Featured 2018 Toyota Sienna minivan with 2 DB4515R on 2 Taramps Smart 8 Bass

[shredder1 10+ year member]

Jim's machine works: https://jims-machineworkx.myshopify.com/

made several parts for me. Most important thing they made for me was the bus bars for my battery banks. Very nice CNC aluminum blocks.

They fucked this part though.
View attachment 63600
These are the brackets at the end of my stripper pole. You can probably see why it failed. Those pieces that attach to the base plate were only welded at the bottom of the tabs. And poorly.

The broken one in the picture failed naturally. I tested the other one afterward by whacking it with a hammer. It bent lmao. Yeah, the metal pieces are 1/4" thick, I shouldn't be able to bend it with a normal hammer. The welds just stank. broke them by hammering to bend, prying back, hammering again a few times.

Very annoying because the part cost about $160. I shouldn't have to redo it myself. Removing the powder coat, breaking the pieces apart, welding everything...

And also sucks because now it has simple spray paint covering I did instead of the powder coat.

Hard to anticipate the rowdiness inside any cabin, Diy is always the best option. Sux you shelled out some bux initially and more to do it right.
Just like my kids A/C... I was quoted condensers, evaps and compressors so I UV'd for leaks. Replaced the hi side service port and the overpressure fitting on the compressor to be thorough. $80 for a vacuum pump and gauges and another $70 in supplies and parts and those quotes of $700-$1500 disappeared. Lol... $150 later his Cobalt is ready for an Az summer this year. 36 degrees at the vents on a 90 degree day.

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

Hard to anticipate the rowdiness inside any cabin, Diy is always the best option. Sux you shelled out some bux initially and more to do it right.
Just like my kids A/C... I was quoted condensers, evaps and compressors so I UV'd for leaks. Replaced the hi side service port and the overpressure fitting on the compressor to be thorough. $80 for a vacuum pump and gauges and another $70 in supplies and parts and those quotes of $700-$1500 disappeared. Lol... $150 later his Cobalt is ready for an Az summer this year. 36 degrees at the vents on a 90 degree day.

Nice. I prefer do my own maintenance most of the time too. Not even just for the money - routine things like oil changes are actually faster if I do it myself. I don't need to make an appointment and wait at the shop for them to get to my car.

Still, if you weren't able to fix the AC, there's always this route:

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

Loving the build. What other major upgrades are you looking at this year?

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

Loving the build. What other major upgrades are you looking at this year?

I've got 4 banks (160 AH) of LTO and one smart 8k bass currently. I've already built the mounting pieces for a second 8k, and the battery bank in the back has 4 rows but only 2 are filled, so at some point I'll buy more LTO (get up to 240 AH) and another 8k. Those subs are monsters, I think they could take it.

Those air springs I installed earlier also fixed a big issue for me. The car handles so much better with them in. I've added maybe 600 lbs of subs/gear. It rides like the trunk is empty now.

I also have some ideas for cosmetic upgrades. I'd mostly be doing them because it's funny, it is a minivan after all lmao

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

I ordered 12 more LTO cells and another smart 8k last week, and then... my first amp died a couple days later

I think it died from heat, but I'm not sure. The amp went into thermal protect a couple times this summer. I turned it down whenever it happened to let it cool off a bit, but I think there's just not enough air circulation in/out of the trunk. I crammed a lot of equipment in there and I think the hot amp is just circulating the same hot air over and over through itself.

When it failed, it failed suddenly, but there was no smoke or anything cool, it just quit working lol.

The smart amps have fans that only turn on when the signal is high or the internal temp is high. It's been so hot here the amp fans would just turn on and stay on even if I wasn't playing the system. That's what makes me think it was heat.

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

This is the first amp that's died on me without fireworks lmao. Maybe taramps has really good protections built in.

Here I am testing it on a benchtop power supply, it just goes into protect during the start-up health check:

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

So I have to setup something to improve the airflow in the trunk.

The easy move is to replace the internal amp fans. I got some 40x40x28 mm server fans for the new amp. They move a crazy amount of air for a fan that small because they do 15k rpm. And taramps put fins on the inside of the heatsink too, so that internal airflow will help.

To get fresh air for those fans to move, I'm going to use some 4 inch air duct and fans under the rear seat. I was going to get a 4 inch duct blower for ventilating an on-board boat bilge, but I wound up deciding to 3d print a case that'll hold 2 80x80x38mm server fans and mate them to the duct.

There's barely enough room for that duct to fit from the rear seat to the trunk, but those server fans have high static pressure, I'm hoping they'll be able to just force their way past bends in the hose.

I'm also going to run a wire from inside one of the amp fans so I can use it to activate a relay for the under seat fans. That way, the amp will turn them on and off, so it'll use the smart circuitry taramps built in. I like that the fans only run when the system is bumping, so I don't hear it. In my last car I had an MD 12k, the fans were always on and I had to replace the fans with some quiet Noctua fans because the stock ones were annoying. In the smart lineup the fan noise doesn't bother me so I can use the loud but far more powerful server fans.

 

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I'll have pics of everything when I get more of it together.

 

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Here's the new amp, with 40 mm server fans. One of the fan plugs is blocked because the new fans are deeper than the stock ones and it covers the plug. I just ran a wire to one of the fan plugs on the right side. I'm running 2 fans instead of 4 now, both on the exhaust side. I also hooked up a wire to the other right side plug, which runs outside the amp to trigger the external fans.

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

I forgot to post about this when it happened a few weeks ago. The floor pan under the stripper pole cracked lmao

That dimpled metal is a heat shield for the exhaust on the under side of the car

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

I added metal to the top because it was thin and I wanted to spread the load out, but I didn't think the floor pan would fail. Clearly the floor needed some help too lol

 

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Thankfully, the only thing on the under side is that heat shield, so I could just pull it off, cover the exhaust to protect it, and then weld directly to the floor pan instead of using panel bond like I did before.

I welded that crack together. I then welded some small 1/8" plates into the dips to make the surface flat. Then I attached a big 1/8" plate with rivets through the original floor or welds to the new plates I put on.

 

[CertifiedHoodClassic]

I cut some square tube in half and welded it across the plate and to the frame.

Here's the underside after I painted it. Looks bumpy because the undercoating paint is textured.

 

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Here's the finished product.

 

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Here's the blowers.