So I threw some aftermarket heater tins in my cart since they were on sale. I knew from general appearance that the 75-79 FI tins differ substantially since the heat exchangers of these years are totally different from the 74 and earlier variety. I figured at best, I may be able to use these to…
Category: System – Engine – Cooling

Murbella – Day 30 – Tin and EGR Work
I started the second cleaning pass for the engine tins, this time my soapy-water pass. I usually degrease first with solvent, then wash with soapy water and dry, then sand and detail work, then wash and clean again, then prime. Yeah, media blasting would save me a lot of man hours in this. Cylinder Tin…

Murbella – Day 25 – Sorting and some and fan shroud/alternator removal.
So I needed to sort through all my parts again to see what I had so I could trigger orders at AApistons.com and CIP1. I wish I had my new credit car but I wasn’t thinking about getting that 0% interest line of credit prior to this weekend and I had to take advantage of…

Murbella – Day 24 – Some tin’s degreased.
So I’ve a lot of the tins soaking in solvents the past few days to try and get the oily residue off of them. The heat exchanger tins were exceptionally bad, with layers of oil and dirt on them, and the undersides of the cylinder tins were pretty bad as well. Oh. And the 2…

Murbella – Day 21 – Restored flaps and new FI thermostat ordered!
So instead of dealing with the really rusted set of flaps I have, and instead of trying to figure out whatever bin the AH engine’s flaps are in, I decided to just buy a fully restored set for Murbella from Awesome Powdercoat. He also makes and sells something that exists nowhere else – a brand…
Murbella – Day 19 – Continued engine top end disassembly.
I wanted more space to work so I removed the strap holding the alternator down and removed the fan shroud. It is pretty much identical to all prior doghouse year setups. With that gone I could do a lot more without destroying my knuckles. Intake Manifolds Removing the fuel system allowed me to get the…

Murbella – Day 17 – FI Engine – Top End – Part 2
I continued disassembling hoses and wires from the top end today. The next step will be the removal of the rear tin and then, the slow removal of the engine from the car. Hoses and wires continue to come off easily with no major force needed so far. I finally got a good view of…

So. What to powder coat? That is the question.
So as I’ve written, I’ve been back and forth on what vendor to have blast what parts, not to mention what to powder coat and what not to powder coat. I’ve decided that I’ll likely powder coat more parts than originally planned. So. Tentatively this is what’s going to happen: Ceramic Powder Coating I will…

OPP – Thermostat Flaps Removed
So quite a few weeks back I purchased a bunch of random air-cooled parts from Euroworks Garage to set aside as spares or to complete the various engine cases. One item was a complete doghouse fan shroud from 71 or 72 that still had a complete set of flaps, oil cooler tins on the rear,…