CV2065 MKIV Roadster Build Thread #2 - Visors - Heat Shields - Saggy Pipe

[cv2065]

Pipes came back from Cerakoting. I selected a Black Velvet Satin color that is almost a cross between black and dark grey. Goes very well with the colors on the car and is good to 1100 degrees. The sheen is perfect and I like it much better than the Matte. Installed and will be ready for a drive this weekend. I have some heat shields in the same color that I'll add later.







I verified my driver’s side pipe clearance at the hole and have roughly 3/4”, so good to go there.

[BUDFIVE]

Very nice color and sheen. They work really well with the side stripes. Nice!

[Blitzboy54]

Sexy

[MSumners]

Looking great!

[PMD24]

Yeah, pipes look really good!

[PMD24]

Wish I had done that Breeze roll bar. What a difference! Looks great.

[cv2065]

Wish I had done that Breeze roll bar. What a difference! Looks great.

Thanks! A couple of years ago, I was with Micheal Craven (aka Hacksaw) at a car show. He had the older, thick 2" rollbars in his MKIV and I had the standard 1.5" MKIV bar in my first build. We were parked side by side. He looks over and says, "Oh, you've got the paperclip." I said what's that? He said that's what the skinny, taller rollbars reminded him of. He said "Once you see it, you can't unsee it."

And he was right. I always said that if I did another build I'd get thicker bars. The Breeze rollbar is perfect at 1.75" and they have a slight rake.

[Mike.Bray]

Thanks! A couple of years ago, I was with Micheal Craven (aka Hacksaw) at a car show. He had the older 2" rollbars in his MKIV and I had the standard MKIV bar in my first build. We were parked side by side. He looks over and says, "Oh, you've got the paperclip." I said what's that? He said that's what the skinny, taller rollbars reminded him of. He said "Once you see it, you can't unsee it."

And he was right. I always said that if I did another build I'd get thicker bars. The Breeze are perfect and they have a slight rake.

I'm 100% with you on this one, the stock FFR bars do look like paperclips. I went with the Breeze bar also and love the way it looks.

20240425_152616 (Medium) Rotated.jpg

[PMD24]

You guys are killing me here!!! Just as I'm getting to the point where my spending is tapering off... now I gotta look into that rollbar. Only doing one so maybe I can talk myself into it that way.

[cv2065]

You guys are killing me here!!! Just as I'm getting to the point where my spending is tapering off... now I gotta look into that rollbar. Only doing one so maybe I can talk myself into it that way.

Best to do it now.

[cv2065]

Well, I've been chasing down this coolant leak from around the radiator cap for a while. I thought that once I got the silicone hoses tightened up that I was good to go, but nope, went to take it out yesterday and 'drip drip drip' from the cap at around 140 degrees during warm up. Really annoying and you just have to walk back into the house for a moment. After trying 3 different caps, it's the Boig upper radiator pipe filler neck that has a flaw and won't seal.

I think I hem and hawed this thing to death about ripping out the Boig tube that I bought a year or so ago, telling myself that it was just a hose needing tightened or new cap. One, because that sucker is expensive, and two, it just looks cool. Well, I'd rather have functional than cool and I'm not shelling out another $350 for that piece plus another $50 in powder coating, soooooo, I had some other Fluidyne pieces that I bought a few months ago and assembled them. I've got the Fluidyne Billet filler neck (FLD-ACCRFNCHR150) and the Gates #21211 hose plus a 90 degree. It needs some trimming but works great. Got rid of the silicone and went back to rubber. It actually looks pretty good, so no complaints there. The only thing I don't like about the FFR setup is that it just kind of floats around in space. It's not going anywhere, but maybe I'll do a redesign down the road. Plenty of examples, but here's where we are. Might try to find some kind of black dressing that is suitable for high temp rubber to get these hoses looking better.





Draining the radiator took forever, so I took the bottom petcock out and cleaned it up. AFCO put so much teflon tape on the threads that it covered up the drain hole on the petcock. No wonder it was so slow. Took all of that off and reinstalled with Permatex High Temp sealant. I'll let that fully cure over the next couple of days then refill with coolant.

A week from tomorrow will be about 45 days from when the car was painted. At that point, I think I'll be good to go as far as the paint fully curing. There are some very minor scratches in the clear coat in certain places around the car from what might have been the sewn edge of a microfiber cloth or contamination of some kind during final cleaning, so I'm going to have it professionally corrected then ceramic coated. I've got a DA polisher, but figured I'd let the Pros do it first time around. PPF is in the near future before the paint gets jacked up with rock chips.

[PMD24]

That filler neck looks great.

On the Boig tube, each out to Tubular, who now owns Boig and explain all that you've done and that you suspect distortion of the neck during welding. Who knows, they might replace it. If they do you could sell it here.

Pat

[cv2065]

That filler neck looks great.

On the Boig tube, each out to Tubular, who now owns Boig and explain all that you've done and that you suspect distortion of the neck during welding. Who knows, they might replace it. If they do you could sell it here.

Pat

Thanks Pat. I’ll give them a shout. It’s been a while and I powder coated it, so probably an unlikely replacement but they can only say No.

[cv2065]

Finishing up some odds and ends. I was able to burp my coolant system with the Lisle funnel, which worked great. Got to operating temp, t-stat opened, topped it off, buttoned it up then went for a drive. Temps stayed in the 185-190 range with no leaks at the cap, so hopefully we are beyond that at this point. I'll be finally getting out of the neighborhood and out onto a few faster streets shortly, then we'll see.

I installed the rear quick jacks with the quick jack plates from Michael Everson. I'm not sure if he offers these anymore but they provide a really nice finishing touch to the rear of the car. They also spread out the stress of tightening down the quick jack brackets instead of having just one washer per hole. I didn't tighten mine down much during the last build and still got a small stress crack in the paint around one of the washers, even though it had a rubber backing.

I cut rubber washers for the plates and installed, topping off with a black chrome washer and acorn nut.

[cv2065]

Took a 10 mile drive today for my first outing on the main roads. It was 75 degrees and sunny. Driving down the road the engine was lucky to see 180 degrees. I think that the air dam is working really well and no leaks! Idling it was in the 185-195 neighborhood. When hot, oil pressure was at 60psi when driving and 30-40 at idle.

Only issue I had is that I think I'm hearing some of what sounds like little acorns bouncing around in my driver's side pipe when decelerating. Sounds good on acceleration. Still investigating but I hope a baffling or something isn't loose. I thought I had heard it early on before it went to paint. Might be time to call Gas N, but we'll see.

[BadAsp427]

Sounds like you need to feed the squirrels a bit less.

[Jeff Kleiner]

...Only issue I had is that I think I'm hearing some of what sounds like little acorns bouncing around in my driver's side pipe when decelerating. Sounds good on acceleration. Still investigating but I hope a baffling or something isn't loose. I thought I had heard it early on before it went to paint. Might be time to call Gas N, but we'll see...

I would assume that the pipes were blasted before being coated. Could be that they didn't get all of the media cleaned out of them.

Jeff

[cv2065]

I would assume that the pipes were blasted before being coated. Could be that they didn't get all of the media cleaned out of them.

Jeff

That’s a good point Jeff. They were blasted. I’m assuming this will work out of the pipe over time?

[Jeff Kleiner]

That’s a good point Jeff. They were blasted. I’m assuming this will work out of the pipe over time?

Maybe? Probably? I've had a few cars brought to me with freshly coated pipes that were still wrapped up and sometimes when they were turned up and around for installation sand spilled out! I suppose you can try to blow it out with 427 inches (or more accurately, 213.5 per side)

Jeff

[cv2065]

I suppose you can try to blow it out with 427 inches (or more accurately, 213.5 per side)

Jeff

Sounds like the best remedy this weekend.

[TrackDay17]

I really like your detail on the quick jacks, beautiful car.
As far as switching from silicone hoses I always avoided them when I was racing and doing track days on my motorcycles.
They look cool but the guys I knew that ran them always seemed to be have an issue with a leak at one point or another.

[Mike.Bray]

Silicone hoses leach coolant.

[JMD]

That’s a good point Jeff. They were blasted. I’m assuming this will work out of the pipe over time?

If you didn't cut out the middle part of the gasket that sits between the header and sidepipes the thin unprotected gasket material around the center gasket section tend to disintegrate, the middle part falls off and parts of hard gasket material blow into the mufflers. Mine did that over this past summer and I can hear it bouncing around in my driver side side pipe every now and then. I wish I had known to cut out the middle part and just use the outer part of the gasket. The four hole gasket is meant to connect the extended long separate tube, non collector style header, not the headers we use with the open ball flange. It could eventually blow out or find a place to permanently lodge in the muffler. That would be better than it bouncing around...

[tnt_motorsports]

Silicone hoses leach coolant.

Might be a dumb question Mike, but I am looking for coolant hoses currently. Amazon seems to offer primarily silicone hoses. I don't have part numbers and generic searches have yielded little results. Do you have a source for a 1.5" 90 degree radiator hose and then a straight section?

Thanks in advance!
Todd

[Mike.Bray]

Might be a dumb question Mike, but I am looking for coolant hoses currently. Amazon seems to offer primarily silicone hoses. I don't have part numbers and generic searches have yielded little results. Do you have a source for a 1.5" 90 degree radiator hose and then a straight section?

Thanks in advance!
Todd

Not really other than Gates, Napa, or Summit. Sorry

[cv2065]

Tackling the rest of the windshield odds and ends, which included the windshield trim brackets, rear view mirror, wind wings and visors.

Regarding the windshield trim pieces, I'm not sure how you would use 3rd party pieces with this, as you have to be able to slide them down with the windshield in place. Manual says to squirt some silicone in the gap before putting the trim piece on. I didn't really want to do that as you have to be able to get under there and put some tape or something flat to keep it from dripping down while it sets. So I used some pliable black silicone putty that you can mold to the size needed and push into the gap. It's a high temp, UV resistant, all-weather product, so should hold up fine and seal it from water intrusion.

My brackets didn't come with gaskets, so I made my own out of a 1/16" rubber sheet. This is the only place on the car where I've used sheet metal screws to secure anything into the fiberglass.

[cv2065]

On the last build, I secured the mirror to the dash using sheet metal screws. I didn't want to drill this time so used a bracket that I got from, well, I it's been so long I can't remember where I got it. Many of these brackets you can find on etsy are 3D printed plastic, which I did not want. Found one that was aluminum and had it powder coated black. Combined with black hardware/acorn nuts, cut to size and 10-32 square nuts that were also cut down/grinded to size to fit the channel and it came out great.

If you are using the square nut method for the visors, don't forget to slide them into the channel before securing the rear-view mirror. I'll be putting some rubber backer rod into the channel gap once I get the visors in for a finished look.

[cv2065]

I took the car out for a longer run today and boy was it hot, even after 7pm. Summer seems like it's going to be a beast. From a cooling perspective, car never got above 195. Fan kicked on as expected at stop lights or longer idles and ran 180-185 at speed. Tightened up my clamps and I think we can 100% put the cooling thing behind us.

Coming back around the last time I got a couple of surges off the light and then while driving. Got home and checked the fuel regulator which was down to 3.5psi. Most likely I was emptying the bowls which was causing the surges. Readjusted to 5.5 - 6psi while at operating temp and tightened the nut down. I put a witness mark on it and will keep an eye out. Another morning drive on Sunday and we’ll see where we are.

Outside of that, car has no issues thus far. I'll continue to creep out a little further on back roads but with all of the trucks from new construction going on the highways these days, I'll wait until I add PPF for any highway runs, which should be mid-May time frame.

[PMD24]

Might be a dumb question Mike, but I am looking for coolant hoses currently. Amazon seems to offer primarily silicone hoses. I don't have part numbers and generic searches have yielded little results. Do you have a source for a 1.5" 90 degree radiator hose and then a straight section?

Thanks in advance!
Todd

Download the Gates catalog and thumb through till you find a photo of what you need, or what you can cut from a hose that might be different than exactly what you need. Once you find one use google to search for the hose.

Also, if there's an O'Reillys near you, they stock thousands of hoses and are very helpful. Some will let you go down the aisles and look.


Pat

[Mike.Bray]

Coming back around the last time I got a couple of surges off the light and then while driving. Got home and checked the fuel regulator which was down to 3.5psi. Most likely I was emptying the bowls which was causing the surges. Readjusted to 5.5 - 6psi while at operating temp and tightened the nut down. I put a witness mark on it and will keep an eye out. Another morning drive on Sunday and we’ll see where we are

Just leave it like that and you can tell everyone you're running alcohol

[cv2065]

I continue to finish up small things on the final punch. Visors were on the list next. I'm not sure exactly how functional these are, but I like how they look and finish off the windshield at the top. All hardware was powdercoated black and I ordered some black stainless steel 6-32 screws.

I cut each screw to size and used 6-32 square nuts in the windshield channel instead of screwing right into the windshield frame. Courtesy of Mr. Kleiner. I also have some 10-32 black acorn nuts that I used with the fastening hardware. A little blue Loctite and they aren't going anywhere. Just don't get that on the acrylic.

Visors are custom and I got them off ebay from a seller who just does these. I wanted the visors to match the wind wings in a dark smoke color. I guess the clear wind wings have visibility in mind, but the finer details complete the build. I got them at the link below. He's got a few custom pieces as well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22500557276...EAAeSws-5oBE4y

Visors came out great

[cv2065]

I bought these heat shields a while back from Backdraft. I had them ceramic coated the same color as the pipes. Easy enough to install just as long as you have a set of vice grips to squeeze the bracket in tight enough to take a bolt. Assembling the bracket on to the shield prior to install also helps. I'm pleased with the look overall and of course the 'snake bit' protection.

My last set were smoother on the top, but these assemble a little differently with the acorn nuts on top. I like the industrial look and the round perforated holes vs. square.





I did notice that my passenger side pipe continues to droop. I'm getting less and less a fan of the collector adjustable ball joint as I'd rather just deal with shims. You can tighten this thing until the cows come home and I think you'll get the same result over time.

So, I have a couple of options. One is to have the joint tack welded, but I'm going to hold off there. The other was to go with another Kleiner 'mod' and create some support at the collector. So that's what I did and after a quick trip to ACE Hardware and $20 in parts, I re-created Kleiner's solution and will be trying it out. Having the louver out made this a simple install.

I also saw in another build where someone strapped a stainless zip tie around the rubber support, which is probably something that I'll do as well, as these tend to stretch a little too much. Wish there was a harder version of the rubber.



Update: Went for another 'spirited' ride and the passenger pipe stayed put! Guess we'll see long term. I was going to buy a stainless zip tie to go around the rubber hanger but found these rubber hangers that already have a steel insert to maintain shape. I'll see how these work.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X94PQ12...fed_asin_title

[cv2065]

As an update to my fuel issue, I made some float and accelerator pump arm adjustments. We'll test it out tomorrow. Roush recommends Ported vacuum over Manifold, which is how the carb is setup now. I'm thinking of changing over to Manifold but we'll see.

Update: Ride went good this morning, although it was cool and hard to get to 180. Will take it back out when it warms up. I did move my linkage rod to the bottom linkage hole so that it would activate sooner, but not liking that. Challenge is that I want full throw of the linkage without my pedal being too high.

[Highplainsdakota]

I'm enjoying the updates to your cobra and following along.

I am just installing the same hanger modification to the side pipes even though I have not go karted yet. I purchased that same amazon hanger with the steel wrap incorporated into the rubber, but it was very large. Just take that into account before you purchase it. The smaller one you have pictured looks to be about 3" long. I have opened and closed the eyelets on the turnbuckles for direct connections in order to reduce the over all length of the linkage. I'm not quite done yet but I'll try get pictures next time I'm at the shop.

[cv2065]

I'm enjoying the updates to your cobra and following along.

I am just installing the same hanger modification to the side pipes even though I have not go karted yet. I purchased that same amazon hanger with the steel wrap incorporated into the rubber, but it was very large. Just take that into account before you purchase it. The smaller one you have pictured looks to be about 3" long. I have opened and closed the eyelets on the turnbuckles for direct connections in order to reduce the over all length of the linkage. I'm not quite done yet but I'll try get pictures next time I'm at the shop.

Looks like this new hanger is about 4" long while the old is 3". I figured one could take the 1" of slack out with the turn buckle, depending of course on the size of the turnbuckle itself.

[cv2065]

Another carb update. I'm currently running at the following:

Initial Timing: 16 BTDC
Mechanical Advance: 13 degrees
Vacuum Advance: 12 degrees
Idle: 900

I'm all in at 29 BTDC @3,000 with vacuum plugged. This is a little light on a target of 32-34 and I think my idle is a hair high. Having a little stumble off idle unless I load up the accelerator a bit and still some random stumble at low idle cruise.

I read up on transfer slots and their impact on off idle starts and cruise, so I'm going to up my initial timing to 18 BTDC, then lower my idle speed to 800-850, which will take me to 31 all in. This is still conservative but will allow me to adjust my transfer slots more favorably, giving me more fuel/air mixture control, and take away the off idle stumble and low rpm cruise. The additional timing should help as well. I'll stick with the timed vacuum instead of going to manifold at this point.

At least this my current theory without physically removing the carb, which if I'm still not satisfied, will be my next step. I found these two videos on transfer slots helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpU7pV4Li3A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS9MHbKLNR0

[Mike.Bray]

Here's my timing table if it helps. I had to go down to 12 degrees at idle to get the idle under 800 due to the big lopey cam I'm running.

Base Spark Table.jpg

Spark Landscape Graph.jpg

[Presdough]

I am using hose clamps around the rubber hangers. You can do the final adjustment easily and it has held up for two years so far.

[cv2065]

Here's my timing table if it helps. I had to go down to 12 degrees at idle to get the idle under 800 due to the big lopey cam I'm running.

Base Spark Table.jpg

Spark Landscape Graph.jpg

Thanks Mike. I don't think I can go that low. Starts up and idles great at 16 but I think I can get more without detonation as the all in number is pretty conservative. The lope is crazy. Even better than my old BP. That transition off idle and low rpm cruise is where I'm looking to address. Might invest in a BT AFR gauge to really tune it in.