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How did you plumb the reservoir into the system? I'm building a locost with a duratec power plant and have pulled many ideas from your build, such as this one. I got a VW coolant reservoir from the local PicknPull and have mounted with a hose from the over flow of the radiator but what I'm not seeing is how to plumb the return line back into the cooling system. I'm assuming that you're running a hose from the large outlet at the bottom of the reservoir to the smaller hose barb on the thermostat housing, correct? If so wouldn't the reservoir be under pressure all the time and wouldn't work as an overflow tank anymore and would need an overflow tank of it's own? If this isn't true please let me know and if possible explain why this wouldn't be true.
Thanks,
Justin

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http://www.lightningbugcars.com/

i fitted an expansion tank to my duratec and yes, it requires an overflow and a catch tank as well.

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

pictures, schematics?

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http://www.lightningbugcars.com/

sorry for the bad sketch but i drew it while standing by the car

_________________
this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

Thanks

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http://www.lightningbugcars.com/

from the steel top hose take a small 5/16 pipe from the small barb to the input at the top of the expansion tank,

from the 5/8 hose at the thermostat, take a 5/8 pipe to the bottom of the expansion tank, this pipe goes to the heater in a ranger and can be teed off to a heater if required, it also supplies coolant to the egr valve.

the other 5/8 barb on the steel top hose also goes to the heater, this heater circuit must be maintained to vent air from the system when the thermostat is closed, never run without a thermostat, you can link the two heater pipes together if you don't have a heater.

note that the expansion tank must be the highest point in the cooling system, but not by much.

the pressurised cap on the expansion tank must be of a higher pressure than on the rad if you have a cap on the rad. try 13lbs on the expansion tank and at least 16lbs on the rad or the rad will vent coolant instead of pushing it into the expansion tank, i do not know what pressure the vw black plastic cap is, but the rad must have a cap of at least 3lbs more than the vw cap.

then direct the overflow from the expansion tank to a catch tank, if the catch tank ever has coolant in it when the engine is cold the cap is broken and must be replaced

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

Time for a long overdue update.

The car is finally starting to come back together. I ended up redoing the body panels since they ended up not fitting exactly as I had planned. Each of the sides also had a nice hole in it from the U-Haul trailer several years ago.

I was also not happy with some aesthetics on the original chassis.

The square transmission tunnel looked..well too square. I found that I preferred the curved sheet metal of the original 7s for a much cleaner look.

The one downside of this design though is the sheet metal's ability (or lack there-of) to contain a broken driveshaft. I ended up making a set of hoops using the tubing bender and 1"x0.065" tubing.




To support the middle section of the tunnel I created a rib with a lip and attached a flange to it. The skin between the passenger seats is 0.040" and can easily support my weight. I used 0.025" for the forward section since it will not be seeing any appreciable weight.






My first attempt at a scuttle ended up too flat on top and did not look right. I forget what radius I used this time around but I think it looks much more appropriate. Additionally a larger radius will make it easier for the hood to be held flat against the landing.

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-Andrew
Build Log
Youtube

The prior trunk was also sort of an afterthought. The aluminum box served its purpose but there was a lot of wasted space. There were also times I wished I could have easily retrieved something while driving.

Version 2.0 fixes both of these problems and the sides of the trunk will end at the upper rear curved tube.

I will probably find some sort of elastic netting and use it to secure the contents while driving.




And last but not least.....




I think this should take care of the deer issue.

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-Andrew
Build Log
Youtube

Yo, Andrew!
That is some seriously nice sheet metal work! Very impressive stuff!!!

I like the containment loops for the driveshaft, they certainly should be safe, at anybody's race. (SCCA, NASA, whatever)

Reaching into the "trunk" to get a bottle of water out of the cooler is always a good thing...

All in all, well done, Sir!

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom

Wow, you're really raising the bar here. That's very nice work.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Thanks guys.

More progress - everything is starting to come back together. The chassis is painted, the sheet metal is done (well except for a hood), and pretty much everything except for the throttle cable is sitting on the shelf.




The fuel tank is in and I'm working on plumbing. Nothing really got changed back there aside from another fitting for a return line. I am much happier with this trunk design though - its much lighter (you can see the horizontal support z-angles in this picture).




After I got the car running, I started kicking myself for putting the battery at the end of the passenger footwell. Not only did I always have to worry about someone getting caught up on a cable and stranding us but it was a pain to remove and install. I like the new location much more and the mounts are not made from 1/8" thick angle iron (add lightness right?)




I was also not happy with gluing vinyl fabric to the dash. It looked great as first but after it sat in the sun some areas started to separate from the metal. You could push it back down but 20 minutes later it would bubble up again. I gave truck bedliner spray a shot - so far it seems much better. I'm probably going to do the trunk in the same stuff.




I had some friends from work over the other night to help bleed brakes. The front circuit went fine but the rear refused to send any fluid to the calipers. After a few minutes of head scratching we found out that the master cylinder had jammed. I unjammed the piston and it jammed again - new master cylinder time.

I was having trouble reading the diameter from the side of the cylinder so I checked my spreadsheet. I noticed that it said the rear was supposed to be 5/8" and the front was supposed to be either 0.7" or 3/4"....then I had an "oh [PooPoo]" moment...yes I swapped them when I assembled the brakes over two years ago. I guess this explains why the front brakes were always really strong and the bias bar seemed to do almost nothing. Either way everything is back together now and hopefully will perform better (the plumbing also got simplified).



Last but not least are the ITBs. I picked up a set of GSXR750 ones about a year ago. The bore spacing is close to the Duratec's but not quite there. Luckily I was able to borrow a buddy's lathe to turn some bushings. I'll have to weld little tabs onto the lever that connects each throttle body but overall it hasn't been too difficult to tackle.





How have you guys balanced ITBs? I'm planning on getting a vacuum gauge and setting each cylinder to pull identical vacuum at idle. Any other ideas?

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-Andrew
Build Log
Youtube

Wow, Andrew, that all looks just amazing! I may not be able to post any more pictures of my work, it looks decidedly shabby in comparison! (Nahhh, I'll just blame Bubba...)


JDK

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom

I just love your tunnel. It's all smooth and purty.

Did I say that out loud?

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mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Beautiful!! I'm jealous, I don't have the patience for that quality of work.



Exactly. ..
Here's a fleabay listing for one of the classic units;
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Edelbrock-Uni-Syn-Multi-Carburetor-Carb-Synchronizing-Balancing-Tool-/200810815786?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item2ec141e12a

You can get 4 vacuum gauges on a mounting plate from the motorcycle market or make one out of parts, those make for an easier time getting the balance right because you can see all the cylinders at the same time.
If you go to a 4 gauge setup (which is what I would recommend and you can make one really easy) put the vacuum taps as close to the throttle plates as possible, that way you get a good clean signal.

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

I used this type carb balancer in my shop. Can't beat it for ease of reading. Also with a single guage you have to keep going back and forth because changing one can effect the others. You can find them alot cheaper looking around.
http://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle/partno/08-0411

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Yep I got a build: