| OK... so yesterday I pulled the plenum, and the valve covers. My intent was to look for leaks in areas I couldn't see with the upper plenum on, and to check that my heads were still torqued correctly. As far as the head studs, no issues, all still good and tight. I borrowed the coolant system pressure test kit from my local auto parts store again, and over about 14 lbs, I had one of the little hoses on the turbo feed lines leaking right down into the flat area under the lower plenum, so I wasn't seeing it hit the floor. Got that fixed, and it held 18 psi for the better part of three hours while I was swapping out my ABS actuator motor. Coolness. Then I did a pressure test through the cylinders. I took the one way valve stem out of my compression tester, and adapted a ball valve into the regulator/trap setup I used when I was painting so I could regulate the input to 110 psi. I rotated around the cylinders like I was doing a leak down test and ran air into each one at 110 psi and watched for bubbles in the cooling system. Nada. I then would take the plug out of the adjoining cylinder, and listen with a stehoscope for leaks across the cylinders. NADA! I would then put the adjacent plug back in, and put the pressure tester on the radiator to see if, over time, it would build any pressure in the cooling system. Nada. So, F)*%$ng A! What a relief. As a side note, I also modified my reservoir system. The radiator I am using, a Megan 3 row, is huge, and I kinda always thought that for a radiator that big, a single one quart bottle was a little paltry, so I added a second. I did that by "t" ing at the bottom of the hose that comes off the overflow nipple on the radiator. The original bottle sits against the frame rail on the passenger side under the headlight bucket behind the intercooler. The second on is inside the fender liner in back of the driver's side front wheel. I had to cut the fender liner so that it would clear the bottle, but it fits there very nicely. I want to paint it black so it doesn't show. I used a wire retainer from the hardware store screwed into the frame rail with a sheet metal screw, and zip tied to the sway bar where it goes back under the the radiator. I also replaced all the hose with clear vinyl so I can see what it is doing and have a built in level gauge. So tomorrow's agenda is to find a way to change the CAS drive pin without pulling the front of the motor all apart (I really just need a 90 degree drill, which no one around here has) and changing the thermostat before I put the plenum back on. I will report back on the cooling system function.
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11:19:15 06/17/12
