX]

Looks very promising. I started down this path but without a CNC I didn't get very far, especially when I realized I could get a knock-off K-tuned billet shifter for $150 on fleabay. Mine will be exposed along with the mechanical shift linkage, so I like your style.

I looked at those shifters and was very tempted to get one. Hard to beat it for the price. Don't really know why I decided to try designing and making my own. Partly because I had a lot of aluminum plate I bought a few years ago cheap, and bearings and rod ends didn't cost too much.

You may have looked at the shifter I made from scratch too. Mine came out very compact, but I have to say that I really like your design too. I think you are going to be very pleased with that.

I did look at yours and it is a very nice, compact design. For some reason I got it in my head to make one without a ball joint that most have, and use ball bearings. Started as sort of an experiment to see if I could come up with something. So far, so good.

[FFRWRX]

The spring mechanism in the stock shifter basically has a stationary dowel that holds one of the spring arms in place while the other moves with the shifter, no matter which side it is moving to. Pretty clever. Hopefully the pictures show/explain this. I copied this scheme to add the spring to my design.

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Since I’m likely going to have a shift knob without a shift pattern on it, I added a small plate with that on it. Also a plate that will have the power window switches in it.

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Pretty much done at this point. I had previously made a small square frame piece to raise the rear of the console a bit. This is what the whole contraption looks like from the underside.

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The steel frame-work is welded to the existing console structure. The large aluminum shifter plate bolts to that. So with it welded into the car, it looks like this:

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The shifter looks high but the pivot point is only about 3/4" higher than the stock shifter.

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I’ll adjust the height and angle of the shifter shaft if it needs it when the seat is back in and I see how it feels. Of course I seem to have ignored the shifter cables running through the firewall when I was closing that up, so I’ll take those panels off and see where to add some holes. I can at least hook it up temporarily with the existing (stock Factory Five) cable attachment points at the tranny. Right now I will have the same side-to-side cable movement as the stock one, but the front-to-rear will be reversed. I’ll re-reverse it at the rear when I make that part. Or I could leave it as-is and it will be like an early Ferrari shift pattern….1st gear to the rear and 2nd gear forward.

Rick

[FFRWRX]

With the shifter done, I moved on to the rear part of it; the part that attaches to the transmission. I’m also shortening the stock cables, so they will come more or less back from the firewall and not at a right angle to the tranny.

The rear part needed 2 bell cranks. One to take the shifter movement and convert it to rotate the shifter shaft coming out the rear of the tranny, and a second one to reverse the throw of the one that moves that shaft in and out. I used other designs I saw on line as a starting point, with the plan to machine the pieces from aluminum plate.

I dusted off the CNC router and used that to mock-up the main bracket that mounts to the transmission. Took several attempts before I was happy with it. There are a lot of things sticking out of the tranny that have to be cleared.

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Got it close enough to make from aluminum. I powder coated some of the parts but have to remove it and clean it up for final assembly when I’ll coat the main bracket. I put a lot of adjusting holes in the bell cranks so I could fine tune the shift throw vs effort.

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I was going to make a new piece to replace the stock part that attaches to the tranny shaft, but managed to use the stock part by flipping it around; at least I think I ended up flipping it around, I had it apart and together so many times to figure out what I needed.

Looking in through the hole in the rear of the body:

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It comes close to the steel bumper that my car has, but should clear it OK even with slight engine/tranny movement.

So now I have 13’ long cables and only need 5 ½’. Rather than buy new ones, I thought I’d try shortening them myself first. I saw what “aquillen” did, but I took a different approach.

The construction of the cables is pretty interesting. I assume mine are the stock ones that came with the kit, but since I bought my car partially assembled, I’m not positive.

The basic plan was pretty simple (aren’t they always!?). I cut the cable near one of the ends to see what I had to work with:

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The plan was to remove the outer cable from the large threaded end piece, cut some off it, and crimp it back on. The inner cable would be shortened and crimped back into it’s end piece.
I soon discovered that you can’t crimp an outer cable without something inside it to support it; it will just collapse inward. Maybe the factory gets away with it by crimping it evenly all around. The stock one has a massive wall thickness where it is crimped:

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After some playing around and thinking I came up with how to do it. I didn’t think there is a need for the outer cable to be attached to the end fittings strong enough to lift a few elephants. There is really no load trying to pull it out. Also, the outer cable is made up of steel wires that will braze. I also wanted to reuse the end fitting if possible.
So, here is the plan. Remove the outer cable from the threaded end fitting, bore out the end of it so the cable can go back in, and silver braze it.

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There was a drawback to this method; the heat will melt the outer rubber layer of the outer cable, and the inner red plastic liner that the inner cable runs in. I kept the inner plastic liner from melting and plugging the passage by sticking a piece of 1/8” music wire in it when brazing, and ignored the outer rubber liner melting. Ended up with this:

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The second cable I did a little different. I made an adapter piece that the cable brazes into, and then that piece screws into the threaded end fitting. Takes a little less heat to braze since the adapter piece is smaller than the threaded end fitting. Not a huge difference, both methods seem to work.

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I smeared some RTV where the outer rubber had melted off, and then wrapped it with some tape when the RTV had cured. Seems good and strong and looks decent.

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Ran the shorter cables and hooked everything up. Once I sorted out which cable goes where (which took longer than it should have…doh!), it all works nicely. The shifter feels good with fairly short throws.

I think the next job is to get the heater and A/C lines all run and connected. Which means taking off the side body panels to run the lines. I seem to be making great strides backwards.

Rick

[roadrashrob]

That bell crank looks awesome!

[aquillen]

Nice work & very cool to watch someone else chop up their cables...

[FFRWRX]

The Subaru uses a heating system similar to the GM LS engines. With this design, you cannot just shut off the coolant flow through the heater core, or the engine could overheat. Instead of shutting off the coolant flow through the heater, you bypass it and let it still flow through the engine. If you are not using a heater, then you install the Factory Five short ‘U’ hose at the rear of the engine and it keeps the coolant flowing properly though the pump and engine. If you want to use a heater (or heat and A/C) then you need a different arrangement for the hose.

There are different ways of doing this.

One way is to do as GM and others do, which is to have an electrical valve with multiple passages that control the coolant flow. Basically, it has 4 coolant connections and switches the flow as required for heating without interrupting the flow through the engine. Found these pictures that explain it very well.

heater bypass 1.JPG

heater bypass 2.JPG

I was going to buy one of these valves (there are a number of companies selling them), but then did a little more research and found something else.

Some people put together an ‘H’ of hoses that sort of does the same thing, but in a different way (if that makes any sense). What you do is allow the flow to go through both passages (through the heater core and the engine bypass) at the same time. You get enough hot coolant through the heater core for the heat that you need, while allowing the coolant to always be flowing through the engine/pump. AZPete shows this on his excellent documentation for A/C installation. I was undecided if I wanted to go this route or not, and then found this:

heater bypass 3.JPG

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It does the same thing as the ‘H’ hose arrangement, but perhaps looks a little better. It is made by lojkits; google it if you are interested in getting one. As they explain, the coolant will take the path of least resistance, which is through the main legs of the ‘H’ and through the heater core. When the heater is switched off (with the conventional shut-off valve) the coolant goes through the passage connecting the main passages in the block (the blue line in the picture) and allows the correct engine flow.

Now this block is $90 ($US, which puts it at about $150 Canadian by time I get it here), so duplicating it with heater hoses is a much cheaper option. Or, being cheap and having the tools and aluminum, I decided to make my own.

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When you make something on a CNC I think it is mandatory to put a logo on it.

Not sure if this should go near the engine, up front, or maybe doesn't matter where. There will be a heater shut-off valve between it and the heater core.

Rick

[Ajzride]

Hope this works for you, I never could get the flow right through the H I made. I wound up with an electric valve.

[FFRWRX]

What was not right about the flow? Not going through the heater sufficiently, or not going through the bypass hose when the heater valve is shut off; though I don't know how you would really know if it isn't going properly through the bypass hose/passage. Maybe I should keep it near the engine so the bypass part of it doesn't have too much of a pressure drop/restriction for the engine flow.

[Ajzride]

Mine was in the back near the engine and I couldn’t get flow to the heater core. The flow dynamics are much different in a mid engine setup than in a front engine like Subaru designed the water pump for.

[FFRWRX]

It is a long way to go through 2 hoses to get to the heater and back to the engine; about 24 feet of hose. Maybe with that amount of flow loss it is easier for it to go through the bypass passage? But I have the bypass block made now so I'll give it a try.

[FFRWRX]

I made a small addition to the heater bypass block I made. The fittings come out of the engine aiming towards the rear, and the hoses have to go to the front. I didn't want to make a 180 in the hoses for fear of kinking them, so I made up a 180 with some copper plumbing fittings.

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And the hoses run down the driver's side.

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For the A/C hoses, I didn't have the stock ones from the donor car that attach to the compressor. I found some fittings that bolt to the compressor directly and the hose fitting screw into them. I might have been trying to use them with the wrong size O-rings at first because there seemed to be no place for the O-ring to fit in between the compressor and the fitting. They might have worked with a smaller cross-section seal (which I think they came with and I found later) so I modified them to trap the seal in a groove. These are the fittings before modification:

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These fittings then take the Vintage Air aluminum lines. I had trouble bending the large one (-10 line) since I didn't have a tubing bender for that size line...it was starting to kink a bit. So looking at what I had, I ran the line without using that piece of line at all. I had a 90 degree fitting for that hose with the charging port on it. I arranged it so it went down rather than up:

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There is access to the charging port even though it looks like it is buried.

I ran the line along the bottom of the firewall to the passenger side of the car.

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I did manage to bend the smaller line and ran it on top of the engine.

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And they both come out here for the run forward:

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I'm working on 3D printing grommets now for the hoses to go through the forward panel to the heater unit. I didn't have any the proper size and the local auto parts places didn't either. Rather than order some I thought I try printing them with some flexible material. So far they are looking good, but that's for next time.

Rick

[Ajzride]

Where is sam hill did you find those adapters for the compressor? I ordered half a dozen different sets and never found any that fit. I eventually went to the junkyard and got some from a wrecked Subaru and had the -AN adapters welded on by a hydraulic shop.

[FFRWRX]

The Vintage Air catalogue has them. "OEM Compressor Refrigerant Line O-ring Adapter Kit", p/n 045001. Then I found that Summit Racing has them so while I was ordering some stuff from Summit I ordered those too.

As I mentioned, I'm not sure if I got the O-rings mixed up or not; the fittings fit the compressor fine but the O-ring seemed to be just trapped between the 2 flat surfaces. So when it was tightened down it just didn't work; the O-ring sort of squeezed out and since it was only bolted from one end it wasn't sitting flat. The fittings were thick enough that I machined them to have a proper O-ring groove and I think/hope they will seal properly. So having said all that, maybe they aren't the correct fittings after all? They do physically fit, but the O-ring didn't seem right.

[Ajzride]

They are not the correct fittings, but since you have a mill you can probably get them to work. The factory fittings have the o-ring down inside the compressor fitting.

[Frank818]

Awesome your shifter!

[FFRWRX]

Getting back to my build again. Have been busy in the basement workshop with various projects over the winter.

Also, I've been working on my Lambo build.

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[Ajzride]

That lambo looks even more cramped than an 818, not sure how you plan to get into that one.