Jalopnik
Team Black Metal V8olvo was fortunate enough to get some track time at a Volvo club event at Thunderhill last week, and so we got the car all put together and trailered it on up to Willows. It worked pretty well, with our modified Thunderbird springs and swaybars and 242 Turbo brakes giving the car decent handling and stopping, and while the Ford 302 couldn't keep up with the wild-ass super-boosted turbo four-bangers on the other cars, it was able to get out of its own way. But then the car started running hot...
You see, we'd been inspired by Team Two Wheels Too Many and the rear-radiator setup they'd put in their '85 Cavalier, and we figured we'd do the same in our Volvo. Well, actually, I was the one who thought it would be a good idea, if we're going to be placing blame for ensuing badness.
Just get the biggest truck radiator we could find at the junkyard, put it in the back seat, and add some big electric radiator fans. Run some muffler piping forward to the engine, cut some holes in the trunk, and we become invulnerable to battle damage!
Piping through the firewall bulkhead and along the passenger side, inside the rollcage. The whole setup was ridiculously cheap, and seemed like it should work well.
I picked up a couple of fans from early-80s Mercedes-Benz sedans, and grabbed another from an 80s BMW 7-series.
Cut out a template from cardboard to make a nice aluminum shroud...
...and a third fan in the trunk, blowing air out through a reverse scoop cut into the trunk lid.
Should be airflow aplenty here!
Seal up the gaps between the passenger compartment and trunk with aluminum tape and Foster's cans.
Cut some holes in the doors and add some Toyota MR2 side scoops for added cooling. What could go wrong? Nothing, or so I thought.
So, the car gets to the racetrack, and everything seems fine.
But after a few laps, the water temperature kept climbing past the danger point, regardless of speed or number of fans operating. At this point, the primary theory among the team members was that the 302's tired water pump wasn't moving enough water, since the three German fans moved air like a hurricane. But there was no way of knowing.
And no way of testing, because at that point disaster struck! Team member Jesse (you might know him as triple-DOTS owner WhatWouldJesseDo) was behind the wheel on the track when the engine suddenly died and wouldn't restart. Track adventures ceased at that point.
Once we got the car back to the shop, it turned out that the oil pump had seized and snapped off the roll pin holding the distributor drive gear in place. We were actually fortunate that the Ford engine drives the oil pump from the distributor, because that meant that the engine quit immediately (rather than continuing to run at full throttle with no oil pressure). But at this point we were worried that our worn-out well-seasoned engine might not be able to handle the rigors of a long endurance race (especially after seeing the Sin City Lemons LTD throw a rod in its 302 at the Thunderhill race in December).
Anyway, the weekend became a grueling all-out, bloody-knuckled wrenchathon. We had to get the engine out of the car, swap in an oil pump and distributor from one of Crew Chief Hellhammer's collection of old Ford 302s, then convert the car from a radical rear-radiator setup to a standard front-radiator rig... all with a week to go before the race! Oh yes, and paint the car if we had time (cue madhouse laughter).
It's not trivial pulling an engine and swapping an oil pump while it hangs on a lift, but Hellhammer has the chops to get it done pretty quickly.
All the work on that nice shroud, discarded! That stung, bad. We probably could have made it work, if we'd had time for more testing... but we didn't. Off to the junkyard with me, to search for a V8 radiator that would fit in a Volvo 240, preferably with the inlet on the passenger's side of the car.
Hmmm... a great big Mercedes-Benz 560SEL should have plenty of cooling capacity, eh?
The width was just right for our car, but the height was about 3" too tall. But we had a workaround planned for that issue.
First, a frame to support the new radiator, tied into the strut tower brace we'd already built out of square tubing.
We rigged the Mercedes mounts to work with our frame, and it's all nicely isolated with rubber bumpers.
The pair of Mercedes fans we'd had in the rear of the car (and, of course, new wiring to control them from the existing circuits) go in the front now, along with an engine-driven fan. Perhaps the engine-driven fan would be enough, but we don't want to take chances with overheating at the race.
The Benz used a remote radiator tank, so we had to find a place for it.
As for hood clearance, we just cut a big slot for the radiator and upper hose. Folks who swap V8s into street-driven Volvos usually use Corvette radiators (because they're short and wide, like the radiator space in a Volvo 240), but we weren't going to find a Corvette in Pick Your Part with the clock ticking.
Is this right out of the Lord Humungus' motor pool or what?
Hellhammer broke out the welding gear again and fabricated this cowcatcher-esque radiator-protection cage that goes behind the grille. Not quite as indestructible as a radiator in the back seat area, but still pretty tough (especially with that huge Volvo bumper in place).
Looks pretty good! Note the Volvo seat belts as hood hold-downs.
A solid 3-day weekend of 12-hour days for us, reminiscent of the panicky last hour's thrash you'd see teams doing in the old Junkyard Wars... only ours went on and on and on, for day after day. I considered trying out for that show, back in 2001 or so... even talked about putting a team together with a cubemate at a dot-com job who had a part-time gig as a welding instructor, but- as usually happens- we never went anywhere with the idea. Well, we got laid off from the job and went our separate ways... and next thing I know, she's on the Metal Maidens, winning The Great Race (that's her on the left). The jealousy! But now I think I know what that sort of fabrication-against-deadline adrenaline feels like!
The out-of-town team members are here, and we're ready for some wheel-to-wheel, Scandinavian black metal-inspired action at Altamont this weekend. From left to right: Necrobutcher, Mr. Blöödwrënch, and Count Chocunakh (aka Señor Loverman, yours truly, and Jack Baruth). I'll be pretty busy at the race, but will try to get some live coverage for y'all. Oh yes, our Black Metal V8olvo Mission Statement (cue Opeth): Most Grim and Frostbitten Necrowrenches Bloodlustfully Blaspheming the Forbidden Forsaken Fjord Sacrilegiously Perched Atop the Unholy and Inverted Mountain of Altamont.
Comments
Two words:
Awe. Some.
Thanks for the update, Murilee.
No, I have nothing of substance to add.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
Good luck guys!
Bravo! What determination! What insanity!
My hats off to you!
You get karma points awarded by the cosmos just for willing the back seat radiator into existence, even if it was not ultimately used.
You should have kept the rear radiator, but otherwise, sweet.
Mr. Gasket Street Scoop. Fiero wing. MR2 side vent. That is quite possibly the coolest hodgepodge of a Volvo ever.
I'm not sold on the radiator relief cut through the hood, but I suppose if a projectile were threatening that particular vulnerability, you'd have bigger concerns than the radiator. Like something large and heavy flying at your face/windshield.
De mest grymma och frostbitna dödsmeckarna som blodlustfyllt hädar dn förbjudna och fördömda fjorden på den oheliga och inerterade berget Altamont!
sweet words..I sacrifice some kitten for good luck
Oh, man, though.. that rear mounted radiator setup was a thing of beauty. If this car survives to do another LeMons, tell your team mates that some random guy on Jalopnik said you should give it another go. So you have that going for you.
Good job getting it put back together, though. Sucks to have to pull an engine to do an oil pump swap. I did mine (on a Ford 390) with a floor jack and some 2x4's, while the car was up on jack stands. (wiggle that oil pan out!)
@smalleyxb122:Could probably just cover the exposed portion of the radiator with a cut up tire carcass attached to the hood with sheet metal/drywall screws. Looks to be about the right width.
If only I knew what a Distributor drive gear was.
Just beat those dorks at team Make:Way, okay?
@Andrewpetty: It's a gear that drives the distributor, but that's not important now.
You could have probably just added an electric water pump via Harbor Freight.
[www.harborfreight.com]
from there you simply gut the stock pump and thermostat and use a rheostat or (an electric motor controller of some sort, say like an electric R/C car controller)
Either way, great recovery, hope to hear of your success at Altamont this weekend!
I still don't see why the rear radiator wouldn't work, unless maybe there was an aerodynamic affect that had air pushing against the fans at speed negating the cooling.
You should build a cowl induction hood to cover the radiator. It would have to have a low spot in the middle for that crazy air intake, but if you did some kind of wild v-shaped cowl induction hood it would look awesome.
Since you still have all that extraordinarily well-vented rear seat space, maybe you could repurpose it as a herring-curing area. Hang a few slabs of well salted "Clupea Harengus" from the ceiling and after your pit-stop victory donuts it's Lutefisk time!
That Horrible Freight water pump would be great, for about 10 laps, until the chinese bearings crafted from rusty old Hudson Hornets spun and the case made out of tinfoil collapsed.
Loved that rear rad. I hope the 302 doesn't Grenad(a) on you again this weekend. Unfortunately, I will be at a wedding in CT this w/e, but I'll be sure to catch your zany (mis)adventures Monday.
It looks like the new radiator space- frame mounting unit could be dettached and used as a remote controlled submersible to find treasure in the deep blue sea, just needs a small camera on the front and wiring to a joystick controller and..............
[cache.jalopnik.com]
Did Jonny cut his hair and trim the 'stache?
It's like some long-forgotten Ford engineer in 1962 was thinking, "In 45 years, some jackasses are going to be using this engine in a backyard-built race car. Driving the oil pump and distributor together is going to save them an engine or two."
The rear radiator, however, is genius, at least in concept. With adequate time, and an extra few dollars in the budget, it could probably work very well.
Just how much $$ do you guys have invested in square tubing. Hmmm?
For The Tunachuckers, we reinforce with bits of old lawn tractors and scrap metal found in the barn.
@mechimike:
Simple, buy two or three and change them out.
Or plumb them all in parallel with diverter valves and simply switch pumps.
@fiat22turbo: We considered an additional water pump (actually, I wanted to get a SBC pump and rig it up with an electric motor, since I'm all about junkyard parts), but since we don't know exactly why the rear radiator setup wasn't working (and we're out of time for moving-car testing) we had no choice but to go for the setup we knew would- well, should- work (plus our poor alternator was already at capacity- or beyond- with the three electric fans, so we'd have had to make another junkyard run for a 100-amp unit).
Maybe it wasn't working because of cavitation in the lines... or maybe the cooling airflow isn't right at speed due to some kind of aerodynamic weirdness you'd need a wind tunnel to sort out... or maybe something we'd never figure out. Regardless, the car had to be ready to go.
That said, the front radiator setup is pretty well protected; the Volvo front bumper is a monster, we've got the crash bars in front of the radiator, and the front edge of the hood is just hanging there, so it's unlikely to get mashed into the radiator top tank.
Shame to see that rear radiator go. Could you make the MR2 scoops into cooling ducts for the rear brakes?
At first I was wondering if the problem was a reverse-rotation (serpentine) water pump, but the passenger-side outlet makes me think it's a standard-rotation.
Damn, I love this series of posts. I can't wait until it culminates in this weekends hoonery. Good luck gents. Take that volvo on to victory!
I suspect some vapour lock in that rear cooling setup, depending on the burp/fill location.
In my experience, you should have had WAY more heat transfer than necessary out of those long tubes, and with that many fans. Unless they were picking up heat from the exhaust?
...and looking at the pictures, you'd likely have been better off without the crazy shrouding.
I'm stunned by the awesomeness. Really, the only way it could get better would be if you found a vacuum preselector gearbox off a Traction Avant or a Cord 810 and turned the whole works around. But the chances of a vacuum preselector gearbox surviving LeMons = -1,000%. Chances of finding said gearbox at local pick 'n' pull: even less.
surely you still have time to cut the body off from the front seats back and camino this baby dont you?
good luck and Thor's speed to ya'll
@JantheMan:
I'd like to point out that this is possibly the most hardcore comment posted on Jalopnik, and you bastards ignored it.
First of all, it looks Viking. Secondly, I think I see bloodlust in there, then he says he'll sacrifice some animals for you.
COTD.
We expect, nay, demand 10,000 pics and good video of this weekend's victory!
@Murilee Martin: I suspect the reason your radiator wasn't working was TOO HIGH a coolant flow rate, not too low. Depending on how you set up the thermostat, of course. Too high a flow rate gives you a laminar flow condition that won't cool the thing worth a damn, and it acts just like that.
@JantheMan: Is that our Mission Statement in Swedish?
@DoctorNine: Yeah, we thought of that possibility, too. And that's the problem- it could be one or more items from quite a list of possibilities, and we were out of time. If the car survives Altamont, we might try to return to the rear radiator setup for a later race.
@Murilee Martin: At speed you would be forcing air into the trunk, you would need a hole at the back and not on top. Darn DOWNFORCE.
Sorry my engineering is showing ;-)
@prndl: You could also use a reversed hood scoop on top. This work like an air extractor for the trunk.
@prndl: Maybe, though with no side or rear glass in the car, who knows what the airflow is really doing (and we have huge holes in the rear of the trunk, where the taillights once lived).
We went through agonizing debates that covered every overheating cause mentioned here, plus a few more, and if we'd had another week we'd have worked the bugs out... but we didn't have another week.
Might help to switch from Fosters to a light beer can for gap sealing... you know, to help with the weight.
It is a race application, after all.
the rear mount was awesome! I think maybe you guys didnt purge the air out?
I never thought I'd be saying this about a Volvo, but that thing looks seriously badass sitting on the trailer, and then again roaring around the track. This whole project makes me so excited to see it in action, I'm afraid I'm going to wet myself.
Murilee, you're still the sexiest wench I know. Even with that beard.
@Murilee Martin: I think I know the issue, and yes it's aerodynamics. The design of cooling fans is incredibly sensitive I've learned. Even on the flex-fan blades of a SBC, the shroud is made to cover only a certain amount of the blade in order to maintain airflow. If that overlap is off, the blades can move next to no air through the radiator. Or, possible in your case with the electric fans, the shroud(s) for the front and rear fans cause some huge amounts of air turbulence... guessing the distance between the radiator and fans is the crucial bit here.
My dad was telling me how damn crazy some aspects can get with custom cooling systems a few weekends ago. Many years back he went to a seminar or something, when he was building up the badass '74 Camaro. Going through the same guess-and-hope-it-works stages with a 70s C10 shroud on my '69.
How much did the radiator cost? If by any chance a bigger one is needed for the next race... I've got a huge aluminum one from a last generation Escalade. Just has water spots from an acid wash... Dealership Freebies FTW. Didn't fit in my truck, so it's just sitting.
@TexanIdiot25: And.
Good luck men. You are our only hope.
@Murilee Martin: Yeah, what does that mean? Translate, please, Jan?
@anaxomander: "Since you still have all that extraordinarily well-vented rear seat space, maybe you could repurpose it as a herring-curing area."
No, the well-vented rear seat space is for the ice chest of beer. Call it a driver negative thermal device.
@TexanIdiot25: We had plenty of airflow past the radiator- it just came roaring out the back of the car with all the fans on. As for what happened when the car was moving at speed... well, who knows?
@TexanIdiot25: I need to do the same to a '62 with a 1980 small-block in it, add shrouding or go electric... How much trouble is it giving you?
(A previous owner raced the thing and didn't -have- a shroud...)
After careful consideration, I have decided this is the best form of racing in the history of the world.
@Murilee Martin: Gosh darn those crazy air molecules.
@cq: Considering the most the truck has done is idle, don't know. Haven't driven it yet, and haven't gotten back on getting the shroud in. We'd be on the electric plan if we had a sheet metal break.
But as far as the sitting in the driveway and running, it's been cooling fine. But, then again, it's got a massive aluminum radiator.
This thing is gonna kick some ass.
@Murilee Martin: You should use the extra fans like this though:
@Novaload: Letssee here... it appears to be the Black Metal V8lvo mission statement in sveeedish. See, Murilee figured this one out already as he is learning Swedish via osmosis by just hanging around that car.
@