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That fuse block you found in the JY looks stout. Thanks for posting the video.
I cut one of my maxi fuse holders apart. It's got a two part housing, softer black plastic on the outside and a harder white one on the inside.
The terminal on mine was not crimped at all. Instead it was soldered. I would have preferred crimped and soldered, but I'm satisfied enough to use them in my car. The terminal has a very tight fit onto the fuse as well.
I got mine on Ebay. Since you can't see inside when you buy them, it's a crap-shoot . You might get ones like mine or some like yours, They are cheap enough where you can buy extra ones and cut one apart. Thanks for bringing it to the attention of the commumity.
That fuse block you found in the JY looks stout. Thanks for posting the video.
I cut one of my maxi fuse holders apart. It's got a two part housing, softer black plastic on the outside and a harder white one on the inside.
The terminal on mine was not crimped at all. Instead it was soldered. I would have preferred crimped and soldered, but I'm satisfied enough to use them in my car. The terminal has a very tight fit onto the fuse as well.
I got mine on Ebay. Since you can't see inside when you buy them, it's a crap-shoot . You might get ones like mine or some like yours, They are cheap enough where you can buy extra ones and cut one apart. Thanks for bringing it to the attention of the commumity.
Those look better than mine. I still hate the cheap terminals that they use. If you were to look at those compared next to the Metripack 800 series, you would see the difference immediately.
On the morning of December 28th, my wife and headed out early in the morning for a road trip to Orlando, to visit a friend for New Years. As you all know by now, the Cougar lives outside, and of course has the dual DBW throttle bodies outside of the hood. For the most part, this has not been a problem. Unfortunately, it rained all night before our trip.
The Cougar fired up without any issues in the morning and we packed it up for our trip. We got to about 10 miles from the house, when I noticed that I no longer had throttle input. When the Holley Dominator ECU detects a fault in the DBW system, it goes into "limp home" mode, which fixes the TPS at 22%. With dual throttle bodies, this makes my little 5.3L scream at over 4000RPM with the clutch released. Clearly we weren't going to make it 550 miles, like this.
I shut it down and fired it up again and it seemed normal. I decided to press ahead and try to fix it on the road. As we drove, it went into "limp home" mode again and just as luck would have it, we stumbled on a Walmart. I pulled into the parking lot (thankfully there was no rain) and went inside. I needed something to dry out the TB connectors and then something to prevent it from happening again while we were on the road. The items I bought were:
1. Can of "office duster" (compressed air)
2. Bag of balloons
3. Can of playdoh
I pulled the front connector and it really wasn't that wet...hmmm...then I pulled the back connector and it was drenched inside. I used the can of compressed air to blow the connectors as dry as possible. Then I used the balloons to seal up the outside of the connectors. For good measure, I used the playdoh to seal up the parting line between the TB body and the connectors. This is what it looked like when we arrived in Orlando:
The fix got us driving again and never failed the whole time. Most of the trip looked like this through the windshield:
It took longer than expected, and rolled in around 8:00pm to be greeted with bourbon and steak. Life is good.
One of the things that I have noticed since I have built the Cougar, is that the engine started to tilt a little toward the passenger side, especially in the last year. From the very start I noticed that under heavy load, the engine did torque over pretty hard. I didn't think this was odd, since I was using stock 4th gen Camaro engine mounts. You can see in my very first drag strip pass how the engine tilts over:
So given that the mounts were rubber and that I made my own mounts, I thought one of two things was happening.
1. The mounts that I built have bent slightly.
2. The rubber inserts in the stock mounts have taken a set.
Once I was at John's house, we put the car on the lift just to look things over. It's always good to do an inspection and make sure everything was OK. The last thing I expected to find was this....driver's side:
Passanger side:
It appears that the two halves of the mounts are just stamped together and the lips that hold the two halves together have broken.
We called a bunch of local parts stores, but nobody had them in stock, and I had to be back on the road on New Years day. We proceeded to drill out the holes and bolt the two halves back together using 4 3/8" bolts on each side.
Unfortunately, the rubber inserts have deformed over time, so the engine was still tilting to the passenger side just a little, but it is much better than before.
Eventually I will either replace the mounts with stock ones, or get poly inserts (I really don't want to do that), or get the new Holley mounts that are reinforced and have poly inserts.
At least I know now that the mounts that I built are in good working order!
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Once you get the new ones in Andrew, you need to add a third mount/torque strap from the head over to....some place that can manage the load.
The stock 4th gen Camaro mounts are a version of the clam shell mounts and I certainly didn't expect this mode of failure. In other words, I think the design is great, but the manufacturing execution is definitely lacking.
I will keep these mounts in place for a while and monitor any sort of movement. With the intake poking out of the hood it is relatively easy to spot any tilting of the engine by simply noting the position of the intake relative to the passenger side opening in the hood. If I replace the mounts with new ones, I will drill them out and bolt them together preemptively.
Originally Posted by 79LS1FOX
Those look like the Rock Auto $10.00 SKM mounts, no rivets at all.
I actually don't recall the brand. It's not like me to purchase the least expensive part, but it wouldn't surprise me if I ordered AC Delco and got these in the box.
Hey Andrew, the new Hooker 4th-gen clamshells are thicker gage material than the cheap replacement brands out there and they bolt together. The Hooker/ Holley poly inserts will also last 10 times longer than a rubber insert at power levels similar to yours.
I love the roadside fix. Sometimes we need to parking lot re-engineer something. I call it survival of the fittest.
What is wrong with poly engine mounts? I use them a lot and prefer them to rubber.
I've had the exact same solution on those clam shell type mounts and it lasted a very long time.
12-29-2018, 09:47 AM
