Hi marnob, I just thought of another inexpensive change I've made that has made the cabin much more 'practical' (that term being relative!) You know the two, largely decorative cargo nets, on the rear wall behind the seats? I've removed them & replaced them with substantially bigger ones. Removing the original ones, you will find solid strips of plastic at the base of the original nets. Don't remove these strips,no point. Rather, I just used them to align the bottom of the new wider, deeper (ie actual useful) nets. Under that carpet behind the seats is a bit of wood so I simply put contact adhesive om the seams &a few 25mm screws into the corners etc of the new nets. A small circle cut into a sheet of A4 paper so I could spray the screws black. I got the nets on ebay for less than AUD $20 & they look stock. Now I can put 3 rolled up cloth shopping bags in one, my cap, beanie & a rolled up tea-towel (my young ward's 'tablecloth') in the other. I have the passenger seat a couple of clicks forward & keep a light jumper / pullover (?) on the floor behind wrapped in a plastic bag. Wow, losing anything under those seats require much knuckle scraping & moving the seat back & forth to get to said item. Anyway, back on message, putting in real cargo nets has made a huge inprovement in interior "practicality". I also put 2 small nets , one in each footwell, on the tunnel, one holds my hairbrush, the other my [mandatory now] small bottle of hand sanitiser. That's it. Just trying to return the help you gave me, you've probably done these things anyway.
Hi Marnob, Thanks again for all your help. One thing I have noticed is that my display unit shows that it typically runs 3-5 degrees hotter, Thus I want to ask you about the bigger intercooler. How is it larger, given that Copen frontal areas are small & already have a radiator, intercooler & my pod air intake? From the pics I posted to you, you can see I don't have much space. Also, do you think a bigger intercooler will help with engine temp at all? Can you think of anything else that would reduce engine temp. I'm considering just removing the vanity cover to allow more air to flow around the engine & to let heat escape more easily. Does that sound reasonable to you? I'd then also find a product to remove the ugly surface corrosion on the aluminium parts. Lastly, it seems you pay for the additional acceleration at the pump. Is that also your experience? BTW what is your L/100km & at how many revs do you shift at? Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts on all this when you have a moment. Thanks, Brian
The seat belts are a major headache in the copens. Should have been a recall on that I reckon! I put Take off chrome seat belt guides which brings the belt up higher but still a problem. Take to the plastic where the belt goes through with sand paper and that will help heaps..time consuming but worth it.
Replacing the intercooler piping and intercooler its self is a must. Its all pretty much plastic including the top and bottom of the cooler itself. I got an aftermarket one from Japan. Its thicker and slightly bigger but fits no problem in the same space. That will help keep the temp down for the turbo and give it more power. I can hear mine sucking now especially when I go up a hill. As for the black pipe your talking about, I will either chrome it or get the other stainless one altered. Anything black on the intakes like that will attract heat period. Never paint the intercooler black to make it look nice. Its very hot under that Copen bonnet. Never measured it, maybe someone has? I am looking at a vented Bonnet from Japan but not sure of the expense... I always run 98 in a Turbo car. 95 is ok as well but I use 98. Its a cleaner fuel & for what its worth, I only use Shell or BP as they don't put Ethanol in it. Caltex and the likes, fuel comes out of Singapore & has Ethanol in it. Since I am running this car near Boost limits I want the best fuel. A guy I know who runs a Euro garage said to me he has a shed full of blown engines from the other fuel. Admittedly these are high performance cars, Audis, Golfs, BMWs etc but they all failed coz of detonation issues regarding fuel. He gets some really hotted up cars there. Even his shop cars are tuned up to the max. It sucks coz Caltex is cheaper but I try to pick the fuel price days without letting it get to low. To be honest I havent checked it propertly but I get over 500kms per tank. I dont go above 6rpm much and in fact rarely push past 5rpm. Reason being is mine pulls really well from 2.5 to 5 and if you have a look at the graphs on the Dinos here you can see how the HP drops off heaps after 6. I get a nice power band from 3 to 4. Will take more notice next time I push it.
Regarding Temperature, I recently replaced the radiator. I never had a problem with over heating, but in Qld this can be a big problem. I was advised by my mechanic to replace it as the tanks are plastic and they deteriorate of time. If you have a look you will see the top one is not black anymore but a brown colour. This is a sign its gonna cause problems in the future as they are brittle and split, crack etc apparently. Apart from that when I took of the radiator cap it was buggered. The rubber had gone, expanded and it just fell apart. Some of it was in the tank already. Now I mainly check the header tank so I never took the cap off very much. Fortunately a new cap comes with the radiator interestingly enough. So perhaps have a really good look at the cap and replace it if it looks suss. Replacing the radiator is a big job, remove the front bar etc. It has clips in the bottom of it where the rubber mounts are. They need to be removed before you can get it out.
