ERA 753 - Final Assembly in Progress

[D&M2]

Hi Fred,

Do you mind my asking where you got the remote oil filter bracket that attaches to your block. I fabricated a temporary bracket for my 351W but would like something that is like yours as is would be a lot more asthetically pleasing.

Mike

[fkemmerer]

I got a chance to drive my car for an extended period today. In 60 degree F ambient conditions, the oil temperature stayed at 80 degrees C (175 F). I also drove the car tonight for an extended period in 45 degree F air and the oil temperature stayed at around 73 degrees C (about 165 F). Given the coolness of the conditions and my aluminum motor, I am pretty happy with this performance. All of this testing was done without blocking the oil cooler.

I also decided to insulate the oil temperature sensor on the front of my oil pan to ensure that the cold air circulating under the car did not cause the oil temperature gauge to give false readings. This was accomplished with a short piece of 1/2 pipe insulation from my local Home Depot and some cable ties:



At this point, I am pretty pleased with the results and I can definitely recommend the installation of the Canton Oil Thermostat on a street driven cobra with an oil cooler.

- Fred

[fkemmerer]

We just did some fuel and electrical upgrades on ERA 753. The recent work consisted of:

1) Installation of a slightly larger, flow matched set of Siemens injectors from Marren (motor is a 482 ci FE; old injectors were Ford "Green Tops" rated 42 lbs/hr, new Siemens injectors are rated at 55 lbs/hr)

2) Improved the current carrying capacity of the primary wire circuit of our MSD system

These are two minor upgrades that I have been wanting to do for some time. The injectors were mostly about reducing fuel pressure a bit and allowing my injectors to run a little less duty cycle at high output. The new injectors were fully flow matched by Marren to within 2% of each other. Marren provides detailed injector performance information as part of their injector prep services. This includes injector deadtime numbers which are usually not available:



Using the Marren provided injector flow data and I was able to with use the individual cylinder correction features of the FAST XFI to balance the injectors to within 1%.

Also, I felt that the coil output looked a tad weak when I first installed the MSD setup on the car and I wanted to make sure the primary wiring was completely up to snuff. I used a gauge heavier wire for the primary circuit this time and eliminated a connector at my MSD box.

The immediate result of all of this was a smoother idle which is a good sign. I will need to do some re-tuning of the car for the new injectors which will probably have to wait until spring at this point.

I can recommend Marren as a source of high quality, matched fuel injectors. I've used their injectors on both of my EFI projects and have gotten good results with them. Marren provides injector flowing and matching services and they are great when it comes to providing fuel injector recommendations for a given application. You can check out their website at:

http://www.injector.com/

BTW, we are starting to contemplate our next project. As we've done previously, I am looking to do something totally different in terms of engine and car. We're thinking along the lines of the following but with a little bit more power :





This is a 41 Willys coupe with a blown and injected big block Rat Motor. It probably makes about 700 HP (the blower setup, CAM, and tune on this car are "mild"). If we did something like this, we'd do a 41 Willys but with a blown Hemi (and EFI of course). If we based this on a 540 ci stroker Hemi or maybe a 528 ci version, we should make around 900 ft-lbs of torque and around 1,000 hp on pump gas. This car would definitely be an automatic trans car. Not sure if we will do this project or not - just playing around with some ideas....

- Fred

[dcdoug]

Originally Posted by fkemmerer

I got a chance to drive my car for an extended period today. In 60 degree F ambient conditions, the oil temperature stayed at 80 degrees C (175 F). I also drove the car tonight for an extended period in 45 degree F air and the oil temperature stayed at around 73 degrees C (about 165 F). Given the coolness of the conditions and my aluminum motor, I am pretty happy with this performance. All of this testing was done without blocking the oil cooler.

I also decided to insulate the oil temperature sensor on the front of my oil pan to ensure that the cold air circulating under the car did not cause the oil temperature gauge to give false readings. This was accomplished with a short piece of 1/2 pipe insulation from my local Home Depot and some cable ties:



At this point, I am pretty pleased with the results and I can definitely recommend the installation of the Canton Oil Thermostat on a street driven cobra with an oil cooler.

- Fred

Did insulating the temperature sensor make a difference? Does anyone know if an uninsulated sensor gives lower than actual temp readings in cold weather, or does it matter because the actual sensor is inside the pan in the oil?

I currently have my oil cooler blocked off with lexan, but will probably install an oil cooler thermostat (still not completely decided on which one yet). The lexan didn't seem to do very much. But if insulating the sensor is a big deal, then I'd like to do that first and get a real baseline on where my temps are.

Thoughts?

[fkemmerer]

Originally Posted by dcdoug

Did insulating the temperature sensor make a difference? Does anyone know if an uninsulated sensor gives lower than actual temp readings in cold weather, or does it matter because the actual sensor is inside the pan in the oil?

I currently have my oil cooler blocked off with lexan, but will probably install an oil cooler thermostat (still not completely decided on which one yet). The lexan didn't seem to do very much. But if insulating the sensor is a big deal, then I'd like to do that first and get a real baseline on where my temps are.

Thoughts?

Doug,

I think that the insulation cannot help but improve the accuracy of the gauge - especially in extremely cold weather where the front of the oil pan and thermostat fittings draw the most heat away from the sensor bulb.

- Fred

[fkemmerer]

Originally Posted by D&M2

Hi Fred,

Do you mind my asking where you got the remote oil filter bracket that attaches to your block. I fabricated a temporary bracket for my 351W but would like something that is like yours as is would be a lot more asthetically pleasing.

Mike

Hi Mike,

ERA supplied a mounting bracket and the remote oil filter housing. I modified ERA's bracket to fit the Shelby water pump I am using properly and had it powder coated. Also polished their remote oil filter housing.

- Fred

[DonC]

Just anecdotal information but I've had the Canton unit on my 428 since new (iron block, aluminum heads) and have been happy with it to this point. No matter what the outside temp it has kept the oil temp at 85C (on my gauge) during normal operations. In colder outside temps (35 to 40 degrees) it takes a while to get there but stabilizes at 85.
During track days or "spirited" driving I'll get up into the mid to upper 90's but it comes right back down after a few minutes of normal operation. Have seen about 105 during one very long slow local parade when the outside temps were in the upper 90's but that was almost an hour of stop and go at about 5MPH.
The unit has been on the car for 5 seasons or 34,000 miles to date.
DonC

[Bobcat]

Fred .... your comment on cleaning out the hydraulic lines thoroughly can`t be emphasized enough . I worked with a firetruck mfg. to reduce his hydraulic warranty issues and ran a contamination analysis of all hydraulic components used on the truck . To make a long story short , they were cutting the hyd. hose with a steel blade cutoff saw ( good ) , but assembling the hose and never cleaning them out . The unused hose was put back in storage with the ends uncapped . After they started cleaning out the hoses with the cleaning " bullets " and making the other recommended changes , their hydraulic warranty costs dropped almost 90% .
I can`t say this strongly enough ... clean the hoses thoroughly to get the bits of wire braid , inner liner and other junk out !!
Really glad you recognized this as 99% of the people I talk to say .... it`s clean , I blew it out with air !!
BTW , great job on doing the install and then documenting everything !!

Bob