Monday 29 February 2016

Progress

I was tempted to put a 'milestone' tag on this post but it hasn't really been enough effort to justify it - I've fitted the side panels:

                    

This also allowed me to fit the front brake lines:




A nice bit of progress....

Saturday 27 February 2016

String Theory

Good timing with the weather - just when it was getting a tad chilly,  I brought the wiring loom indoors to start wrapping it.

Daunting at first:


But improved after some thought:


Added heatshrink and used loom tape (great stuff,  feels tough and nicely tightens the wires up) :

                

I'm leaving the rest for now,  until I have the scuttle and firewall in and decide exactly where the ECU is going as that determines where the loom runs and where I have to split out,  for example,  the fuel pump wires.

So back to the garage and some 'proper'  building - side panels - > front suspension - >  brakes - >  firewall - > scuttle.

Friday 19 February 2016

Side effect

Well,  I think I've got the engine loom basically wired up. It's just a tangle of wires at the moment,  so the next step is to heatshrink and make it look more loom-like:


I decided it's finally time to fit the side panels as I think I've done most of the bits that need decent side access. Also,  once they're on,  I can finally fit the front brake lines,  front suspension and brakes.

I'm very impressed with the accuracy that GBS cut these panels to - started with the near side and it almost clicks into place,  apart from a little trimming needed where it meets the side crescents. I also had to widen the hole for the steering rack as I've raised it a little to clear the suspension mount,  so it was too close to the panel edge. I've drilled about 10 rivets in strategic locations and will rely on bond to keep it solid. This is it after drilling but not yet riveted or bonded:



I really like the quality feel of these panels - they're just so solid feeling.

I'm having a nightmare with the tap for the hole in the thermostat. I bought an M16 tap but didn't realise how many thread pitch sizes there are. First one was 2mm - too big. Then got a 1.5mm pitch tap - still too big! I've ordered a 1.25mm tap but to save paying through the nose,  I've had to order it from China,  so it's going to take weeks to arrive. Annoying... can't make a start on the cooling system until this is sorted...

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Dashing through the slush

OK,  we haven't had any snow yet this winter but I've cast my mind to dashboard design. I've decided to not have any column stalks so I need all those functions on the dash; indicators,  lights,  hazards etc.

About my only limitation is the indicator switch which I want near to my left hand when its on the wheel,  so I can indicate without taking a hand off the wheel,  hopefully.

Below are some layout mockups I did with paper - feel free to leave a comment with your vote :-)


1.

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

The rectangular boxes are rocker switches for lights,  hazards etc. Most of my layouts have these on the right wing of the dash which makes the rest of the dash look neater IMO. Saying that,  I quite like no. 7 although my favourite is,  I think,  no.  5.

Opinions welcome.

UPDATE: found a very useful site which has a dashboard designer tool.


Tuesday 16 February 2016

Snakes nest

The problem with wiring is that there's not much to show for it. And I'm making painfully slow progress... bottom line,  this is going to be a pretty dull post.

Got the injector plugs ready ie. crimped connectors on ready for the wires from the ECU:


.... and added a few extra wires/crimps. The whole mess looks a bit chaotic:


... but it's all... er... under control.  I think...

I need to get an M16 tap for the hole in the thermostat before I can try get the coolant sensor in place.

Saturday 13 February 2016

Mr Cockup pays a visit

Well,  it had to happen,  something a bit more serious...

I couldn't get the air temp sensor to fit in the plenum while it was bolted on to the engine,  so I removed the plenum. I tried to re-tap the hole but I just couldn't get it to work.  I think it's the right size but GBS have maybe used the wrong thread size for the Emerald sensor? I got annoyed and decided,  as the sensor isn't something I'm likely to need to take out,  to just use brute force and get the darn thing in.

Once in,  I replaced the plenum on the engine and here disaster struck. Up to now,  I haven't used my torque wrench much,  mainly because it's surprisingly difficult to get an agreed setting for most bolts. GBS didn't want to give me any settings,  saying they never used a torque wrench outside of the engine internals anyway. But,  for some stupid reason,  I decided to use it on the plenum bolts. And for an even stupider reason,  I just set it to 50nm because that seemed 'about right'.  I know,  I know - a true idiot....

The bolts obviously aren't very strong - the inevitable happened and it snapped:


A tad miffed...

Update: not as serious as I first thought.  I took the manifold off and the bolt had a few mm sticking out which I managed to grip with a set of pliers and I was able to simply unscrew it. Lucky escape... 

After a coffee to calm down,  I decided to start on some wiring,  as the crimping tool arrived. First is to join the wires from the GBS engine link to the ECU; crimp and cover in  heatshrink  (not yet shrunk - need to sneak the hairdryer out of the house :-) ) :



Tuesday 9 February 2016

Driller Killer

A post on the RHOCAR forum about my thermostat conundrum brought up an interesting suggestion - make a hole in the thermostat for the sensor. I'd already bought an adaptor from Emerald to fit into an M12 threaded hole which I thought was there but wasn't,  so why not make one?

Looking at the thermostat,  there are in fact 2 possible places this could be done; one on top,  one underneath. If it doesn't work,  I'll be trashing the thermostat but not a problem as the only other alternative (the water rail) doesn't need it.

So,  took the thermostat off and attacked it with a small drill bit to start with and opened the hole out with the largest bit I have,  10mm. I decided to go in through the top in the naive hope that it is less likely to leak than a hole underneath. Also,  the plug will be more accessible that way.  It looks pretty neat so far:

                         

Can't do anymore until my new tap set arrives.

Minor milestone - I wired up my first sensor,  the crank position sensor:


I'll be honest,  the crimping isn't the neatest under the rubber there but it feels very solid,  so hopefully will be OK. Until my other crimping tool comes,  I can't really do much other wiring yet (JNIT again).

Finally for tonight,  I did some work on the pedal box,  fitting rivnuts for the lid:


And extending the hole for the clutch cable to go through.

Sunday 7 February 2016

Inching on...

The little time I'm getting in the garage seems to be producing more headaches than useful progress.

My main concern at the moment is the cooling system. I wanted to save some cash and make use of the standard Ford thermostat,  rather than the £350 GBS water rail. However (concentrate,  this is complicated) ,  the Zetec I have is one of the later ones that determined coolant temperature through the cylinder head using a sensor that is not compatible with the Emerald ECU. There is no provision in the thermostat to insert a coolant sensor which means the best I can do is fit a sensor in the main pipe coming out of the thermostat. But then,  it will not read a real water temperature until the thermostat is open,  when the engine is hot and thus the ECU will keep thinking the engine is cold for longer than it actually is,  over-fuelling (holding the choke open, for us older people who remember chokes) and giving bad economy.

I'm going to ask Emerald how bad that is likely to be - I may have to get the darn water rail after all (GBS have an extra pipe between the engine and thermostat,  which has holes in for the water sensor).

The engine loom is coming on slowly but held up by odds and ends I need (crimping tool,  plugs etc). I've roughly put the wires I can in place round the engine bay. Once I've got all of them,  I'll hopefully cut them to size and then I can take them indoors on a table and heat shrink and cover them.

I bought an original Zetec engine loom off eBay:


But most of this isn't needed as the plugs are for the original Ford sensors which I'm not using. However,  the main plastic case is neat so I'm going to re-use that. Started by pulling it apart and retaining just the injector plugs:


I started what I thought would be a simple thread on a forum over whether crimping or soldering is better and it ran to 3 pages! The gist seems to be that either is fine and as my soldering skills are dubious,  I'm going to crimp (note that Ford did some crimping between those injectors for the common terminal,  in that pic above). Just have to wait for my crimping tool to arrive.

Before I fitted the plenum I screwed in what I thought was the air sensor but it was a water sensor -  doh! When I tried to put the right sensor in,  it won't go. I think it's just powder coat in the threads but have I got an M10 tap? Of course not. I've ordered an entire metric tap set as I keep find myself needing them.

About the only useful progress was fitting the HP fuel lines:



And modifying a nut for the clutch cable:


This is the only way to get a nut on the far side of the bell housing as the blob on the end of the clutch cable is too large to get through a nut.