Author Topic: She (almost) lives!! (Read 1488 times)

yorkshirespud · « **on:** October 11, 2007, 02:44:29 pm »

Me and Dr Frank finally couldn't put it off any longer, and had a go at firing up the truck last night.

It had took us a while to get the starter motor working first, as it wasn't engaging at all. After some head scratching and placing it on the old block to see where we were going wrong, we figured out we had put it on upside down! Ooops. Once the right way up the engine turned over.

Topped up the engine oil, put water and antifreeze in the rad, power steering fluid in the reservoir, and plugged the ECU brain back in beihind the glovebox (had been removed to fiddle with it, and ensure starter motor test didn't attempt to start the engine).

Finally put some the old leads from the old dizzy on and checked all the plugs were tight. I have a MSD Blaster box to mount and intstall yet, but for firing up the engine, standard will do.

We couldn't seem to get the engine going initially no matter how we fiddled with the base timing, untill Dr Frank had an inkling that the dizzy was in 180 degrees the wrong way round. We quickly moved all the leads round on the dizzy by 4 and tried again. It burst (briefly) into life! At which point we realised the both the petrol tanks were empty and the daylight was dying.

So today, I have juiced her up with 5 gallons in each tank, bolted on the exhausts, and took the leads back off again. We're off out in a minute to remove the dizzy and rotate it 180 degrees so the leads can be put on in their natural places, and we'll try again. Will let you know how it goes later!!

Motorama · « **Reply #1 on:** October 11, 2007, 02:46:44 pm »

obviously we want a video of the monumental moment

Incursus · « **Reply #2 on:** October 11, 2007, 02:49:22 pm »

OOooo Good Luck

Roadkill · « **Reply #3 on:** October 11, 2007, 03:14:21 pm »

Quoting: Motorama

obviously we want a video of the monumental moment

ianjpage · « **Reply #4 on:** October 11, 2007, 03:33:18 pm »

sweet - hope all goes well m8

F Body · « **Reply #5 on:** October 11, 2007, 04:15:06 pm »

art b · « **Reply #6 on:** October 11, 2007, 04:45:26 pm »

good old dr frank.........

yorkshirespud · « **Reply #7 on:** October 11, 2007, 11:27:08 pm »

Quoting: Motorama

obviously we want a video of the monumental moment

Your wish is my command ...

http://www.ntalbot.demon.co.uk/MOV00246.mpg

We moved the dizzy around 180 degrees, and fired her up. I knew because of the bigger injectors withou altering the ECU mapping yet it would run rich which was the case, but better rich than lean just to fire it up. We ran the engine for about 10 / 15 minutes just to bed it in and check it would actually go, which it did. (I checked the oil afterwards, and there was the tiniest smell of petrol in the oil because of bore washing, but we'll change it very soon). So, she runs! The cam should be bed in now, which was the main concern, along with the other engine components.

The video sounds rougher than it should because half the exhausts have rotted away and were only loosely bolted onto the header ends. After the inital 15 minute break in, when it was turned over and run again everything sounded and ran more freely and smoother and quieter every time.

The new pulley system worked well too. One of the belts has moved a rib on the A/C compressor, so that needs a bit of grinding on one side of the mount and padding on the other side to move it a smidge. This weekend we'll take care of a few other jobs like properly siting the oil dipstick, the trans dipstick and vaccuum tube etc.

The best thing was after having to drag the truck to a different place in the yard to fire it up so as not to annoy the neighbours, I was able to drive it back to it's normal place under it's own power!!

There is a trick we can use to reduce the richness without having to alter the ECU (apply a strong vaccuum to the fuel regulator reference simulating overrun), which we'll use to get the engine to idle this weekend so we can set the base distributor timing correctly with a timing light. I'll also install the Wideband Oxygen sensor in the pre-welded bung and replace the stock O2 sensor.

Once we're at that point, the next step is I HAVE to start fiddling with all the laptop computer, USB cabled, ECU emulator equipment I have colleced to tune the new engine correctly!!!

F Body · « **Reply #8 on:** October 12, 2007, 05:38:21 am »

Phew - That's sure some project

sixpack2639 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 12, 2007, 05:43:46 am »

Well done mate!!

HardRockCamaro · « **Reply #10 on:** October 12, 2007, 07:24:08 am »

Well done mate!

And top man for tackling the ECU mapping!

Incursus · « **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2007, 07:48:26 am »

Awesome sauce

Cunning Plan · « **Reply #12 on:** October 12, 2007, 08:04:13 am »

ianjpage · « **Reply #13 on:** October 12, 2007, 10:06:19 am »

excellent

yorkshirespud · « **Reply #14 on:** October 12, 2007, 05:44:18 pm »

Here's a pic of how the engine bay USED to look, about 3 years ago! (Not completely stock as I had bought it, as I had already replaced the stock exhaust manifolds with heavy duty headers by then)

F Body · « **Reply #15 on:** October 12, 2007, 05:57:56 pm »

Quoting: yorkshirespud

Your wish is my command ...

I like the video, I was itching to give it some throttle

Roadkill · « **Reply #16 on:** October 15, 2007, 08:49:56 am »

FRIKKIN' SWEET.

Author Topic: She (almost) lives!! (Read 1488 times)

Roadkill

Roadkill