Austin David

My original broke almost immediately; I found the screws and posts, but no lens. I made this and printed in clear PETG, and promptly forgot about it. Still there after 3 years... backup lens.stl

One of my first prints, which I see every day and just forget about: caps for the wiper posts. My windscreen is almost never fitted, so I cover the stumps with little black caps. They fit securely enough, but are just snapped on without any adhesive or fixture; they can lift right off. In 13k miles I haven't lost one. I'm pretty sure these are CF-filled PC, possibly CF-PETG. They have no problems with sun or SC temps. wiper cover (1).stl

I've got a few under the bonnet; PETG and TPU do OK near the firewall. I'll get some pics when it's open. Yesterday I printed brackets for dashcams on the rollbar. They're working well, secured with VHB tape under the bracket and zip ties slotted in. Also made a little tray for a radar detector, mounted on the aeroscreen mirror post. The detector is secured with Velcro. The mount works well, but I can't really hear or see the signals so it might not be helpful. I've lost track of the other things I've done. Mount for the custom roll at brake light, visible above. There's a riser for the boot floor to accommodate a fuel return, and a bracket to secure my tool kit. Updated o-rings for my gauges. A massive (for me) printed template to drill the ITB backplate. Several fittings around the cooling system to secure hoses. AN6 braces for the new fuel lines through the tunnel...

Awesome! My coolant gauge was weird with the connectors. I snugged em up with some pliers and tape. I tried a GoPro recording yesterday to get the intake noise but wind dominates everything. We got rain yesterday afternoon and today down here. I'm dying for a dry-enough spell to get up to the BRP for a day. Thanks for sharing the vids!

Sounds like a good run. I'll watch the weather, mostly watching it rain down here in the low country

Mine's a driver. The question for me is whether I can get away without weather gear for a few days, or should I fit the windscreen and pack the doors.

I'd be game for that. Not retired but I get time off and could swing a weekday or few.

Hm. Mine is pretty comfortable as long as I'm moving. It's actually worse with the windscreen and half hood! I do dress as if I'm fishin, with light clothes and sun protection. My summer project is to refit some cooled seats, I'll keep y'all posted :-)

@Yoram @UglyFast @mrmustang are around the top-left, I'm around middle-right, and @SENC is charitably on the top-right of SC. What do y'all think about a long Saturday loop on a clear weekend? Looking at a map for a few minutes... - Greenville + Charleston (me) meet earlyish in like Sumter. - Drive from Sumter to Florence - meet up with @SENC in Florence, maybe lunchtime. - Some of the Greenvillians might want to peel off and head back. - Maybe @SENC and I head east to Pawley's or Georgetown - we can split up and head home. I think that's "long day-trip" sized, and about 2+ hours for each leg. Gas stops and not-too-small towns, but also no metro areas and backroadable. Anyone is welcome to join, of course.

I have a ~ 10-years-old OLED gauge in a different convertible, the AEM failsafe, and it definitely does the OLED things of burn-in and not great in direct sunlight. I printed a hood for it, which helps. This one does work a lot better in the sun. TBH the only issues are that it has a refresh rate that lines up with my phone camera's shutter in sunlight so it's hard to take photos of the screen. It's fine at night when the phone shutter is slower.

@jimmylukeiiwhat's your approximate schedule? Saturday currently looks best for weather, I think a few more folks are available Sunday

I just pushed my car out into the sun to check -- my gauge is definitely readable in daylight / direct sun, but it does live juuuust under the tonneau, which is how I drive 90% of the time. If you or anyone need a 3d printed visor in black rubber, I could run some off LMK.

it does! It can flash the screen, or there is an RGB LED at the top (you can see a lil dot). You can set up min/max warnings for each measurement: https://www.canchecked.de/wp-content/uploads/MFD15-Gen2-manual.pdf It also has a shift light function, and if you hook up a speedo it can calculate the gear.

@UglyFast saw my CANChecked gauge today, so I thought I'd share some details for him and anyone interested. The gauge: https://www.canchecked.de/mfd15-gen2-52mm-can-bus-anzeige/ -- 52mm / 2 1/16" standard gauge, fits right in place of the analog coolant gauge. It has a handful of analog sensor inputs plus a CAN input. Configuration is all via onboard web server -- hold the buttons, connect to a hotspot with your phone or tuning laptop, and click around a simple web page to set up the views, sensors, etc. I wired two analogs in to my external oil temp sensor, and the original inline water temp sensor. I also wired it up to the CAN bus on my new ECU, but I know the MBE for the 360/420 Duratec cars also has CAN going out to the OBD2 port; I assume any of the reasonably modern cars would have similar. The gauge itself is extremely configurable; there are about a dozen screens available, with two buttons to cycle forward/back. Each screen can be one of like 8 types, including a traditional "analog" style, or up to 6 digital readouts, or a few different combinations. Many CAN signals or any of the analog inputs are available in any of the displays. I'm tuning my ITBs, so my current favorite screen shows TPS, RPM, AFR, and the ECU trim. It would be pretty straightforward to JUST use two analog inputs for the coolant and an oil temp sensor, and show them together. Two more wires to get to the CAN bus and you should have access to a lot more signals from the ECU, including the internal coolant sensor and whatever else. To do it again I'd have wired this thing up BEFORE ripping out the factory ECU, so I could get a sense of how it was tuned. Also there's a way to customize the startup screen, so it shows Josh's "COVID edition" for a few seconds after I turn the key.

@SENC I would be willing to have lunch in Wilmington or thereabouts to see your S2. Maybe not THIS weekend, but it's a day-trip for me there and back, and there's basically only "scenic route" between Charleston and Wilmington.

Keep me posted! I'd love to get up there for a long day. The timing MIGHT work if the weather is OK and the WAF remains high.

FYI I'm still struggling with this. It seems to not leak if I keep the RPMs down below 4-5k. If I'm enjoying it more, it pushes out the top more. I have not tried to do that without the bonnet on, so I'm not sure if somehow all the coolant is overflowing the tank or what. But the volume does appear to be coming out around the cap (the NEW cap), and if I don't refill, it stops happening. Like if the cold level is basicaly "no coolant in tank but definitely in engine", it overflows less or none. So it feels like the expansion tank might be too small, but that seems crazy to me. This persists over very many heat/cool cycles over many miles; I'm over 13k now. it's not a HUGE problem but I do top it up with a few pints, less often than I refill the fuel tank.

Actually the balance doesn't matter when they're open.

I'm about 4hr of highway from most of that. Probably head up night before, drive around a lil, then back the day after? Seems pretty doable for a nice weekend. I do have weather gear but I very strongly prefer not using it

@UglyFastand I were chatting offline about maybe converging on Greenville C&C one morning with @mrmustang... Looking at a map and squinting it sort of looks on the way to fun roads...

One last shot about fuel lines, showing the return placement and my lines. The blue fuel filter is maybe obvious; I hung a few more nylon brackets under that crossbar to hold the two lines and float that fuel filter. The lines are run well away from the pointy ends of the screws for the wood panel, and the metal deck screws are now embedded in the plastic risers, and the risers are held down with machine screws up from the bottom. They have a good foot of slack before going unto the tunnel, grommeted to pass through the frame over the diff. The two lines are tied together (plastic fittings I made -- @JohnCh are we competing on how much of the car is 3d printed) and zip-tied along the driver side of the tunnel. THe only "gotcha" here is the full width of the tunnel is required around the handbrake, between fingers and a few layers of leather. I have juuuust enough room for the AN6 lines to tuck together up against the tunnel, and under the top of the frame member. No real problems getting around the shifter turret or past the wiring harness and into the engine bay. NB: this is MOSTLY the final layout. The blue tape was to hold the FPDM still while I did some test runs to be sure everything was snugged up. As of now the module is back up under the deck in the original mounts, carpet and everything is right back as before, with a little less clearance on the left side with the deck raised up 2-3cm to clear the return elbow. I'll post some "final" shots of the fuel rail eventually, but for now: feed line runs along the rail and up front, away from the coolant hose and along the tops of the 4 intake trumpets. There's a swivel apter at the back #4 side of the rail with my regulator and gauge, which barely clears the valve cover. The return hose comes out the bottom of the regulator, then back down into the tunnel.

light update, I've got pressure and will be buttoning it all back up slowly. no surprises, but I'll leave some notes about what I ended up with: - AN6 hose in both directions. 16' wasn't enough for me to feel comfortable, maybe a single 20' would do it. - The plastic Ford hanger does have a sealed port for the return, but on the underside it appears to just dump mostly down. I opted NOT to use this, for some concerns about aeration. I have no idea if those concerns are valid. - the Ford assembly is "interesting". It's angled, but I'm not sure if it sits directly on the bottom of the tank. The very bottom of the tank feels more angled than the hanger, which means it probably strands a lot of fuel at level (like ~ 1 gal). No attempt to measure. @JohnCh has a much better diagram showing the problem. The fuel pump and what I assume is a sort of in-place filter are inside a significant plastic housing. That housing is actually a sort of swirl container, and I don't think there are any baffles in the rest of the tank (maybe 1, I didn't look very far). That housing has a small one-way valve at bottom, and it holds a fair amount of fuel. So when you're repeatedly taking it out and putting it back, you'll develop a sort of motion to tip it sideways enough to get the float out, then pour the contents back into the tank without sloshing too much on the garage floor. - there are a few bad choices for mounting the return line. I elected to plumb an an6 bulkhead near the outlet, with the logic that if I wreck it I'm getting a new hanger anyway. I did not drill a hole in the tank itself, but in some ways that would have been easier. - Even with a low-profile 90* to the bulkhead, I'll probably lose about 1cm of floor clearance in my boot. I do not consider this a significant problem, but it's something to sort out. - running the two fat AN6 lines through the tunnel was about the easiest part of the job; I assumed it would be harder. - under the hood my setup was approximately what I expected. In the boot / at the tank took some fiddling, and I ended up trying I think 4 different arrangements for the final return hookup. Each of those comes with several days of waiting on delivery, hence all the delay. The final insult was submersible return line, which is absurdly costly to source locally. So far it seems fine, I was able to pressurize the system on the first try. I'll post some pics of the fuel pump housing, it's interesting.

Kinda nailed it tho

some catching up: the ITBs work really well with the stock deadhead fueling, using a 3D table to manage pressure feedback, and another 2D table to trim out injector timing. BUT at certain high-consumption periods I can see what looks like pulsing indicated from the pressure sensor. Between this and the heat soak, I've decided to re-plumb the fuel lines and install a proper regulator and return system. This is still work-in-progress, but I'm recording what works well and what I had to figure out the hard way. The stock fuel line is terminated with 5/16 ford quick connects; the fuel tank side is a male fitting. To remove it you press in on the tank side to release the clips, and just pull the line straight out. I had to 3D print a tool to help facilitate this, think of a 5/16 washer with a section removed. Pliers would probably also work. The fuel tank is sealed with a sort-of standard ford part; the magic search seems to be "fuel pump seal". The black ring is screwed on; I wasn't able to loosen it by hand, and hammer + screwdriver (or hammer + several gentler implements) didn't shake it loose either. In retrospect I bet penetrating oil would help. Fortunately the part seems to run about $10 online and $20 locally. The hanger itself (the plastic housing) is standard Ford, there's a seal under it. I'll update when I figure out a car that used this same part. Note that the pump-hanger is clocked, mine was also marked with sharpie on the hanger and an etched arrow > on the tank. The hanger module is not vertical, and I assume rotating it would change where the fuel level reader rests. Note to future self: tinker with that arrangement. Accessing the tank is unsurprising, but removing the big honeycomb panel is annoying. I elected to cut mine in half, and I'm glad I did. While I had it out I removed the washer line, I never installed my washer bottle/pump. About 60 zip ties held it in. The electrical for that was run separately and seems bundled with other wiring, it might have to stay or get hidden somewhere else. I will be using AN6 hose and fittings all around. The new pressurized line from the pump uses an AN6 to 5/16 (male) fitting, which I've test-fit. A 45* or 90* bend will get it aimed about the right way, TBD. For the return I've elected to mount a bulkhead fitting through the top of the tank, near the back of the car where it has a lot of clearance. The top of the new pressurized size looks like it will ride a little higher than the "factory" fuel line, so I assume I'll have to shim and lift the driver-side panel a little to make room. The bulkhead fitting is a little more shallow than my hanger so it will definitely clear. Plenty of room for a small inline fuel filter, near the tank, and probably just under the wooden panel for easy access. On the engine side: my chosen fuel pressure regulator is a tiny Radium model, with a 3-bar Bosch preset regulator. ITB = no vaccum, I've sealed the vac port. My ECU doesn't want pressure changing anyway. The regulator will also house a pressure gauge, which means I'll need to "clock" the regulator to the right angle. A 6AN ORB / 6AN female swivel fitting on the regulator side, then an M12 / 6AN (male, provided with ITBs) on the fuel rail. This will LIKELY go on the aft / #4 end, and I'll run pressure up to the front / #1 cylinder. The second regulated port gets plugged, the return is on the bottom. Plumbing will be: pump ->line -> filter -> line -> fuel rail, then rail -> regulator -> return line -> tank. The two lines will follow the same path through the tunnel. The old line was zip-tied in about a dozen places along the way, including 3-4 that aren't accessible unless you drill out the riveted panel at back of the tunnel near the diff. Electrical and brake runs along the right side, fuel seems solo on left. There are a few more zip ties up front under the battery, hopefully I can reach them from the cabin and won't have to remove the battery, heater, and that riveted panel. I'll post final pics and any other gems if I figure them out along the way.

Don't knock heated seats! Three months a yeah are pretty rough around here. I also have a cupholder for my latte. Most types of cups do not handle the turbulence