Thanks for the compliments, guys. I really do appreciate it. My niece was very happy. The person that gave her the mower said that they couldn't figure out why it was surging. I'm not sure how long it's been like that. She told them after I brought it home that she was letting me look at it and that I'd figure it out. Glad I didn't disappoint her. She also told me she was embarrassed to get it out and mow because of the surging. She thought her neighbors were making fun of it whenever she did. She's also a single mom and money is fairly tight for her, so I told her I didn't want anything for it and just wanted a thanks and a hug. Seeing her happy with it is all I needed. My wife is having a friend over tomorrow afternoon to watch movies with her. I think that will be a great time to go out and start on that double din install......😎👍 I also need to get the front splitter back on too. That will be first.

 

Got some ME time in the garage today finally. Not what I had planned, but reverse progress. But it will be good progress when done. My plan today was to rip into the interior and start on the double din mod I want to get done. But my first priority was to install the front splitter. But I noticed a very small puddle of coolant under the passenger side right below the radiator after I got the car up on the quickjacks and when I crawled under car. I've had a very small coolant leak ever since I installed this DeWitts radiator way back in time when I was in AZ and it's been driving me nuts since. Fast forward to today and I finally pinpointed the area of concern I believe. Over the years, yes I said years, I always thought it was one of the small hoses from the top to the overflow tank or the one going to the throttle body. I found the leak point and it's coming from the very bottom of the radiator between the passenger side tank and the fins. Very small pinhole. Today was spent removing the airfilter intake, the shroud and the radiator. Not what I had planned, but I'm really happy to have found the leak finally. I am now searching for a repair shop and I have my people looking for advice on a great shop for me to use. I will go into town Monday and see what shops around here use if I don't have a good lead on one.

Cold air intake and shroud removed.



Draining the coolant and trans lines.



Radiator out and ready to get repaired.





Put Grape Ape's initials on it to make sure I get the right one back. 😄



THEN.......I had a great idea while I was sitting in the house looking for a repair shop. I have been missing the rubber pads for my floor jacks for a while now. I looked into buying some new ones and then I ran across someone that made them with a 3D printer. Great idea I thought. So I looked into it and I actually have the right TPU rubberized filament and the printer. So I made a new pad for both jacks from purple and put Grape Ape Garage on them, and now they look even better.





The purple is really darker then what it shows here, I promise. My camera won't pick up the right color because of the lighting I'm assuming.



Then I had another idea. Why not make some other parts for it. So I made the door panel plugs and the center console rear fastener covers that are under the console lid. I put Grape Ape on the door plugs and GA on the fastener covers.



So that's my story for today,, and I'm sticking to it......Hope y'all are having a great weekend also. Take care.

 

Very cool parts you made Mark.
Glad you found the leak, that must be a relief.

 

Today turned out to be a decision day for me. Found a repair shop for the radiator. Drove about 40 miles one way to Lincoln. They called me about it this afternoon while I was mowing. The leak is where I thought. Bad news is, it can't be repaired. So my decision is coming down to this......Do I put the cheaper ECS one I bought while I was in AZ before I bought this one, or do I bite the checkbook and get another DeWitts radiator? They have gone up a lot since I got this one too. I don't have a receipt for it as I got it from a shop that was closing and thought I was getting a great deal. So I have no proof of when I got it or where. No warranty in other words. What would y'all do?

 

I would install the new ECS radiator that you already have. The unrepairable DeWitts radiator will make good wall art for your garage. Paint it purple and make a large plastic Grape Ape to attach to it.

 

ECS can be kinda sketchy too. The main hose fittings were misaligned, one of the small hose fittings was the wrong size, the support brackets didn’t line up, and I could not get the radiator top brace on, grind as I may… I was so frustrated trying to get it to fit properly I finally tapped out and, luckily, they took it back and gave me a refund.

Ironically, the stock radiator works fine now that I had the fan settings dialed in. I also took a fine pic and poked out every teeny rock in the condenser fins. At least 25% were clogged.

Man, I’d sell that ECS, see if Dewitts will help you out, or just get a new OEM.

 

I miss gendered that radiator.....😄 It's actually an ECP brand. Same same though, my bad. I will most likey put that one I have in the attic back in for now. Then by the end of the week I will have a decision made. I'll most likey wait for a sale from DeWitts and see what savings it will give me as long as the ECP doesn't give me any grief. I've had it in before but I can't recall if there was any issues with it or not. I may give them an email tomorrow too and see what they say. Not counting on that to help zs I don't have any kind of receipt for it.

 

My bad too…it is ECP. Anyway, at least you have a plan B.

 

I have an ECP radiator for my 02, it was not plug and play. I also went with new silicone hoses. The only reason I did those was everything was apart for a harmonic balancer replacement. I saw no benefit on coolant temperatures but it is all metal, no plastic ends like a stock radiator. If I could go back in time, I would have just gone stock as it was cheaper. I went with a stock radiator in my black 99 which is supercharged. That car also has NO underneath air dams. The fan settings have been changed and it runs the coolest of my three C5s. The plastic end of a stock radiator usually last 20 years so I figure those will probably last as long as I'm able to drive them.

 

My stock radiator was discarded quite a few years ago unfortunately. It was actually leaking when I replaced it and that's when I bought the ECP. Then that DeWitts came up for sale a short time later. I left the ECP in for a while after buying the DeWitts as I didn't want to do that job again so soon. I decided what the heck and changed it out. I kept getting coolant smells after replacing it but kept trying to make a hose or hose connection the culprit. Never dreamed it would be the actual radiator. Fast forward to today, I found the ECP radiator and hope to get it installed Thursday. I have a couple things to do that day but hope to find time to get it done so I can have the car available for the weekend if I can to take it someplace. It's going to be pretty warm this week so might be a good test for it. It does look like it's in decent shape so it should work out okay. It's been in before so it should go in fairly easily I hope. I'm heading back to Lincoln in the morning to get the old one back. I might have to paint it purple and make a table or wall art out of it. We'll see what comes to mind when I can get to that.

 

Been so frustrated with this radiator thing I forgot to post my video I made. 🤔 😆 I haven't even watched it yet myself so not sure how it turned out.

 

Went and picked up the radiator this morning. Got there right when they opened up at 8:30. Had it done and ready to go. I talked with the owner, Dean, for a while too and he gave me a 20 minute class on radiators and how they've regressed over the years. Pretty interesting stuff he told me and explained why my radiator did what it did. Long story short, he told me I'd be better off and money ahead finding a factory GM one and be done. But they don't make them for my car anymore and what's out there will be an aftermarket one from china anyway. He didn't really have an answer for that but he did tell me to not waste my money on a new DeWitts brand as it will just do what this one did again someday. Not sure what to tell you all but that's what he told me. He's been doing radiators for over 60 years too. He also was involved with Nascar for a while as well so I'm leaning towards believing him a bit. So I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. But I'm going to put the ECP in for now and leave it at that. He put some epoxy on the DeWitts and said it could last forever or it could fail in a month. That's why I'm leaning towards using the ECP brand for now. The DeWitts will become wall art me thinks. I'll maybe make it into a Grape Ape Garage sign. 😏 I'll see if the DeWitts fans will mount onto the ECP. They should I'd imagine.

Epoxy in front and back passenger corners.





The ECP on the box & DeWitts together.

 

I thought DeWitts were lifetime warranty. Did you buy it from someone else?

 

I guess you could say that. I got it from a drop shipper store in Phoenix. He said he was going out of business and was depleting his inventory. So no paperwork, no receipt and no proof of the transaction. Not sure if it will do me any good to contact DeWitts but if anyone thinks it might be worth it, I'll give it a shot.

 

Got a little bit done today. Planned on getting it back on the ground and running again, but had to order some zip ties for the throttle body bypass hose so it won't get in the way of moving parts. But the radiator and condenser are in place. Should be short work tomorrow if I get what I need early enough from amazon.

 

Will you re-install the radiator top cover?

 

I have plenty of zip ties in various sizes Mark. All you need to do is ask.
Only black zip ties, no purple.

 

Yes, those pieces will be going back on. Just waiting on some parts before I can install the fans and get to that.

😄 Yeah, I have a few laying around too. Not waiting on purple this time. I need a couple that you can push into a hole so they stay in place. I went to a couple parts stores yesterday and they didn't have what I wanted, so amazon it was. The ad said they'd be here between 4 & 8 AM....nope. still not here. So I'll just do some yard work today and finish it up tomorrow when I get them later today.

 

Here's another Rad option for us M6 guys. My racing buddy has one in his 416 powered C5 Z06. So far, so good. https://trackspecmotorsports.com/pro...te-97-04?gQT=2

 

I don't think I have any of those either.