March 2001
Saturday 31st March 2001
Fitted the lambda sensor to the exhaust. Cut out a 22mm diam. hole, welded the steel sensor boss to the Y-piece from the manifold, and refitted everything. Started painting the underside of the car, with the Dinitrol-4941 underbody wax sealant. Looks really good too.
I've decided which fuel cell to go for. I dont want to pay the retail price though!
Friday 30th March 2001
This week I purchased a waterproof circular connector (RS 246-8436) for the Lambda sensor, and today at work I've crimped the connectors to the Lambda wires, and assembled the connectors. Thats the last sensor connected now. I just need to remove the Y-Piece from the exhaust, and weld on the sensor boss.
Had a shock from Premier Fuel Systems. Asked them for a quote for the fuel tank, and they said a) £628, and b) 8-10 weeks delivery! Looks like the ATL D-Cell tank is the favourite now. But still v.expensive (c. £650). At least they're off the shelf parts.
Sunday 25th March 2001
Sparks! We have sparks! The ignition coil wiring is now tested. All four spark plugs were clicking away, with a beautiful blue spark coming from each plug. Woohoo! I placed a digital ammeter in the supply wire to the ignition coil, just to see how much current is drawn by the coil unit. At 1000 rpm, it read nearly 7 Amps, and as the ECU raised the revs from 1000 rpm in 1000 rpm steps, the current dropped down to about 2 Amps at 7000 rpm. This is great news. The ignition coil checks out, and so does the wiring. I'm just glad that I uprated the ignition wires in the loom, as the coil does draw a lot of current, certainly more than the original wires would have survived.
It is very useful having access to the ECU via the laptop. Not only can you make changes to settings within the ECU, but you can also carry out system tests on the different parts of the ECU. For instance, theres a Real Time option, which gives instantaneous readouts of all sensors, which is great for diagnosing faults. Yesterday I zeroed the throttle position sensor. The on-screen instructions tell you to confirm that the throttle is closed, press a key, then open the throttle fully, and press another key, and it then stores the values from the pot, in the ECU, so that it knows exactly what the position of the throttle is. Brilliant!
Fitted the battery cable from the starter motor, around the engine bay, through the bulkhead and in to the cockpit. Fastened in place with cable ties.
Re-fitted the radiator. Measured the size of hoses that I need to buy. I'll check with Samco to see if they can supply me some to the right dimensions.
Designed my fuel tank. Its 320 x 390 x 140mm at the narrow end, and 320 x 390 x 230mm at the tall end. It will fit underneath the floor pan, below the position of the rear seats. Just need to get it fabricated now, with a swirl pot, filler neck, and three other pipes for fuel supply, fuel return and air vent.
Saturday 24th March 2001
The remaining Ignition and mini-timer connectors have arrived *Thanks Neil*. Wired up the ignition coil connector. Tomorrow, I'll re-run the power test, and hopefully we'll have sparks from all the plugs!!
Fitted the thermostat back in to the housing. I bought a new one, just in case.
Looks like Tim retired from the Catalunya Rally on stage 9. Oil leaking from the clutch housing apparently. Better luck in Greece.
Heres a picture of their Boreham built RED-run Ford Puma Super 1600
Friday 23rd March 2001
Fitted both the looms to the car. Great news: they both seem to check out. So far, via the DTA control software on the Tosh laptop, I've got readings back from the air and water temperature sensors, the throttle position sensor, and I can get the injectors to click on and off when performing a power test. Getting really close now. Just waiting for some connectors which should be arriving on Saturday, then I'll be able to see if the ignition module and the lambda sensor cabling is working.
Jim Hearne tapped the thread in the thermostat housing, to accept the ECU water temperature sensor. He's now making an adaptor for the Greengauges water temperature sensor. Neither of the new sensors would screw in to the housing, as the threads are vastly different to the ones that Ford use.
Thursday 22nd March 2001
My navigator from my Road Rallying days, Tim Sturla, is competing in this weekend's Catalunya Rally, in a brand new Ford Puma Super 1600 Kit Car, built by Ford Motorsport at Boreham, and run by R.E.D. Its his first outing in the Puma, co-driving for Malaysia's Saladin Mazlan.
Good luck Tim and Saladin. Hope you finish well up the leader board. Check out Saladin's web site at www.saladinrallying.com
Tuesday 20th March 2001
Ordered an adjustable panhard rod from TAS.UK.COM. When it arrives I'll take some photos and post them to the site.
Saturday 10th March 2001
Collected powder coated bits from Faircharm (rear strut brace, door handles, ignition coil bracket). I've reassembled the door locks and handles, so the doors are ready to go back on again.
Bought some 1mm and 2.5mm cable for the ECU. Looks like I've not used the right gauge wire on the feed to the ignition coil, so I'll remake that part of the loom tomorrow. Dont want it overheating now do I?
No reply from TWM Induction on the airbox request I sent them. Hmm...
Wednesday 7th March 2001
Completed the engine wiring loom last night. Just the mini-timers still to fit on the Lambda loom. Diagrams for all connections are available on request, as JPEGs only.
Tuesday 6th March 2001
Found a neat looking airbox on the following site, www.twminduction.com. I've asked for a price, and availability. Would look great on the back of the Jenvey's, as long as I've got the clearance.
Monday 5th March 2001
I need to get some more mini-timers. A pair of males to go with the Lambda sensor cable that I shortened yesterday. I've asked Webcon to give me a price.
Sunday 4th March 2001
Made the remaining wiring for the engine loom. Just ran out of heatshrink, so I need to get some more to complete. Shortened the wiring on the Lambda sensor. The cable was over 2M in length, and I dont need it to be quite that long!
Saturday 3rd March 2001
Made a start on the wiring loom (see photo). It has connections for the ATS, WTS, WTG, CS, Injectors, Starter Motor solenoid, TPS and ATS. I need to add a sheilded twisted cable for the ignition coil, and the wires that go to the Alternator to indicate charge, and the wires needed to switch the radiator cooling fan. And I need to add the wires to the Lamda sensor. I'll add these tomorrow. Looks good though. All the shields on the shielded twisted pair cabling are brought back to a single earth point, to reduce RFI.
I've bought a different fuel pressure regulator after speaking with Martin Eva at Webcon. They have supplied a 3 Bar regulator, with push on fittings, which is going to be a lot easier to plumb in than the Jenvey regulator housing (no expensive fittings required). I also need to drill and tap the hole in the water thermostat housing, to take the WTS. The WTS is for a Jaguar, and is calibrated for use with the DTA ECU. But it has a larger thread than the Ford sensor, so I just need to retap the housing to take the new sensor.
Thursday 1st March 2001
Blimey, its the 1st of March! I'm struggling to get anywhere at the moment. Though the wiring schematics for the engine loom and bulkhead connector are complete, I just keep seeing a huge pile of things to do. Time to take some days off to get some serious progress made.
Fitted the 45mm x 19mm air-horns to the throttle bodies on Tuesday evening. I've got plenty of clearance between the bodies and the bulkhead now.
The Jenvey fuel pressure regulator has some screw connectors on, so its now no longer a simple job to plumb the fuel system together, as I now need "-6" fuel connectors. Hrmph. Never mind. Keep going, don't let up, I'll get it running soon... Oh, and the connector for the Colvern TPS has also arrived from Jenvey. Thats the last of the connectors, so I now have several boxes full of bits, and I just need to wire everything up. Starting tonight hopefully.