Daox's 1997 Paseo Build Thread

[Tango Charlie]

Serendipity!

Hey, you gonna paint teeth on that?

[Daox]

Haha, I have no plans for teeth as of now.

Day two of the grill block shows its definitely not too large. Yesterday it was about 30 degrees out and I hit a max coolant temp (according to the SG) of 207. In summer, without the grill block, I was hitting 212 so I'm actually running cooler than summer still. I'm not sure why the SG is reading high to be honest, it has a 195 degree thermostat in it. Anyway, today it was 6 degrees out and the coolant didn't even hit 180 on my way into work this morning! Its a 20 mile drive, so it has plenty of time to heat up. I gotta say I was a bit surprised by that.

[PaleMelanesian]

Those temperatures make sense to me. My cooling fan's 206F trigger point matches exactly with the SG readout.

Below the thermostat temp, the thermostat is doing the temperature regulation. Above that, the t-stat is open and it's basically irrelevant. Then it's just the balance of engine-radiator-cooling fan regulating the temperature.

[Daox]

According to my factory service manual, the radiator fan is supposed to kick on at 201F. It doesn't kick in until over 212F. I'm not sure whats going on with it. I did replace the coolant temp sensor less than a year ago. Maybe I got a bad radiator fan temp switch.

[PaleMelanesian]

Hmmm... that's possible. Or it could be that yours is just reading differently compared to mine. YMMV and all that. I guess if it's consistent, I wouldn't worry about it.

[MetroMPG]

Any subjective driving differences?

That's a pretty significant amount of "flat plate" equivalent drag you've blocked off. I wouldn't be surprised to hear you thought there was an improvement.

[Daox]

I do think there is an improvement. I'm coasting just a hair worse than how I recall coasting in summer when I had the car on the road. I think that's a pretty good sign. However, its still pretty hard to compare as I haven't driven it in so long.

[Daox]

When I came home the other day I let the car continue to idle and I went and grabbed my IR thermometer. I read the temp of the head right where the temp sensor is. It read right about 10F less than what the scangauge is telling me. I wish the temp sensor would just read correctly!

[malibuguy]

Originally Posted by Daox

Haha, they're definitly not pretty, but they'll hold. Welding SS isn't the easiest thing when you don't do it much, and its an akward piece to work with.

since i do it for a living...pulse it...trust me, my mig welds look like little ropes

what are you using for wire & gas?

[Daox]

C25 gas and whatever SS filler you get from the local farm supply place since they only carry one alloy.