A beating heart

Well,  today was a biggie...

First up,  a delivery - an air filter which was the final piece needed:

It was blue on the advert but hey-ho...

Emerald ECU temporarily in place and connected up:

Two trips to the local garage to put 10 litres of unleaded in the tank. Next step was to check the fuel supply stage by stage.

First,  disconnect the high pressure pump to stop it trying to suck up air and overheat itself. Disconnected the pipe from the tank to the swirl pot (at the swirl pot end) and switched on the ignition. The LP pump at the back kicked into life (yeehaa in itself) and petrol squirted out the pipe (into a jar)  - SUCCESS but also a problem; fuel leak on the LP pump. Removed the pipe and the brass fitting on the pump. Added PTFE tape to the brass thread (I'd already done this to the other side when I first installed it - dunno why I didn't do it to this side as well). Pipe re-attached , couple more cycles of the ignition and leak fixed.

Next was to fill the swirl pot by reconnecting the pipe and cycling the ignition a few times (the ECU switches off the pumps after a few seconds if it realises you aren't trying to start the engine).

Step 3,  check fuel going through the HP pump. Disconnected the pipe to the fuel rail and re-connected the live wire for the HP pump. Switched on the ignition and the HP pump came on (Yeehah) but no fuel out the pipe (Boo). Started loosening the pipe into the HP pump but fuel started leaking out so fuel was getting to the pump OK.  Stared at it for a while ('cos that's a known engineering technique) and had an idea - I'd been told the pump had one slightly larger terminal that was positive,  the other negative - maybe I'd got them wired the wrong way?

Quick swap of the terminals and voila,  fuel out the pipe - SUCCESS.

So,  checklist:

1. Petrol in and getting to the engine.
2. Engine oil in.
3. Filter attached.

Bit of hassle getting the laptop connected to the ECU - I'd bought a widget to connect the old-fashioned D-type connector on the Emerald cable to a USB for my laptop. I also didn't yet have the ECU maps from GBS but I was too excited to wait for this to get sent.

Dragged out the family for the ubiquitous video and this is what happened (excuse the video skills; couldn't find my tripod so I had to entrust my son with the camera and he is easily distracted) :

YEE - FLIPPING - HAAAAAAAA

Very loud,  very smelly,  very smoky but the heart beats!!

I later found a base Zetec map in the Emerald software that might have got the engine idling - might try that tomorrow.

But for now, I am spiffingly happy... no obvious leaks anywhere either,  all looking good.

I've finally managed to order some Carling rocker switches,  by the way,  so that will hopefully improve the dash quality and allow me to tidy up the wiring.