> http://www.type2.com/rvanness/sealfram.htm ), Dale Mueller made it out of aluminum angle can it be made out of thin
> aluminum ( like the material your soffit's are wrapped in ) and still work or does it need to be made out of heavier
> material like Dale used.
> David

I made two of them a year ago out of angle aluminum that I got at
either home depot or lowes...I wouldn't suggest going 'thin' on this
because you're liable to tear it apart via engine vibrations if you
make it too cheaply. Personally, I riveted the pieces together with a
pop-rivet gun and so far so good.

The only other sticky point for the fabrication is putting the 90
degree bend into the angle aluminum where it wraps around the cooler.
Be advised that simply 'bending' the aluminum is a sure way to make it
break. I played with using a torch to heat the aluminum, and while
that works you must exercise caution. Once you get aluminum to the
melting point it just falls in a blob to the floor. It will not change
color or give you any other indication that it's about to melt..I
found about 5-6 seconds of 'wanding' the aluminum with a propane torch
was sufficient to make a clean looking bend.

As far as 'sealing it up' goes, I probably broke the rules but I used
the foam tape that you would normally put between a camper shell and
the bed of a pickup to wrap over the oil cooler, and I used RTV to
fill the gap between the narrow side of the 'hoover bit' and the
cooler itself. Once the fan shroud was installed it appeared to be
touching the new bracket slightly so I did not do anything to seal up
the gap between the fansroud and the left facing side of the
cooler(nearest the throttle tube). After the fanshroud was fully
seated I center-punched and drilled the hole for the screw that keeps
the outer 'flap' up tight against the cooler.

I cannot tell you how effective it was because I don't have an
instrumented engine, nor do I have a complete set of flaps or a
thermostat. I just wanted to make one because I've had countless
people tell me flat out "That piece does not exist". Common sense
would dicate that if you have a HUGE FRIGGIN HOLE between the cooler
and the fanshroud that -something- was supposed to be there originally
to fill the hole.

I think the main reason it's missing from so many cars is that it was
probably destroyed when someone who didn't know better tried to lift
off the fanshroud BEFORE removing that last screw in the back, and
then tore the sealing frame off trying to remove the fanshroud. Even
the orange bentley manual gets it wrong as far as that fastener in the
back goes, no mention of it in there at all.

As a side note, I visited several junkyards in phoenix looking for
this piece. In one case, I found an entire BIN of used coolers..and
not a single one had the sealing frame on it.

Chris