I was able to do a little driving around two weekends ago and
the buggy was still running hot. After consulting with a few people the
consensus was the electric water pump was the prime suspect. The next step
was to call a tech at Mezeirre and see what they recommend. After some
discussion the tech thought my cooling system was not full and suggested I drill
some holes in the thermostat mounting flange to help fill the system when the
thermostat was closed. Now I did not have filling problems the first go around,
but then again I really have no way to confirm the system was ever full and I
haven't driven the rig in 100+ degree temperatures before.
After drilling some holes in the thermostat flange I refilled
the system. It was hard to tell but it seemed like I got more water into
the system than before. The rig did seem to take a lot longer to open the
thermostat when idling and the radiator fans actually cycled unlike before when
they would go on and stay on. The true test will come this weekend.
For future reference I found out that the stock water pump on
the L67 can flow between 10 gpm at idle to as much as 50 gpm around 2500 rpms
assuming a good pump. The electric is rated for 35gpm so I definitely
should not be running hot at low speeds (the electric pump is rated for road and
road racing use so it should work good at higher speeds as well).

One of the things I noticed when I had my hood off to see if
that made any difference in the engine temperature was that there wasn't near as
much hot air blowing thru the passenger cabin. it seems like my hood panels do a
great job of channeling the hot air coming off of the radiator into the
passenger compartment. This is nice in the winter but once the ambient
temperature gets above 90 degrees it makes it uncomfortable to wheel for long
periods of time.
To help remedy this I made a small hood scoop and perforated
the hood just behind the scoop to give the hot air someplace else to go besides
onto your legs.


I had been wondering how I was going to do the roof since I
needed a full sized 4' x 8' sheet of aluminum to make it one piece . This
makes for a really expensive body panel since I can't get full sized sheets off
of the rem piles at the local metal supply houses. I decided to try making the
roof from two pieces as 4 ' x 4' sheets are pretty common in the scrap pile.
Originally I was going to re-use the front section of the old roof but it looked
a little beat up next to the new rear piece I cut so I just re-made the front
piece as well. I used some rivets to attach the two pieces together once I
had them both bolted to the buggy.


Out back I put a few flair holes into the roof to keep it from
oil canning. I'll most likely add some more flared holes later at any
points where the roof vibrates.

I also added some roll bar padding to the tubes above and just in front of the
rear seat. The tubes are more of a hazard when entering and exiting the
rig.

The next thing on my list was a protective cover for the
transmission cooler which stuck out from under the rear seat a bit, I
didn't want the rear passengers to kick it accidentally. This cover was
made from 4 pieces of aluminum, the top and side flanges were riveted to the
main body.

I can't believe I forgot this for the maiden voyage but I also got around to
mounting the fire extinguisher. I tucked it next to the rear seat on the
drivers side.
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