Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications 3.0L Duratec The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...My 3L Project

I had a KKM when I first finished my 3L. It was doing ok till my buddy Alan gave me his old K&N 7" then my car really made some noise.

Congrats man.

Good to see you finally have it on the road.

That 3 pack gauge setup looks great. Any thought about adding a slot to tie the vent hose into. There looks to be a spot below the left two gauges. That's the first thing that caugt my attention as losing the two main vents would be harsh in the summer heat. I suppose that doesn't bother you much up north eh?

Looks great and I hope it's running great as well.

you have to to show/tell us how you made that gauge pod!
that is just awesome.

Quote:

---

That 3 pack gauge setup looks great. Any thought about adding a slot to tie the vent hose into. There looks to be a spot below the left two gauges. That's the first thing that caugt my attention as losing the two main vents would be harsh in the summer heat. I suppose that doesn't bother you much up north eh?

---

I thought about it but there just isn't enough room with all the wires back there. I sealed that vent off so it didn't just warm and cool the back of my guages. All the air is forced out of the vents that still work. Im sure there will be days I will be kicking myself but for every other day of the year:

I think it will be fine to wire them onto the dimmer switch if you are handy with a schematic. It should be able to take a couple of extra small bulbs.

Investigate the overheating, after all the work, you don't want to hurt the motor! Cooling fans/waterpump/air in lines. Have fun with the 3.0.

I've got 3 gauges hooked up to my dimmer switch and it works just fine. I put a meter to it and they barely pulled another amp, on full brightness.

Im still having trouble with the coolant, i just forgot to hook up the sensor to the overflow bottle so that takes care of the light on the dash, but it still burps out a little fluid out of the resivor cap after it warms up. Bolth the factory and autometer water temp guauges say everything is A-OK at 180-210 degres. It has plenty of coolant but I think there is a air bubble in the system. Would that be possible with my symptoms? How do i get rid of it.

It was at the dealer all day today and thats the only thing i wanted them to fix . Im going to take it back and ask them to take the air out of the system. How would i do it myself? I remember my dad would cup his hand around the fill hole and blow compressed air inbetween his fingers to get air out of our snomobile engines. That wouldn't make things worse would it?

Im still not sure how much i should drive it without any tuning done yet.

Take the tank cap off and start the engine then pump the big hose (1.5" diam)that goes into the top of the t-stat housing pipe with your hand to get the coolant moving in there. That's what I have doen and it seems to burp out the air pretty good.