Wow so it took me pretty much 3 hours or so to drill all three holes to size.. man I wish I had a mill or something that could have cut it all faster.. anyway.
I present "le brackets"










They are likely to still need more fettling, however next steps are to complete the plates that will sit underneath the front frame that I'm drilling into and try and mount them properly.

I have found hole saws to be a very cost effective tool for cutting holes in various materials including steel.
Various sized arbors will accept various  diameter saws bought on an as required basis.

Quote from: Joesson on December 18, 2023, 16:19I have found hole saws to be a very cost effective tool for cutting holes in various materials including steel.
Various sized arbors will accept various  diameter saws bought on an as required basis.

Yes in hind sight that would have been a good choice! Live and learn I guess!

Quote from: jvanzyl on December 18, 2023, 16:27Yes in hind sight that would have been a good choice! Live and learn I guess!

That is correct on two counts John.
And after all I have  lived a little longer than you!

No prizes for guessing which one was  made using the correct tool...

Thanks for the pointer @Joesson !

Been an few weeks.. trying to get out of the funk..

Have managed to finish the mounting of the coolant bottle at least today!





Continued work on the front charge rad mounts. Have decided to go with two mounting holes each with and additional back plate for each side to spread the load.

Hopefully will be able to resume normal lunchtime work in the future!

Have you checked the hose routing with the bottle there? I'm sure I had mine in a similar place but you don't want the hoses running uphill to/from the bottle.

Quote from: Call the midlife! on January 22, 2024, 13:56Have you checked the hose routing with the bottle there? I'm sure I had mine in a similar place but you don't want the hoses running uphill to/from the bottle.

I realise that doesn't mean what I meant it to mean, you don't want a hump in the hoses where air can collect.

Quote from: Call the midlife! on January 22, 2024, 13:58I realise that doesn't mean what I meant it to mean, you don't want a hump in the hoses where air can collect.

Erm..  just for clarity here, I'm operating on the assumption that the bottle needs/should be the highest point? I was going to rotate the charge barrel so the pipes exited the top side of it but were still ever so slightly lower than the bottle. The bottle I can just put holes in slightly higher up on the attaching plate so that it becomes higher if needed (probably) and the charge barrel inlet pipe from the turbo can be slightly shortened so it sits lower (but that means closer to the manifold which is a minus).

Is this sounding right? Or should I shift the bottle forwards in the engine bay/ or mount it in the frunk instead? Where did you mount yours?

Quote from: jvanzyl on January 22, 2024, 17:23Erm..  just for clarity here, I'm operating on the assumption that the bottle needs/should be the highest point? I was going to rotate the charge barrel so the pipes exited the top side of it but were still ever so slightly lower than the bottle. The bottle I can just put holes in slightly higher up on the attaching plate so that it becomes higher if needed (probably) and the charge barrel inlet pipe from the turbo can be slightly shortened so it sits lower (but that means closer to the manifold which is a minus).

Is this sounding right? Or should I shift the bottle forwards in the engine bay/ or mount it in the frunk instead? Where did you mount yours?

Mine was in a similar position but I had the charge cooler at the side of the battery, it just needs to be the highest point as you say. As long as the hoses go in fairly straight lines to it you'll be golden.

I've gone back through and will likely move the bottle higher. I'll also need to look at seeing how much lower I can move the barrel.

Finished drilling holes in the radiator brackets, so next step for those are to make the reverse side mounting plates and drill more holes.

In order to setup the barrel properly I need to remount the turbo, and that means I needed to fix the one bolt hole that was stripped. I got one of those helicoil kits and it wasn't too bad!







Next steps will be to mount it again and this time include the gasket between the turbo and the manifold and start getting serious about mounting the charge cooler etc...

Mounted the turbo and manifold this evening. Then started eyeballing how low I could get the charge barrel.

The reality is I'm going to have to take a couple of inches off the BOV section in order to reduce the height of the barrel, that then took me down a rabbit hole of research and I ended up on old stavtech's site and now am likely going to try and run without a BOV.. the TTE kit didn't need one so why should I?

Will see what piping I have laying about tomorrow and then try and create a BOV section replacement. EDIT- just checked my eBay order history and at some point I ordered some 63mm pipe so just got to cut it to size and roll the lip and we should be good. Will clearly have to look into making a heat shield to go between the manifold and the barrel.

Fabrication time (my new favourite thing) tried to go for as small as possible (2 inches).



This results in the silicone joining pieces meeting in the middle and whilst "possible" I'm unlikely to go with this side as I'd like a bit more meat in the middle.




So stepped it up to 3 inches and I'm much happier with the result.






And in comparison to what it's replacing, this should result in a decent drop in the height of the barrel.




Next steps will be fitting this all together to see the height I end up at and then fixing the down flow issues I may have now caused by changing the height of the barrel.

Grabbed 10 mins as I was keen to see where it was all ending up.
I shall clearly be raising the the bottle... and maybe taking a cm or so off of the silicon joiners to help that little bit extra.. or maybe go for a 2.5 inch aluminium joiner rather than 3 inch..









Will also be addressing the angle being created by the barrel being so far to passenger side. Will cut down the aluminium 90 degree bend to help straighten everything up and not foul the battery.






Now that the barrel is lower it opens up a different attachment place for the mounting bracket.. namely the engine hoist point that is now right by it.



I've also realised that I can make a heat shield for the barrel that can mount to the brackets that I'm using to mount it to the engine.

Hmm... research now needs to be done on materials for this.

Todays post is a bit of a "drat"..

Basically I reduced the pipe once.. and discovered it wasn't enough.






Then did it again and I possibly went a smidge too far but it's ok.



I then turned my attention to the coolant bottle.






Which now sits as high it can.


Which isn't enough.. hence the "drat"..






So I now find myself in the position of trying to find a new spot for the bottle or possibly doing the bleeding with the bottle raised/ barrel lowered and then inserting them into their holders... Ergh.

Part of issue is exacerbated by the bottle pipe being so low down.. will have to have a think on what to do.

Right! I feel like I've found some treasure:

Quote from: markiii on August  7, 2007, 09:15some more pics from install

Erm... I'm sorry.. but even these really nice pics of @markiii install would result in the coolant bottle being the same height as the barrel... am I'm being too fussy with my build??

EDIT: I'm going to stick with current layout and will try and reduce height ever so slightly further, however I'll look to bleed by dropping the barrel during the process and checking occasionally.

Flow is to be as follows as per the AVT website: Pre rad > cold water out > pump (at lowest point) > chargecooler > tank/filler > hot water back to pre radiator.

The cold water from the cool side of the radiator should be fed into the COLD side (ie throttle body side) of the chargecooler, and the hot water exiting the core should come out of the hot side (turbo side) of the chargecooler. This is a countercurrent design - the most efficient form of heat transfer across a medium."

Stuff it... moving the bottle to the front then. Will utilise one of the the bolts next to the power steering and make a new bracket to hold the bottle.

Right.. bracket made.

Managed to finalize the position of the coolant bottle- had to adjust the mounting holes slightly as it was sitting too high and might have to go 0.5cm lower still, but it's pretty much there. Too high:


Hopefully right (the bonnet shuts anyway):





I then turned my attention to the pump, so popped the storage bin back in and then quickly realised my relocated alarm will have to be relocated again.



Now @markiii pics above show the pump being mounted to the metal brackets that hold the storage bin. This is an ideal location (I know it's not the lowest point) but my pump is kinda hefty and those brackets a biiit flimsy. So I'm going to mount it for now and and see how we go.
I'm also thinking of using the passenger side bracket as this will hopefully mean I won't need a 90degree bend to make it to the coolant bottle as the angle will be more gradual.


Note- need to source new power steering lines as mine are quite corroded.

New power steering lines ordered.

Built a little backplate with some poorly welded on captive nuts in order to attach the pump.

Fitted the pump and tested to make sure I could still install the froot.






Eyeballed the alarm and decided that I'll try and find its relocation point after I've run the hoses for the cooler, as naturally bringing it forward will conflict with them. Will likely move it to the back right as there's space there.



Then turned my attention to the radiator bracket mounting holes. Marked them out:



Made a little cardboard model and then cut out the backing plates. These will need significant fettling as they have to accommodate the dimpling on the cross beam. Also would like to put some captive nuts on them, I've got new collets arriving for the tig torch so that'll help as last night the tungsten was sliding out!

Looking good! I'm enjoying watching the progress of this (and how often you're making progress!)

Where did you order the steering lines from? I need to overhaul my PS pump and flush the system, and it might well be worth replacing the lines while I'm at it.

Quote from: inigopete on January 30, 2024, 14:08Looking good! I'm enjoying watching the progress of this (and how often you're making progress!)

Where did you order the steering lines from? I need to overhaul my PS pump and flush the system, and it might well be worth replacing the lines while I'm at it.

Cheers man- ordered steering lines off of eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154051514021?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=jOSucHSmTkO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=fFOx8hr6Rnu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Should be here shortly.

Snuck off for a quick break (I have meetings ending at 10pm tonight), smoothed the edges of the backing brackets and welded one side of captive nuts:



Looking forward to doing the other side, then I'll need to make side the bolts are sized appropriately so they don't go into the radiator.