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Finally the rad is here! Time to get to work to get this thing back on the road. Shiny new Frotbite from Holley Performance. Thing looks good, it's a shame it has to hide under the shroud. Also got new 180° stat, trans filter kit, and the TPI intake disassembled to get that turquoise off and probably go matte black. The EGR system was half a$$ deleted so got the block off plates to clean that up with some vacuum caps where needed. What a PITA to disassemble for an intake mani...
Last edited by CCiPhantom; Mar 30, 2021 at 04:32 PM.
Reason: Spelling
Finally the rad is here! Time to get to work to get this thing back on the road. Shiny new Frotbite from Holley Performance. Thing looks good, it's a shame it has to hide under the shroud. Also got new 180° stat, trans filter kit, and the TPI intake disassembled to get that turquoise off and probably go matte black. The EGR system was half a$$ deleted so got the block off plates to clean that up with some vacuum caps where needed. What a PITA to disassemble for an intake mani...
Be ready...
There's some hacking and whacking that has to be done to the upper shroud to get it to fit.
There's some hacking and whacking that has to be done to the upper shroud to get it to fit.
Thanks, any pointers? I imagine its mainly the upper shroud where the rad sits in the rubber? Ill do a mock up of the new rad in the shroud later to see what is required. Update, finally drained the system and PO used green coolant, in which is what came out when I disconnected the trans lines lol. Not much trans oil in the cooling system, more coolant in the trans system. Hope a few flushes will do the trick ones the new rad is back in.
Last edited by CCiPhantom; Apr 6, 2021 at 10:35 AM.
Reason: Additional info.
I need some help with vac lines. The PO did some half-a$$ emissions delete and some components are "capped" off or just left open. See photo below.
Top (shorter) line goes in one of the upper intake planum ports (RH side) and has some 3-way block on it. It was just sitting under the upper plenum next to the EGR valve not connected to anything. One nipple is capped, other is not.
Bottom (longer) line connects to the TB then goes to a block (mounted on the coolant filler neck) then the line coming out of it was ran under the upper plenum also but has a bolt shoved in it blocking it off lol.
My goal is to just clean this up and cut all the excess line and cap at the dist. blocks... Any one comment on this or if I should do it another way? EGR delete plates are in and I will install to address that as well.
Thanks, any pointers? I imagine its mainly the upper shroud where the rad sits in the rubber? Ill do a mock up of the new rad in the shroud later to see what is required. Update, finally drained the system and PO used green coolant, in which is what came out when I disconnected the trans lines lol. Not much trans oil in the cooling system, more coolant in the trans system. Hope a few flushes will do the trick ones the new rad is back in.
The cutting is around the filler cap. I'll post a pic tomorrow.
I need some help with vac lines. The PO did some half-a$$ emissions delete and some components are "capped" off or just left open. See photo below.
Top (shorter) line goes in one of the upper intake planum ports (RH side) and has some 3-way block on it. It was just sitting under the upper plenum next to the EGR valve not connected to anything. One nipple is capped, other is not.
Bottom (longer) line connects to the TB then goes to a block (mounted on the coolant filler neck) then the line coming out of it was ran under the upper plenum also but has a bolt shoved in it blocking it off lol.
My goal is to just clean this up and cut all the excess line and cap at the dist. blocks... Any one comment on this or if I should do it another way? EGR delete plates are in and I will install to address that as well.
Disclaimer: I am pretty sure, but not 100 percent sure of the below information on these lines. Others please verify or correct me.
The top shorter one with the small pod/check valve, I think is for your AC system and Cruise and should be routed to the rear behind the distributor. The splitter on the end feeds vacuum to two locations. One line ties into to the vacuum line going through the firewall to the dash area. The other goes to the round canister in the front left behind the headlight. He could have directly tied from the plenum to the dash feed line thereby not using that line.
The longer line is the EGR solenoid. The bracket bolts to the rear bolt of the thermostat housing. The line routes to your (no longer present) EGR and plugs onto the top of the valve. The source end plugs under the throttle body at a port in front of the throttle blades.
Please do not discard or destroy either of these lines. You should box them, label them, and mark them as Fragile. If you do not want them, I will purchase them from you for my stock 91.
The cutting is around the filler cap. I'll post a pic tomorrow.
Disclaimer: Mine's in an L98 1985.
My filler cap is not a part of the rad. It has a separate fill tank up by the heater core. I will be hacking the shroud a little for ease of installation lol. Looks like the PO did some minor cutting already as well (nothing I can't clean up). Thanks again!
Disclaimer: I am pretty sure, but not 100 percent sure of the below information on these lines. Others please verify or correct me.
The top shorter one with the small pod/check valve, I think is for your AC system and Cruise and should be routed to the rear behind the distributor. The splitter on the end feeds vacuum to two locations. One line ties into to the vacuum line going through the firewall to the dash area. The other goes to the round canister in the front left behind the headlight. He could have directly tied from the plenum to the dash feed line thereby not using that line.
The longer line is the EGR solenoid. The bracket bolts to the rear bolt of the thermostat housing. The line routes to your (no longer present) EGR and plugs onto the top of the valve. The source end plugs under the throttle body at a port in front of the throttle blades.
Please do not discard or destroy either of these lines. You should box them, label them, and mark them as Fragile. If you do not want them, I will purchase them from you for my stock 91.
Thanks, I will be capping these lines and saving the part. Ill let you know if I will part with them.
Thanks, I will be capping these lines and saving the part. Ill let you know if I will part with them.
Good. Those little things like that are rare. I really think you should keep them safe as the best choice. But let me know.... I’ll keep following your project. Looks like you are going to have one fine auto when you are done.
Rad fits! No shroud cutting required. Just some minor shaving of the rubber mounts and fits perfect! The overall dimensions of the holley rad is just a tad smaller than OEM but obviously thicker being 2-core. The stock rubber mounts have some offset nubs that I shaved down with a razor to get the new rad to fit.
After much research about the C4 I noticed everyone had power antennas. Also noticed mine had a stubby so I figured the PO swapped it out. Went to unscrew it and voila, there's my power unit lol. He put some stubby over it and silicone sealed it in the down position . Ill probably remove and put a real stubby on there, you know one of those .50cal deals that come with (4) free fask masks lol!
Rad bottom rubber mounts shaved and fits perfect! First set of pics you can see how much I had to cut, not much. 2nd pic is the before and after fitment. What you cant see if the back side of the rubber mount hitting the rad tank which is why it sits up like that. I'm happy with it, just have to put it back together now.... 1 beer at a time.
Finally got some time to work on the C4 again. Been tied up with home project building a pool. Rad in and fits perfect! Pretty snug but the mods to the rubber mount made it work out great. Back to the top of the motor. Going to pull the VC's, strip, and paint including the intake runners and upper plenum. After that putting it all back together to get a proper coolant and trans fluid flush.
Great news on the radiator. That project is on my list. Now I know which radiator to get.
Since you pulling the valve covers, plenum and runners, have you considered pulling the intake and re-sealing the front and back walls of the intake? Are you leaking oil? Could put new o-rings in the fuel rail as well as new injectors from Fuel Injector Connection also.
I'd be interested in seeing what you had to do to make one of these fit. Seems like a good quality radiator without an outrageous price.
All I did was shave the (4) rubber mounts. If you scroll up in this thread I have good before/after photos of what was removed with a razor. The overall length & width of the new rad is a tad smaller than the OEM. Main difference is the thickness which would not allow it to sit properly in the rubber mounts. Worse part of the install was making sure the trans hard-lines would thread in square but that would be with any rad, even OEM lol. Thanks!
Last edited by CCiPhantom; May 5, 2021 at 07:55 PM.
Reason: More details
Great news on the radiator. That project is on my list. Now I know which radiator to get.
Since you pulling the valve covers, plenum and runners, have you considered pulling the intake and re-sealing the front and back walls of the intake? Are you leaking oil? Could put new o-rings in the fuel rail as well as new injectors from Fuel Injector Connection also.
It looks like most of the leaking was from the valve covers but I have not dug that far yet. They felpro kit did include the lower plenum gasket but I do not think I will take it that far yet. I know I'm in there but I need to make sure that the rad was the primary issue of the car entirely for just getting this to be a driver project. I was surprised how many things I had to unbolt just to remove the valve covers lol. First TPI for me and seems like everything is in the way of everything...
Last edited by CCiPhantom; May 5, 2021 at 07:58 PM.
Reason: Spelling UGH!
I hear you on that point. I was trying to solve an oil leak issue when I pulled mine, so I guess we have different goals. It was quite the task reassembling everything. What went first, etc... Glad I took lots of pictures. Very glad I did though. Couldn’t be happier with how it turned out though.
Keep track of which bolt goes in what hole. They are different lengths depending on where they go in the TPI.
Valve cover work. Washed as much sludge off that I could in the parts-washing bid. Then tried some aircraft paint remover. That didn't fair too well. Thankfully I work at a huge shop and have a blasting cabinet available. Got one done but ran out of black beauty media. Ill go back around lunch time and finish up.
Last edited by CCiPhantom; May 14, 2021 at 08:05 AM.
Reason: Spelling
