I made a brace for in that bolted to that same spot, and I used rubber. It melted... Make sure if you do that, the rubber is at least 2" or so away from the pipe. Which is about impossible to do in that spot since they are so close together.

 

Goal of this brace was to stop rattles, nothing else.

I'll keep that in mind Pat.

This is fundamentally identical to the brace FM sells for their turbo exhausts.

 

Brace looks good. If it does what you want, I'd keep it. I admitedly have no brace there any more, mine just hangs on the header now... Luckily it's pretty light so I'm not that worried about it, but adding a hanger is not a bad idea for me.

 

I run a pair of Spal Extreme performance fans. Was a pain to setup (had to install bigger alternator), but they do cool very well. When I had my a/c condenser up front, in bumper to bumper houston traffic, 90-100*F days the fans would cycle on and off between low and high. Big fans will help low speed cooling. I'd make sure the ducting is spot on though before doing fans, since that's a lighter better solution if you haven't got that nailed down.

 

I'm using stock fan ducting at the moment. I've considered making one out of Al.

 

I don't mean the fans shroud, I mean the ducting in the front end that directs air that enters the bumper to the radiator. That part is terrible on NB's, you have to fab pieces to seal up the front end.

Like this:

 

I have no issues while moving. Only when sitting in traffic.

 

FM shroud modded and 12" extreme performance fans

 

[QUOTE=patsmx5;1281418]FM shroud modded and 12" extreme performance fans

My fear is what happens with this once you are back traveling at speed. I find it hard to believe that doesn't impede flow semi-significantly. I feel like I read sixshooter or someone that was overheating on the track as the result of adding this type of shroud.

 

[QUOTE=Schuyler;1281419]Yeah, at 60 mph that shroud isn't helping cooling, it's hurting it.

But you said your car overheats at low speed with a/c on. This fixes that problem.

My car runs thermostat at all times (180*F) with these fans AND PROPER DUCTING.

Without proper ducting it did run hotter than I wanted (210-220*F) with the a/c on max in 100*F temps on the highway.

If you want it perfect, move or remove the a/c condenser and then you can easily get away with less fans at low speed. A single fan would be fine at idle if you don't have a/c.

There is no perfect solution to everything if you're going to keep 3 heat exchangers stacked in the front.

 

Source of vibrations and rattling:

 

lol. I planned on making a "I dun fucked up post", but that makes it easier.

I guess in the process of throwing the car together quickly on my birthday I forgot to torque the motor mount nuts. One was loose, one was gone.

The exhaust was definitely the rattle, it just had some help moving lol.

Remember when I texted you saying "I may need stiffer motors mounts.." ? lol.

 

The curb angled a little faster than I thought leaving a store the other day, and the car scraped a little bit. Didn't think much of it, happens all the time. Then I drive like a mile, and all of a sudden I notice this rumble. I pause for a second, blip the throttle, and all of a sudden I'm in a race car. I guess I tapped the vband hard enough on this curb to break the clamp open somehow. It's been on/off 5 times or so.

All I gotta say is, I could dig some electric cutouts. This thing sounded like a beast. lol.

Fixed the clamp using an Acura TL jack because I left mine at a friends place by accident. I forgot how sketchy using one of those scissor jacks felt. Can't imagine not using a jackstand. Also, you hear lots of scary things in Forest Acres at night when you're outside for an extended period of time, @Rallas. Probably 2-3 instances of a single random angry shout, and multiple police sirens in the 20 minutes i was outside.

Problem solved. Only drove maybe ~12min home like that. I could hear the T-bolt portion of the v-band dragging the ground. She looked pretty rough.

 

Not the best area to break down in!

 

lol, I live there. At least this year. I've never rented a house in Columbia more than 12mo.

 

I would develop a significant coolant leak right as the temperatures get too low to run water...

 

Well, I thought I fixed the coolant leak. But I haven't. It replicates the above picture every time I park.

I have finals for the next two days, and I don't think my Automotive System Fundamentals professor will support any decisions to do an "independent study" as opposed to studying combustion cycles and ackerman angles.

I'm going back to my parent's place for a few weeks in December while I go back to work finishing up my internship. I'm debating whether to make the 2hr drive a 3-4hr drive and just feed it water every 20mi. Once I'm there I can mooch a car and fix this at my own pace. Not super excited about taking the coolant reroute stack off the back of the head while everything is in the car.

 

truer words were never spoken, good luck with that

 

Maybe if I replace my coolant with something thicker, like 0W-60, it wouldn't leak?

 

It took me about 75 minutes to get my Begi spacer off the back of my head when it was leaking. It then took me another 7-9 months to put it back on. I hate dealing with the spacers on a car.