Smallish progress toward that first start today.
Amazon brought me some more 3/8" nylon hose so I could finish the brake runs and the clutch run in the front. Yes, I know you're not supposed to use regular hose clamps, but I did anyway. Don't mind the untidy wires, I haven't finished up wrapping the harness because I haven't gotten the first start yet, and I need to fix my bugaboo with swapping the headlights and turn signals, first.
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I picked up some heater hose so I could connect the bottom port on my coolant reservoir to the coolant loop T on the engine. I got about as much coolant into the loop as I could without it circulating, about a gallon and a half. One thing I forgot about though.. on the bottom of my coolant reservoir, there's a small hole that's plugged with a red plastic plug. After I had filled the coolant loop as much as I could, I noticed the plug, so I pulled it out and coolant dribbled out. I put the plug back, went and checked my first donor's coolant reservoir (I could not use that one because the clip was busted off), and it's not plugged. Looks like it's there to make sure the reservoir isn't over-filled, so I'll wait until I get the coolant circulating, then I'll remove the plug.
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I dropped my remaining parts at the powder coater to get done. Including:
- Water-to-air (or is it air-to-water??) intercooler
- Mounting brackets for the intercooler
- Battery hold-down bar
- Shift cable mount plate
- Rear coilover adapters
- Both pairs of front brake adapter plates
- Both replacement control arms Adam sent me (many thanks again!)
- Windshield mounting bar/bracket
I was expecting them to quote me $100 or more, easy, but they quoted me $45. Sold!
Finally, I sprayed my DF exhaust with the high-temp silver Krylon I got earlier today. That stuff is amazing ... it goes on so easy, and it's really hard to mess up, unlike the Rustoleum semi-gloss high-temp black I've used in a few other places. After I sprayed it, I looked at the rust-colored exhaust manifold, most of which is now exposed because I took the horrible-looking bottom part of the heat shield off of it, and I knew I had to take it off and spray it, too. The contrast between it and the muffler would have just looked awful. So, I did.
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I almost wish I had painted the entire engine using this Krylon stuff. Maybe that'll be my off-season Goblin project.
I discovered that I missed grounding one of the ground leads in the rear end when I tried to jump the fuel pump relay to prime the fuel system. It took me a little while to figure it out, but I know the old adage ... "Always check your grounds first, stupid", or something like that. Found it, grounded it, primed the fuel system no problem. My fuel level gauge doesn't work though.
There won't be a first-start today, unfortunately. My battery is too low, so I have it reconditioning/trickle-charging. Hopefully it's not shot, but it might be. It still has enough juice to light the display up, but the car security light stays on and the fuel pump won't turn on. Google tells me that these are symptoms of a very low battery, and I believe it, even though the voltage tests decent (a little over 12 volts).
I won't be too upset if I have to buy a new battery, though. I decided to list my engine hoist and leveler on FB Marketplace for $200, and it sold in about 10 minutes. A sale isn't a sale until the cash is in-hand, of course, but that'll offset the new battery nicely.
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