Leaks...leaks....and more leaks (ADVICE PLEASE!)
I'll get back to the fan stuff in a bit - I have a plan to fix that. In the meantime, the last time I had the engine running, I had a couple of things happen which just make me shake my head. It's like one step forward, 3 steps back with this build. I'm beyond frustrated and feeling a bit like the problems will never end. I took a week vacation on the beach to clear my head. Still not happy but ready to get back to work and fix this stuff.
Power Steering Leak:
I'm real concerned my PS rack has a blown seal. When I turn my wheel, a fair amount of PS fluid comes out of the PS rack where the steering shaft enters it. It's not from any of my hoses. You can see the location in the pic below. I've never seen a leak here....wondering if my rack is done and and needs to be completely replaced. Can anyone provide advice here? Is this rack toast?. If so, which rack to I need to purchase? I'm dreading the responses here...the thought of pulling apart the front suspension at this point in my build...let's just say I'm not excited about the possibilities. I have the KRC Coyote power steering setup from FFR, and running the fluid through a Forte hydroboost before entering the rack. On the KRC pump, I changed from the included #6 to the #4 flow restrictor which many others have recommended to reduce the amount of "assist". I was wondering if the hydroboost has somehow contributed to applying too much pressure? I'm not real familiar with how hydroboost works....I thought they just use the pressure difference between a diaphragm to provide the brake assist (i.e. high pressure from power steering side helps "push" on the master cylinder for the brakes).
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1752793339
Engine oil leak?
After running the engine for a while, I noticed some oil underneath the PS footbox panels. When I looked down into the engine bay, I can see some engine oil sprayed on the inside footbox panel on the passenger side. It's hard to get a pic, but you can kind of see the splatter here. I wiped it up, and ran the engine some more....no more spray/leaks in this area. Then a few days later, it showed up again. I'm thinking that when I rev the engine and pressure builds up, that's when it happens. My best guess here is maybe the header gasket has a bad seal? Any ideas here for troubleshooting? I haven't re-tightened the header bolts yet (after a few engine heat cycles) - I'm using the Stage 8 locking bolts. Should step 1 be to just re-tighten the header bolts and ramp oil pressure to see if problem persists? If that doesn't work, is it time to pull the header and inspect the gasket? I'm using Remflex #3609 header gaskets with the FFR stainless steel headers, as many others have used.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1752793339
Brake Leak
Another strange thing happened. When I was pushing down on the brake, I felt the pedal go soft. Brakes haven't been an issue in quite some time so I was surprised this happened. When I let off the pedal, it didn't rebound back to position....it crept up slowly. Inspecting around the car, I found some brake fluid under the rear driver side connection. Same one I had a leak on in my post #185. I haven't had time to investigate...I was already frustrated at this point from the other 2 leaks above, and I'm just disappointed this popped up again after months of no issue. I guess better for it to happen now than when I'm on the road. I'm considering replacing the fitting completely, or replacing my steel lines with ni-copper lines. I'm not 100% confident in my crimping job on the end of the tubes.
Help! Brake fitting P/Ns?
Can anyone tell me the p/n and where to get replacement parts from the stock FFR kit for the two highlighted parts? I have the Wilwood kit if that matters. I'm having an issue with my rear brake junction. I had a leak about 6 months ago. I loosened, then retightened the connections here and everything has been fine for 6 months. Then all of a sudden I push on the brake and get mush...then a puddle. Same spot. I'm thinking I might want to just replace these parts now and see if this fixes the problem. It could be my flare, but it seems like the flair is fine. I can't really pinpoint which joint the leak is actually coming from so was thinking to replace the brass "T" block and the fitting where the soft-line screws onto.
#2 looks like it might be Allstar Performance ALL50100 (Brake Line Adapters, -3 AN to 3/16 in. Inverted Flare) but I wasn't sure if the size was correct. FFR manual doesn't describe any of the fitting sizes.
I'm not sure what size ports the #1 tee fitting has...so any info here would be appreciated!
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1756420224
Finally some goode news...all leaks fixed!
I spent some time over the holiday weekend working on the car, and for once I feel like everything went well. Here's what I did:
1) I filled the power steering reservoir and bled the system - so far no leaks with the new rack I installed. The steering isn't jumpy like the last rack. I followed the same procedure....start engine, turn wheels lock-to-lock a couple of times, shut down, refill reservoir, repeat. All good now - level is constant in the reservoir.
2) I was having a power steering leak on one of the return hoses going to the oil cooler. I ended up just tightening the fittings and for now at least, it seems to have resolved the leak. I'll keep an eye on this one...I'm not 100% sure I addressed the problem but time will tell.
3) For the rear brake leak, I inspected this more closely and it wasn't either of the fittings in the image above, but it was actually coming from the flex line going to the rear Wilwood caliper. The hose was under quite a bit of stress just from when I tightened the swivel nut. So I loosened it up completely, straightened it out, and re-tightened. Then I bled the brakes (with my 13 yr old daughter pushing the pedal). We bled both sides just to be safe and got a firm pedal. So far so good on this and it seems to have fixed the leak. I'm going to keep an eye on this one too - if it fails again I'm going to replace the flex line with a new one. I looked through my box of leftover parts and I do happen to have extras for both the brass fitting and the stainless steel one that came with the Wilwood kit, so worst case I could replace both of those. Unfortunately, this will prevent me from installing the trunk aluminum for now because where I have the fittings mounted, it will be extremely difficult to replace them once the aluminum is installed.
4) Finally, I figured I would try to track down the engine oil leak. This turned out to be somewhat of a "duh" moment. I reported a while back I was getting MIL check engine light errors on my OBDLink+ scanner. They were P0369 & P0365 - Camshaft Position Sensor B, Circuit Bank 1 errors. After doing some searching, I found that Bank1 refers to the passenger side (same side as cylinder 1), and Sensor "B" refers to the outer-most camshaft sensor which is the exhaust sensor. So after finding a diagram of where the sensors are from a service manual, that's the first place I checked on the engine.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...8&d=1756767639
To absolute surprise (and disbelief), it turns out there WAS NO SENSOR INSTALLED! I have absolutely no idea how this happened, because I've never touched those sensors, and definitely never uninstalled one. I can't fathom how this wasn't on the engine. It was plain as day...oil coming out of that port on the back of the engine. There was a connector from the engine harness in that area and I had always wondered what that was supposed to plug into. There are a few connectors on the engine harness that are not used in the crate engine setup, so I figured it was just another one of those. Turns out it was this camshaft position sensor plug. I'm pretty sure those sensors are pre-installed by Ford, so I'm not sure how this could have happened. I'm not even going to speculate at this point. I'm just thankful I found the source of the leak at this point, and it's an easy fix. The thought of tearing apart the valve cover was not something I wanted to do. Here's a picture showing the open port:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1756766624
The good news, is that Blitzboy54 (Jesse) from the forums has shipped me a set of these sensors (he had spare set of aftermarkets) so I could swap out and try to get rid of the codes. I hadn't installed them yet because it was low on my priority list. I had to make a run to AutoZone and buy an M6 x 20 bolt, then installed the sensor he gave me. I lubed the sensor (and o-ring) with engine oil, installed the screw, and plugged in the connector.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1756766624
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1756766624
Here it is fully installed with the plug connected:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...4&d=1756766624
After this, I fired up the engine. Guess what? No more oil leak (duh) and after resetting the codes, no more MIL check engine light. Everything purring like a mean kitten. Feels like a win. I'll take it. I am going to go back and try to find some old pictures of my engine before I installed it to see if I have any shots of the back of the engine, just to prove to myself it was never on there.
Hydroboost brake pedal return spring (bad idea?)
I've been having an issue, described in THIS POST where it seems my hydroboost has a slight pressure imbalance on the return line, causing it to very slightly engage the brakes even after I let off the pedal. This only happens when the engine is running. I suspect the issue is the Y-adapter I used on my hydroboost return line merging with the power steering return. If that PS return is at a significantly higher pressure than the hydroboost return (which it likely is), it may be putting a backpressure on that HB return and not allowing it to fully vent and release pressure. I was planning to move the y-adapter to AFTER the oil cooler, but I'm not sure that would solve my problem. I still may try that, but in the meantime I wanted to try out adding a small return spring to the brake pedal. I 3D printed a little clamp bracket and mounted a spring, and so far this very slight assist seems to be removing all pressure from the brakes when I release the pedal.
I've read that adding a spring to the brake pedal is a band-aid fix, and doesn't really address the issue which is likely the pressure imbalance. SO I will continue to mess with it, but in the meantime I think I have a workable solution to hold me over. Here are the details of my hack:
https://youtu.be/1JMMjdKw6CU
CAD model of bracket (orange parts are just spacers to prevent over-clamping):
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...9&d=1759936378
3D printed bracket
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...6&d=1759936276
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...7&d=1759936276
Installed on brake pedal arm:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...8&d=1759936276
Itching for go-kart but need some advice
I've got all my major mechanical systems completed, including all the plumbing and testing of brakes/coolant/engine. I would love to go kart this bad boy to verify all systems are working when the car is moving. BUT, I need to mount the seats & safety harness first. The issue is that to mount the seats, I need to mount the body...my seats are high-back Intatrim Stoneleigh seats and could interfere with body if not positioned correctly. To mount the body I think I'd need to trim the front cowel near the dash.
For anyone who used high-back seats, what did you do here? Are there any work arounds so I can go kart this (like temp mounting the seats in a non-final position?), or do I just need to suck it up and mount the body, then fix the seats & harness?
Trunk aluminum final install
Finally have confidence that my rear brake leak is fixed so I went ahead and installed all the trunk aluminum including the separator wall for the rear cockpit cubby. Laid down the silicone bead first, then tacked the panels in place with clecos, then riveted. Went pretty smooth. I did drill a 1" hole near the PS roll bar rear leg for the trunk license plate electrical harness. Here are some pics.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...0&d=1763399457
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1763399457
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1763399457
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1763399457
NEXT UP:
- sound/heat mat install (cockpit & trunk)
- carpet install (cockpit and trunk)
- body mount
- seat fitment (w/ Breeze seat mounts)
- safety harness install
- go kart
Coyote and Brake Pedal Mod
I wear size 13 shoes and have definitely had a hard time with the pedal spacing with the Coyote DBW setup. There are a few ways you can orient the Coyote pedal pad. I like it in this position better but every time I press the gas my shoe always catches the edge of the brake pedal. I saw another builder do something like this, so I figured I'd give it a try. I chopped the bottom right corner off the brake pedal using a Dremel tool. I'll hopefully be go karting soon and can verify if I want to keep it this way or try something different. There are quite a few ways people have dealt with this on the forum, so there are many other options I can try out if I don't end up liking this setup.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1763420905
3D printed side-entry heater defrost dash vents
Due to how packed it is behind my dash, there's no room for the bottom hose entry style dash defroster vents that FFR provides. I've been told that you can buy these side-entry style defroster vents from Factory Five. But someone posted some pics of this custom 3D printed version on the Factory Five Builder FB page, so I reached out to them and they were kind enough to share the 3D model with me. Loaded it up onto my Bambu P1S printer and used a high-temp polycarbonate (PC) resin. The vicat softening temp for the PC is fairly high at about 115°C, and the typical air temp coming out of the vehicle vents is in the 60°-70°C range (I think...based on a quick Google search). So should hold up fine.
Here's a timelapse of the print.
https://youtu.be/WSBNkJmAIc4
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1764033925
Using the aluminum Vintage Air bezels p/n 63100-VUQ (got them from Summit) which are a perfect fit:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...4&d=1764033925
Behind the dash....like I said, very packed:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1764033925
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...6&d=1764033925
3D printed footbox vent louvers
This weekend I 3D printed some louvers for the footbox fresh air blast gates. I wanted something I can adjust to direct the airflow where I need it. This was a first attempt and it turned out pretty good. I didn't design the model - just downloaded it from Bambu Studio (model name: air vent cover landini by user Mateusz). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I will need to add some little retainers to the assembly. The current print allows the pivot pins to pop free too easily but this should be an easy fix. I also had to scale the model a little bit to get it to fit right. I'm using some Poron foam and it just press-fits into the blast gate port, so it's easy to twist and readjust if necessary. I'm not sure yet if the vents will stay in the "open" position during road vibration...time will tell. There are ways to fix this if necessary.
Here's the downloaded model:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1765768118
Installed in driver's side blast gate in the footwell:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1765768118
Front view:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...4&d=1765768118
Closed view, although I may just keep it open all the time since I can still close the blast gate shutter with my choke pull.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1765768118
Cockpit heat and sound barrier install
I used the Thermotec Cool-It heat and sound barrier mats (p/n 14620). Comes in a 60" x 36" rolls. Another option would have been the Breeze pre-cut Koolmat kit, but it was about 2x the cost so I opted for the Cool-It mat instead. In some areas I cut out templates using craft paper then just traced it onto the mat, and cut using a razor blade and straight edge. To apply, since it was a little chilly here in TX, I heated the mat with a heat gun which made it super sticky, peeled the liner and stick it down to the panels. Used a carpet roller to smooth it down.
To do the entire cockpit (footboxes, seat pans, rear cockpit wall, trans tunnel, & trans tunnel top) it took about 3 full rolls, so at today's price of $78/roll it was around $240. I ordered another two so I could complete the trunk area as well. So add another $160 to do the trunk and I'll be about $400 all-in. Total time to cut and install was probably in the range of 8-10 hours. Wasn't hard, just tedious. I did try to use as many of the little scraps as I could so I didn't waste a lot of material. I did apply to the inside of the trans tunnel top between where the 3/4" cross-braces touch, using mostly some of the leftover scraps. Wasn't sure how much relief (if any) was needed near the edge of some of the panels where weather stripping or edge guards go, so I left about 3/4" inch of clearance. Hopefully that was the right choice...if not I can add some more material from the scraps. Here are some picks of the finished product - let me know if anything looks like it will be a problem with installing the carpet, weather strips, or seat belt trim rings.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...9&d=1766976553
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1766976553
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...8&d=1766976553
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...6&d=1766976553
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...0&d=1766976571
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...7&d=1766976553
Trunk heat and sound barrier install
Finished applying the Thermo-Tec Cool-It heat & sound barrier mats in the trunk area. I didn't put any on the two side walls yet, as I wasn't sure if the FFR trunk carpet kit includes pieces of carpet to cover those. I thought I remembered reading somewhere the kit only covers the floor. After I go through the carpet pieces, if they include some for the side trunk panels I'll add the barrier to those as well, but for now I left them off. I think I'm going to have to buy some more of the black carpet from FFR (p/n #16957 - 72" Wide Raw Black Carpet Material) to cover the Breeze cubby wall, drop trunk, and maybe the trunk side walls too if that's not already included in the trunk carpet kit. I'll need to take some measurements and order a roll or two from FFR.
I bought some black gaffer's tape, so I'll apply that to all the areas where there are carpet seams, then plan to use the Weldwood gel contact cement or Weldwood All Weather Outdoor Adhesive. Seems like both give you around 10 minutes of working time and several people on here have used both with good results. Seems like the 3M Super 77 or Super 90 contact adhesive spray also work well but have less working time. I like the idea of being able to adjust the pieces for a few minutes.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...7&d=1767228640
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...8&d=1767228640
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...9&d=1767228640
Black gaffer tape added to insulation seams
I went ahead and bought some black gaffer's tape on Amazon ($9 for a roll). I applied it to all the areas where the carpet seams come together. Fairly easy to work with, although in a couple of places it seems like it doesn't want to stick very well...wondering if the Cool-It mat has some oil on it. I may need to clean those and re-apply.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...0&d=1767321146
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1767321146
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1767321146
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1767321146
