Oddly enough, even though the Wagon had the Heavy Duty 2300kg Hayman Reece towbar, there was no additional external auto cooler fitted.

The Red EB sedan did have one, and being a good parts horder, I still have it. It has a broken mounting TAB however, so will prob visit PNP this afternoon to see what I can find.

Cheers
BenJ

Last edited by BenJ on Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

im glad you came up with this ben, seeing as tho the lane will be going supercharged i expect alot of heat under the bonnet, so by me adding one now along with a tranny cooler (also fitted with 2300kg haymen reece towbar but no cooler) i think it should save me alot of hassle later on

After a visit to Pick N Paymore, I walked away with a factory fitted EB Auto Tranny cooler and brackets.

After work today, I got into it and stripped the front off the car, mounting the cooler in the factory location. The hoses I had from my old Red EB sedan are bloody dirty and didn't come clean at all, but they were what I had available. In the end of the cooler hoses was the short metal pipe that screwed into the radiator, when it was part of the auto cooling system. I cut it into two short pieces to use as joiners and then cut the P/S return line in half about 2/3rds of the way along. I then joined each piece of the return line to the ends of the cooler hoses. Perfect fit really.

I also swapped out the P/S pump as it was whining like a b**ch in heat, with a spare (well actually the one I had for the Wife's ED, shhhhhhh!!!!) and topped it all up with pwr steer fluid.

EA-ED use DX111 as the pwr steer oil, but from 95 on Ford started using a new fluid designed specifically for use in pwr steering systems. As I have parts from both, I chose to use the newer fluid and after pumping the old stuff out, seeing as it was a tad burnt, I filled the new setup up. Including the cooler, the pwr steer system now holds 1 litre.

Enough of me jabbering. Some pics.

Naked Wagon.


Hose Joins


Cooler mounted.



I have to say that after idling the car for a few minutes while bleeding the air out of the pwr steering, the cooler was already feeling warm to touch. That tells me that it was already shedding heat out of the oil.

On a side note, while checking for leaks etc, I noted that number two ignition lead was shaking a bit. Thinking this was odd, I had a closer look and realised that not only was the lead shaking, the spark plug was shaking too. The bloody thing was loose!!!!

Now I have had a ticking noise that I had identified as a dodgy lifter, and others had agreed with me. Due to the difficulties in working out exactly which lifter was the offending noise maker, I had not attempted to fix it.

So after tightening the spark plug back up, I was surprised to find that the ticking had now disappeared. Thank You!!!!!!!

The pwr steering is now working great, the b**ch has shut up, and the ticking is gone away.

I am a happy man!!!!!!!

Cheers
BenJ

thats a nice big cooler ben. looks awesome. if only you could get cheap chrome ones lol

nice work, thats exactly what i want to do with the auto cooler still fitted since the manual conversion. just need a pump due to mine is toast. does having all that extra fluid on the return side make the steering feel odd or just feels like new?

having the extra fluid shouldnt make a difference as its on the return line not the pressurized line

Ben mate I do have one of them on my car lol

Well, it would appear my issues with power steering were not yet over for this week.

On Friday night we took our usual trip down to Liverpool for our weekly meet.

When I got home, I could smell something strange, so I popped the bonnet to find all the power steering fluid had leaked out. BLOODY HELL!!!!!

My conclusion was that the ORing on the High Pressure line had failed as you could see the fluid running out of the join.

As I was due to go on a Fordmods Cruise in the morning, I decided to get up early and hit Bursons as they opened at 8am. Would you believe that Bursons don't stock ORings? Ridiculous!!!!! They did however suggest I go to Ford. So after topping up the reservoir again, I head down to Cumberland Ford at Blacktown. Yes, they have the ORing. "How much is that mate?" I ask, and do you know what he says? "Don't worry about it, have a good day" Champs!!!!!!!

I nurse the Wagon home, undo the 16mm nut, no need to drain the fluid as it is all gone by now, and pull off the old ORing and slip on the new one. Tighten it up, put in a little bit of fluid, start here up, and the *$^(#*@)& is still dribbling away. Turn the wheel and the fluid shoots out of the join and hits the firewall!!! CRAP!!!

After messing around with it for half an hour with no success, I call in and advise I am a no show for the cruise, and head inside for a couple of hours, mainly to let myself and the car cool down before fixing it. This also let me think the problem through.

On the EF/EL there is an additional adapter screwed in the Power Steering pump that allows the High Pressure line to swivel. The pump I took out didn't have this, so I removed the adapter, screwed the High Pressure line directly to the pump, added some fluid - Problem Fixed!!!! YAY!!!!!

Only thing was I missed out on the Cruise. SIGH.

**********************************************************************

So I decided to make use of my now free time.

Can anyone spot the difference between the following photos?



Maybe these pics will help.




I like this mod, as it is subtle and looks so right it is like it has been that way all along.

Ever since I painted the bonnet, I have wanted to do something with the vents. A few people suggested painting them silver, or a gunmetal grey, but I thought it wasn't in keeping with the look of the car. A couple of weeks ago I had this brainwave as I remembered the vents are made of aluminium. What if I sanded the paint off just the top surface and then polished the alloy?

So today I fired up the sander, broke out the wet and dry and got to work. At the moment I have only sanded the alloy up to 1200 wet, and have not applied any polish at all. This has left me with a brushed look, which while looks cool, will be a b**ch to keep that way, so next week I will pick up some metal polish.

Here are some close up shots.






Excuse the dirty bonnet LOL.

While I really like the finished look, I would like to hear your thoughts. I know some may not like it, but hopefully a few of you will.

Cheers
BenJ

vents look mint

bloody good ben, when i said about chrome and you said doing just the top i had my doubts but that makes the vents stand out but not too much, it doesnt take the eyes away from the rest of the front. nicely done indeed.

Gay..............



Nah looks good. Pity you couldn't theive the chrome ones of paul

LOL, I actually gave Paul a Chrome one as I didn't want it and swapped it for a painted one.





Thanks Huggie and mitchell g


BenJ

Looks good mate, good compromise right there.

Josh.

Good job on the vents how did u keep from sanding the area around them?

Finding the right balance is the hardest thing, but very pleasing once you get it right.



I took the vents out of the bonnet.

BenJ