Trying to restore the TB coolant flow

[Don in VT]

Hi All,

I am trying to restore the TB cooling flow. At this time I have a long hose that connects to the hard fitting on the drivers side and goes under the intake bellows and connects to the coolant hard line on the passengers side thus bypassing the TB. I want to bring the TB into the coolant flow. This looks like a no brainer but I have run into a problem. Just for the fun of it I connected a hose to the Plenum fitting and tried to blow through it to see if it was capable of passing coolant and the pass through is blocked solid. Obviously if I hooked up the coolant lines there would be no flow. My question is, when someone want to take the TB out of the flow path do they do something on the TB internal flow path to block it or do I have a problem on the inside of the plenum or TB ?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.





Thanks,

Don

[scottfab]

Originally Posted by Don in VT

Hi All,

I am trying to restore the TB cooling flow. At this time I have a long hose that connects to the hard fitting on the drivers side and goes under the intake bellows and connects to the coolant hard line on the passengers side thus bypassing the TB. I want to bring the TB into the coolant flow. This looks like a no brainer but I have run into a problem. Just for the fun of it I connected a hose to the Plenum fitting and tried to blow through it to see if it was capable of passing coolant and the pass through is blocked solid. Obviously if I hooked up the coolant lines there would be no flow. My question is, when someone want to take the TB out of the flow path do they do something on the TB internal flow path to block it or do I have a problem on the inside of the plenum or TB ?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.





Thanks,

Don

Don,
Pull the top plate off the TB and inspect. It's hard to say what someone did to it. That's the problem with the various "improvements" made. If they are not documented, how good are they really?

[Don in VT]

Great point Scott. This will be easy as the whole TB has been dry for a long time.

Thanks again to to you and Dynomite for the replys.

Cheers,

Don

[Corbusa]

man i wish I could copy those pages on the link.. Great , helpful info

[Don in VT]

An Update !!

I pulled the TB coolant chamber cover expecting to see it plugged solid but it was clean as a whistle. I air hosed the inlet and outlet pipes and the TB coolant passages and some accumulated stuff was cleared. After looking at the situation I discovered that the drivers side inlet pipe and TB passage was now open up but restricted when compared the the passengers side coolant pipe. I have looked everywhere but I cant find any reference to the coolant flow in the TB.

Does anyone have any experience with the TB and the coolant flow ? Is there a "built in" restriction in the drivers side TB passages or should they both flow the same ?

Thanks,

Don

[Ronstar]

Dumb question..but why do guys eliminate this?

[scottfab]

Originally Posted by Ronstar

Dumb question..but why do guys eliminate this?

I am going to keep your entire quote. Modifying it could lead to confusion.

There the is a few minutes saved when removing the plenum.
I don't think it's worth the risk.
I leave it unaltered because it was designed in so that ice does
not form in the plenum. Ice formation was responsible for damage to some proto type LT5s during development.
It is a rare event but I personally never want to have to worry about it.

[Don in VT]

Hi Again,

With all due respect to the folks that want to bypass the TB and or the Plenum coolant flow, I totally agree with Scott and my TB is now in the coolant flow again. I must admit that the upper engine plumbing is messy and can be troublesome for small coolant leaks but after I dodged a bullet on a air locked WP I will deal with the coolant when pulling the Plenum and keep the entire cooling system stock.

FWIW, On my old 87 L98 I did the Plenum bypass trick and because my 87 was a daily driver, winter and summer, I did, in fact, ice up on one occasion. Not the end of the world but it ran like crap. Took off the bypass and all was OK.

Thanks everyone for weighing in on this issue.

Cheers,

Don

[Jim Nolan]

Good luck finding a gasket for it. I had to make my own with some gasket material. It was one of the toughest leaks for me to stop.

[Don in VT]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the heads up on the gasket thing. Regarding gaskets, Jerrys Gaskets has the the correct gasket for this fix and he can probably provide you with most of the ZR1 gaskets that you might need. Jerry has great service and the prices are very fair.

I was fortunate enough to have a new gasket and so my issue is solved.

Have a nice weekend,

Cheers,

Don